Anker’s sub-brand Eufy just revealed a high-tech baby bottle washer at CES 2026. The Bottle Washer S1 is filled to the brim with nifty features that should please frazzled parents.

It’s been designed to clean deeper than rival models. The Bottle Washer S1 features a built-in water softener, a first in the product category, which should help remove stubborn minerals. It also includes proprietary HydroBlast technology that cleans baby bottles from every angle. This is assisted by the inclusion of a multi-layer rotating spray.

It sterilizes up to 212 degrees Fahrenheit and dries in just 40 minutes. These are both fantastic metrics for baby bottle washers. It also holds more bottles than comparable units, with the ability to clean eight bottle sets at once.

Anker/Eufy

The device allows for complete app control, which lets users set cleaning schedules and perform simple maintenance routines. After cleaning, it can keep bottle sets in a sterile standby mode for up to 72 hours. This really looks like the best bottle washer out there, but quality comes at a price. The Bottle Washer S1 costs TK and will be available on TK.

Eufy also announced a portable milk cooler. This should be another boon for busy parents.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/home/eufy-just-revealed-a-tech-heavy-baby-bottle-washer-at-ces-191458784.html?src=rss

Steam is experiencing an outage that’s impacting users ability to access the game store and play games online. Valve hasn’t acknowledged the outage publicly, but SteamDB’s unofficial Steam Status page reports that the Steam Store, Steam Community, and Steam Web APIs are all offline.

DownDetector received over 6,000 outage reports around 1:15PM ET, and Steam is also inaccessible from Valve’s mobile apps. The outage appears to be affecting APIs for Valve’s online games, like Team Fortress 2, Dota 2 and Counterstrike 2, as well.

Steam’s last major outage was in October, when the store and online services were unavailable for an hour. Earlier in September, the launch of Hollow Knight: Silksong temporarily took down Steam, the Xbox Store and Nintendo’s eShop due to how many people tried to download the game at the same time.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/pc/steam-and-valves-online-games-are-down-191033978.html?src=rss

Russia plans to put a nuclear power plant on the moon in the next decade to supply its lunar space programme and a joint Russian-Chinese research station, as major powers rush to explore the earth’s only natural satellite. Reuters: Ever since Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human to go into space in 1961, Russia has prided itself as a leading power in space exploration, but in recent decades it has fallen behind the United States and, increasingly, China. Russia’s ambitions suffered a massive blow in August 2023 when its unmanned Luna-25 mission smashed into the surface of the moon while attempting to land, and Elon Musk has revolutionised the launch of space vehicles – once a Russian speciality.

Russia’s state space corporation, Roscosmos, said in a statement that it planned to build a lunar power plant by 2036 and signed a contract with the Lavochkin Association aerospace company to do it. Roscosmos did not say explicitly that the plant would be nuclear but it said the participants included Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom and the Kurchatov Institute, Russia’s leading nuclear research institute. Roscosmos said the purpose of the plant was to power Russia’s lunar programme, including rovers, an observatory and the infrastructure of the joint Russian-Chinese International Lunar Research Station.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Back in November, Sony started selling PS5 consoles at a $100 discount as part of a Black Friday/Cyber Monday promotion. The deal officially sunsets at 3AM ET, so now is a good time to bite the bullet on a gaming console given that prices aren’t likely to go down anytime soon.

You can pick up a regular disc-based PS5 for $450 and a digital model for $400. The beefy PS5 Pro is available for $650. All of these deals are active on Amazon, but also directly from Sony.

If the costs here still sound a bit high, that’s because Sony raised console prices by $50 back in August. In other words, these $100 discounts are pretty much $50 discounts when factoring in that recent increase. Still, cheaper is cheaper. This puts the digital PS5 at the same price as an Xbox Series S and the disc-based version at the same price as a Switch 2.

Both standard PS5 configurations won’t arrive until December 28. The PS5 Pro, however, is available for same-day shipping if you’re jonesing for one last holiday gift.

The PS5 has a fairly large stable of exclusive titles made by Sony-owned studios. These include games like Horizon Forbidden West, Astro Bot, Death Stranding 2 and Ghost of Yotei.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/playstation/todays-the-last-day-to-get-100-off-the-ps5-and-ps5-pro-181454333.html?src=rss

The Justice Department justified its delayed release of sensitive files by citing the need to carefully redact information that could identify victims, but at least some of those redactions have proven to be technically ineffective and can be bypassed by simply copying and pasting the blacked-out text into a new document.

A 2022 complaint filed by the US Virgin Islands seeking damages from Jeffrey Epstein’s estate appeared on the DOJ’s “Epstein Library” website with black boxes throughout. Techdirt founder Mike Masnick and others shared on Bluesky that the redactions could be trivially circumvented. The exposed text includes allegations that a co-executor signed over $400,000 in foundation checks “payable to young female models and actresses, including a former Russian model,” and details about an immigration lawyer allegedly “involved in one or more forced marriages arranged among Epstein’s victims.”

Separately, Drop Site News was also apparently able to guess URLs of files not yet published by extrapolating the format.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication.

The Nintendo Switch 2 with Mario Kart World bundle is in stock at Best Buy after running out of stock very quickly on Amazon. The deal includes the new console with the new Mario Kart for the same price as the standalone console. You can get this one for $449 (down from $499)—the lowest price it has reached yet, according to price-tracking tools. (Note that you can only see the price once you’ve signed in and it’s in your cart, as Nintendo restricts retailers from promoting anything below the “minimum advertised price” of $499.) To top it off, Best Buy is somehow promising to have it delivered to your home by 9 p.m. tonight, Dec. 24—a true Christmas miracle. Not all locations will be available, so make sure you see the “shipping get it by 9 p.m. today” note above “add to cart.” You can also pick it up within an hour if time is of the essence.

Switch 2 + Mario Kart World Bundle – Nintendo Switch 2

$449.00
at Best Buy

$499.00
Save $50.00

$449.00
at Best Buy

$499.00
Save $50.00

This bundle deal is great, and likely the best one you’ll see for quite some time, judging by Nintendo’s previous deals. To put it into perspective, the OLED edition of the original Nintendo Switch is $400 right now, meaning you can get the new Switch 2 with Mario Kart for $50 more. The new console is also an upgrade in every way, according to Associate Tech Editor Michelle Ehrhardt’s Nintendo Switch 2 review. The ergonomics and design have improved, making it much better to hold and look at. The battery life has also improved, now with about 180 minutes of handheld playtime before the juice runs out.

A big plus is that the Switch 2 is backwards compatible, meaning you can play your old Switch games on it. Some Switch games have the ability to upgrade to the Switch 2 Edition by buying that game’s upgrade pack. This is especially worth it for games like The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, which will look better on the Switch 2.

There aren’t a lot of Switch 2 games out at the moment, but there are some classic Nintendo games to keep you busy until the library expands, like Donkey Kong Bananza, Kirby Air Riders, and Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment.

Spotify playlists are a surprisingly big part of my life. I make a handful of new, curated, choreographed ones for the spin classes I teach every week and otherwise meticulously maintain quarterly playlists designed to represent the overall vibe of specific, three-month periods in my life. I only edit those during the 12 weeks of the quarter, then leave them alone so I can revisit them and relive the era. This means I am constantly fiddling with the present playlist to make it just right, searching for songs that feel precisely aligned with however I’m feeling. It’s actually a time-consuming hobby—but I stumbled across a feature the other day that has made creating spin playlists and soundtracking Q1 of 2026 easier than ever.

The new Spotify feature

The best way I can describe the feature I stumbled upon is that it’s like Tinder for songs. If you’re listening to a song within the app, scroll down. Go past the buttons for Play and Next, past the About the artist section, past the lyrics, and stop when you see Explore [artist name]. Then, you’ll have three options like Similar to [artist name] and Similar to [song name], but these can differ slightly.

Tapping one of those opens up the new feature. Say you choose Similar to [song name]. You’ll be given 30 seconds of a song that Spotify’s algorithm considers “similar” to the one you were just listening to, plus the artist’s name, how many Spotify followers they have, and a three-dot menu that will let you add the song to your likes, add it to a playlist, go to the artist’s page, and more. If you like the 30-second clip, you can add the song to your playlists. If not, you can keep swiping downward to hear a new one.

See how it’s like Tinder? You make fairly snap decisions based on the quick preview and few details you get, then swipe away if you don’t like it. I found a community forum post on Spotify’s website about it, but otherwise, not much chatter. All I can tell is that it’s been out since about May.

Why I like the feature

I prefer this to the other music-discovery options on Spotify because it gives you a quick preview of the song and makes the finding process simple. I am, of course, a big fan of the pre-generated Discover Weekly playlist or New Releases playlist Spotify makes for me every week, but it’s time-consuming to listen to all the songs in them and it’s not intuitive to find other new songs based on the finite playlists themselves. The 30-second quick hits and easy, swipeable dismissal of the new feature help me figure out if a song is worth my time, either for spin class or personal use, add it to the appropriate playlist if so, and keep moving.

What I especially like is the three hashtags under the artist’s name. They are genre descriptions that match up with whatever song you’re previewing and I’ve found them helpful because I have a hard time describing what kind of music I even like. Apparently, per the new feature, I like something called “speed garage.” Tapping the #speedgarage hashtag that appears in the song previews brings me to another scrollable preview pane full of, exclusively, more speed garage—whatever that actually is. I still can’t define it, but I learned I like it, and that alone is more beneficial than a year’s worth of Discover Weekly playlists.

I used this feature during my Uber ride to the airport the other day and, by the time I was through TSA, I had 29 new songs in my Q1 playlist. I listened to them on the plane, weeded out ones that didn’t match the quarterly vibe well enough, then sent it to my friends, who all gave the collection rave reviews like, and I quote, “this slaps.”

Hallmark has released more than 300 Christmas-themed TV movies since 2000, and a detailed internal rulebook obtained by film data analyst Stephen Follows explains how the company manages to produce nearly one new holiday film per week during the final quarter of each year without the whole operation collapsing into creative chaos.

The document, referred to as Hallmark’s “bible” by writers and producers who have worked on these films, specifies everything from script length (105-110 pages across a rigid nine-act structure) to prohibited activities (no bowling, no karaoke). Christmas movies must include snow or its remnants and feature characters engaged in seasonal activities like baking cookies, ice skating, and drinking hot chocolate.

The target demographic is women aged 25-54, and the content must be watchable by an 80-year-old grandmother and a 5-year-old niece simultaneously. The economics differ sharply from theatrical filmmaking. Licensed titles from outside production companies carry budgets around $500,000 or less, while Hallmark’s in-house productions can exceed $2 million. About three-quarters of the library comes from external producers. The formula appears to work. Hallmark TV movies have averaged a 6.3 IMDb user score over the past 14 years, compared to 5.9 for feature films worldwide.

Further reading: Using Data To Determine if ‘Die Hard’ is a Christmas Movie.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Tis the season when professional Santas are in peak demand, but many who choose this line of work often view it as a higher calling and maintain some aspects of the identity all year round—even those who don’t fit the stereotypical popular image of Santa, according to a paper published in the Academy of Management Journal.

Co-author Christina Hymer of the University of Tennessee got the idea for the study during the COVID pandemic, when she spent a lot of time watching Christmas movies with her toddler. One favorite was 2003’s Elf, starring Will Farrell as a full-sized human raised among elves who goes to New York City to find his biological father. The film prompted her to wonder about why someone would want to be Santa Claus and what their experiences in that role would be.

Hymer and her co-authors partnered with the leader of a “Santa school” to analyze archival surveys of 849 professional Santas, and conducted a new survey of another 382 Santas. They also did over 50 personal interviews with professional Santas. (One subject showed up in full costume for his zoom interview, with a North Pole background, and signed off with a merry “ho! ho! ho!”)

Read full article

Comments

Creating a child-friendly iPad takes a few extra steps, but Apple’s tools make the process relatively straightforward. From creating a child’s Apple ID to adjusting Screen Time and privacy settings, you can shape how your child uses the device and protect them from inappropriate content. The process varies slightly depending on whether the iPad is new or already in use, but the principles are the same: set up a managed account, connect it to Family Sharing and fine-tune the controls that keep your child’s digital space safe.

Create an Apple ID for your child

Every kid using an iPad should have their own Apple ID. This allows you to manage their account through Family Sharing and gives them access to features like iCloud, the App Store and Messages under your supervision. Apple requires parents to create accounts for children under 13, which can be done directly from your own device.

Open the Settings app on your iPhone or iPad, tap your name at the top and select Family. Tap Add Member, then Create Child Account, and follow the onscreen prompts. You’ll need to provide your child’s name and birth date, along with parental consent using your own Apple ID password. Once created, the account is automatically added to your Family Sharing group.

If your kid already has an account, you can invite them to join your Family Sharing setup instead. On the iPad, go to Settings > Family > Add Member, then select Invite People to send a request to their existing Apple ID email address. When they accept, you’ll be able to manage parental controls from your own device.

Add your child to Family Sharing

Family Sharing brings all your family’s Apple devices together under one umbrella. It lets you share subscriptions, purchases and iCloud storage, while giving you oversight of your child’s activity. The Ask to Buy feature, for example, requires your approval before your child can download apps or make in-app purchases, helping to avoid surprise charges.

To enable Family Sharing on your iPad, go to Settings > [your name] > Family, then tap Add Member if your child isn’t already added. You can manage shared purchases, location sharing and Screen Time settings from here. Linking devices through Family Sharing also makes it easier to locate a lost iPad and maintain consistent restrictions across all your family’s devices. For broader setup advice, see Engadget’s guide on how to set up a phone or tablet for a child.

Set up Screen Time and parental controls

Once your child’s account is linked, you can use Screen Time to manage how the iPad is used. Screen Time is found under Settings > Screen Time, and it lets you set time limits, restrict certain apps, and monitor usage reports.

When first opening Screen Time on your child’s iPad, tap This is My Child’s iPad. You’ll be prompted to create a unique Screen Time passcode. This passcode is different from the iPad’s unlock code and prevents your child from changing settings without permission, so make sure you remember it. From here, you can configure several key features.

Downtime allows you to block all but essential apps and calls during certain hours, such as bedtime or homework time. App Limits sets daily time limits for categories such as games, entertainment or social networking. You can also set Communication Limits to control who your child can contact throughout the day and during Downtime, which is useful for if you only want them to message family members or trusted friends. The Always Allowed section lets you choose essential apps, such as Messages or educational tools, that remain accessible at all times.

You can adjust these settings from your own device if your child is part of your Family Sharing group. Screen Time reports provide detailed insight into how the iPad is used, so you can see which apps are used the most and make adjustments as needed.

Enable Content and Privacy Restrictions

Content and Privacy Restrictions offer finer control over what your kid can and cannot do with their iPad. To enable them, go to Settings > Screen Time > Content & Privacy Restrictions, and toggle them on.

Within this menu, you can manage App Store purchases and downloads, disabling in-app purchases or preventing your child from installing or deleting apps. You can also filter explicit content in Apple Music, TV, and Books, and apply web restrictions in Safari to limit adult content. Under Web Content, choose Limit Adult Websites or specify certain sites that are allowed or blocked.

Privacy controls extend beyond content. You can manage location services, camera and microphone access and other sensitive permissions. For example, turning off location sharing in certain apps can help safeguard your child’s privacy. You can also prevent changes to accounts, passcodes and cellular settings, ensuring that restrictions remain consistent.

Fine-tune privacy and safety settings

Beyond Screen Time, Apple includes additional tools to make iPads safer for children. In Safari, you can enable SafeSearch to filter explicit results in search engines. Restrict AirDrop under Settings > General > AirDrop to limit sharing to Contacts Only or turn it off completely, reducing the potential for exposure to unsolicited files.

Messages includes a Communication Safety feature that uses on-device machine learning to detect sensitive images. When enabled, the iPad will blur images that contain nudity and offer guidance before the child can view them. You’ll find this under Settings > Screen Time > Communication Safety. It works entirely on the device and doesn’t send data to Apple, preserving privacy while offering extra protection.

If your child uses Game Center, you can limit multiplayer games, profile visibility and the ability to add friends. These small adjustments can prevent unwanted social interactions or exposure to inappropriate content in online games.

Use Guided Access for younger children

For younger children or toddlers, Guided Access can keep them focused on a single app and prevent them from accidentally navigating elsewhere. To enable it, open Settings > Accessibility > Guided Access, then toggle it on and set a passcode.

Once it’s active, open the app you want your child to use and triple-click the top button (or the Home button on older models). Guided Access locks the iPad to that app until you end the session with your passcode. You can disable hardware buttons or touch input areas to avoid navigating elsewhere in the app or accessing playback controls. This feature is ideal when you want your child to watch a video or use an educational app without interruption.

Keep everything up to date

After initial setup, it’s important to revisit these settings occasionally. Children’s needs change as they grow, and Apple regularly adds new parental features with each iPadOS update. Keep the iPad updated by going to Settings > General > Software Update, and review restrictions periodically to ensure they still fit your child’s age and usage patterns.

Setting up an iPad for your child isn’t just about managing screen time or blocking certain apps. It’s about creating a space that encourages safe exploration while maintaining healthy boundaries. With Apple’s parental tools, you can find the right balance between freedom and supervision, making the iPad a secure and educational part of your child’s digital world.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/tablets/how-to-set-up-an-ipad-for-a-child-160001671.html?src=rss

An anonymous reader shares a report: In 2024, 25.2% of gross final energy consumption in the EU came from renewable sources, up by 0.7 percentage points compared with 2023. This share is 17.3 pp short of meeting the 2030 target (42.5%), which would require an annual average increase of 2.9 pp from 2025 to 2030.

Among the EU countries, Sweden recorded the highest share of its gross final energy consumption coming from renewable sources (62.8%). Sweden primarily relied on solid biomass, hydro and wind. Finland followed with 52.1%, relying on solid biomass, wind and hydro, while Denmark came in third with 46.8%, with most of its renewable energy sourced from solid biomass, wind and biogas. The lowest shares of renewables were recorded in Belgium (14.3%), Luxembourg (14.7%), and Ireland (16.1%).

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication.

The Pixel 10 came out in August this year, and at a $799 starting price, it was worth considering. Fast forward a couple of months, and now you can get one for almost half off, at $449. Amazon is discounting the flagship Pixel 10 (128GB) to $549, and there’s a promo code (PIXEL10) that drops it down a further $100. At under $500, this might be the best Android smartphone deal of the year.

Google Pixel 10

$449.00
at Amazon

$799.00
Save $350.00

$449.00
at Amazon

$799.00
Save $350.00

Usually I recommend the Pixel 9a as the best budget buy. The lowest it’s been was $349 for Cyber Monday, and it’s sitting at $399 right now. The Pixel 10 at $449 is a much better deal.

The Pixel 10 has the latest Tensor G5 chip with new on-device AI features like Magic Cue that the Pixel 9a won’t get. It also has 12GB RAM instead of 9a’s 8GB. The extra RAM goes a long way when it comes to on-device AI tasks and general longevity of the device. The Pixel 10 series is also the first one to get a telephoto lens on a non-Pro device. In its testing, PCMag found that the Pixel 10’s camera output was better compared to the Pixel 9 series, noting, “It preserves details, and colors are more accurate than what we saw on last year’s Pixel 9.”

The most interesting change, and one my Pixel 9a misses out on, is the new magnetic Qi2 charging mount, which supports all MagSafe accessories. I’m a big MagSafe user with my iPhone 16 Pro Max, so this would have come in handy. For some, this upgrade alone might be enough to consider the Pixel 10 instead of the 9a.

Overall, PCMag gave the Pixel 10 an “excellent” rating: “The compact Google Pixel 10 includes most of the Pixel Pro features for a more affordable price, making it an attractive phone for Android lovers who don’t need the highest-end model.”

The gap between the Pixel 10 and the 10 Pro is now quite small. The only point against the Pixel 10 really was its price, and how good of a deal Pixel 9a is. Now, with this price drop, the Pixel 10 finally becomes the all-rounder, offering flagship specs and camera performance at a budget-friendly price. But if you really want that Pro level screen, camera, and features, you can get the Pixel 10 Pro for just $649, after the $100 promo code.

YouTube has been winning the streaming wars for years, but its real competitive advantage comes not from prime-time viewing but from its stranglehold on daytime hours when Americans are meditating, exercising, cooking, or simply looking for background noise. At 11 a.m. in October, YouTube commanded an average audience of 6.3 million viewers compared to Netflix’s 2.8 million, according to Nielsen data. Amazon drew about a million viewers at that hour, and HBO Max, Paramount+ and Peacock each pulled fewer than 600,000.

The gap narrows significantly at night — Netflix’s audience swells to over 11 million at 9 p.m., trailing YouTube’s 12 million — but YouTube’s dominance reasserts itself in overnight hours and through the next day. Netflix is responding by bringing at least 34 video podcasts to its service next year, including “The Breakfast Club,” “The Bill Simmons Podcast,” and “Pardon My Take.” Amazon added the Kelce brothers’ “New Heights” podcast to Prime Video in September. The strategy is intentional: roughly 75 percent of all podcast listening happens between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m., according to Edison Research. YouTube said viewers watched 700 million hours of video podcasts on living room devices in October alone, a 75% increase from the previous year.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.