You’ve got to hand it to the Tamagotchi team for continuing to find new ways to spin a toy that is now pushing 30 years old. We’ve seen a Tamagotchi with a built-in camera, a Tamagotchi watch with a touchscreen so you can pet your virtual pet and another one with its own Tamaverse. Sometimes these experiments don’t work out as well as we’d like them to — the flat buttons introduced with Tamagotchi Pix were kind of terrible in practice — but they keep the franchise feeling alive. And alive seems like the best way to describe the newest member of the Tamagotchi family. Tamagotchi Paradise looks like it’s absolutely bustling with life.

Bandai first teased the upcoming Tamagotchi Paradise in a comic for Free Comic Book Day at the beginning of May, but it’s now official: we’re getting a Tamagotchi that’s equipped with a zoom dial feature to observe the critters up close (like, even down to the cellular level) and from afar. It’ll bring back gene-mixing, too, meaning you’ll be able to create unique characters through breeding. Tamagotchi Paradise will also be able to physically connect to other devices with a docking port on the top of the egg.

There is a lot of information to unpack in the Tamagotchi Paradise announcement. For one, instead of starting off by hatching a Tamagotchi character from an egg, players will hatch an entire planet in an Egg Bang (get it?) event. You’ll be able to view the planet from space, and zoom in to observe what’s going on down at the surface. Your mission is to “enrich your planet and make its Tamagotchi population flourish.” The device will come in three shell designs — Pink Land, Blue Water and Purple Sky — and whichever shell you have will determine which location you start in. It appears that you’ll be able to unlock all three areas eventually no matter what device you have.

Bandai

As always, you’ll have to raise Tamagotchi characters from babies to adults and do all the usual caretaking tasks, like feeding them and cleaning up poop. But for once, you’ll be able to put all that poop to good use by turning it into biofuel for space travel. When a Tamagotchi gets sick, you’ll use the dial to “zoom in and treat them at the cellular level.” There are a total of 25 different care menus according to Bandai, including shops and mini-games.

Tamagotchi Paradise introduces a ton of new, more animal-like characters than we’ve been seeing in recent years, and they’re really cute. (Don’t worry, Mametchi, Mimitchi and a few other existing favorites will still be there too). There are also three secret characters that haven’t yet been revealed. 

Bandai

It looks like it’s packed with activities, which would be really nice coming off of the Tamagotchi Uni, a device I’ve loved in the two years since it was released but still can’t help but feel like it’s a bit boring compared to others. Tamagotchi Paradise goes back to AAA batteries, which should be good for longevity. And it’ll be cheaper than other recent flagship Tamagotchis, at $45. Pre-orders haven’t opened in the US just yet, but the device will ship on July 12 according to the Japanese Amazon listing. The wait might actually kill me.

Once Tamagotchi Paradise arrives, there will be pop-up Tamagotchi Labs in some as yet unannounced stores where you’ll be able to connect your device to access exclusive items and experiences. Tamagotchi Uni owners will be able to get a taste of all this ahead of the release as well if they buy the Tamagotchi Lab Tamaverse ticket, which comes out on July 3.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/tamagotchi-paradise-looks-like-the-most-exciting-virtual-pet-toy-in-years-155010892.html?src=rss

If you’ve ever wished the text-to-speech feature on your Mac worked better, Spokenly might be the solution for you. It’s a free Mac application that lets you use modern AI transcription right on your Mac for free—just trigger the application with a keyboard shortcut, say what you want to type, and watch as it appears on the screen.

Whatever you feel about modern AI, it’s hard to deny that it’s good at turning the spoken word into text. Whether it’s real-time transcription or creating a transcript for a video or audio file, the open source Whisper engine is accurate and fast. Spokenly is a free application that lets you use this technology on your Mac.

Install the application, which is currently free on the Mac App Store, and it will start in your menu bar. Transcribing is simple: Just press and hold the right Command button and you’ll see the pop-up, as shown above. Say what you want to type and let go when you’re done—the text will appear in the currently active text field.

You could honestly just install the application, use it this way, and never think about the settings—it mostly just works. If you want to dig into, though, open the settings by clicking the menu bar icon and clicking General Settings. You can decide whether the application will show up in the menu bar, dock, or both. You can decide which microphone you’d like the application to favor, assuming you use more than one. And you can decide whether transcribed text should be copied to your clipboard by default.

If you like experimenting with AI, though, you should check out the Voice Models tab. From here, you you can choose which AI model you want to use. By default, the application uses an online version of “Whisper Large v3,” which is the only model that supports showing your transcription in the pop-up window as you’re talking. There are other models you can use, though, including GTP-4o via Spokenly.

Credit: Justin Pot

If you’d rather not use an online service, there’s support for downloading and running various Whisper models locally. You will have to find a balance between hard drive space, performance, and accuracy—I recommend trying out a few models until one works for you. There’s also support for using Deepgram, Fireworks, and OpenAI API keys, assuming you’re already paying for one of those services.

If you don’t know what any of that means, don’t worry: The default model works extremely well. And there’s more to dig into with this application. The Transcribe File tab of the settings window lets you add any video or audio file and get a transcription, with or without timestamps. There’s even support for generating subtitle files for your videos.

Credit: Justin Pot

And there’s a few power-user tools you can set up. The Quick Commands tab lets you choose a few combinations of words that run an action instead of transcribing. Just choose a trigger phrase and what you’d like that phrase to do—open a URL, launch an application, or run one of your Apple Shortcuts. For example, you could set up “Open Lifehacker” as a trigger phrase and our homepage as the URL. Do that and the Lifehacker website will open every time your say the words “Open Lifehacker,” improving your life (one assumes).

Credit: Justin Pot

Another feature, AI Prompts, allows you to set a prompt that will change your text after dictating it. Just choose a separate keyboard shortcut and type your prompt for the text. For example, you could write a prompt that says “translate this text into Spanish”—you can now use a custom keyboard shortcut to transcribe something before using AI to translate it. Any prompt you can think of will work.

All of these features reward tinkering, which is exactly the kind of application I like. And the application is completely free as of this writing, while offering features that allow you to use it privately. Try it out if you wish you could get more out of transcription software.

As electric vehicles reduce car exhaust as a source of particulate emissions, people are increasingly focusing on other vehicular sources of pollution that won’t go away with electrification. Tires are one of them, particularly as we grapple with overweight EVs with tire-shredding torque. And brakes are another—even an EV with regenerative braking will occasionally need to use its friction brakes, after all.

Over in Europe, the people responsible for writing regulations have taken this into consideration with the upcoming Euro 7 standard, which sets new limits on 10- and 2.5-micron particulate emissions on all new vehicles—including EVs—starting next year. And to help OEMs achieve that target, Brembo has developed a new brake and pad set called Greentell that it says cuts brake dust emissions by 90 percent, improving durability in the process.

“We started 10 years ago to investigate a different solution. The main topic that we had in mind was to develop a disk that is greener than the current production of cast iron,” said Fabiano Carminati, VP of disc technical development at Brembo.

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This is a video highlighting the Rubik’s Cube solving robot built by Purdue University undergraduates, which just set the world record for fastest Rubik’s Cube solve with a time of 103 milliseconds (0.103 seconds). That’s faster than a blink. The previous record was 305 milliseconds, which the robot can reliably solve under no matter the initial cube state. For reference, the clock for my first Rubik’s Cube solve is still running and well over 22 years now. One of these days though — one of these days I’m going to watch some Youtube tutorials and finally solve that cube. “I thought you have been.” They’re all bad explainers, I really just need to know what solvent to use to remove the stickers.

Google co-founder Sergey Brin candidly addressed the failure of Google Glass during an unscheduled appearance at Tuesday’s Google I/O conference, where the company announced a new smart glasses partnership with Warby Parker. “I definitely feel like I made a lot of mistakes with Google Glass, I’ll be honest,” Brin said.

He noted several key issues that doomed the $1,500 device launched in 2013, including a conspicuous front-facing camera that sparked privacy concerns. “Now it looks like normal glasses without that thing in front,” Brin said of the new design. He also blamed the “technology gap” that existed a decade ago and his own inexperience with supply chains that prevented pricing the original Glass competitively.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The best smartwatch you can get your hands on right now is the Apple Watch Series 10 (at least if you’re an iPhone user). The wearable is on sale at the minute, making it a more enticing proposition. The Apple Watch Series 10 can be yours for $299. That marks a discount of $100 and is a record-low price.

This price is for a GPS version (meaning it doesn’t support LTE) with the smaller 42mm case. At the time of writing, the $299 price applies to two color variants: a jet black aluminium case with black sport band and a rose gold aluminium case with light blush sport band. Discounts vary on other configurations.

The Apple Watch Series 10 is an iterative upgrade. If you already have a Series 8 or 9, it’s perhaps not worth switching to the latest model. However, if you’re rocking an older Apple Watch or you’re looking to pick up your first one, this is our recommendation. We gave the Apple Watch Series 10 a score of 90 in our review.

The Series 10 is a little thinner and lighter than the previous model, but it has a larger OLED screen, which makes it easier to see what’s on the display. Apple has improved the efficiency of the battery life as well, and it should often last longer on a single charge than the 18 hours for which it’s rated.

The new sleep apnea feature is very welcome, but the blood oxygen feature from older models is not available here (Apple removed that app from certain models in the US due to a patent dispute). In general, though, the Series 10 is a solid step forward for the Apple Watch. The latest model is a terrific fitness tracker that helps you keep an eye on the most important alerts and notifications you receive on your iPhone.

Check out our coverage of the best Apple deals for more discounts, and follow @EngadgetDeals on X for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/memorial-day-deals-include-the-apple-watch-series-10-for-100-off-151537320.html?src=rss

This is a big month for Xbox Game Pass, as there are some real standout titles hitting the service. Upcoming games include the sublime Metaphor ReFantazio, Tales of Kenzera: Zau and The Division 2, among others.

Let’s get to the games. You likely heard a whole lot about Metaphor ReFantazio last year. The JRPG was a bona-fide phenomenon, and it actually grabbed a nomination for game of the year. It also easily made our list of the best games of 2024. It’s developed by Atlus and the game improves on the formula behind the Persona and Shin Megami Tensei franchises in nearly every way.

The characters are great. The dungeons aren’t procedurally generated. The world feels alive, with quests and objectives in nearly every nook and cranny. The story is perhaps the biggest reason why the game became such a sensation. It’s grounded and feels like it was plucked from today’s news, despite being set in a fantasy-laden kingdom. It’ll be playable on May 29.

Tales of Kenzera: Zau is a Metroidvania platformer that wears its heart on its sleeve. The story is extremely emotional and engaging, particularly for this genre. The graphics are lovely and the gameplay is fluid, with plenty of nifty upgrades as you advance. What’s not to like? The game arrives on May 22.

Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 is something of a hybrid, with plenty of both tactical shooter and RPG mechanics. The game is set in an open world version of Washington DC, which is a pretty cool location. It’s online-only, so there’s a deep emphasis on multiplayer. It can be played solo, but you have to be connected to the game’s servers. It’ll be available on May 27.

Other forthcoming games include Spray Paint Simulator (May 29) and Stalker 2 (May 22.) The deckbuilding roguelike Monster Train 2 is available right now.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/mays-game-pass-additions-include-the-brilliant-metaphor-refantazio-and-the-division-2-151424740.html?src=rss

Oura has rolled out activity updates for Gen3 and Ring 4 users, including a new trend view for active minutes so that they can get a better look at how active they are for the day, the week or even the whole month. They’ll also be able to add their max heart rate to the activity setting, and Oura will adjust heart rate zones accordingly. Oura now allows users to add or edit activities for the past seven days manually, instead of just for that particular day, and it now displays heart rate data from activities imported from partner integrations via Apple HealthKit and Health Connect by Android. Its Automatic Activity Detection feature has also been updated to work all hours to track movements, even for activities between midnight and 4AM. 

In addition to those new features, Oura has upgraded its system to be able to count steps more accurately. The company uses an advanced machine-learning model to determine whether a movement is an actual step, and it says the technology slashes average daily step count error by 61 percent. It has upgraded its Active Calorie burn feature to be more accurate by taking heart rate into account during exercise, as well. Oura can now also use your phone’s GPS data to show your runs and walks in more detail within its app. All these updates are now available on iOS, but the new fitness metrics and new trend view for active minutes won’t be out on Android until June. 

Aside from announcing its upgraded features, Oura has revealed its new partnerships with third-party entities. Users can now link their smart ring with CorePower Yoga so that they can track their yoga activities, Sculpt Society, Technogym and Open, which uses a person’s biometrics to create personalized recovery rituals for them. 

Update, May 21, 2025, 10:50AM ET: This story has been updated to clarify that the updates are available for Gen3 and Ring 4 users with Oura Membership. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/wearables/ouras-smart-ring-gets-better-at-tracking-your-activities-130012859.html?src=rss

Amazon customers are suddenly getting refunds for products they purchased and returned as far back as 2018, along with apologies from the online retailer after it discovered “unresolved” issues. From a report: The precise scope of the refunds issued isn’t clear but executives hinted it may be hundreds of millions of dollars. Chief Financial Officer Brian Olsavsky, speaking on a conference call after the company released earnings May 1, said Amazon took a one-time charge of approximately $1.1 billion in the first quarter related in part to “some historical customer returns” that were unresolved. The charge was also attributable to the cost of stockpiling inventory in anticipation of tariffs.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

SilverStone’s first ’80s throwback PC case started life as an April Fools’ joke, but the success of the FLP01 was apparently serious enough to merit a follow-up. The company brought another beige case to the Computex trade show this week, the vertically oriented FLP02 (via Tom’s Hardware).

If the original horizontally oriented FLP01 case called to mind a 386-era Compaq Deskpro, the FLP02 is a dead ringer for the kind of case you might have gotten for a generic 486 or early Pentium-era PC. That extends to having a Turbo button built into the front—on vintage PCs, this button could actually determine how fast the processor was allowed to run, though here, it’s actually a fan speed control instead. A lock on the front also locks the power switch in place to keep it from being flipped off accidentally, something else real vintage PCs actually did.

Despite its retro facade, the FLP02 is capable of fitting in even higher-end modern PC parts than the original FLP01. Front USB-A and USB-C ports are hidden behind a magnetic door on the front of the case, and its faux-5.25-inch floppy drives are just covers for drive bays that you could use for an optical drive or extra front I/O.

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