We may earn a commission from links on this page.

Did you know you can customize Google to filter out garbage? Take these steps for better search results, including adding my work at Lifehacker as a preferred source.

CMF, the budget-friendly sub-brand from Nothing, has launched its first pair of over-ear headphones. At $99, the CMF Headphone Pro are Nothing’s answer to fans looking for an affordable alternative to the popular Headphone 1 (which will cost you $299). Though Nothing has a reputation for odd-looking tech, the CMF Headphone Pros look a little more traditional, but also appear to be highly customizable, potentially making them a better value overall.

Here’s what we know now about how the CMF Headphone Pros compare.

What the CMF Headphone Pros offer

Today’s launch marks the release of CMF’s first over-ear headphone, designed to integrate seamlessly with the broader Nothing/CMF ecosystem that includes smartphones, watches, and other audio products.

The design includes a round power and Bluetooth button on one side, paired with a customizable action button on the other that can be programmed through the Nothing X app. There’s more room for customization via $25 replacement ear cushions, available in vibrant orange or light green, allowing you to dramatically alter the headphones’ appearance to match your mood or style.

The standout control feature is the multi-function roller on one side, with an “Energy Slider” on the other. The multi-function roller handles volume adjustment, playback control, and ambient sound, while the Energy Slider allows you to tune your sound in real-time, instantly adjusting the treble and bass balance. Normally you’d have to dive into your headphone app’s EQ settings to get that sort of control. As someone who always prefers tactile controls over sensitive touch-screens, I’m particularly excited by this design.

And as you’d hope to find in a quality pair of over-ear headphones, the Headphone Pro has Adaptive Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) to block ambient noise. Perhaps most impressive is the battery life: allegedly, these headphones will offer a staggering 100 hours of playback on a single charge (reduced to up to 50 hours with ANC turned on). That’s 15 more hours than you’ll get from the Headphone 1 with ANC active, and much better performance than the highly rated Sony WH-1000XM6, which top out at 40 hours.

The bottom line

This is a promising product launch from Nothing. The CMF sub-brand appeals to budget-conscious segment of the market while still delivering on the aesthetic and technical appeal that drew fans to Nothing in the first place.

The CMF Headphone Pro launches today in the EU and UK, but eager US customers do have to face a brief wait until Oct. 7 to get their hands on a pair. Whether these headphones will satisfy fans who have been requesting a more affordable option remains to be seen, but on paper, they appear to deliver exactly what was asked for: Nothing’s design philosophy and build quality at a price that won’t break the bank.

In May, Anthropic announced two new AI systems, Opus 4 and Sonnet 4. Now, less than six months later, the company is introducing Sonnet 4.5, and calling it the best coding model in the world to date. Anthropic’s basis for that claim is a selection of benchmarks where the new AI outperforms not only its predecessor but also the more expensive Opus 4.1 and competing systems, including Google’s Gemini 2.5 Pro and GPT-5 from OpenAI. For instance, in OSWorld, a suite that tests AI models on real-world computer tasks, Sonnet 4.5 set a record score of 61.4 percent, putting it 17 percentage points above Opus 4.1. 

At the same time, the new model is capable of autonomously working on multi-step projects for more than 30 hours, a significant improvement from the seven or so hours Opus 4 could maintain at launch. That’s an important milestone for the type of agentic systems Anthropic wants to build. 

Anthropic

Perhaps more importantly, the company claims Sonnet 4.5 is its safest AI system to date, with the model having undergone “extensive” safety training. That training translates to a chatbot Anthropic says is “substantially” less prone to “sycophancy, deception, power-seeking and the tendency to encourage delusional thinking” — all potential model traits that have landed OpenAI in hot water in recent months. At the same time, Anthropic has strengthened Sonnet 4.5’s protections against prompt injection attacks. Due to the sophistication of the new model, Anthropic is releasing Sonnet 4.5 under its AI Safety Level 3 framework, meaning it comes with filters designed to prevent potentially dangerous outputs related to prompts around chemical, biological and nuclear weapons.  

Anthropic

With today’s announcement, Anthropic is also rolling out quality of life improvements across the Claude product stack. To start, Claude Code, the company’s popular coding agent, has a refreshed terminal interface, with a new feature called checkpoints included. As you can probably guess from the name, they allow you to save your progress and roll back to a previous state if Claude writes some funky code that isn’t quite working like you imagined it would. File creation, which Anthropic began rolling out at the start of the month, is now available to all Pro users, and if you joined the waitlist Claude for Chrome, you can start using the extension today.   

API pricing for Sonnet 4.5 remains at $3 per one million input tokens and $15 for the same amount of output tokens. The release of Sonnet 4.5 caps off a strong September for Anthropic. Just one day after Microsoft added Claude models to Copilot 365 last week, OpenAI admitted its rival offers the best AI for work-related tasks.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/claude-sonnet-45-is-anthropics-safest-ai-model-yet-170000161.html?src=rss

The iRobot Roomba 104 robot vacuum is on sale for $150 just ahead of October’s Prime Day. That’s a nice little discount of 40 percent, which represents a savings of $100.

This is a newer version of the unit that topped our list of the best budget robot vacuums. It’s an entry-level robovac that gets the job done. The cleaning motor is fairly powerful and it ships with a multi-surface brush and an edge-sweeping brush. The vacuum uses LiDAR to map a home and to help it avoid obstacles when cleaning.

It’s also been equipped with specialized sensors to prevent falling down stairs. Steps are the natural enemy of all robot vacuums, except maybe this one. The Roomba 104 integrates with the company’s proprietary app, which allows for custom cleaning schedules and the like. The robot can also be controlled via voice assistant and boasts compatibility with Siri, Alexa and Google Assistant.

The vacuum will automatically head to the charger for some juice when running low, which is nice. The battery lasts around 200 minutes per charge, which is a decent enough metric for a budget-friendly robovac. The only downside here? This is just a vacuum. It doesn’t mop and it doesn’t come with a dedicated debris canister.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/this-roomba-robot-vacuum-is-on-sale-for-only-150-ahead-of-prime-day-164953406.html?src=rss

Sony has been marking the 30th anniversary of PlayStation by selling you stuff, like PS5 consoles and accessories styled after the PS1. The company has something else lined up to mark the occasion: a photography book showcasing “never-before-seen prototypes, concept sketches and design models that shaped hardware development” from the early days through to the current PS5 era.

PlayStation: The First 30 Years is a 400-page hardback book printed on heavyweight matt art stock. You better hope your coffee table is sturdy, since this book is a chonkster. It weighs in at 5kg (11lbs). 

Sony worked with publisher Read-Only Memory on PlayStation: The First 30 Years. The collaborators have offered a peek at what’s inside the book. It’s shaping up to be a fascinating glimpse at some of the designs Sony tried for its hardware over the last few decades. 

For instance, the original PlayStation could have looked much different, more directly exemplifying designer Teiyu Goto’s “vision of simple squares and circles coming to life.” (For what it’s worth, Engadget deputy editor Nathan Ingraham said this design looked like a proton pack):

Sony/Read-Only Memory

Some of the controller concepts are pretty out there too. Some don’t look all that comfortable to hold or use for extended gaming sessions. This one — which appears to be for the PS3 at the earliest, given the inclusion of the PS button — is truly bonkers. Thank goodness Goto landed on the SNES-style design with grips that has proven so successful (and comfortable) over the years:

Sony/Read-Only Memory

The book isn’t entirely limited to hardware concepts, as it features photos of Sony’s design labs. The tome seems like a very cool item for PlayStation fans and those who love gaming history to have, but there might be an element of sticker shock. 

The book is available via Read-Only Memory’s website for $182. A deluxe edition with exposed binding, a foil-stamped clamshell presentation box and a photographic print signed by Goto and photographer Benedict Redgrove will run you $467. The fancier edition has a limited run of 1994 copies. Coincidentally, that’s the year the PS1 debuted in Japan. Both editions of the book will ship in spring 2026.

Meanwhile, Sony has teamed up with Reebok for a collection of 30th anniversary sneakers styled after — you guessed it — the PS1. The kicks will be available in October and the three designs are linked to the PS1’s launch regions. They include the InstaPump Fury 94 for Japan, Pump Omni Zone II for the US and Workout Plus for the UK. 

Sony/Reebok

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/playstation/a-playstation-photography-book-featuring-never-before-seen-design-concepts-is-on-the-way-164859020.html?src=rss

An anonymous reader writes: Landlords are using a service that logs into a potential renter’s employer systems and scrapes their paystubs and other information en masse, potentially in violation of U.S. hacking laws, according to screenshots of the tool shared with 404 Media.

The screenshots highlight the intrusive methods some landlords use when screening potential tenants, taking information they may not need, or legally be entitled to, to assess a renter.

“This is a statewide consumer-finance abuse that forces renters to surrender payroll and bank logins or face homelessness,” one renter who was forced to use the tool and who saw it taking more data than was necessary for their apartment application told 404 Media. 404 Media granted the person anonymity to protect them from retaliation from their landlord or the services used. […]

“Argyle hijacked my live Workday session, stayed hidden from view, and downloaded every pay stub plus all W-4s back to 2024, each PDF seconds apart,” they said. “Workday audit logs show dozens of ‘Print’ events from two IPs from a MAC which I do not use,” they added, referring to a MAC address, a unique identifier assigned to each device on a network.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

A former NASA astronaut turned US senator has joined with other lawmakers to insist that his two rides to space remain on display in the Smithsonian.

Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) has joined fellow Democratic senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, both of Virginia, and Dick Durbin of Illinois in an effort to halt the move of space shuttle Discovery to Houston, as enacted into law earlier this year. Kelly flew two of his four missions aboard Discovery.

“Why should hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars be spent just to jeopardize a piece of American history that’s already protected and on display?” wrote Kelly in a social media post on Friday. “Space Shuttle Discovery belongs at the Smithsonian, where millions of people, including students and veterans, go to see it for free.”

Read full article

Comments

Microsoft is taking inspiration from the AI-driven workflows of “vibe coding” and has now set out to make “vibe working” a thing (yes, those are the words the company chose.) Does AI in the workplace even lead to worthwhile outputs? Does it mortgage our brains’ ability to learn? There are many seemingly critical question unanswered. But in the meantime, sure: vibe working it is.

Using Office Agent within Office apps or Copilot chat, users can begin a document with a single prompt and then work iteratively alongside Copilot to develop a finished product. Microsoft says this is the “new pattern of work for human-agent collaboration.” The Agent Mode tool supports Excel and Word workflows, and Microsoft says PowerPoint support is coming soon; Office Agent works with PowerPoint and Word, with Excel coming soon.

The company waxes poetic about the “full power of Excel” being available only to expert users and promises that an Agent Mode that can “speak Excel” will change all that. In data shared as part of the announcement, Microsoft said that Copilot Agent Mode in Excel achieved 57.2 percent accuracy on the SpreadsheetBench benchmark. This is compared to a 71.3 percent human score, though it’s not clear if that’s for average users, Excel power users or how many human users that score is derived from. Still — not great numbers!

Agent Mode also works in Word to summarize, edit and of course help to create entire drafts (though its unclear what those relative accuracy rates are.) Both the Excel and Word Agent Modes are powered by OpenAI’s latest models. Office Agent in Copilot chat is powered by Anthropic models and can create PowerPoint presentations and Word documents in what Microsoft calls a “chat-first experience.”

Agent Mode for Excel and Word, as well as Office Agent, are available today through the Frontier program. Agent Mode is currently limited to the web-based versions of Word and Excel and is coming to desktop soon.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/microsoft-is-trying-to-make-vibe-working-a-thing-163334367.html?src=rss

An anonymous reader shares a report: You’ve probably heard of vibe coding — novices writing apps by creating a simple AI prompt — but now Microsoft wants to introduce a similar thing for its Office apps. The software maker is launching a new Agent Mode in Excel and Word that can generate complex spreadsheets and documents with just a prompt. A new Office Agent in Copilot chat, powered by Anthropic models, is also launching today that can create PowerPoint presentations and Word documents from a “vibe working” chatbot.

[…] Agent Mode essentially takes a complex task and breaks it down with planning and reasoning that you can follow. It then uses OpenAI’s GPT-5 model to break down each step of document creation into an agentic task and execute it. It’s like watching an automated macro in real time, showing everything it’s doing in the sidebar.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Epic Games has disabled a Fortnite emote based on the HBO show Peacemaker after the latest episode cast the dancing animation in a potentially different light.

The remainder of this post contains spoilers for Season 2 of Peacemaker.

The “Peaceful Hips” emote, which was first introduced to the game on September 15, mirrors the dance motions that John Cena’s character Christopher Smith makes during the opening credits sequence for the show’s second season. In the dance and the emote (which can be applied to any character in-game), the dancer briefly flails their arms at opposing right angles before shaking their hips seductively.

Read full article

Comments

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) recently published a 163-page PDF showing the electrical schematics for the iPhone 16e, despite Apple specifically requesting them to be confidential. This was most likely a mistake on the part of the FCC, according to a report by AppleInsider.

The agency also distributed a cover letter from Apple alongside the schematics, which is dated September 16, 2024. This letter verifies the company’s request for privacy, indicating that the documents contain “confidential and proprietary trade secrets.” The cover letter asks for the documents to be withheld from public view “indefinitely.” Apple even suggested that a release of the files could give competitors an “unfair advantage.”

To that end, the documents feature full schematics of the iPhone 16e. These include block diagrams, electrical schematic diagrams, antenna locations and more. Competitors could simply buy a handset and open it up to get to this information, as the iPhone 16e came out back in February, but this leak would eliminate any guesswork. However, Apple is an extremely litigious company when it comes to stuff like patent infringement.

The FCC hasn’t addressed how this leak happened or what it intends to do about it. AppleInsider’s reporting suggested that this probably happened due to an incorrect setting in a database. This was likely not an intentional act against Apple, which tracks given that the company has been especially supportive of the Trump administration. CEO Tim Cook even brought the president a gold trophy for being such a good and important boy.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/fcc-accidentally-leaked-iphone-schematics-potentially-giving-rivals-a-peek-at-company-secrets-154551807.html?src=rss

The Trump administration is pressuring Taiwan to rapidly move 50 percent of its chip production into the US if it wants ensured protection against a threatened Chinese invasion, US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told NewsNation this weekend.

In the interview, Lutnick noted that Taiwan currently makes about 95 percent of chips used in smartphones and cars, as well as in critical military defense technology. It’s bad for the US, Lutnick said, that “95 percent of our chips are made 9,000 miles away,” while China is not being “shy” about threats to “take” Taiwan.

Were the US to lose access to Taiwan’s supply chain, the US could be defenseless as its economy takes a hit, Lutnick alleged, asking, “How are you going to get the chips here to make your drones, to make your equipment?”

Read full article

Comments