An AI language model like the kind that powers ChatGPT is a gigantic statistical web of data relationships. You give it a prompt (such as a question), and it provides a response that is statistically related and hopefully helpful. At first, ChatGPT was a tech amusement, but now hundreds of millions of people are relying on this statistical process to guide them through life’s challenges. It’s the first time in history that large numbers of people have begun to confide their feelings to a talking machine, and mitigating the potential harm the systems can cause has been an ongoing challenge.
On Monday, OpenAI released data estimating that 0.15 percent of ChatGPT’s active users in a given week have conversations that include explicit indicators of potential suicidal planning or intent. It’s a tiny fraction of the overall user base, but with more than 800 million weekly active users, that translates to over a million people each week, reports TechCrunch.
OpenAI also estimates that a similar percentage of users show heightened levels of emotional attachment to ChatGPT, and that hundreds of thousands of people show signs of psychosis or mania in their weekly conversations with the chatbot.
After kicking off an unpopular pilot test last month, Samsung made the practice of having its expensive smart fridges display ads official this week.
The ads will be shown on Samsung’s 2024 Family Hub smart fridges. As of this writing, Samsung’s Family Hub fridges have MSRPs ranging from $1,899 to $3,499. The ads will arrive through a software update that Samsung will start issuing this month and display on the fridge’s integrated 21.5- or 32-inch (depending on the model) screen. The ads will show when the fridges are idle and display what Samsung calls Cover Screens.
As part of the Family Hub software update, we are piloting a new widget for select Cover Screens themes of Family Hub refrigerators. The widget will display useful day-to-day information such as news, calendar and weather forecasts, along with curated advertisements.
Samsung also said that its fridges will only show contextualized ads, instead of personalized ads, which rely on collecting data on users.
Classic gaming enthusiasts may have to wait until next year to get their mitts on the a modernized Amiga A1200, but in the meantime they can pick up THEC64 Mini Black Edition. It’s got everything fans of the Commodore 64 remember, but in a smaller package that includes modern inputs and a slate of new games.
Not for the first time this year, Google has been forced to reassure its users that it has not suffered a large-scale data breach that could affect their Gmail accounts. A few months ago the company released an unusual statement intended to put to bed allegations that its email service had been hit with a serious security issue. And it did so again this week, after numerous news outlets published stories suggesting that 183 million passwords may have been compromised in a new breach.
Google has since claimed that this isn’t true in posts on X. It says the listed accounts are likely not fresh victims of an attack, but instead recent additions to the Have I Been Pwned data breach search engine’s database. The website is a free resource that can quickly tell users if their personal data has been hacked. As noted by Bleeping Computer, HIBP’s creator, Troy Hunt, has said in a blog post that over 90 percent of the millions of stolen credentials have been seen before, so are in no way new (16.4 million of addresses were however showing up for the first time in a data breach, according to Hunt).
“Reports of a ‘Gmail security breach impacting millions of users’ are false,” Google said in a statement. “Gmail’s defenses are strong, and users remain protected. The inaccurate reports are stemming from a misunderstanding of infostealer databases, which routinely compile various credential theft activity occurring across the web. It’s not reflective of a new attack aimed at any one person, tool, or platform.”
Google does use compilations of open credentials like the one recently uploaded to HIBP to alert its users of possible breaches, and has advised users that turning on 2-step verification and adopting passkeys is more secure than relying on passwords alone, which it notes should always be reset immediately if compromised.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cybersecurity/google-is-once-again-disputing-gmail-was-breached-180031380.html?src=rss
Hurricane Melissa made landfall in southwestern Jamaica, near New Hope, on Tuesday at 1 pm ET with staggeringly powerful sustained winds of 185 mph.
In the National Hurricane Center update noting the precise landfall time and location, specialist Larry Kelly characterized Melissa as an “extremely dangerous and life-threatening” hurricane. Melissa is bringing very heavy rainfall, damaging surge, and destructive winds to the small Caribbean island that is home to about 3 million people.
The effects on the island are sure to be catastrophic and prolonged.
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The Nintendo Switch 2 is out, and it might not be worth the upgrade yet if you already own the original Nintendo Switch (especially at its $450 to $500 price point). If you don’t, you can still get one and enjoy it before the Switch 2 really kicks off. Walmart is currently selling the Nintendo Switch Gray Joy-Con for $294.99 (originally $361.40). No other reputable seller has this version new on sale. If you’re okay with a used console, GameStop has a pre-owned version for $209.99, a great price for the gray Joy-Con version.
Nintendo Switch Console with Gray Joy-Con.
$294.99 at Walmart
$361.40 Save $66.41
$294.99 at Walmart
$361.40 Save $66.41
(Pre-owned) Nintendo Switch Gray Joy-Con
$209.99
$209.99
With tariffs affecting Nintendo and the Nintendo Switch 2 already out, it’s hard to gauge if this is a fair historical price. However, considering the Switch 2 can easily go for double the price, it makes the decision to get the original console much easier. What might be a harder decision is whether to get the OLED version or not. To help you decide which Switch is better for you, check out our breakdown. Keep in mind, there are also other costs to owning a Nintendo Switch.
At this point, the Nintendo Switch already has an incredible library of games to choose from, but the same cannot be said about the Switch 2. This specific model comes with gray Joy-Con, which is a more mature-looking version than the original blue and red version. You can expect between 4.5 and 9 hours per charge depending on your use and the game you’re playing. It has a 6.2-inch screen, 32GB of data storage, and online gaming if you pay for the Nintendo Switch Online plan, which starts at $19.99 a year. I’ve personally been enjoying the classic Nintendo 64 games that are available to play with the online membership. It’s a nice nostalgic feeling that I get to relive with my brothers and friends.
The Python Software Foundation has rejected a $1.5 million government grant because of anti-DEI requirements imposed by the Trump administration, the nonprofit said in a blog post yesterday. The grant would have been the largest in the organization’s history.
Hoping to “address structural vulnerabilities in Python and PyPI,” the foundation submitted a grant proposal in January 2025 to the National Science Foundation’s Safety, Security, and Privacy of Open Source Ecosystems program. After a “multi-round proposal writing process” and a “months-long vetting process,” it appeared the foundation was close to obtaining a two-year grant worth $1.5 million.
But what at first seemed like good news quickly turned sour due to rules against Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs, the foundation said:
China has completed the first phase of what it claims is the world’s first underwater data center in Shanghai’s Lingang Special Area. The facility cost roughly 1.6 billion yuan ($226 million) and operates on twenty-four megawatts of power drawn entirely from wind energy.
Seawater acts as a natural cooling system for the submerged servers. Traditional land-based data centers devote up to 50% of their energy consumption to air conditioning. The underwater design reduces cooling energy demand to less than 10%. The first phase is designed to achieve a power usage effectiveness rating of no more than 1.15. More than 95% of the facility’s electricity comes from offshore wind turbines in the East China Sea. The project reduces land usage by more than 90% and eliminates the need for fresh water. The main contractors signed an agreement to launch another offshore wind-powered underwater data center with a capacity of 500 megawatts.
When OpenAI was started in 2015, its founders (including both Sam Altman and Elon Musk) chose to make it a nonprofit. Its initial goal was to guarantee that artificial general intelligence (AGI), a type of AI that is theoretically better at humans at most tasks, would benefit everyone.
The company has gone through a number of changes in the years since. It hasn’t been a true nonprofit since 2019, when it moved to a “capped-profit” structure, which limited profits to 100 times any investment. Musk even sued the company last year, claiming it had ditched its original mission in favor of profits. But now, OpenAI is looking more like a traditional for-profit company than ever. On Thursday, it announced the company will now operate under a new for-profit structure, called OpenAI Group PCB, a public benefit corporation. OpenAI’s nonprofit arm, which is now called the OpenAI Foundation, holds a $130 billion stake in OpenAI Group PCB, and controls the for-profit company.
OpenAI says it is particularly focused on how this move will affect its goals of achieving AGI, and ensuring that AGI “benefits all of humanity.” As OpenAI sees it, the better its for-profit businesses perform, the more funds the OpenAI Foundation will have to continue its philanthropic work.
To that point, OpenAI says the OpenAI Foundation is committing $25 billion to two key objectives. The first is to health and disease, as the OpenAI Foundation will aim to create open-sourced health datasets and offer funding for scientists. The second goal will be to bolster “AI resilience,” which OpenAI sees as “maximizing AI’s benefits and minimizing its risks.”
According to OpenAI, the OpenAI Foundation and OpenAI Group both have the same mission, and that the terms of the new structure require the for-profit side to advance that mission.
What does this mean for OpenAI?
The way OpenAI puts it, this move is the best of both worlds for the company. It asserts that it will continue to operate with the same values and goals as it did prior to this restructuring, while at the same time having more freedom to raise capital to fund those efforts.
That second point is certainly true. CEO Sam Altman has been working for nearly two years to restructure the company into something that can more easily compete financially with other for-profit companies in the AI space, like Amazon, Google, and Meta. Other strictly-AI companies, like Anthropic and xAI, also have this type of structure.
Already, the move has solidified funds for OpenAI: The Japanese-baed SoftBank had previously pledged to a $40 billion investment, with $10 billion in April and another $30 billion in December. However, that investment was contingent on the company’s restructuring plans. Had OpenAI not restructured, SoftBank would’ve dropped its investment to $20 billion. By bolstering its for-profit core, OpenAI earned itself that extra $20 billion.
OpenAI has also agreed to extend an agreement with Microsoft that allows the latter to use and sell OpenAI products. The original agreement ran through 2030, and allowed OpenAI to cancel the deal if the company achieved AGI. But now, the deal runs through 2032, even if OpenAI achieves AGI, so long as the tech has the “appropriate safety guardrails.” An independent expert panel will make the call on whether OpenAI has achieved AGI. Rights to OpenAI’s research will still be capped when OpenAI achieves AGI, or by 2030, whichever comes first.
It’s no secret that AI is big business, so this move could realistically continue OpenAI’s many financial successes. It may also heat up the race to achieve AGI, as it now allows Microsoft to pursue that benchmark with OpenAI’s technologies as well. But against this news is a lingering, and concerning, question: Are we in an AI bubble? And will that bubble burst? OpenAI currently has $1 trillion in AI deals, though only pulls in $13 billion in actual revenue. Perhaps its restructuring will allow it to develop more lucrative revenue streams, but even still, AI is generating a lot of investment without the tangible returns you’d necessarily expect.
The transition to the more-secure HTTPS web protocol has plateaued, according to Google. As of 2020, 95 to 99 percent of navigations in Chrome use HTTPS. To help make it safer for users to click on links, Chrome will enable a setting called Always Use Secure Connections for public sites for all users by default. This will happen in October 2026 with the release of Chrome 154.
The change will happen earlier for those who have switched on Enhanced Safe Browsing protections in Chrome. Google will enable Always Use Secure Connections by default in April when Chrome 147 drops. When this setting is on, Chrome will ask for your permission before it first accesses a public website that doesn’t use HTTPS.
Google has been moving in this direction for some time. Chrome started alerting users to unsecure HTTP websites in 2018 and it began defaulting to HTTPS in April 2021. The following year, it started offering Always Use Secure Connections on an opt-in basis.
When HTTPS isn’t used, an attacker can reroute the connection with relative ease and target a user with malware, social engineering attacks or other exploits. “Attacks like this are not hypothetical — software to hijack navigations is readily available and attackers have previously used insecure HTTP to compromise user devices in a targeted attack,” the Chrome team wrote in a blog post. “Since attackers only need a single insecure navigation, they don’t need to worry that many sites have adopted HTTPS — any single HTTP navigation may offer a foothold. What’s worse, many plaintext HTTP connections today are entirely invisible to users, as HTTP sites may immediately redirect to HTTPS sites.” Always Use Secure Connections is one of the Chrome team’s attempts to mitigate such risks.
HTTP connections still persist in navigations to private sites, such as local IP addresses and company intranets. It’s complicated for a private site to obtain an HTTPS certificate (something Engadget has had since 2016, fact fans), because the same private name can point to different hosts on multiple networks. For instance, many router manufacturers use “192.168.0.1” as a local IP address for accessing the hardware’s admin panel. Still, HTTP navigations to private sites are inherently less risky than on the public web. They aren’t entirely safe, but the only vector of attack for HTTP on private sites is from within the local network.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cybersecurity/google-chrome-will-finally-default-to-secure-https-connections-starting-in-april-170000603.html?src=rss
Earlier this year, Slate Auto emerged from stealth mode and stunned industry watchers with the Slate Truck, a compact electric pickup it plans to sell for less than $30,000. Achieving that price won’t be easy, but Slate really does look to be doing things differently from the rest of the industry—even Tesla. For example, the truck will be made from just 600 parts, with no paint or even an infotainment system, to keep costs down.
An unanswered question until now has been “where do I take it to be fixed if it breaks?” Today, we have an answer. Slate is partnering with RepairPal to use the latter’s network of more than 4,000 locations across the US.
“Slate’s OEM partnership with RepairPal’s nationwide network of service centers will give Slate customers peace of mind while empowering independent service shops to provide accessorization and service,” said Slate chief commercial officer Jeremy Snyder.
An anonymous reader shares a report: After last week’s major AWS outage took Signal along with it, Elon Musk was quick to criticize the encrypted messaging app’s reliance on big tech. But Signal president Meredith Whittaker argues that the company didn’t have any other choice but to use AWS or another major cloud provider.
“The problem here is not that Signal ‘chose’ to run on AWS,” Whittaker writes in a series of posts on Bluesky. “The problem is the concentration of power in the infrastructure space that means there isn’t really another choice: the entire stack, practically speaking, is owned by 3-4 players.”
In the thread, Whittaker says the number of people who didn’t realize Signal uses AWS is “concerning,” as it indicates they aren’t aware of just how concentrated the cloud infrastructure industry is. “The question isn’t ‘why does Signal use AWS?'” Whittaker writes. “It’s to look at the infrastructural requirements of any global, real-time, mass comms platform and ask how it is that we got to a place where there’s no realistic alternative to AWS and the other hyperscalers.”
Toyota battery electric vehicles (BEV) owners can now have Apple Maps help them plan charging stops along their route via CarPlay. Alongside an announcement that the Toyota bZ is now on sale, the automaker says all 2023 and newer battery-electric vehicles can now integrate real-time battery information to help drivers with iPhones find compatible chargers. In the US this would simply mean the bZ4X, which is being replaced by the bZ.
Apple Maps will take into account factors like battery performance and elevation changes when estimating battery percentages on arrival and charging times.
CarPlay is Apple’s in-car infotainment system offering maps, music, calendar tools, Siri and more. While it’s currently compatible with over 800 car models, EV-charger routing requires access to the car’s battery info, which means automakers must work with Apple to enable the feature.
The integration’s rollout remains pretty limited, and before today’s announcement the only compatible vehicles were the Ford Mustang Mach-E, the F-150 Lightning and the Porsche Taycan.
Toyota also said the 2026 bZ will have access to the Tesla Supercharger network, opening up more than 25,000 charging locations for the new model. The bZ features the NACS charging standard, first created by Tesla before being open-sourced for the entire industry.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/evs/toyota-brings-apple-maps-ev-routing-to-its-newest-models-164103063.html?src=rss
Social media platforms have agreed to comply with Australia’s social media ban for users under 16 years old, begrudgingly embracing the world’s most restrictive online child safety law.
On Tuesday, Meta, Snap, and TikTok confirmed to Australia’s parliament that they’ll start removing and deactivating more than a million underage accounts when the law’s enforcement begins on December 10, Reuters reported.
Firms risk fines of up to $32.5 million for failing to block underage users.
Chegg says it will lay off about 45% of its workforce, or 388 employees, as the “new realities” of artificial intelligence and diminished traffic from internet search have led to plummeting revenue. From a report: The online education company, founded 20 years ago, has been hit by the rise of generative AI software tools, such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which have become increasingly popular among students.
Chegg also sued Google in February, arguing that AI summaries of search results have hurt its traffic and sales. The company reiterated that claim on Monday, saying AI and “reduced traffic from Google to content publishers” have damaged its business. “As a result, and reflecting the company’s continued investment in AI, Chegg is restructuring the way it operates its academic learning products,” the company said. The cuts come after Chegg in May laid off 22% of its workforce, citing increasing adoption of AI. Chegg’s market cap has fallen 98.8% in recent years to about $135 million.
Simogo is celebrating its 15th anniversary with some retrospective projects, which include bringing its games to more platforms. The studio has put together the Simogo Legacy Collectionfor Steam, Nintendo Switch and Switch 2. This includes all seven of the mobile games that the developer released between 2010 and 2015, including Year Walkand Device 6. The collection will be available on December 2 — the 15th anniversary of the release of Simogo’s first game, Kosmo Spin — and it costs $15.
Co-founder Simon Flesser noted that the studio’s mobile games were in “constant danger of disappearing or ending up being unplayable.” (Year Walk was ported to Wii U but we all know what happened with that console.) The idea behind Simogo Legacy Collection is to preserve them and “keep the experience as close as possible to the original games,” Flesser said. As such, the team has made as few changes as possible while still making sure the games work on PC and Nintendo’s consoles.
You can use touchscreen controls on Switch and Switch 2 to play the games as they were originally intended. Simogo has also added support for mice, controllers, motion controls and, on Switch 2, dual mouse controls. The bundle includes a bunch of extras too, such as an ebook of Year Walk side stories, a podcast for The Sailor’s Dream, additional music, playable prototypes of the games and more.
That’s not all, though. Simogo is working on Switch 2 versions of its two most recent games, Lorelei and the Laser Eyesand Sayonara Wild Hearts. Expect those to arrive in early 2026. The studio is also bringing Sayonara Wild Hearts back to iOS as a paid app next year. That was a launch game for Apple Arcade in 2019, but it left the service in 2024. I’m very much looking forward to having my favorite game available on a device I carry with me everywhere again, even though it’s available on PC and consoles as well.
As well as those projects, the studio has teamed up with Lost in Cult to create a coffee table book about the history of Simogo. Heartbeats, Dreams and Laser Eyes: 15 years of Simogo is a softback book with around 250 pages. A deluxe edition with a semi-translucent wrap, a bookmark, commemorative stamp set and (for the first 300 units) a signed bookplate will be available too. Pre-orders open today and the book is expected to ship in late 2026.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/year-walk-device-6-and-other-early-simogo-games-are-coming-to-steam-and-nintendo-consoles-160056076.html?src=rss
I’ll say it: There are too many messaging apps out there. There’s WhatsApp, Messenger, Snapchat, Discord, Signal, Telegram, and iMessage (if you’re on iPhone), and that’s just the dedicated chat apps. You might have to keep up with new messages on Instagram, TikTok, Threads, even Spotify. If I install one more app with a messaging feature, I’m going off the grid.
As it happens, another non-chat app is joining this list. On Tuesday, Zillow—yes, Zillow—announced its app will also now support messaging. Starting today, you can send people messages in the app you use to look at houses you will most likely never actually buy. We live in interesting times, indeed.
Of course, Zillow’s goal here isn’t to become the next WhatsApp. In fact, you can only choose to chat with one other person on Zillow—at least, that’s the case for now. The idea of Zillow messaging is strictly to chat about listings you find through the app, without needing to leave Zillow to do so. The goal for most app developers is to keep users on the platform for as long as possible, so there’s a cynical case to make here for Zillow trapping its users within the app. If you don’t move to another chat app to talk about a listing, you’re more likely to interact with additional houses on the app.
But I actually see the logic here: If you’re in a housing market with a lot of listings, you’re probably firing off a number of them every day to interested parties—namely, whoever you’re buying the house with. Keeping those conversations in the same app as those listings could be a smart way to keep track of all those houses, instead of the usual routine of “wait, which house was that? I can’t find the text you sent me.” And the fact that Zillow is limiting this experience to one chat partner at this time means you’re not going to be DMing a number of people about houses in your area. This does seem designed for people who are trying to buy a house together to do so with a bit more convenience.
How to try Zillow messaging
This feature is live as of this article. To get started, open Zillow on your smartphone or in your web browser. On the app, tap “Inbox;” on the web, click your profile in the top-right, then choose “Inbox.”
In order to start a chat, you need to invite the other person to join you. To do so, choose “Invite now,” which will pull up a pop-up about the feature. This screen explains the invite link is good for 24 hours, and that you can only invite one person for now.
Credit: Lifehacker
Choose “Share invitation,” and Zillow will let you share it wherever you’d like. You can copy the link, and paste it in another chat app, or choose a destination for Zillow to share the link to directly.
Oppo’s latest flagship phone, like the sleek (but hard to buy) Find N5 foldable, goes hard on the tech specifications. In fact, the Find X9 Pro’s specs read like a wishlist of what many want to see in their phones, with a huge 7,500mAh battery, a 200-megapixel telephoto camera and a bright 6.78-inch screen with tiny, almost one-millimeter bezels, all while still measuring in at 8.25mm in thickness. Oh, and an optional telephoto lens add-on that boosts camera zoom to 10x.
The Find X9 Pro will be priced at 1,399 Euros (we’re waiting on further pricing). The biggest drawback may be that, despite the Find X9 series being Oppo’s biggest phone launch yet, it won’t be available in the US. Still, with everything that’s crammed into this phone, I had to try it out. Do I really want a thinner smartphone? Or one that lasts multiple days before it needs recharging? And man, this telephoto lens is certainly eye-catching.
Display and design
Image by Mat Smith for Engadget
The Find X9 Pro has a 6.78-inch display, with peak outdoor brightness at 3,600 nits. On paper, that beats the iPhone 17 Pro, but most people with phones older than a year or two will notice how much brighter phones like the X9 Pro are. Another notable feature is a 1-nit minimal brightness to reduce eye strain when using the phone in the dark. Or in bed. Which we shouldn’t do, but we all do. Oppo has also included high-frequency pixel dimming to further reduce the screen’s harshness.
Like recent phones from its business cousin, OnePlus, Oppo has added a new button on this year’s Find X model. The Snap key is on the left of the device, and can be customized to launch apps like the voice recorder, translation apps and flashlight. Meanwhile, the right edge houses the Find X9’s Quick Button, which is ostensibly the camera button. Double-tapping it launches the camera app. While it’s not as elaborate as the iPhone’s Camera Control, you can swipe on the button to zoom in and out while using the camera, which is a simple, welcome addition.
Alongside Mediatek’s new Dimensity 9500 chip, the Find X9 Pro is another flagship phone with a silicon-carbon battery. With a higher energy density than graphite-based batteries, this means longer battery life without making the phone bigger or thicker. At 7,000mAh, the battery is huge. That’s far bigger than the battery found in foldables like Samsung’s Z Fold 7 (4,400 mAh) and the Pixel 9 Pro Fold (4,650 mAh). It’s even bigger than the one in the OnePlus 13 (6,000 mAh). Fortunately, the Find X9 supports suitably swift charging speeds, with support for 80W SUPERVOOC and 50W wireless charging. During my time with the phone, it would often last two days on a charge. Even after a day of heavy camera use, Google Maps and streaming video, I didn’t need to recharge the Find X9 Pro until late afternoon on the second day.
Cameras
Image by Mat Smith for Engadget
The Find X9 Pro’s camera consists of a 50-megapixel main sensor with f/1.5 lens and optical image stabilization. There’s also a 50MP ultrawide camera and arguably the most technically impressive part: a 200MP periscope camera with an f/2.1 lens and OIS. This is further augmented with an attachable teleconverter lens — more on that later.
Oppo’s Hasselblad collaboration focuses on telephoto, though the company calls its entire camera setup the Hasselblad Master Camera System. I’m not sure it needed such a label.To make the most of the high-resolution sensor, the camera app includes a new Hi-Res mode to capture at 200MP for the telephoto lens and 50MP when using the other two camera sensors. The company warns that the mode is best used in well-lit environments, as it strips out pixel binning and other computational photography techniques that are used when there’s limited light.
But that’s not really the point: it’s all about the zoom. The telephoto has a base 3x optical zoom, which can be cropped to a 6x zoom with a 50MP image. It’s worth noting that all the cameras on the Find X9 can capture at 50MP. If the phone detects more challenging shooting conditions, it automatically drops down to 25MP or 12MP shots. In reality, I didn’t notice the resolution jump in most photos I took, although the rich foliage in some of my landscape shots showcases how much detail the camera system is able to capture.
Image by Mat Smith for Engadget
Oppo says its computational photography know-how pushes the zoom here to 13.2x, but its algorithms can get a little aggressive and messy with faces and detail at the higher digital zoom settings. Take a look at these pictures taken across a hillside. While the foliage appears crisp and detailed, the walkers are blurry and there’s a halo effect around them. At other times, computational photography turned pedestrians into nightmarish faces.
In yet another opportunity to mention the Hasselblad collab, there’s also an XPAN shooting mode for cinematic 65:24 images. Conversely, if you’re into a disposable camera aesthetic, the Find X9 series can also trigger an aggressive double-flash to mimic ‘00s photography.
The same zoom capabilities are available in video capture, too, and the company has added a new Sound Focus mode to strip out ambient noise, which worked better than I expected it to. There are several more video recording upgrades, including full LOG recording (activated in settings) and an integrated LUT preview to check color grading in real time.
Image by Mat Smith for Engadget
Then there’s the attachable lens. Oppo’s Hasselblad Teleconverter is a solid, premium peripheral, with a metal barrel and some heft. It extends the Find X9’s optical zoom to 10x, with an equivalent focal length of 230mm. Thanks to the high-res 200MP Telephoto camera sensor, you can punch in at up to 200x digital zoom for stills and 50x zoom for video, although the sweet spot is certainly more in the middle. The add-on teleconverter lens, while not entirely new (Vivo did it first), may be the most intriguing part.
You need to use a specific case and mounting plate to securely attach the lens to the phone, but when it’s locked in, it feels solid and very secure. It also looks, well, how it looks. Because it’s such a slender lens, it looks like something you might use for espionage. It doesn’t even look like a point-and-shoot camera. It’s… eye-catching, but also so much fun.
Image by Mat Smith for Engadget
I’ve been testing the Find X9’s camera chops for a few weeks, and it’s been a lot of fun to zoom in with optical zoom clarity, whether at concerts, movie premieres or taking pictures of my nieces during hectic Play-Doh sessions. What’s particularly attractive is the combination of high detail and bokeh effect. With the leap in zoom, I had to ensure I was far enough away in order to use the teleconverter, or it would struggle to focus.
Image by Mat Smith for Engadget
Oppo is pitching its new flagship as the ultimate phone for concerts and live events, and the zoom range is very impressive. Perhaps understandably, when zooming so much, there is a high risk of blurry shots. Oppo includes a special tripod mount that attaches to the lens barrel to ensure the whole thing doesn’t tip over, but it’s one step too far for me. Carrying around the teleconverter and mounting plate is already a lot. It’s also a bit of a chore to have to detach the plate when using the camera without the teleconverter. Oddly, the plate covers the other sensors, meaning that if you want a closer focal point (or want to use anything besides the telephoto sensor), it’s an additional pain point before you can take the photo.
It’s unusual that a phone’s “main” camera isn’t the star of the show, but that may be the case with the Find X9 Pro. However, it’s still technically impressive. With a new 1/1.28 sensor codeveloped with Sony, the 50MP main camera can capture triple exposures on each frame before merging them. Oppo claims that it gives images 17 stops of dynamic range. There’s also a fourth camera, a True Color camera, dedicated to precisely measuring color temperatures across all the other sensors. Combined, it’s an impressive system, but you’ll get the most out of it if you’re willing to pay for the additional teleconverter.
Image by Mat Smith for Engadget
While we wait for the price to inform our verdict on the Find X9, what’s stopping Oppo from breaking into the US? Trade turbulence and competition, probably. If it can refine the experience (and maybe keep its next phone compatible with the same teleconverter), it has a good chance at charming the obsessive smartphone photographer away from their iPhones and Pixels.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/oppos-find-x9-pro-hands-on-detachable-telephoto-lens-7000mah-battery-160006373.html?src=rss
Football season is in full swing, but these are such strange days that even of game day, Americans can no longer put their political differences aside to enjoy the savage ballet. Yes, the National Football League has once again become a flashpoint in the endless, maddening culture wars—and surprisingly, the NFL seems to be on the “woke” side of the board.
Right now, there’s a lot of misinformation being spread about the game, the league, and the personalities within. Here are some of the biggest I’ve encountered.
Did Andy Reid refuse pledge to not attend the 2026 Super Bowl over a planned Charlie Kirk tribute?
The questionable Facebook pages of both Kollam’s Media and Together We Rise both recently claimed that Andy Reid, head coach of the Kansas City Chiefs, “ignited one of the most explosive controversies in sports history” when he refused to attend the 2026 Super Bowl because of a tribute to Charlie Kirk planned for the opening ceremonies. But that didn’t happen. There are multiple levels of deception at work here. First, we have no reason to think that the NFL has planned its opening ceremonies this early, and if they have, there’s no reason they would have shared them with Andy Reid anyway. So it follows that Reid did not preemptively announce a boycott of the 2026 Super Bowl, and there is no evidence of him doing so aside from those Facebook posts.
It is true that Reid most likely won’t be attending the Super Bowl this year: His team is currently battling the Raiders for third place in a four-team division.
Did Dolly Parton, Alan Jackson, and George Strait refuse to perform a Charlie Kirk tribute at Super Bowl 2026?
Together We Rise’s Facebook page is evidently on the cutting edge of fake stories about the Super Bowl and Charlie Kirk, as another post there reports Alan Jackson, Dolly Parton, George Strait, Vince Gill, and Reba McEntire all declined to perform at the Super Bowl halftime show over a planned tribute to Charlie Kirk. But again, there is no known “tribute to Charlie Kirk” planned for the Super Bowl, and the performer for halftime is Bad Bunny anyway, meaning there’s nothing for this random cadre of vaguely left-leaning country artists to boycott.
Did Coca-Cola pull its sponsorship of the 2026 halftime show?
Speaking of Bad Bunny, according to a Facebook post from PR Informa, Coca-Cola CEO James Quincey responded to the announcement of Bad Bunny’s halftime gig by pledging, “I will end my sponsorship of the Super Bowl if they let Bad Bunny to perform at halftime.” Quincey never said this, and Coca-Cola hasn’t advertised during the Super Bowl since since 2020 anyway. All the advertising has been purchased already for the game, and no company has announced plans to pull out over Bad Bunny’s performance, nor for any other reason.
Did Carlos Santana object to Bad Bunny playing at the Super Bowl?
Despite post circulating on social media suggesting music icon Carlos Santana objected to Bad Bunny playing the Super Bowl, it’s just not true. Santana addressed the rumor on his own Facebook page, posting, “Fear is the flavor right now. Fear is what motivates ignorant people to put words in my mouth—saying that I didn’t want Bad Bunny to be represented at the Super Bowl. I never said that, nor would I ever.”
Is the NFL considering pulling Bad Bunny’s halftime show?
When asked about the rumors that the NFL was considering pulling Bad Bunny from the 2026 halftime show, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell made it clear the league stands behind Bad Bunny. “He’s one of the leading and most popular entertainers in the world,” Goodell told ESPN. “I’m not sure we’ve ever selected an artist where we didn’t have some blowback or criticism.”
Did Travis Kelce sue Karoline Leavitt, buy a diner for homeless people, and announce he impregnated Taylor Swift?
This is a preemptive debunking: We don’t yet know who is going to be in the big game, but when we find out, there are bound to be conspiracy theories suggesting the game is being rigged in favor of one team, for whatever reason. But as far as we know, the Super Bowl hasn’t been rigged in the past, and it probably won’t be this time, either. Remember: Last season’s pre-Super Bowl rumor was the game would be fixed in favor of The Chiefs, and it didn’t exactly work out that way.
Why is football suddenly so controversial?
Maybe I’m looking at the past with astroturf-colored glasses, but football used to be something like a shared national pastime. Sure, there were a ton of false beliefs about the game out there, but they were things like, “The refs cheat,” or “The Raiders are a lock.” It didn’t matter whether you were a Democrat or a Republican, we all laughed at the Jets. But like every other cultural event or institution, football is also being sorted into Team Red and Team Blue, neither of which has attractive jerseys. It’s such a drag that we can’t just enjoy the circus without someone turning it into the next political crisis.
Yet another dual-screen “DS” handheld has been born, though this time it’s through user modification of the Steam Deck OLED rather than a dedicated clone like the Anbernic RG DS.
This particular Steam Deck DS modding project is the most recent of its kind, but not the only one—there have been plenty of these posted to the r/SteamDeck subreddit
