Because the oceans are probably the best thing that ever happened to earth (humanity ranks dead last), this is a beautiful visualization of the earth’s ocean currents according to NASA’s ECCO (Estimating the Circulation and Climate of the Ocean) model, developed using data from spacecraft, buoys, and other measurements. Was Van Gogh’s ‘The Starry Night’ actually a painting of the oceans based on this data and harboring other mind-blowing clues about the lost city of Atlantis? Move over, Da Vinci, the Van Gogh Code is coming!
Monthly Archives: March 2025
The best streaming deals: Save on Starz, Disney+, Fubo and more
If you’ve been shocked by how much you spend on streaming services lately, you’re not alone. Companies like Netflix, Disney, Max and others have been consistently raising prices to the point where you may question if streaming is even worth it anymore. We at Engadget still think it is, but we also think you should be smart with your money — and that’s where streaming deals come in.
Yes, it is possible to get discounts on services like Peacock and Paramount+, even if those deals aren’t as common as a sale on AirPods. If you’re looking to save money and still stream all of the content you want, Engadget can help by laying out the best streaming deals you can get right now, how you can save with bundles and everything you should know before paying for yet another streaming service.
Best streaming deals
True streaming deals can be hard to come by. Most often, they’ll pop up during the Black Friday shopping period. On occasion, we’ll see them sparingly throughout the year and they usually take the form of a discounted monthly or annual rate for a limited period of time. Also, true streaming deals are typically on the ad-supported versions of a service, but once in a while you’ll find a unicorn of a deal on a tier that has ad-free viewing.
If you’re able to wait for a deal before subscribing to a streaming service, we recommend doing so. You’ll save money upfront and in the long run, and you also have the option to cancel your subscription before the price goes back up to the normal rate. Maybe you find you like the service so much that you’re fine paying full price for it — that’s the ideal situation. But if you’re not compelled to keep that app on rotation in your smart TV, most streaming services make it easy for you to cancel at any time. With that said, these are the best streaming deals you can snag right now.
Sling Orange for $23/month for the first month (50 percent off): New customers can get Sling Orange or Sling Blue for half off the usual price for the first month, bringing the final prices to $23/month and $25.50/month, respectively. Orange is likely best for sports fans, with eight exclusive sports and family channels, while Blue includes 19 exclusive news and entertainment channels. You can get both Orange and Blue access also for half off for one month, or $33 total.
Fubo Essential for $60/month for the first month ($25 off): Fubo has introductory discounts on most of its packages, but Essential may be the best for most people. It offers access to 215 channels, unlimited cloud DVR and up to 10 simultaneous streams. Note that regional sports content is not included here; you’ll have to go up to Pro or Elite plans for that.
YouTube TV for $70/month for the first six months ($78 off): New subscribers can save a total of $78 when they sign up for YouTube TV’s base plan, which includes access to over 100 channels, unlimited DVR space and six household accounts with the ability to stream on three devices at once.
Spotify student discount – Premium + Hulu with ads for $6/month (72 percent off): Spotify’s student offer continues to be one of the best around, giving you access to the Premium tier of the music streamer and Hulu’s ad-supported plan for only $6 monthly. Purchased separately, you’d pay $22 per month for both of the services. Plus, the first month is free when you sign up.
Hulu student discount – subscribe for $2/month (75 percent off): Those with a valid student ID can get Hulu’s ad-supported tier for 75 percent off the typical rate. They’ll keep the same sale price for as long as they’re a student as well.
Max student discount – subscribe for $5/month (50 percent off): Max offers their ad-supported tier to students for half off the usual rate. You’ll just have to verify that you’re a student through Unidays, and make note that this offer is only good for up to 12 months of service.
Streaming bundle discounts
There’s more consolidation happening now than ever before in the streaming space, and that means there are more streaming bundle options. These bundles offer you access to more content with one subscription price, but those prices are typically higher than paying for a single service by itself (obviously). It may be tempting to just get the bundle, but if only one of those services in the bundle speaks to you, you’ll spend less overall by just paying for the single service.
Speaking of a deep love for a single streaming service: if all of your favorite shows are on Peacock or the latest releases on Max consistently bring you joy, consider paying for one year upfront. Subscribing with an annual plan usually saves you money in the long term over paying on a monthly basis. Unfortunately, not all streaming services (looking at you, Netflix) have an annual subscription option. Here are some of the best streaming bundles you can get right now.
Disney+, Hulu, Max bundle with ads for $17/month: Ad-supported Max is included here, along with full, ad-supported access to Disney+ and Hulu. You’ll save 43 percent with this bundle, as opposed to paying for all three services individually.
Paramount+ with Showtime for $13/month or $120/year: This includes everything in Paramount+’s Essential plan, except the ads, and also provides access to Showtime content, live CBS streams and download features.
Disney+ and Hulu Duo Basic for $11/month: As the name implies, you get access to Disney+ and Hulu content with this bundle, both with ads. Considering you’d pay $20/month for each service separately, you’re saving quite a bit by going with this bundle.
Disney+ and Hulu Duo Premium for $20/month: This bundle removes the ads from both Disney+ and Hulu (with the exception of select live and linear content) and allows you to download content for offline viewing. You’ll save 43 percent with this bundle, as opposed to paying for both ad-free tiers individually.
Disney+, Hulu, ESPN+ Trio Basic for $17/month: You get full access to Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+ content with this package, albeit with ads across the board. This bundle price is 47 percent off the total price of all three separate subscriptions.
Disney+, Hulu, ESPN+ Trio Premium for $27/month: Similarly to the Duo bundles, the Premium version of the Trio removes ads from most content in Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+, and you can download content for offline viewing. This price represents a 43-percent savings when compared to paying for all three ad-free tiers separately.
Hulu + Live TV with Disney+ and ESPN+ for $96/month: This streaming bundle amalgamation is a bit confusing but it does offer a lot: you get live TV streaming via Hulu’s service plus access to the following VOD services: Hulu, Disney+ and ESPN+. Out of those three, only ESPN+ will have ads.
Read more streaming coverage
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This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/best-streaming-service-deals-133028980.html?src=rss
AI Mode adds a dedicated search chatbot to Google
Google is shaking up Search. Again. Nearly a year after the company rolled out AI Overviews to everyone in the US, it’s preparing to add a dedicated AI tab to its search engine. AI Mode is powered by a Gemini 2.0 model Google has trained to find and organize information out on the web. Its findings are then presented in an interface designed to make it easier to ask follow-up questions. In short, it’s a proper response to ChatGPT Search.
“The goal and vision for [AI Mode] is to empower people to search for anything effortlessly,” says Robby Stein, vice president of product for Google Search. According to Stein, AI Mode came out of feedback Google received related to AI Overviews. Since rolling out that feature to more than 1 billion users, he says people have told Google they want more AI-generated summaries from Search; in fact, some people are apparently adding “AI” to the end of their searches to prompt Google to respond with an AI Overview.
AI Mode gives those people exactly that. When you go to use the feature, Gemini employs a “query fan-out” technique to conduct multiple concurrent searches across a variety of topics and data sources. It will also make use of Google’s proprietary information systems, including the company’s Knowledge Graph, to supplement information it finds online.
In the version of AI Mode Google is making available to Google One AI Premium subscribers today, not every interface element the company has planned for the feature is in place just yet, but the idea is that the tool will create a rich visual experience. For instance, if you ask AI Mode to compare different sleep trackers, in the future you might see Gemini generate a comparison chart. Notably, Google displays sources more prominently in AI Mode than it does currently with AI Overviews. As you can see from the screenshots the company shared, links to websites feature prominent images. Additionally, in cases where AI Mode isn’t confident it can produce an authoritative answer, the tool will default to displaying a regular list of search results.
Google
In testing, Stein says Google has seen people use AI Mode differently than they do a traditional search engine. On average, testers wrote queries that were about twice as long and asked follow-up questions about a quarter of the time. “We’re seeing people bring more complicated questions to this surface and also go back and forth to clarify, learn and go deeper.”
If you have a sense of déjà vu reading about AI Mode, it’s because it offers some of the same utility you’ll find through Google’s Deep Research tool. Like that feature, AI Mode will create a plan before it attempts to tackle your query, but you won’t need to wait half-an-hour or even a few minutes for a response. “I think our intent for this version is to offer an experience people can use everyday, in the movement, and be able to get a response while they wait, relatively quickly,” says Stein.
If you’re a Google One AI Premium subscriber, you can begin testing AI Mode starting today on desktop and mobile. For everyone else, Google has a few enhancements to AI Overviews to tide you over.
When it announced Gemini 2.0 at the end of last year, the company said enhancing AI Overviews with the new model was a priority. If you live in the US, the next time you use Search to find the answer to a math or coding question, the platform will turn to Gemini 2.0 to generate the accompanying AI Overview. It will also use the system for multi-modal inputs. Stein says users can expect faster and better responses as a result, and in the future the company will enable the model for a broader variety of queries.
Separately, Google is making AI Overviews available to more people. In nearly every market where it’s available, teens can now start using the feature, and you no longer need to sign in to your Google account to see the summaries.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/ai-mode-adds-a-dedicated-search-chatbot-to-google-170016310.html?src=rss
When to See the Lunar Eclipse (and More Space Events) in March
March isn’t the most exciting time of the year for casual skywatching, though there are two notable events: a total lunar eclipse in the middle of the month and the partial solar eclipse at the end. There are other reasons to head outside and look up too. Here’s what you’re looking for.
March 13–14: Total lunar eclipse (Blood Moon)
Late on the night of March 13, the entire moon will fall into the darkest part of Earth’s shadow, creating a total lunar eclipse throughout the Western Hemisphere. Because of the alignment of the Sun, Earth, and moon—and the filtering of the Sun’s light through Earth’s atmosphere in between—the moon will appear red or orange, which is why it is also known as a Blood Moon.
The partial eclipse starts just after 1 a.m. ET on March 14 when the moon begins to enter Earth’s shadow, with totality expected between 2:26 a.m. and 3:31 a.m. ET.
NASA notes that Jupiter and Mars will also be visible in the western sky that night, and constellations may appear brighter as the moon dims throughout the event. For ideal viewing, head somewhere with dark skies.
March 29: Partial solar eclipse
Eclipses come in pairs, and this pair is rounded out with a partial solar eclipse on March 29 that can be seen from northeastern North America, northwestern Africa, and much of Europe. Most viewers in the U.S. will miss this one, as only a small portion of the sun will be obscured in New England, and maximum coverage will occur over the northernmost parts of Canada and Greenland.
That said, early risers on the East Coast will be able to see the moon take a bite out of the Sun around sunrise, as the partial eclipse will already be underway. The event is expected to begin around 3:50 a.m. ET and end at 7:43 a.m. ET.
Planet visibility
Planet visibility is pretty good in March following February’s impressive planet parade. Venus will be low in the western sky right after sunset for the first two weeks, while Mercury can be seen just below that for about a half hour. Mars will be in the east after sunset until around 3 a.m., and Jupiter can be viewed nightly in the west before 1 a.m.
Zodiacal light
Finally, while there aren’t any meteors to speak of until the Lyrids arrive in April, early spring is a great time to view zodiacal light. What looks like lingering twilight is actually believed to be sunlight reflecting off dust in the solar system. The phenomenon, which looks like hazy light emanating up from the horizon, is easiest to see around the equinox (March 20) but will be visible all spring whenever the moon is dark.
2025’s Latest Retro Surprise Looks Like A Mashup Of Hades And Golden Axe
Absolum is a just-revealed side-scrolling brawler from some of the best teams in the genre. It looks like the beautiful art of Hades mixed with the soul of Golden Axe. It’s the latest neat-looking retro surprise in a year shaping up to be full of them.
OpenAI Plots Charging $20,000 a Month For PhD-Level Agents
OpenAI is preparing to launch a tiered pricing structure for its AI agent products, with high-end research assistants potentially costing $20,000 per month, according to The Information. The AI startup, which already generates approximately $4 billion in annualized revenue from ChatGPT, plans three service levels: $2,000 monthly agents for “high-income knowledge workers,” $10,000 monthly agents for software development, and $20,000 monthly PhD-level research agents. OpenAI has told some investors that agent products could eventually constitute 20-25% of company revenue, the report added.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Samsung’s Headset Will Reportedly Use Sony’s New 4K Micro-OLED Displays
We may now know the resolution and display type of Samsung’s headset.
So far, Samsung has only officially said that its upcoming headset, which will be the debut of Google’s Android XR, will feature “state-of-the-art displays”. But the company hasn’t confirmed what kind, or what resolution.
Now, South Korean news outlet The Elec reports that Samsung will use Sony’s 1.35-inch 3552×3840 micro-OLED display, the same being used in Sony’s own SRH-S1 standalone headset.
MKBHD Video Gives The First Look At Samsung’s Android XR Headset
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David Heaney
Sony also supplied the micro-OLED displays for Apple Vision Pro, the first headset to feature high resolution micro-OLED displays. But that earlier display used by Apple is 1.4-inch, with a resolution of 3660×3200, lower resolution and slightly larger.
Sony’s new display also has a wider color gamut, at 96% DCI-P3 coverage, compared to 92% for the one in Apple Vision Pro.
And notably, the aspect ratio in the new display is taller. The display in Apple Vision Pro is unusually narrow vertically, leading to a noticeably narrow vertical field of view. The new Sony display means Samsung’s headset may not have the same issue.
| Sony’s Vision Pro Micro-OLED |
Sony’s New Micro-OLED |
BOE’s Micro-OLED |
|
| Size | 1.41″ | 1.35″ | 1.35″ |
| Resolution | 3660×3200 | 3552×3840 | 3552×3840 |
| Raw Brightness (20% Persistence) |
5000 nits (1000 nits) |
5000 nits (1000 nits) |
6000 nits (1200 nits) |
| Color Gamut (DCI-P3) |
92% | 96% | 92% |
| Refresh Rate | 100Hz | 90Hz | 90Hz |
| Headsets | Apple Vision Pro | Sony SRH-S1 Samsung Headset |
Play For Dream MR MeganeX Superlight Immersed Visor Pimax Dream Air |
Apple won’t be resting on its laurels though. The company reportedly plans to start mass production of a refreshed Vision Pro with an M5 chip late this year, and it’s possible it will upgrade to the newer Sony micro-OLED display too.
Alternatively, Apple could switch to BOE, the Chinese company supplying the 4K micro-OLED displays in Play For Dream MR, Immersed’s Visor, Shiftall’s MeganeX superlight 8K, and potentially Pimax Dream Air. It offers the same resolution as Sony’s new display, with slightly higher brightness but without the improved color gamut. Neither display advertises support for 100Hz refresh rate though, which Apple supports on Vision Pro.
LG has also shown a “next generation” 4K micro-OLED display with even wider gamut and sufficient brightness to avoid the visible motion blur in Vision Pro, but it’s unlikely that this would be production-ready for the next Vision Pro.
Apple Unveils MacBook Air With M4 Starting At $999 And A Big Mac Studio Upgrade
When Apple released a slew of MacBook Pros and some of the neglected Mac desktop line on the M4 generation of silicon last fall, one odd exclusion was the MacBook Air. It’s Cupertino’s most popular notebook, by the company’s own metrics, and its continued existence with M2 and M3 versions was a head-scratcher. Well, the itch is finally gone
Jackery Just Cut the Price on Its Best-Selling Portable Power Station, Now Just $169
Stay powered up no matter what happens with 35% off this Jackery Portable Power Station.
Xen 4.20 released
The Xen Project has announced
the release of Xen 4.20. This release adds support for
AMD Zen 5 CPUs, improved compliance with the MISRA C standard,
work on PCI-passthrough on Arm, and more. Xen 4.20 also removes
support for Xeon
Phi CPUs, which were discontinued
in 2018. See the feature
list and release
notes for more information.
How to Take Photos on Android Without All the Post-Processing Junk
Your phone’s camera does so much filtering, processing, and AI adjustments, it can make you question reality itself. In a world where Google can put you into photos you take, what’s even real? If you’d rather avoid letting your phone decide what your photos look like, here’s how to take control back from your camera app.
Since Android is an open platform, the default apps on your phone may be different from someone else’s. The various settings and apps I reference may be different on some phones, and some apps might not be compatible with all devices, but there are usually options that will work for you.
Switch to RAW photos (where available)
Much like higher-end cameras, many smartphones can now take RAW photos. These are specially encoded versions of photos that store all of the data your camera’s sensor captures, uncompressed, in an easy-to-edit format. Some phones, like the Google Pixel phones, will take a RAW photo and a processed JPEG at the same time, allowing you to get the best of both worlds.
On Google Pixel devices, you can swap to this mode by tapping the Settings icon on the bottom left of the camera app, selecting the Pro tab, and toggle on RAW/JPEG. The setting may be different on some phones, so poke around in your camera’s app to see what you can find.
Once you have a RAW photo, you can use apps like Adobe’s Lightroom to edit photos how you prefer. You can adjust exposure levels, tweak highlights and shadows, or alter color tint to get a more realistic—or a more stylized—look.
Use ZeroCam for one-button simplicity
If your phone doesn’t support RAW photos—or if you prefer a simpler camera experience—ZeroCam is a handy alternative. This app has exactly one feature: It takes photos without any filtering or post processing. There are no sliders or adjustments, just a shutter button to take a photo. If your phone has multiple lenses, you can tap to swap between them, but there’s not much else to the app.
The one major downside of this app is that it’s only free on a trial basis (one week if you go for the annual plan, three days if you choose monthly), after which you’ll need to pay for a subscription. The good news is the service is dirt cheap at $1/month or $7.49 for a year, so it’s not a huge expense, especially if the simplicity helps you focus more on the moment than what you’re using to capture it.
Get more control with Camera FV-5
I’ll let you in on a little secret: Even when you shoot RAW photos, your phone’s manufacturer is still making some decisions about what your photos are going to look like. That’s because your camera has to automatically make decisions about things like ISO level, shutter speed, focus, or even which lens to use. If you want to get maximum control, you’ll want an app like the Camera FV-5 Lite.
This app gives you controls to adjust ISO, shutter speed, white balance, and other settings to get the exact shot you want. It also has some nice advanced features like burst photo mode, and automatic exposure bracketing. Some features—including capturing photos in RAW format—are only available in the paid version, which costs a one-time fee of $5.
Pro controls for video with Blackmagic Camera
Blackmagic is best known for its suite of excellent cinema cameras and free Davinci Resolve editing suite. The software that runs on Blackmagic’s cameras is some of the best and most intuitive in the business, and now you can get it on your phone with the Blackmagic Camera app. Well, some phones. It works on most of the recent flagship phones from Samsung, Google, OnePlus, and a few other manufacturers; you can check the full list of supported devices here.
The Blackmagic Camera app technically only supports recording video, so if you primarily want photos, you might want to go with one of the other options on this list. However, this app is peerless for videographers. In addition to pro camera controls, it includes handy features like an RGB histogram and image stabilization to get the perfect shot.
Report: NVIDIA’s Chip Shortage And Tariffs Are Slowing Growth In PC GPU Market
The great graphics card shortage of 2025 (yes, I’m officially dubbing it as such now, at least in reference to NVIDIA’s newest generation GeForce RTX 50 series) is not only frustrating, it’s also stalling growth in the PC GPU market, according to the latest report by the bean counters (or would that be chip counters?) at Jon Peddie Research.
Digging
Avowed’s Best Great Axe Is There For The Taking At The Start Of The Game
There are a whole bunch of Great Axes that are worth hauling around in Avowed, and it’s hard to go wrong with any of them. There’s a specific Great Axe obtainable at the very end of the game that would likely take the top spot overall, but given that you have less than an hour of playtime left when you reach that…
Digg is getting another revival, this time with an injection of AI
Digg is getting another reboot with two of the most prominent names of the Web 2.0 era leading the charge. Founder Kevin Rose has bought it back for an undisclosed sum. Rose’s partner in this endeavor is a very interesting one. Alexis Ohanian, a co-founder of Reddit — which was at one point the site’s biggest rival — acquired Digg alongside Rose.
They surely have hopes that Digg can go toe-to-toe with Ohanian’s former company once again. According to a press release, Rose and Ohanian “have teamed up to revive the social platform with a fresh vision to restore the spirit of discovery and genuine community that made the early web a fun and exciting place to be.”
The former rivals plan to tap into their knowledge of what did and didn’t work at Digg and Reddit over the years to help make the relaunch a success. Rose and Ohanian, both now venture capitalists, have also been meeting with community leaders from online forums (including Reddit) to try and better understand what gets in their way or frustrates them in order to address those factors in the new Digg. The new Digg will have a mobile-first approach too.
Since this is 2025, of course there’s an AI element here. The plan is to make Digg distinct from other services by “focusing on AI innovations designed to enhance the user experience and build a human-centered alternative.” Rose suggested to The New York Times that AI could help with moderation and allow for fun quirks, like translating a discussion among sci-fi enthusiasts into Klingon.
“At various times over the years I had been approached to repurchase Digg; it never felt right. The technologies to solve our biggest pain points didn’t exist,” Rose said. “Just recently we’ve hit an inflection point where AI can become a helpful co-pilot to users and moderators, not replacing human conversation, but rather augmenting it, allowing users to dig deeper, while at the same time removing a lot of the repetitive burden for community moderators”.
Justin Mezzell, an experienced product design exec and a longtime collaborator of Rose’s, is CEO of Digg. Rose is the company’s board chair and key advisor. Ohanian also sits on Digg’s board and will be an advisor.
Digg has had a long and winding road to get to this point. It was an early darling of the social media era as it went toe-to-toe with Reddit to curate the best of the internet through submissions from users, who would upvote (or Digg) the things they liked to push it further up the homepage — similar to how Reddit works. However, Digg’s early success gave way to attempts to game the system, while a contentious 2010 redesign caused a mass exodus of users to Reddit.
The company was sold off in parts in 2012, with LinkedIn and The Washington Post Company buying some aspects. A startup studio and venture capital company called Betaworks bought the Digg brand and relaunched it as a site where editors curated the content.
That approach continued on until now, even after Digg was sold to an advertising company in 2018. The most recent version of Digg was still pretty solid, as it continued to offer a nice blend of curated material from around the web as well as some original writing from its editors.
There were some hints that Rose was getting back in the Digg mix. After several years away, Rose and co-host Alex Albrecht resumed their Diggnation podcast last year. In December, a post on the Digg X account showed a screenshot of the app’s icon with a bubble indicating that there were 3825 notifications. The same number is in the X account’s header image. Some have taken that as a hint that the relaunch will take place on March 8 (3/8/25). In any case, Rose suggested the plan is to start small and ramp up Digg’s features in the coming months.
Here’s hoping that, as part of this revival, the company reanimates Digg Reader, a much-missed RSS reader from the Betaworks era. And while we’re bringing new life to staples of the Web 2.0 era, for the love of all that is well and good in this world, can someone please bring back StumbleUpon too?
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/digg-is-getting-another-revival-this-time-with-an-injection-of-ai-161205428.html?src=rss
Pixel Sense Is Google’s New AI Assistant And It’s Headed To The Pixel 10
In the beginning there was Google Voice Search, followed by Google Assistant, and most recently Gemini. Soon however, there might be a new assistant in town called Pixel Sense, something Mountain View claims to finally merge AI-generated predictions (Gemini) with a smart helper (Google Assistant). The new assistant will reportedly run completely
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It isn’t without its faults, but Daredevil: Born Again‘s scattered pieces come together for a brutal, satisfying whole.
Farming Simulator VR Review: It’s The Simple Life
Farming Simulator VR embraces the escapism of owning a farm and disconnecting from the hustle and bustle of everyday life. While it accomplishes what it sets out to do in a simple way, it’s perhaps a little too simple. Read on for our full thoughts.
The Farming Simulator franchise originated in 2008, comfortably recreating the many aspects of farm life without breaking a sweat. As simulators go, it satisfies a particular desire of those intrigued by managing the minutiae of a farm. Farming Simulator VR takes one step forward and two steps back due to the great execution of its immersive activities, but it’s a modest offering compared to the flatscreen versions of the series.
The Facts
What is it?: A made-for-VR entry in the Farming Simulator franchise.
Platforms: Quest (Reviewed on Quest 3)
Release Date: Out now
Developer: GIANTS Software
Price: $24.99
As with many sim games of its type, Farming Simulator VR drops you straight into the action. You start at 9 AM sharp with five thousand dollars, a well-equipped but relatively small piece of land, and a dream. A user-friendly, straightforward tutorial in the form of a narrator thoroughly explains every stage of the game without bogging down the first few moments.
From the back porch of your home you can access your yard, and adjacent to it are the greenhouse, workshop, and a farming field. These areas are your bread and butter and where you will perform your duties every day as a diligent farmhand. A dirty tractor lies in the middle of the field, next to a Karcher pressure washer. It’s evident what must be done next.
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Taking a page from PowerWash Simulator VR, pressure washing to take care of your machines is a pretty relaxing endeavor. It serves as a decompression from the hard work on the field, though it’s a bit barebones since there are no different nozzles to more effectively deep clean your precious John Deere tractor. At least refueling, once the tractor is dazzling, is as satisfying as it sounds.
With a handy tablet that also serves as a menu, the narrator guides you through each area in the farm. Arguably the most important money-making venture, harvesting your crops, unloading, and selling them after spending all day driving is worth experiencing. What is rather laborious is having to prepare the soil for sowing and seeding it. A short amount of time needs to pass to harvest it again.
Although not all buttons are available in a tractor, there are a fair number of options available from turning on the lights to the throttle power of your tractor to move faster or slower. A handy instruction manual for the interactive buttons is always sitting on the right-hand side of the window. While the graphics are downgraded to fit all Quest systems, all machinery is authentically digitized from its real-life counterparts. The upside is the fast loading times, so the tradeoff of not seeing a black screen every so often is a welcome compromise.
At the greenhouse, various seeds like pumpkins, strawberries, and tomatoes, can be planted. Watering them is only one part of the equation. Weeds will frequently appear, and pulling those out to then throw them in the compost is necessary for a healthy harvest. If all goes well, you can pick each ripe fruit and vegetable after a couple of days and sell them for a considerable amount from a weighing scale.
Lastly, the workshop is where the machinery can be easily repaired should it break down on the pastureland. Thankfully, no previous knowledge in the farming or engineering industries is required to fully enjoy Farming Simulator VR. With a wrench and a well-placed hydraulic jack, anything is possible. The game highlights exactly where to place them as well.
Charming little details like a break room in the workshop where you can pick up vinyls and listen to them on a record player aid in making this place livelier. Radio speakers to drown out the peaceful sounds of nature to a more upbeat experience are carefully placed next to every activity you do, be it power washing your truck, picking tomatoes or changing a tire. The only downside is that you cannot choose which type of music to play.
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After an honest day’s work of tilling the land and getting it ready for planting, cultivating and selling wheat for a substantial amount is fulfilling. Wrangling the tractor either with your analog stick or the motion to manually handle the wheel is no easy feat. Hiring a worker to do the job for you at a reasonable price is also available if you feel like you’ve earned a day off cultivating and want to tend to your crops or clean your tractor.
A basketball and hoop, a baseball, and cans, which are carefully placed for you to shoot at will, can be found each time you return to the yard. That’s just some of the various activities scattered across the yard. The physics are somewhat hit-or-miss, though as a side diversion, it’s nice they put the effort in to make it happen. You won’t get any reward for these activities, but at least they continue the recreational nature of it all.
While I’d like to sing the praises of this fervent recreation of manual labor and nothing more, Farming Simulator VR suffers from its share of issues. Visual glitches often occur when grabbing your hose or wrench, where the item might move in unexpected ways more often than not. Tools can be dropped even when firmly holding them with your hand.
Hands can get stuck or be unresponsive when driving or using the steering wheel on the tractor. I’ve gotten used to shaking my hands to register them back into my position as they are usually stuck in different areas of the tractor, accidentally pressing buttons that I did not want to press. Hopefully these issues get ironed out, as driving around the field is otherwise cathartic.
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The tutorial, while comprehensive, does not teach how to cultivate, and fails to mention that teleporting is necessary to get on the roof of a tractor when power washing. These actions can be self-explanatory for some, as the mechanics to lower the machinery to do the job is mostly the same for all agricultural-related operations. Still, having a more thorough explanation would go a long way.
It’s not customary to lament what is absent in a game, but as the first VR entry in this series, there are some notable differences. The flatscreen version offers robust livestock and forestry businesses alongside what is on display here. This undoubtedly makes Farming Simulator VR feel like a stripped down release. Imagine grooming your cows, or planting trees to have a change of pace from harvesting soybeans all the time.
The endgame goal of Farming Simulator VR is apparent once the tutorial is finished; to live that farm life at your leisure. For those more goal oriented that aim to obtain every single tractor, crop, and achievement available, thus becoming the king of the hill, metaphorically speaking, the reward is the process itself—to manually recreate each labor-intensive task without actually sensing the heat then becomes relaxing.
Comfort
A movement vignette is on by default, and can easily be turned off in the menu for more experienced players. You can play standing or seated from the get-go. Considering the amount of time you spend seated virtually on the tractor, it is advisable to choose that for maximum comfort.
In lieu of a dedicated running button, the game offers a movement speed to adapt to user choice, up to 200% of the normal speed. The footsteps accordingly reflect the sound from a slow walk to a brisk jog as you move around the ranch.
At this time, the lack of a Toggle instead of Hold ability when grabbing items is a missed opportunity. Needing a button pressed to keep the tools in your hand at all times in a gameplay loop that practically requires you to have items on hand at all times can be tiring.
That incomparable feeling of getting new tools for actions that you had previously struggled doing is enticing enough to continue acquiring every bit of machinery on sale. The reward of the daily grind in purchasing useful items is tantalizing itself with items like an efficient spray hose for hydrating your plants instead of the old watering can. Or you could earn a full-on new tractor that harvests more crops than before.
Farming Simulator VR – Final Verdict
With the omission of certain VR accessibility options, a lack of activities such as raising livestock, and visual bugs, it is hard not to imagine how much more this game could be. Regardless, Farming Simulator VR is a commendable effort that warrants a playthrough for both series veterans and those curious about farm life.
When fatigued by the woes of the world, I can see myself returning to this peaceful farmstead where it’s just me and my crops, a land where there is seemingly no one to interact with for miles around. With a few tweaks and additions, it could become one of the must-plays of the current VR generation. As it currently stands, however, it’s a calming distraction.
UploadVR uses a 5-Star rating system for our game reviews – you can read a breakdown of each star rating in our review guidelines.
New AI Trick Can Pinpoint Gravitational Wave Sources in Just One Second
It now takes just a fraction of a minute to detect neutron star mergers, thanks to advancements in a machine-learning-driven approach to astronomy.
Everything New in Google’s March 2025 Pixel Drop
The first Pixel Drop of 2025 is here—quarterly upgrades coming to Google’s phones, tablets, and watches include improvements to Gemini Live and other AI-powered functionality (like scam detection for calls and texts), health and safety features, and camera and connectivity updates.
Here’s everything in the March drop, rolling out now.
Gemini upgrades
As with the December Pixel Drop, much of what’s new for Pixel this month is powered by Google Gemini. Gemini Live is getting smarter with the ability to automatically switch between 45 languages in conversation without having to change your language settings. Multimodal capabilities for adding images, files, and YouTube videos to conversations are expanding to Pixel 6 (and newer) as well as Pixel Fold devices, and live video and screen sharing are coming to Gemini Advanced.
If you have a Pixel 9 phone with Gemini Nano, you’ll soon get real-time Scam Detection that alerts you to malicious calls. The on-device, AI-powered feature identifies conversation patterns typical of scammers and gives you an on-screen prompt to end the call. Scam Detection is also available in Google Messages for anyone with a Pixel 6 or newer located in the U.S., Canada, or the UK. If the AI suspects a scam text message, you’ll see a warning to report and block the number.
Also in the AI category: Pixel Screenshots is getting a new suggestions feature and integration with work profiles, while Pixel Studio will be able to generate images of people based on a description of the person or scene.
While many Pixel features remain limited to users in the U.S., Pixel Screenshots, Pixel Studio, Pixel AI weather reports, and Pollen tracker in the Weather app are being rolled out for those in Germany and Japan. Recorder App AI summaries will also be available in Japanese (on Pixel 9 only) as well as in English.
New health features for Pixel Watch
Pixel Watch 3 wearers in the U.S. will soon have access to Loss of Pulse Detection. This feature detects if the wearer’s heart stops beating, and then calls emergency services with an automated message if you remain unresponsive (your device must have a cell connection). The feature was recently cleared by the FDA and is expected to roll out toward the end of the month. Pixel Watch 3 is also getting on-device menstrual tracking and more accurate step counting for atypical walking patterns, such as pushing a cart or hiking with poles.
Finally, Auto-bedtime Mode, which turns off your watch face and disables notifications when you fall asleep (and back on when you wake up), is expanding to Pixel Watch 2.
Improved connectivity
Google is releasing several safety-oriented connectivity features, including a Find My Device beta that shares your live location with family and friends. Satellite SOS—which lets you contact emergency services even if you don’t have a cell or wifi connection—is expanding to Pixel 9 users in Hawaii, Alaska, Europe, and Canada, and satellite texting is now available for U.S.-based Verizon and T-Mobile customers.
Camera and video upgrades
A new feature called Connected Cameras lets you link your Pixel 9 to another Pixel phone (6 or newer) or GoPro camera (HERO10 Black or newer) to stream video from multiple angles directly to Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat. Dual Screen Preview on Pixel Fold is adding support for video recording as well as Add Me for those on Pixel 9 Pro Fold.
Additional accessibility and quality-of-life upgrades
Pixel’s speech-to-text Recorder app is getting another update: The app will now automatically transcribe audio recordings, such as lectures, transferred from an older device or Pixel Watch to your current phone. And Gboard has a new Voice Toolbar so you can easily access voice-to-type without opening the full keyboard.
A new Modes menu is coming to the Quick Settings panel, allowing you to switch between modes for driving, bedtime, do not disturb, and other customizations simply by swiping down.
Finally, new actions for audio coming to Pixel Watch include fast forward, rewind, and the ability to adjust playback speed and control the playback queue.
How to get new Pixel Drop features on your device
To check if these updates are available on your Pixel phone or tablet, go to Settings > System > Software updates.
Apple Refreshes MacBook Air With M4 Chip, Lower Pricing
Apple has refreshed its MacBook Air lineup with the M4 processor, adding a new sky blue color option and reducing prices across the board. The 13-inch model now starts at $999, while the 15-inch begins at $1,199. Both models are available to order immediately and will ship on March 12.
The updated MacBook Airs feature the same thin design as previous generations but now include the 12-megapixel Center Stage webcam found in current MacBook Pro models. Both variants come with the M4 chip, aligning them with Apple’s recent Mac Mini, iMac, and MacBook Pro refreshes.
Base configurations include an M4 with a 10-core CPU and 8-core GPU, 16GB of unified memory, and 256GB of storage. Customers can upgrade to a 10-core GPU (matching the base 14-inch MacBook Pro), 32GB of RAM, and up to 2TB of storage. A significant technical improvement is the support for two external 6K displays while keeping the laptop’s lid open, addressing a limitation of previous Air models.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.