Camera buyers usually mark Amazon’s October Prime Day on their calendars as it’s a great way to get a nice discount on a major purchase — especially since recent tariffs have caused price increases with some brands. This year’s sale looks like a good one, with genuine value available on camera equipment, drone and accessory purchases.

Some key deals include discounts on DJI drones, action cams and wireless mics, along with sales on cameras from Sony, Canon, Insta360, GoPro and Nikon. Many of those cameras are ranked highly in our most recent camera guide, like Nikon’s Z6 III and the Panasonic S5 IIx — so feel free to check that out as you add items to your cart. Without further delay, here are the best Prime Day camera deals you can grab this week.

Best Prime Day camera deals

DJI Neo drone for $159 (20 percent off): The DJI Neo may be an inexpensive, beginner-friendly drone, but it has powerful features like subject tracking and quick shots. It can shoot video at up to 4K 30 fps and is quick and maneuverable, though it’s also fairly loud. You can also grab one with three batteries and a charger for $229 (21 percent off).

DJI Osmo Action 4 for $229 (23 percent off): DJI’s Osmo Action 4 is a solid deal at this price, as you’re not giving up much in comparison to the most recent model, the Action 5. It has the same big 1/1.3-inch sensor that delivers excellent video quality, especially in low light. It also features a D-LogM profile to boost dynamic range, DJI’s excellent clip-on mount and high-quality 4K 120p video.

DJI Mini 4K drone for $239 (20 percent off): The Mini 4K is a beginner-friendly drone, but it’s still got plenty of nifty features. As the name suggests, it can capture 4K video at up to 30 FPS. It can also record 2.7K footage at 60 FPS. There’s 2x digital zoom, a 3-axis gimbal and electrical image stabilization. The drone can transmit 1080p video from up to 10km away.

DJI Osmo Action 5 Pro for $269 (21 percent off): DJI’s Osmo Action 5 Pro is a good alternative to GoPro’s Hero 13 Black. I has a 1/1.3-inch sensor that makes it better than its rival in low light and rivals it in battery life as well with over two hours while shooting in 4K 60p. Another nice feature is 47GB of internal storage, something its main rivals lack. And the Osmo Action 5 Pro works directly with DJI’s noise-cancelling Mic 2 and Mic Mini wireless microphones, providing an easy way to record high-quality sound.

GoPro Hero 13 Black for $359 (17 percent off): GoPro’s Hero 13 Black is now available with a new family of modular lenses called the HB series (ultra-wide, anamorphic and macro), making it far more versatile for action creators. It also has a slightly bigger battery that allows longer capture times, up to 90 minutes for 4K 30fps video. Other specs remain the same, including up to 5.3K at 60fps in 10-bit color, along with the excellent Hypersmooth stabilization.

DJI Osmo 360 action cam for $413 (25 percent off): It took DJI awhile to get a panoramic action cam into the market, but the Osmo 360 was worth the wait. It stacks up well against its main rival, Insta360’s X5, by offering better video quality in low light or high-contrast situations. It’s also easy to use, offers good battery life and trumps its competition with a large amount of built-in storage.

Sony ZV-1F for $498 (17 percent off): Sony’s ZV-1F is designed purely for vlogging thanks to the fixed 20mm lens that works perfectly for self-filming. It uses a 1-inch sensor like other compacts in this series and supports 4K shooting at up to 30 fps, the same as the ZV-1, and 1080p at up to an impressive 120fps. It offers vlog-ready features like background defocus and product showcase. 

Canon EOS R100 with RT-S18-45mm lens for $529 (15 percent off): Canon’s EOS R100 is the only modern mirrorless camera you can get with a kit lens for under $600. It comes with a 24-megapixel APS-C sensor that delivers great picture quality with Canon’s pleasing skin tones.

Canon EOS R50 with RF-S18-45mm lens $799 (9 percent off): Canon’s 24-megapixel APS-C EOS R50 is great for travel, parties, street photography and more thanks to the portable size and built-in flash. It offers nice image quality with warm, human friendly photos and is capable for creators as well with 4K 30fps supersampled video, with 10-bit and HDR capability. It comes with a kit lens that’s solid for vlogging or photography with a 24-70mm full-frame equivalent zoom range. 

Sony A6100 with 16-50mm and 55-210mm lenses $800 (33 percent off): If you want to hit the ground running with a camera and lenses on the cheap, Sony’s A6100 is an outstanding value right now. While five years old, its autofocus system is still among the best thanks to its intelligent face- and eye-tracking, along with 4K 30 fps video. The color science and low-light capabilities are excellent, so photos are sharp and color accurate, even in dimly-lit environments. The drawbacks are bad rolling shutter and a low-resolution EVF. Still, you won’t find much comparable in this price range with two lenses to boot.

Panasonic Lumix S9 for $1,198 (20 percent off): The S9 may be Panasonic’s smallest full-frame camera but it comes with the same 24MP sensor and similar video features to the popular S5 II. To that end, it offers up to 6.2K video, in-body stabilization and reliable autofocus. The key feature though is a special LUT button that lets you easily choose a custom cinematic look designed by professional creators.

Panasonic S5 II for $1,498 (25 percent off): It’s the company’s first camera with hybrid phase-detect AF designed to make focus “wobble” and other issues a thing of the past. You can shoot sharp 4K 30p video downsampled from the full sensor width, or 4K 60p from an APS-C cropped size, all in 10-bit color. It even offers 5.9K 30p video. You also get a flip-out screen for vlogging and updated five-axis in-body stabilization that’s the best in the industry. Photo quality is also good thanks to the dual-gain 24-megapixel sensor. The main drawback is the slowish burst speeds.

Sony A7 IV for $2,198 (19 percent off): Resolution is up considerably from the 24-megapixel A7 III to 33 megapixels, with image quality much improved overall. Video is now up to par with rivals with 4K at up to 60p with 10 bit 4:2:2 quality. Autofocus is incredible for both video and stills, and the in-body stabilization does a good job. The biggest drawback is rolling shutter that limits the use of the electronic shutter.

Panasonic S5 IIx with two lenses for $2,298 (22 percent off): The S5 IIx is identical to the S5 II except that it offers high bitrate Apple ProRes capture directly to an external SSD. This deal is ideal for creators who want to hit the ground running as it includes both a 50mm f/1.8 portrait lens and a 22-60mm zoom. 

Nikon Z6 III for $2,397 (11 percent off): Nikon’s Z6 III is the best hybrid mirrorless camera for the money, thanks to the incredible performance of the 24-megapixel partially stacked sensor. You can shoot RAW bursts at up to 20 fps in electronic shutter mode while nailing sharp shots thanks to the much-improved autofocus. On the video side, it supports 6K RAW at up to 60 fps, or 4K 120p. All of that makes it ideal for creators and photographers alike, with the only drawback being the reduced resolution.

Sony A7R V for $3,798 (10 percent off): With a 61-megapixel sensor, the A7R V shoots sharp and beautiful images at a very respectable speed for such a high-resolution model (10 fps). It has equally fast and reliable autofocus, the sharpest viewfinder on the market and in-body stabilization that’s much improved over the A7R IV. Video has even improved, with 8K and 10-bit options now on tap, albeit with significant rolling shutter

Best Prime Day camera lens and accessory deals

Osmo Mobile 7 for $68 (24 percent off): One of the best things to elevate your smartphone footage is a gimbal like the Osmo Mobile 7 from DJI. The company makes some of the best drones you can buy, so it knows a thing or two about camera stabilization, so it will make your smarphone videos smooth as silk. It only weighs 300 grams, so it’ll be a lightweight addition to almost any travel kit.

DJI Mic Mini $99 (41 percent off): DJI’s Mic Mini bundle includes two mic transmitters and a receiver that can be connected to a camera or phone, along with a charging case. The mics weigh just a third of an ounce and attach easily to subjects via magnets or clips. Everything pairs automatically and they offer high quality 24-bit 20Hz to 20K Hz recording. They also connect easily to smartphones over Bluetooth and other DJI devices like the Action 5 and Osmo Pocket 3 cams using DJI’s OsmoAudio direct connection. 

DJI Mic 2 for $269 (23 percent off): DJI’s Mic 2 can not only be connected to a mirrorless camera like other mics, but also supports Bluetooth audio so can easily be connected to a smartphone as well. It picks up audio from your subject at a range of up to 820 feet (less with a Bluetooth connection) and automatically reduces background noise like wind, city sounds and even drone noise. This deal includes two mic transmitters, a receiver for your camera, a charging case and wind muffs. 

DJI RS 4 Mini $309 (16 percent off): The RS 4 Mini is one of the best handheld camera stabilizers on the market thanks to features like its 4.4 pound payload and automatic axis lock. On top of that, the company introduced automatic tracking via its RS Intelligent Tracking Module to keep human subjects in frame no matter where they go. It also offers smoother gimbal tracking, longer battery life and faster charging. 

Lexar 128GB Professional 2000x SD Card $90 (31 percent off): If you need very fast SD UHS II memory, Lexar currently has an excellent deal on its 128GB 2000x memory card. It offers 300MB/s read and 260Mb/s write speeds, quick enough to capture high data rate video or bursts of high-resolution photos. Amazon is also offering a solid discount on 256GB memory in the same lineup at $170 or 23 percent off. 

Manfrotto Befree GT PRO 4-section travel tripod $299 (36 percent off): Belying its miniscule 4.23 pound weight, this model offers ultra-stable performance for timelapse and other shots, even in bad weather. It’s also great for video thanks to the integrated 3-way pan/tilt head, featuring fluid cartridges for precise control and seamless movements.

Panasonic Lumix G 25mm f/1.7 lens $248 (17 percent off): Panasonic and Micro Four Thirds users on a budget in need of a fast 50mm equivalent prime should check this one out. It offers beautiful bokeh and fast speeds in low light, but costs nearly half the price of f/1.4 models. 

Nikon Nikkor Z 50mm f/1.4 Lens $497 (17 percent off): If you want a fast 50mm portrait lens but don’t have a ton to spend, Nikon’s Nikkor Z 50mm f/1.4 lens is on sale for just $497, making it one of the cheapest full-frame options available. At the same time, it offers exceptional sharpness and excellent color rendition, with beautiful bokeh that will flatter your subjects. 

Panasonic Lumix S 85mm f/1.8 lens $448 (31 percent off): I own this lens and it’s fast, sharp and versatile for portraits while offering considerable savings compared to an f/1.4 portrait. It’s also great for working pros due to the dust-, splash- and freeze-resistant design and very light weight next to other brands. 

Nikon Nikkor Z 35mm f/1.4 Lens $577 (15 percent off): If you’re looking for a fast full-frame Nikon Z prime in the 35-50mm category for portraits, architecture or street photos, Nikon has a stellar deal. The Nikkor Z 35mm f/1.4 lens is fast and sharp with painterly bokeh thanks to the 9-blade iris design. It’s great for video as well, with the silent STM mechanism offering silent autofocus and suppressed focus breathing.

Canon RF24-70mm F2.8 L lens $2,399 (8 percent off): If you’ve been eyeballing a fast Canon RF mount zoom, now’s the time to act. The RF24-70mm f/2.8 L lens rarely goes on sale, but is now available with a $200 (8 percent) discount. It offers an f/2.8 aperture across the entire zoom range so you get awesome bokeh for portraits and high versatility in low light situations. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cameras/the-best-prime-day-camera-and-drone-deals-get-up-to-41-percent-off-gear-from-dji-canon-sony-and-others-073852143.html?src=rss

alternative_right shares a report from ScienceDaily: Scientists may have finally uncovered the mystery behind ultra-high-energy cosmic rays — the most powerful particles known in the universe. A team from NTNU suggests that colossal winds from supermassive black holes could be accelerating these particles to unimaginable speeds. These winds, moving at half the speed of light, might not only shape entire galaxies but also fling atomic nuclei across the cosmos with incredible energy. […]

But what on earth does that mean? The Milky Way is the neighborhood in the universe where you and I live. Our Sun and solar system are part of this galaxy, along with at least 100 billion other stars. “There is a black hole called Sagittarius-A* located right in the centre of the Milky Way. This black hole is currently in a quiet phase where it isn’t consuming any stars, as there is not enough matter in the vicinity,” [said postdoctoral fellow Enrico Peretti from the Universite Paris Cite]. This contrasts with growing, supermassive, active black holes that consume up to several times the mass of our own Sun each year. “A tiny portion of the material can be pushed away by the force of the black hole before it is pulled in. As a result, around half of these supermassive black holes create winds that move through the universe at up to half the speed of light,” Peretti said.

We have known about these gigantic winds for approximately ten years. The winds from these black holes can affect galaxies. By blowing away gases, they can prevent new stars from forming, for example. This is dramatic enough in itself, but Oikonomou and her colleagues looked at something else, much smaller, that these winds could be the cause of.” It is possible that these powerful winds accelerate the particles that create the ultra-high-energy radiation,” said [lead author Domenik Ehlert]. The findings have been published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

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An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: The heads of UK physics departments say their subject is facing a national crisis as one in four warns that their university departments are in danger of closing because of funding pressures. In an anonymous survey of department heads by the Institute of Physics (IoP), 26% said they faced potential closure of their department within the next two years, while 60% said they expected courses to be reduced. Four out of five departments said they were making staff cuts, and many were considering mergers or consolidation in what senior physicists described as a severe threat to the UK’s future success. […]

To avoid “irreversible damage”, the IoP is asking for immediate government action including funding to support existing labs and research facilities, as well as setting up an “early warning system” to monitor departments at risk of closure, and reduce pressures affecting international student recruitment. In the longer term it is calling for radical reforms in higher education funding to allow universities to meet the full costs of teaching nationally important subjects such as physics. Sir Keith Burnett, the IoP’s president and a former chair of physics at Oxford University, said: “While we understand the pressures on public finances, it would be negligent not to sound the alarm for a national capability fundamental to our wellbeing, competitiveness and the defense of the realm.

“We are walking towards a cliff edge but there is still time to avert a crisis which would lead not just to lost potential but to many physics departments shutting down altogether. Physics researchers and talented physics students are our future but if action isn’t taken now to stabilize, strengthen and sustain one of our greatest national assets, we risk leaving them high and dry.” Thomas said the erosion in value of domestic tuition fees and falling numbers of international students were behind the financial pressures, with smaller physics departments the most at risk. “What that means is we will get more and more concentration of where physics is being taught and lose geographical distribution. That goes against aims of widening participation and means some disadvantaged groups will miss out on opportunities to study physics, and it’s important that we recognize that,” Thomas said.

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Paramount has acquired The Free Press, Bari Weiss’s Substack-born media outlet, for $150 million and appointed Weiss as editor-in-chief of CBS News. The move effectively places a conservative-leaning Substack writer at the helm of a legacy news network, following the FCC’s approval of the Skydance-Paramount merger, which required CBS to feature a broader “diversity of viewpoints from across the political and ideological spectrum.” The Verge reports: Before starting The Free Press, Weiss worked as an op-ed and book review editor at The Wall Street Journal from 2013 to 2017 and later became an op-ed editor and writer at The New York Times to expand the publication’s stable of conservative columnists during Donald Trump’s first term. She resigned from the NYT in 2020, citing an “illiberal environment.”

Weiss started a Substack newsletter in 2021, called Common Sense, which later evolved into The Free Press, touting itself as a media company “built on the ideals that were once the bedrock of great American journalism.” As noted in the press release, The Free Press has grown its revenue 82 percent over the past year, while subscribers increased 86 percent to 1.5 million, 170,000 of which are paid subscriptions.

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AstraZeneca has licensed Algen Biotechnologies’ AI-powered gene-editing platform, AlgenBrain, to develop immune-related therapies in a deal worth up to $555 million. Reuters reports: AstraZeneca will get exclusive rights to develop and sell approved therapies, if any, that target immune system-related disorders in exchange for upfront and milestone payments to Algen. AstraZeneca has been advancing its cell and gene therapy capabilities through acquisitions and partnerships as it works towards its target of $80 billion in sales by 2030. Globally too, drugmakers are increasingly turning to artificial intelligence for drug development.

Monday’s deal, however, does not include AstraZeneca buying a stake in the company, Algen CEO and co-founder Chun-Hao Huang told Reuters in an interview. “Together with AstraZeneca’s deep expertise in translational science and clinical development, we aim to uncover new biological insights to accelerate the development of novel therapies,” Huang said. Algen was spun out from the UC Berkeley lab where biochemist Jennifer Doudna pioneered the CRISPR technology that won her the Nobel Prize. The biotech firm’s AI platform, AlgenBrain, can map genes to disease outcomes, helping the companies decide their development focus for targeted therapies.

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California biotech entrepreneur and former magician Serhat Gumrukcu has been found guilty of orchestrating the 2018 murder of his business rival Gregory Davis, who had threatened to expose Gumrukcu’s fraudulent dealings. He faces sentencing in November. SFGATE reports: Seven years ago, Turkish national Serhat Gumrukcu, 42, of Los Angeles, was negotiating a multimillion-dollar biotech merger built off his work on a supposed HIV cure. The deal was put in jeopardy by a former business partner named Gregory Davis, 49, who had threatened to bring legal action against Gumrukcu for fraudulent activities relating to a previous failed oil commodities deal, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a news release last week. Gumrukcu, a magician-turned-scientist who admitted to buying his medical degree from a Russian university, lived in a Hollywood mansion and partied with Oscar winners and movie producers, according to VTDigger. He stood to make millions from the merger of his biotech company Enochian BioSciences. […]
In 2017, upon learning that Davis, a father of six from Danville, Vermont, could potentially spoil his fortune-making deal, Gumrukcu set in motion a hit on the former business partner. The murder-for-hire plot involved four men in total, prosecutors said. Gumrukcu had a close friend from Las Vegas, Berk Eratay, approach a third man, Aron Ethridge to find a hit man to kill Davis. The shooter, 37-year-old Montana man Jerry Banks, arrived at Davis’ home on Jan. 6, 2018, in a vehicle fitted with flashing red and blue lights and posed as a deputy U.S. marshal. After abducting Davis, Banks shot him dead in the vehicle and left the body partially buried in a snowbank nearby.

Investigators soon narrowed in on Gumrukcu after discovering emails between him and Davis revealing tensions over the failed oil deal. Gumrukcu was interviewed twice by the FBI and made false statements on both occasions, federal prosecutors said. Further inspection of cellphone data, bank information and messages identified the four men involved in the kidnapping and killing of Davis.

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An anonymous reader quotes a report from BleepingComputer: The Redis security team has released patches for a maximum severity vulnerability that could allow attackers to gain remote code execution on thousands of vulnerable instances. Redis (short for Remote Dictionary Server) is an open-source data structure store used in approximately 75% of cloud environments, functioning like a database, cache, and message broker, and storing data in RAM for ultra-fast access. The security flaw (tracked as CVE-2025-49844) is caused by a 13-year-old use-after-free weakness found in the Redis source code and can be exploited by authenticated threat actors using a specially crafted Lua script (a feature enabled by default). Successful exploitation enables them to escape the Lua sandbox, trigger a use-after-free, establish a reverse shell for persistent access, and achieve remote code execution on the targeted Redis hosts.

After compromising a Redis host, attackers can steal credentials, deploy malware or cryptocurrency mining tools, extract sensitive data from Redis, move laterally to other systems within the victim’s network, or use stolen information to gain access to other cloud services. “This grants an attacker full access to the host system, enabling them to exfiltrate, wipe, or encrypt sensitive data, hijack resources, and facilitate lateral movement within cloud environments,” said Wiz researchers, who reported the security issue at Pwn2Own Berlin in May 2025 and dubbed it RediShell.

While successful exploitation requires attackers first to gain authenticated access to a Redis instance, Wiz found around 330,000 Redis instances exposed online, with at least 60,000 of them not requiring authentication. Redis and Wiz urged admins to patch their instances immediately by applying security updates released on Friday, “prioritizing those that are exposed to the internet.” To further secure their Redis instances against remote attacks, admins can also enable authentication, disable Lua scripting and other unnecessary commands, launch Redis using a non-root user account, enable Redis logging and monitoring, limit access to authorized networks only, and implement network-level access controls using firewalls and Virtual Private Clouds (VPCs).

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This is a video of kayaker Aniol Serrasolses trekking 6-miles across a glacier in Norway’s Svalbard archipelago to kayak down the world’s highest glacial waterfall (~65 feet). Aniol and his crew had to bring a ladder to cross glacial fissures, something you would not see me doing. If I’m ever walking across a glacier (presumably because hell froze over) and there’s a crack in the ice, that’s just as good as Gandalf waving his staff and yelling as far as I’m concerned.

Bloomberg reports (paywalled) that Apple’s hardware chief John Ternus is the frontrunner to replace Tim Cook as CEO, as Cook nears retirement and prepares to transition into a board chairman role. The Economic Times reports: Cook is turning 65 next month. Chief operating officer John Williams — once heir apparent — has handed over the reins of day-to-day operations to Sabih Khan and is on his way out. Even as Cook steps down as CEO, he will stay involved in some capacity, likely as board chairman. […]

While Khan and Apple’s retail chief Deirdre O’Brien can run daily operations, Ternus remains the leading contender for the corner office after Cook, Gurman said. Firstly, he is 50 years old — the same as Cook when he became CEO — giving him over a decade to hold the office, he noted. Secondly, Apple needs a technologist instead of a sales person at the helm, considering the company’s ambitions, Gurman wrote in the newsletter. While the Cupertino tech giant has managed to expand its homegrown line of chipsets, and the recently launched iPhone 17 lineup is drawing in customers, the company has struggled to find success in categories such as mixed reality, generative artificial intelligence (AI), smart homes and autonomous driving.

Ternus was in the spotlight during Apple’s annual hardware event in September, which saw the launch of the iPhone 17 Air, the first major design overhaul for the smartphone family in a long time. Over the years, he has gained more responsibilities under Cook, taking calls on product roadmaps, features and strategies, overseeing matters beyond the traditional scope of a hardware engineering chief, Gurman said.

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Mary Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell, and Shimon Sakaguchi were awarded the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine on Monday for their collective work in the discovery of specialized immune cells that roam the body and keep potentially harmful immune responses in check—preventing them from attacking the body directly (autoimmune responses) or causing harm with overzealous responses to invaders.

Those specialized cells—regulatory T cells—are now well established as playing a key role in peripheral immune tolerance. That is, a non-central process that allows the immune system to strike a delicate balance between being appropriately responsive and aggressive toward intruding germs or foreign dangers while also not running amok.

Before the trio of prize winners came along, researchers thought that such immune tolerance occurred centrally, in the thymus, the primary lymphoid organ that sits in the center of the chest. There, T cells mature, including into two key types: T helper cells, which go on to trigger immune responses when they recognize foreign dangers; and the aptly named T killer cells, which kill cells, including foreign cells, cancer cells, and cells infected by a virus.

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This is a short video from TikTok user thedrewsocial detailing how to make your own drugged asylum escapee optical illusion Halloween costume out of a mannequin head, cardboard tubes, a pillow, and some old clothes. SPOILER: You ARE the drugged asylum escapee! God, sometimes I really feel like one too. Seems like people were chiller on the inside.

Police arrested 33-year-old Joseph Mayuyo after a series of online threats forced TikTok to evacuate its Culver City headquarters. TechCrunch reports: A press release from the Culver City Police Department says that TikTok employees reported receiving multiple threats, across various social media platforms, from 33-year-old Hawthorne resident Joseph Mayuyo. After an additional message threatened TikTok’s Culver City headquarters, police say company security evacuated the office “out of an abundance of caution.”

Police then investigated Mayuyo’s home, according to the press release. During the investigation, he allegedly posted additional threatening statements, including one declaring that he would not be taken alive. Detectives obtained search and arrest warrants, and they negotiated with Mayuyo for 90 minutes before he voluntarily exited his home and was taken into custody, the police department says.

Business Insider reports that one TikTok employee described the threats as “really scary,” while another was concerned that they seemed to specifically target the e-commerce department. Mayuyo’s X account has reportedly been suspended for violating the platform’s hateful content policy. A Medium account under his name published a post in July criticizing TikTokShop USA as a “scam.”

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There’s good and bad news coming from Yacht Club Games, the studio behind Shovel Knight. The bad news is that the company’s upcoming game, Mina the Hollower, has been delayed from its planned October 31 release date. But the good news is that it doesn’t seem like this will be a lengthy wait. 

There’s no new launch date given in the post on the developer’s website, but Yacht Club says that it won’t be much longer before the game is ready. “The entire crew has been working tirelessly day and night to finish development for release on Oct 31st, but we’re just not quite there yet,” the post states. “This isn’t a major delay, it’s just a stretch of time to apply some final polish and balancing to make the game truly shine.” Mina the Hollower is coming to life thanks to a successful Kickstarter by the team during 2022. It’s an action-adventure game with nods to the Game Boy Color’s aesthetics.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mina-the-hollower-from-the-makers-of-shovel-knight-has-been-delayed-222817866.html?src=rss

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Verge: OpenAI is introducing a way to work with apps right inside ChatGPT. The idea is that, from within a conversation with the chatbot, you can essentially tag in apps to help you complete a task while ChatGPT offers context and advice. […]

Apps available inside ChatGPT starting today will include Booking.com, Canva, Coursera, Expedia, Figma, Spotify, and Zillow. In the “weeks ahead,” OpenAI will add more apps, such as DoorDash, OpenTable, Target, and Uber. […] Developers can access the SDK for making apps in preview starting today. Later this year, developers will be able to submit apps for review and publication, and OpenAI also plans to offer a directory for users to browse apps, according to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. The company will share guidance about monetization “soon,” Altman says. Last week, ChatGPT unveiled a new feature called “Instant Checkout” that lets users buy stuff directly through its chatbot — “part of its overall push to integrate it with the rest of the web,” reports The Verge.

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If you’re trying to avoid Microsoft 365’s monthly fees but still want the full suite of tools for work or school, this one-time purchase of Office Professional Plus 2019 might be worth a look. It’s currently on sale for just $19.97 on StackSocial, which is a fraction of what you’d usually pay. The sale ends October 12. And just to be clear—this isn’t a trial or a cloud-based subscription, but a lifetime license for one Windows PC, and you get full offline access to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, Publisher, and Access.

There are some limitations you should keep in mind. This deal is strictly for the 2019 version and doesn’t include Microsoft Teams. It also won’t tie to your Microsoft account, so it may not be ideal for those who are accustomed to syncing documents between devices. But for a lot of people, that’s not a dealbreaker. It runs on Windows 10 or 11, and you’ll need at least 1GB of RAM and 4GB of disk space. Installation is straightforward and instant. You get your license key and download link right after purchase, and that’s it.

In terms of features, you’re getting a robust productivity suite. Excel has improved data analysis tools, PowerPoint introduces new transitions and a zoom feature for dynamic slides, and Outlook enhances email and calendar management. Word is Word—it just works, and it works well. You can’t collaborate in real-time like with Office 365, but if you mostly work solo or on a single device, this version gets the job done. Twenty bucks for a fully licensed, download-now Office suite is an easy move—especially if you just need a stable toolkit that works.

After several silent months, Bungie has opened applications for players interested in participating in a closed technical test of Marathon. It’s an invitation-only limited-time test, lasting just October 22-28. Those who are chosen to participate can only do so under a non-disclosure agreement, so don’t expect to hear any juicy details or insights about the game’s status later this month once the event wraps. 

While it’s not a new public look at Marathon, news of a fresh round of testing marks a small step forward for this team extraction shooter. The game was originally slated for a September 2025 release, but in June, Bungie said it was indefinitely delaying the project. The pause was meant to give the studio time to address player feedback from the closed alpha test it conducted earlier in the spring. Considering the language used for this testing phase, we’ll still have a while to wait before getting a new launch window.

Whenever it does arrive, Marathon will be Bungie’s first new title since the company introduced Destiny 2 back in 2017. Before the delay, the studio had also drawn raised eyebrows with Marathon after the alpha build used stolen artwork, which has been a repeat issue for Bungie.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/bungie-will-conduct-technical-testing-on-marathon-later-this-month-213422857.html?src=rss

Porsche’s wireless charging system will not be available on the Macan Electric and Taycan because the inductive charging plate cannot physically fit between the front suspension on those models. Dr. Maximilian Muller, Porsche’s high voltage engineering lead, told The Drive during a visit to the company’s Leipzig facility that the Cayenne Electric’s larger dimensions create the necessary space for the charging hardware beneath the front motor. The Cayenne Electric is wider than both the Taycan and Macan Electric. The larger vehicle forced Porsche to design different suspension geometry even though it shares the PPE platform with the Macan Electric. The changes create additional packaging constraints that prevent retrofitting the wireless charging system into existing electric models.

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An anonymous reader shares a report: Pay-advance apps are marketed as a way to help workers living paycheck to paycheck pay for unexpected expenses, but workers are often using the apps to manage basic expenses like groceries, rent and other needs, a new report found. The tools, consumer advocates say, can carry costs akin to those of traditional payday loans.

An analysis of anonymous data found worrisome behavior among users of the apps, including quick increases in the number of advances, advances from multiple apps at the same time and more frequent bank overdraft fees. “These findings reveal persistent patterns of financial strain that raise serious concerns about the long-term effects of these loans,” said the report from the Center for Responsible Lending, a nonprofit consumer advocacy group. The group analyzed data from SaverLife, a nonprofit that promotes saving and sound financial practices among people with low or moderate incomes. The analysis found that heavy users of the apps paid $421, on average, in total loan and overdraft fees over a year, or almost triple the average paid by moderate users.

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Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) sent a letter to the nonprofit operator of Wikipedia alleging a pattern of liberal bias in articles on the collaborative encyclopedia.

“I write to request information about ideological bias on the Wikipedia platform and at the Wikimedia Foundation,” Cruz wrote to Wikimedia Foundation CEO Maryana Iskander in a letter dated October 3. “Wikipedia began with a noble concept: crowdsource human knowledge using verifiable sources and make it free to the public. That’s what makes reports of Wikipedia’s systemic bias especially troubling.”

Citing research from the conservative Manhattan Institute, Cruz wrote that “researchers have found that articles on the site often reflect a left-wing bias.” Cruz alleged that “bias is particularly evident in Wikipedia’s reliable sources/perennial sources list” because it describes “MSNBC and CNN as ‘generally reliable’ sources, while listing Fox News as a ‘generally unreliable’ source for politics and science. The left-wing Southern Poverty Law Center gets a top rating, but the Heritage Foundation, a prominent conservative think tank, is a ‘blacklisted’ and ‘deprecated’ source that Wikipedia’s editors have determined ‘promotes disinformation.'”

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