Monthly Archives: October 2025

Amazon’s October Prime Day Drops Quest 3S to $250 Ahead of Holiday Season

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Quest 3S is on sale starting at $250 for Amazon’s October ‘Big Deals’ Prime sale, which ends October 8th.

The News

Released in late 2024, Quest 3S is Meta’s most affordable current-gen VR headset, which includes color mixed reality capabilities in addition to all of the games on the Horizon Store. As the name implies, it also runs the same games as the more expensive Quest 3, but lowers the price by using the same lenses and displays as the older Quest 2, released in 2020.

Wondering which one to buy? Check out our no-nonsense recommendation right here.

Quest 3S – October Amazon Deals

Notably, the 128GB variant is an Amazon-exclusive ‘Cardboard Hero Bundle’ for Gorilla Tag, which includes 1,000 Shiny Rocks (in-game currency, $45 value) and two digital items: the Handiwork Helmet and Handiwork Armor.

Image courtesy Amazon

Gorilla Tag is a free social game that, as the name suggests, is all about playing a game of tag with your fellow primates. If your kid has ever heard of Quest, they’ve definitely heard of Gorilla Tag.

Both headsets also include a copy of Batman: Arkham Shadow (2024) [normally $50] and a three-month subscription to Meta Horizon+, which unlocks a library of solid VR games, with two new games added every month. Yes, there are also controllers in the box.

My Take

If you’re looking to shop for the Holidays early this year, it’s hard to imagine Meta going any lower than this current deal on Black Friday.

Still, if Gorilla Tag isn’t you (or your kid’s) jam, it’s possible we’ll see other bundles from Amazon and direct from Meta around that time.

Last year, Amazon had a bundle that priced Quest 3S (128GB) at its regular retail price of $300, but included a $75 gift card—which came along with the obligatory Batman: Arkham Shadow and a three month trial of Horizon+.

In any case, we’ll keep you informed of all relevant deals here, so make sure to check back with Road to VR.

The post Amazon’s October Prime Day Drops Quest 3S to $250 Ahead of Holiday Season appeared first on Road to VR.

Should the Autism Spectrum Be Split Apart?

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XXongo writes: A New York times article suggests that merging the diagnosis of Asperger’s syndrome into the Autism diagnosis in 2013, thus creating the “autism spectrum disorder,” was not helpful (paywalled; alternative source). That broadening of the diagnosis, along with the increasing awareness of the disorder, is largely responsible for the steep rise in autism cases that Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has called “an epidemic” and has attributed to theories of causality that mainstream scientists reject, like vaccines and, more recently, Tylenol. But the same diagnosis now applies to both people who are non-verbal, frequently engage in self-destructive behavior such as pounding their heads against the floor, and may require full-time care, but also to people who are merely somewhat socially awkward, possibly engage in repetitive behaviors, and have a narrow range of interests. “Everything changed when we included Asperger’s [in the diagnosis of autism],” said Dr. Eric Fombonne, a psychiatrist and researcher at Oregon Health & Science University. He noted that in the earliest studies of autism rates, 75% of people with the diagnosis had intellectual disabilities. Now, only about a third do.


Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Cyclocross could be added to the Winter Olympics by 2030

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Cyclocross could be added to the Winter Olympics by 2030 in France, World Athletics president Sebastian Coe has predicted, alongside cross-country running and judo in a bid to keep the Games relevant. 

This isn’t the first time adding cyclocross to the Winter Olympics has been suggested, with World Athletics and the UCI holding talks about its inclusion last year. 

But Coe is reported to be increasingly optimistic it will be added to the Games due to the support of the new International Olympic Committee (IOC) president, Kirsty Coventry, and UCI president, David Lappartient, according to the Guardian. 

Coe, who is part of the IOC’s “fit for the future” working group, says: “I think there’s a good chance it’ll happen. And I think it’s come at the right moment, because Kirsty is certainly prepared to think differently about the programme, and what could go out of the stadium, and that mix between winter and summer.”

Following conversations with Lappartient, Coe says there was already a provisional plan to have the cyclocross and cross-country running on the same course in the French Alps. 

“I’ve always wanted to see cross-country back in for all sorts of reasons. Some are emotional. But it also gives Africa a proper presence in the winter Games, which, if we are being honest, it doesn’t really have,” Coe says.

“And sharing the same course in 2030 with cyclocross is really where our thinking is going. We’ve already had good conversations.” 

There is movement elsewhere towards adding cyclocross to the 2030 Winter Olympics. La Planche des Belles Filles submitted a formal bid to host the discipline, L’Équipe revealed in June. 

One of the iconic features of the Tour de France, La Planche des Belles Filles has positioned itself as a potential venue for cyclocross at the 2030 Games. 

Documents obtained by L’Équipe revealed the application promised to deliver “an unforgettable venue” to enhance the image of the winter Olympics.

Thibaut Pinot is among the backers of the project, and is said to be ready to come out of retirement. “One day in February 2030, I’ll finally get my victory at La Planche,” the three-time Tour de France stage winner said in the dossier. 

Lappartient is said to support the bid, alongside former French prime minister Michel Barnier, who attended the 2025 Cyclocross World Championships, hosted in Lievin, France. “I was very impressed by the popular success of cyclocross,” Barnier said at the time.

Creating community at our 2025 Sri Lanka Global Clubs Partner meetup

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The Global Clubs Partner network brings together 52 partners from 45 countries, all working together to positively impact their local communities and open up opportunities for the next generation.

Last month, our Global Clubs Partners came together in Sri Lanka for our annual meetup, celebrating collaboration and community. Hosted alongside the second-ever Coolest Projects Sri Lanka, the gathering brought partners from across the world to share ideas, learn together, and build connections that will carry into the year ahead.

A group of educators at a conference.

Building connections across the network

The in-person meetups are all about strengthening the sense of community among Global Clubs Partners. Ellie Proffitt from the RPF Global Partners team shared why coming together is so important:

“It was wonderful to hear everyone’s experiences and connect over our shared mission. Everyone was so keen to learn from each other, and being able to do that face to face made it even more valuable.”

The Sri Lanka meetup gave partners the space to get to know one another, learn from each other’s experiences, and think together about future goals for their clubs.

Educators collaborate together during a workshop.

Exploring together

The agenda combined presentations, workshops, and plenty of time for discussion. It began with the Raspberry Pi Foundation team giving a presentation on our mission and strategy for partner work and beyond. Afterwards, each organisation introduced themselves and partners showcased their activities and successes. Together we explored how to build and sustain Code Club communities, experimented with creative ways to use AI in clubs, and got hands-on with unplugged activities that make computing accessible in low-tech settings. Partners also shared approaches to adapting content for their local contexts, and finished by developing their own vision and strategy for the next 12 months.

The variety of sessions meant there was something for everyone, whether partners were looking for new teaching ideas, strategic guidance, or inspiration from peers.

“There were so many interesting topics, I wish we had more time to go more in depth. I love being able to speak with other organisations doing similar work. Having the Raspberry Pi Foundation facilitate the connections is an asset.” – Global Partner

Educators collaborate together during a workshop.

Inspiring moments at Coolest Projects Sri Lanka

As part of the meetup, partners had the chance to attend Coolest Projects Sri Lanka 2025, where young people showcased their incredible tech creations. Seeing children proudly present projects ranging from apps to hardware builds was a highlight for many.

“We have picked the top 100 [Coolest Projects] entries and they are here today exhibiting that to all our visitors joining from various parts of the world and we are happy to have representatives from the global Raspberry Pi Foundation family also.” – Prabhath, Code Club mentor and founder of STEMUp Educational Foundation

Educators at Coolest Projects Sri Lanka.

Looking ahead

The team left Sri Lanka with deeper connections, renewed energy, and a shared commitment to making computing education accessible to all.

“I feel part of something bigger — a worldwide movement where kids everywhere are learning to create with technology, not just consume it. Being a Global Partner means we can learn from what’s working in other countries, adapt those ideas for us, and also contribute our own innovations back to the network.” – Global Partner 

Could your organisation become a Global Clubs Partner?

You can find out how your organisation could join our Global Clubs Partner network on the Code Club website, or contact us directly with your questions or ideas about a partnership.

The post Creating community at our 2025 Sri Lanka Global Clubs Partner meetup appeared first on Raspberry Pi Foundation.

Wildlife Doctor Turns Safari Healthcare Into VR Trauma Center

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I’ve never thought about what it would be like to be an on-the-field safari doctor. Nor would I say Wildlife Doctor is a particularly accurate recreation of the experience of caring for wild elephants and the like in times of danger. That doesn’t mean A440 hasn’t crafted a rather intriguing experience, turning that unique healthcare scenario into a more unique VR experience.

An easy comparison point for Wildlife Doctor would be as a VR animal-infused take on Atlus’ Trauma Center series, though that would oversimplify exactly what is on offer based on our brief demo at the recent Tokyo Game Show. Designed exclusively for the Pico 4 Ultra with support for the device’s Motion Tracker accessory, it isn’t aiming to make the experience 100% accurate to the real work of a veterinarian. Rather, it’s trying to get you involved in the scale and work necessary in emergency response on these animals.

A440’s booth on the show floor, to its credit, was designed to bring out the immersion of the experience. The floor was lined with artificial turf with small plastic animals nearby, requiring us to take off our shoes and sit down before putting on the headset. Though the final game will support the Motion Tracker, this demo didn’t require it or take advantage of it, instead solely using the standard controllers for operation.

Without any story context in this early stage, we were thrown directly into the action. This demo features two animals to treat, one serving as a tutorial without the stresses of a timeline or the chance of things going wrong, while the other takes place under the pressure of potential failure. The first animal is a gazelle with a graze and infection on their leg, so I sat down and got to work.

Beside me is an array of tools: a fluid to clean the wounds, an anti-inflammatory, a needle, and an ointment. Other tools were locked at that point to keep things simple. These tools are all placed at floor level alongside the animal, but the wound was a considerable distance from the tools due to its size. This is done for realism and proves effective, rather than simply selecting these items from a menu.

First up, I must collect the water to clean the wounds, then pick up the needle to fill it with the anti-inflammatory and inject it into the animal. This soothed the pain in the animal enough for me to grab the ointment and rub it carefully across the wound, before finally using another injection to resuscitate the animal so it can go about its day. With the animal cured, I even have a chance to heal things before moving on.

A striking thing within VR when healing the animal is its scale and the way you truly feel like part of the care experience. This approach requires more space than a game where you can just sit on a sofa or chair and play from a stationary position. However, reaching into the tools and climbing around the animal makes me feel like I am genuinely caring for the animal instead of simply clearing objectives.

This is emphasized by the more complex task of caring for this far larger elephant. Aside from an additional injection, the actual treatment process is the same, though I’m still forced to adjust my approach considerably to treat the larger animal. Size makes it impossible to sit in one spot and care for the animal, instead requiring me to physically stand and move between my supplies and the wound for treatment, truly making me feel like a medic on the field.

It’s the sort of area VR excels in; while the Trauma Center comparison made previously still applies here (more so now the time limit is in play in the form of a ticking vitals bar above the creature, where mistakes cause this to decline faster), merely the act of being involved and moving around a 3D creature is the tension needed to keep me invested.

Our demo unfortunately ended there, but I’ve come away impressed by the overall experience. As new types of treatment besides the cleaning and disinfecting of flesh wounds are introduced, alongside a more fleshed-out contextual story, there’s a lot to enjoy here. The question remains whether it can take advantage of the Motion Tracker effectively in the full release and whether it will find the audience it deserves when sold exclusively on the Pico 4 Ultra, but I hope it can. I’m ready to treat a wild giraffe next, either way.

The Pashley Skyline is a steel mini velo for everything from city riding to light gravel adventures 

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British steel bike maker Pashley has launched another new bike that extends its range in a novel direction.

The Pashley Skyline takes inspiration from mini velos designed for city riding, with 20in wheels and disc brakes, but it’s also intended to handle loaded excursions and light gravel use.

Pashley says the Skyline is designed to be “fun, versatile and practical”. 

Three specs are on offer at launch, with flat-bar and drop-bar options. Full bike prices range from £1,795 to £1,895, and there’s a frameset-only option for £995.

Versatile riding options

The Skyline frameset is hand-built from a mix of three Reynolds steels.

As with all of Pashley’s bikes, the Skyline is made from steel and hand-built in its Stratford-upon-Avon factory. Its frame is fillet brazed from a mix of Reynolds double-butted tubing: 725, 631 and 525.

According to Pashley CEO Andy Smallwood: “This bike is all about maximising the unique experience you get from a small-wheeled bike. You could be riding through the city, local village, commuting to work or just out for fun – simply enjoying the exhilaration you get on two wheels.”

Pashley says the geometry is designed for “a controlled and comfortable riding position, with direct, confident handling across a variety of terrains”. The top tube is a little longer, which it says adds stability to the ride, while the chainstays have been kept short for snappy acceleration. 

The extensive range of mounts enables you to set the Skyline up for adventures.

The 2.3in tyre clearance enables you to set up with knobbly tyres if you want to head off-road for some light gravel riding and Pashley fits two of its three builds with Schwalbe Smart Sam treaded tyres.

You can also fit mudguards, front and rear racks, and bottle cages for extended load-lugging. With 20in wheels, Pashley says the Skyline is easy to store, too.

Pashley has aimed to support a wide range of configurations for the Skyline, which it offers with both riser and dropped handlebars. You can also choose to fit the frame out with derailleur, singlespeed or hub gears and even add a dropper post.

Branching out

The Skyline joins the Wildfinder in Pashley’s expanding range. Pashley

Founded in 1926, over the last couple of years, Pashley has been diversifying rapidly from its classic British bikes, often complete with a basket, which would grace a television series set in the 1950s.

It’s had the retro-racer style Guv’nor in its range for a while, but more recently that bike has been joined by the Roadfinder SL, which Warren Rossiter described as “the first steel bike I’ve truly desired in 30 years”. 

Not only that, there’s an electric Roadfinder and Pashley has launched the Wildfinder, a drop-bar gravel/MTB hybrid with 2.4in tyre clearance and geometry to fit a suspension fork.

Pashley Skyline builds and prices

You can choose drop bars as well as two flat-bar builds.

Pashley will sell the Skyline in three builds – two with flat bars and one with drop bars.

There’s a choice of MicroShift Advent derailleur or Shimano Alfine hub gearing, as well as a frameset option. You can choose a custom colour from £75 / $125 / €100 / AU$170.

  • Pashley Skyline Alfine 8 Flat Bar: from £1,895 / $2,895 / €2,495 / AU$4,395
  • Pashley Skyline MicroShift Advent Drop Bar: from £1,895 / $2,895 / €2,495 / AU$4,395
  • Pashley Skyline MicroShift Advent Flat Bar: from £1,795 / $2,695 / €2,295 / AU$4,195
  • Pashley Skyline frameset: £995 / $1,495 / €1,295 / AU$2,295

Wordle Game Show In the Works At NBC

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NBC is developing a game show based on the New York Times’ Wordle puzzle, with Today anchor Savannah Guthrie set to host and Jimmy Fallon executive producing through his company, Electric Hot Dog. The Times is also a production partner. From the Hollywood Reporter: Wordle, which the Times acquired in 2022 and logs billions of plays from the paper’s games site annually, gives players six tries to guess a five-letter word, revealing only if letters are in the right place (via a green background) or part of the word but in the wrong place (with a gold background). Should it go forward, the Wordle show would join another Fallon-produced game show, Password, on NBC’s unscripted roster. The Tonight Show emcee also executive produces and hosts the network’s On Brand, a competition series that revolves around advertising and marketing.


Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Google Search AI Mode is now available in more languages and regions

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Google has been rapidly expanding the availability of AI Mode in Search ever since it previewed the feature with testers in its Labs program in the beginning of March this year. Now, the company has announced that it has started rolling out the dedicated AI chatbot within Search to 40 new regions and has made it available in 35 new languages. The newly supported languages include Arabic, Chinese, Croatian, Czech, Dutch, German, Greek, French, Malay, Russian, Thai, Vietnamese and more. Google says the advanced reasoning and multimodal understanding of its custom Gemini model for Search allow it to grasp the subtleties of local languages, so it doesn’t misunderstand inquiries or generate stilted answers. 

In May, two months after Google started testing the feature, the company rolled it out to everyone in the US. At the time, it said that it will “graduate many features and capabilities from AI Mode right into the core search experience in AI Overviews” as it gets more feedback. In early September, Google opened up AI Mode to more languages, namely Hindi, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean and Brazilian Portuguese. More and more users in the new regions will see AI Mode responses in their Search page and will be able to interact with the feature in their preferred language over the coming weeks. 

The company plans to add more capabilities to AI Mode and recently released an update that made it better at understanding visual prompts. It’s worth noting that, while AI Mode results could be useful for quick inquiries, online publishers attribute declining web traffic to the summaries. A Pew Research Center study found that users are less likely to click on website links and are more likely to end their browsing session if they see an AI Mode summary at the top of their results page. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/google-search-ai-mode-is-now-available-in-more-languages-and-regions-043540278.html?src=rss

Arduino UNO Q Combines Qualcomm Dragonwing QRB2210 and STM32 MCU

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Qualcomm Technologies has announced its plan to acquire Arduino, marking a major development in the embedded and maker ecosystems. The acquisition aims to combine Qualcomm’s edge computing and AI expertise with Arduino’s large developer community and open hardware approach. As part of the announcement, both companies introduced the Arduino UNO Q, a new dual-processor development […]

This Fire TV Is Even Cheaper Now Than When I Bought It a Month Ago

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We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication.

Amazon Big Deal Days is October 7-8, and Lifehacker is sharing the best bargains, based on product reviews, comparisons, and price-tracking tools.

On August 23, I bought an Amazon Fire TV 50″ Omni QLED Series 4K television for $379.99. It seemed like an OK deal—the list price is $469.99, and it’s a good television with a 4K display, adaptive brightness, and an Alexa-enabled remote control. But today, that same model of TV I bought is selling for $359.99, even less than what I paid in August.

Am I angry? Not really. My old TV broke, so I had to get a new one. The price difference is only $20, so it’s not the end of the world; plus, this is the best TV I’ve ever owned, and even the higher price I paid is reasonable for a QLED TV. Here’s what it looks like when you watch Peacemaker on it:

Peacemaker still

Credit: HBO

Having watched most of Peacemaker, some John Woo movies, and playing a lot of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, I feel my new TV made movies, TV, and video games look fantastic. And it’s super easy to operate; I even use Alexa to change the input, because saying “Hey, Alexa, switch to HDMI 1” is easier than poking through the menus. It’s a lot of television for $359.99, so if you’re looking for a TV, consider making the decision now.


Looking for something else? Retailers like Walmart and Best Buy have Prime Day competition sales that are especially useful if you don’t have Amazon Prime.


Ring Battery Doorbell Plus


—
$79.99

(List Price $149.99)

Ring Indoor Cam (2nd Gen, 2-pack, White)


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$49.98

(List Price $79.99)

Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K (2nd Gen, 2023)


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$24.99

(List Price $49.99)

Amazon Fire HD 10 (2023)


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$69.99

(List Price $139.99)

Deals are selected by our commerce team