OpenAI has signed about $1 trillion in deals this year for computing power to run its AI models, commitments that dwarf its revenue and raise questions about how it can fund them. From a report: Monday’s deal with chipmaker AMD follows similar agreements with Nvidia, Oracle and CoreWeave, as OpenAI races to find the computing power it thinks it will need to run services such as ChatGPT.
The deals would give OpenAI access to more than 20 gigawatts of computing capacity, roughly equivalent to the power from 20 nuclear reactors, over the next decade. Each 1GW of AI computing capacity costs about $50bn to deploy in today’s prices, according to estimates by OpenAI executives, making the total cost about $1tn. The deals have bound some of the world’s biggest tech groups to OpenAI’s ability to become a profitable business that can meet its increasingly steep financial obligations.
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 coming October 7-8, and Lifehacker is sharing the best sales based on product reviews, comparisons, and price-tracking tools before it’s over.
Follow our live blog to stay up to date on the best sales we find.
New to Prime Day? We have a primer on everything you need to know. Sales are accurate at the time of publication, but prices and inventory are always subject to change.
I enjoy tackling new DIY projects around my house, but there’s one aspect of home ownership that I have hated since I was a kid being forced to do it by my parents: yard work. Trimming grass and branches, raking up the trimmings and fallen leaves, and fighting nature’s tendency to be wild? No thanks. It’s sweaty, thankless work.
Then I found the Ego Power+ cordless trimmer and blower, and, well, yard work still kind of sucks, but it’s a lot easier now. I didn’t realize how much worse power cord management made the job, for one thing—being cordless is magic when you’re walking around an outdoor space filled with obstacles and plants. The battery life is advertised at 75 minutes, though in my experience it’s closer to an hour, which is still more than enough, and the battery recharges in under half an hour so you can get back to it quickly if you do run it down. And having a blower that a) doesn’t require gas, b) doesn’t spew exhaust in my face, and c) lets me forget I own a rake is just as good.
This combo deal is the trimmer, the blower, a battery, and a charger (plus two attachments for the blower)—all for $299.99, which is 27% off the regular price. If you’ve got an unruly outdoor space you want to whip into shape without having to run a hundred feet of extension cord or deal with leftover gas, jump on this deal.
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.
Walmart’s Prime Day competition sale runs from Oct. 6 at 7 p.m. ET through Oct. 12 and includes deals up to 50% off. It’s an especially good option if you have Walmart+.
Best Buy’s Prime Day competition sale runs from Sept. 27 through Oct. 12, and has some of the best tech sales online. It’s an especially good option if you’re a My Best Buy “Plus” or “Total” member.
Target’s Prime Day competition sale runs from Oct. 5 through Oct. 11, and it has deals going up to 50% off. You can become a Circle member for free.
Smartphone processor and modem maker Qualcomm is acquiring Arduino, the Italian company known mainly for its open source ecosystem of microcontrollers and the software that makes them function. In its announcement of the acquisition, Qualcomm said that Arduino would “[retain] its brand and mission,” including its “open source ethos” and “support for multiple silicon vendors.”
“Arduino will retain its independent brand, tools, and mission, while continuing to support a wide range of microcontrollers and microprocessors from multiple semiconductor providers as it enters this next chapter within the Qualcomm family,” Qualcomm said in its press release. “Following this acquisition, the 33M+ active users in the Arduino community will gain access to Qualcomm Technologies’ powerful technology stack and global reach. Entrepreneurs, businesses, tech professionals, students, educators, and hobbyists will be empowered to rapidly prototype and test new solutions, with a clear path to commercialization supported by Qualcomm Technologies’ advanced technologies and extensive partner ecosystem.”
Qualcomm didn’t disclose what it had paid to acquire Arduino. The acquisition also needs to be approved by regulators “and other customary closing conditions.”
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 sales based on product reviews, comparisons, and price-tracking tools before it’s over.
Follow our live blog to stay up to date on the best sales we find.
New to Prime Day? We have a primer on everything you need to know. Sales are accurate at the time of publication, but prices and inventory are always subject to change.
There are tons of big-ticket items for less on sale right now. But if you’re looking to spend less and still score a bargain, there are all kinds of deals for you. I scoured all my resources to find the best Prime Day tech deals that are under $25:
Apple EarPods Wired Headphones With Lightning Connector
$15.96 at Amazon
$19.00 Save $3.04
$15.96 at Amazon
$19.00 Save $3.04
Soundcore by Anker P20i True Wireless Earbuds, 10mm Drivers with Big Bass, Bluetooth 5.3, 30H Long Playtime, Water-Resistant, 2 Mics for AI Clear Calls, 22 Preset EQs, Customization (White)
$17.99 at Amazon
$39.99 Save $22.00
$17.99 at Amazon
$39.99 Save $22.00
Apple AirTag
$19.99 at Amazon
$29.00 Save $9.01
$19.99 at Amazon
$29.00 Save $9.01
Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K AI-Powered Streaming Stick
$24.99 at Amazon
$49.99 Save $25.00
$24.99 at Amazon
$49.99 Save $25.00
Amazon Echo Pop Alexa Smart Speaker (2023)
$24.99 at Amazon
$39.99 Save $15.00
$24.99 at Amazon
$39.99 Save $15.00
INIU Portable Charger
$18.69 at Amazon
$29.99 Save $11.30
$18.69 at Amazon
$29.99 Save $11.30
BolaButty Portable Speaker
$19.99 at Amazon
$26.99 Save $7.00
$19.99 at Amazon
$26.99 Save $7.00
COOSPO Heart Rate Monitor Chest Strap, Bluetooth ANT+ Heart Rate Monitor Chest Sensor with 400H Battery, HRM Works with Strava/Wahoo Fitness/Polar Beat/Peloton/DDP Yoga App
$26.39 at Amazon
$32.99 Save $6.60
$26.39 at Amazon
$32.99 Save $6.60
Apple and Anker earbuds
Wired earbuds are very early 2000s, but on the other hand, they never run out of batteries. If you’re still rocking an iPhone 14 Plus or below (or an iPhone SE 3rd generation), you’ll be able to pick up some official Apple EarPods Headphones with a Lightning connector for $15.96 (originally $19), or one with USB-C connector for a few cents more.
If you prefer wireless earbuds but don’t want to pay too much for something you might end up losing, the Soundcore by Anker P20i are a solid pair with some impressive features for their $17.99 price (originally $39.99). You get Bluetooth 5.3, 30 hours of battery, water resistance, and a full EQ with its companion app.
AirTags
You don’t need to be a spy to use tracking devices. As an Apple user, you can let AirTags use Find My to track anything that you can put these devices on. Right now, Amazon has single AirTags for $19.99 (originally $29) or a four-pack for $64.99 (originally $99), bringing the cost of each to $16.25.
Fire TV Sticks and Echo Pops
If you have a TV that isn’t smart, or you don’t like its OS, you can get the Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K for $24.99 (originally $49.99). It supports Dolby Atmos audio, almost all the HDR formats, Amazon Luna and Xbox Game Pass cloud gaming, Wi-Fi 6, and you can install Kodi to virtually watch anything for free.
The Amazon Echo Pop is Amazon’s most budget-friendly smart speaker. You can use the multi-room music feature if you have multiple speakers in different rooms, so grab a few: You can get one for $24.99 right now (originally $39.99).
This portable phone charger
I recently lost my Iniu Portable Charger while traveling in Europe. Fortunately, it was at the end of my trip, and it had served its purpose well, saving my phone’s battery (and therefore my life) multiple times. You can get one now for $18.69 (originally $29.99).
This portable outdoor speaker
If you’re looking for a cheap portable outdoor speaker that can get wet, consider the BolaButty Portable Speaker, currently going for $19.99 (originally $26.99). It’s waterproof with an IPX5 rating and will last 20 hours before running out of juice.
This heart rate monitor
Okay, I cheated a little bit. The best chest strap for monitoring your heart rate, the CooSpo chest strap, is not in fact under $25; it’s $26.39 (originally $32.99), but it’s so good that Lifehackers Senior Health Editor Beth Skwarecki uses it to get a baseline when she tests other fitness gadgets. If monitoring your heart is a priority, don’t sleep on this chest strap.
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.
Walmart’s Prime Day competition sale runs from Oct. 6 at 7 p.m. ET through Oct. 12 and includes deals up to 50% off. It’s an especially good option if you have Walmart+.
Best Buy’s Prime Day competition sale runs from Sept. 27 through Oct. 12, and has some of the best tech sales online. It’s an especially good option if you’re a My Best Buy “Plus” or “Total” member.
Target’s Prime Day competition sale runs from Oct. 5 through Oct. 11, and it has deals going up to 50% off. You can become a Circle member for free.
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 coming October 7-8, and Lifehacker is sharing the best sales based on product reviews, comparisons, and price-tracking tools before it’s over.
Follow our live blog to stay up to date on the best sales we find.
New to Prime Day? We have a primer on everything you need to know. Sales are accurate at the time of publication, but prices and inventory are always subject to change.
Garmin’s Venu X1, its high-end watch that launched a few months ago, is enjoying its first-ever sale to coincide with October’s Prime days. Today it’s $699.99, a full $100 off the regular price.
The X1 is a large, rectangular watch aimed toward lifestyle and recreational fitness. (If you want a large, round watch geared toward runners and athletes, check out the Fenix line. Here’s a 51-millimeter Fenix 8 for over $1,000—unfortunately not on sale today.)
Besides Garmin’s biggest screen, the X1 boasts a few premium features that help it to earn its price tag. It’s got an LED flashlight, built-in maps, a scratch-resistant sapphire lens, and a speaker and microphone that you can use for calls or a voice assistant.
It comes with coaching for running, cycling, and strength, plus all the usual Garmin health and fitness tracking and analytics. It goes without saying that Garmin watches tend to have excellent GPS accuracy and reliable heart rate readings.
The battery on the X1 lasts up to eight days, and the screen is 41 x 46 millimeters, giving it a two-inch diagonal measurement. Besides the usual activity profiles and running-specific training data, the X1 also supports other sports including motorcycling and rock climbing, and has extra features for golfing.
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.
Walmart’s Prime Day competition sale runs from Oct. 6 at 7 p.m. ET through Oct. 12 and includes deals up to 50% off. It’s an especially good option if you have Walmart+.
Best Buy’s Prime Day competition sale runs from Sept. 27 through Oct. 12, and has some of the best tech sales online. It’s an especially good option if you’re a My Best Buy “Plus” or “Total” member.
Target’s Prime Day competition sale runs from Oct. 5 through Oct. 11, and it has deals going up to 50% off. You can become a Circle member for free.
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 coming October 7-8, and Lifehacker is sharing the best sales based on product reviews, comparisons, and price-tracking tools before it’s over.
Follow our live blog to stay up to date on the best sales we find.
New to Prime Day? We have a primer on everything you need to know. Sales are accurate at the time of publication, but prices and inventory are always subject to change.
Not only is my house pretty small, it’s also pretty old, so my wife and I have learned to get creative (and a bit minimalist) to handle the challenge of where to put our stuff—but there’s one area that has been particularly challenging: My love affair with DIY projects around the house. I love diving into repairs and upgrades, learning how to do stuff like tiling or basic plumbing, and saving loads of cash by not hiring contractors every time the lights flicker.
But those projects require bulky tools, and materials, and I have zero space to store them. So I am always on the lookout for something small and efficient that gives me the ability to do bigger projects. One thing I really needed for a long time was a work table—a sturdy space where I could cut, measure, clamp, and spread out tools and other materials. But there’s nowhere in this house to fit a workroom, and there’s no garage, so I wasn’t sure what to do. Until I found this folding work table from Worx.
It’s perfect. It’s durable and sturdy (it can handle up to 300 pounds, so if I can lift it up there, it can hold it). It has built-in clamps, which is really useful, and it transforms into a sawhorse in seconds, so I can cut and rip boards as needed, then immediately proceed to the next step in the project.
But most importantly, for me: It folds up. It goes flat, so I can lean it against the wall of the closet I call a tool room, or hang it up on the wall if I decide I need to reclaim that small amount of space. And that means it’s also easily portable (it only weighs about 30 pounds), so I don’t have to cut boards in one location and transport them to another. If you don’t have a lot of space to store tools, this is the perfect solution—and it’s 32% off right now for Prime Day, so this is your moment.
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.
Walmart’s Prime Day competition sale runs from Oct. 6 at 7 p.m. ET through Oct. 12 and includes deals up to 50% off. It’s an especially good option if you have Walmart+.
Best Buy’s Prime Day competition sale runs from Sept. 27 through Oct. 12, and has some of the best tech sales online. It’s an especially good option if you’re a My Best Buy “Plus” or “Total” member.
Target’s Prime Day competition sale runs from Oct. 5 through Oct. 11, and it has deals going up to 50% off. You can become a Circle member for free.
AmiMoJo writes: The Irish Government’s basic income scheme for artists is set to become a permanent fixture from next year, with 2,000 new places to be made available under Budget 2026. Minister for Culture Patrick O’Donovan has secured agreement with other government departments to continue and expand the initiative, which had previously operated on a pilot basis. Participants in the scheme receive a weekly payment of $379.50.
The pilot programme, launched in 2022, provided basic income support to 2,000 artists and creative arts workers across Ireland. It aimed to support the arts sector’s recovery following the COVID-19 pandemic, during which many artists experienced significant income loss due to restrictions on live performances and events. The scheme provides unconditional, regular payments to eligible artists and creative workers, allowing them to focus on their practice without the pressure of commercial viability. It is not means-tested and operates independently of social welfare payments. An independent evaluation of the pilot, published earlier this year, found that recipients reported increased time spent on creative work, reduced financial stress, and improved well-being.
Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) has taken us to iconic locations from the Star Wars universe in VR for the past six years, and Beyond Victory shows how far the studio has come while highlighting how tricky mixed reality can be. Read on to see why its ambition doesn’t always make the jump to light speed.
Star Wars: Beyond Victory – A Mixed Reality Playset is more than just another Star Wars game; in some ways it’s the realization of a childhood dream. I still remember standing in a line that wrapped around my local theater twice in 1977, waiting to see this popular new sci-fi film that promised a galaxy full of space wizards and laser swords. None of us knew it would alter the course of modern cinema forever.
The Facts
What is it?: A blended mixed reality and virtual reality narrative adventure with an Arcade and Playset Mode. Platforms: Meta Quest 3/3S (reviewed on Quest 3) Release Date: Out now Developer: Industrial Light & Magic Publisher: Disney Electronic Content, Inc. Price: $19.99
That day changed everything for me as a kid, mesmerized by the events unfolding on the screen. Next Christmas came all the official Star Wars merch, and I luckily got most of the play sets I wanted. As for the larger ones we couldn’t afford, I made my own from cardboard and items found in the family junk drawer. Decades later, that same galaxy far, far away is now unfolding around me in VR with a digital toy set.
0:00
/0:59
Opening scene of Star Wars: Beyond Victory Adventure Mode captured by UploadVR
The Story
Beyond Victory starts with a literal bang. After a short opening race segment, we’re greeted by a spectacular cutscene where our main character has crashed his podracer. Over the next three hours, it shifts between story-driven VR scenes and mixed reality sequences.
This new chapter in the ongoing Star Wars saga places you in the role of Volo Bolus, a young pilot mentored by podracing legend Sebulba. It explores the dark underworld connected to the podracing scene, and ILM’s goal is to unite generations of Star Wars fans through a new type of experience, stumbling somewhat in execution along the way.
Gameplay Modes
Adventure Mode is where this story unfolds, offering a narrative-driven experience in the style of the Vader Immortal trilogy and Tales from the Galaxy’s Edge, but with a twist. This mode features both third-person tabletop on-foot exploration in MR, very easy puzzle-solving in first-person VR, and then back to MR for the main part of the story, which is the third-person podracing.
This is where things started to go off the rails a bit for me. Constantly shifting between VR and MR becomes annoying after a while, and occasionally a change would go to a bad camera angle depending on how I previously positioned the game board. Both modes work well enough on their own, but the constant shifting between them is a bit too much. I find myself wishing that some scenes would stay in VR mode, especially the podracing sequences.
0:00
/1:00
Arcade Mode, on the other hand, takes the third-person podracing from Adventure Mode and adds competitive online leaderboards. This scenario returns to a mixed reality perspective, where you place the course in front of you and race from a tabletop view. While visually cool, it sacrifices necessary depth and visibility.
Piloting a podracer at wild speeds through a Holotable that only becomes as large as your arms can stretch is a deeply flawed idea. I can’t see far enough ahead to plan turns, and it’s never as thrilling as actually sitting in the cockpit. It’s not awful, but it isn’t what I imagined or hoped for when I learned ILM was making a podracing game. It should have offered a fully immersive option for VR, or at least given players with strong VR legs the ability to switch to an in-cockpit, first-person perspective.
0:00
/1:06
Posing action figures in Star Wars: Beyond Victory’s Playset Mode captured by UploadVR
Playset Mode offers some pure sandbox fun in mixed reality, unlocking new items through completing races in the other modes. You can place action figures, vehicles, backdrops, and set pieces into your room with the option to move, resize, and even pose them in various ways, letting you build your own Star Wars mixed reality diorama or room-scale experience.
This brought back fond memories of playing with my action figures, nailing that sense of childlike wonder as I sit on my floor and play with everything I’ve unlocked. If you’re an older player who grew up during the 70s and 80s, this mode alone may be worth the price of admission.
Between these three modes, I’d consider picking Adventure Mode as my favorite, and in some ways I still do with its cinematic nature. However, constant jumping between VR and MR kills that for me. You’ll go from first-person immersion to tabletop MR and then back again, often without a warning or clear reason. The transitions seem cool at first but quickly break any sense of immersion. After a while, it feels like three separate ideas stitched together to test the medium rather than decisions made for player satisfaction.
To bring balance to the Force, ILM would need to completely retool this and allow players to choose their preferred method of play, whether in VR or MR. There’s been no suggestion that will happen here, so players seeking a deep podracing experience will need to find that elsewhere.
Comfort
Star Wars: Beyond Victory is mostly played in mixed reality, so you’re not subjected to artificial locomotion while in passthrough mode, which should keep players feeling comfortable.
In VR mode, there are choices for standard comfort options, such as teleportation movement and snap turning. Some players may also find the switching between VR and MR to be an uncomfortable effect.
Star Wars: Beyond Victory is rated as Moderate on the Meta Horizon Store page.
Graphics and Sound
As anticipated, ILM surpasses its previous Quest titles for visual fidelity. Beyond Victory’s VR sequences look outstanding on my Quest 3, and the mixed reality pops nicely against the camera backdrop. There are a few graphic anomalies in the Playset Mode where items would pass slightly into a real-world mapped surface and shimmer or fade out of existence, but this is nothing we haven’t seen in other MR titles before. It’s a limitation of the platform supporting the game in its current state.
Gameplay images captured by UploadVR
Beyond Victory’s soundtrack is precisely what you would expect, blending the iconic sounds of the franchise together with skilled voice acting and an original soundtrack. This mixes traditional cinematic orchestral-style scores with alien hip-hop coming from the radio in the speeder repair garage. It’s not the iconic John Williams soundtrack we’ve come to expect in any Star Wars-based media, but it works well here.
0:00
/0:39
Gameplay footage captured by UploadVR
Voice acting is exceptionally well done, as we’ve seen before from an officially licensed Star Wars title created by ILM, and the cast does a wonderful job balancing the narrative’s humor and drama. I instinctively stayed through the end credits, and without giving any spoilers, there is a short bonus scene waiting at the end.
Controls and Performance
While this would be a perfect game for hand tracking support, Star Wars: Beyond Victory only supports the touch controllers. For the racing and exploration sequences, this is fine, but using my hands during the Playset Mode would be preferable. Being able to pose and position all the models using hand tracking would have increased both the immersion and precision.
0:00
/0:10
In the podracing sections, these controls feel chaotic and rely more on quick reflexes than on skill. There are times that I’m just flicking the stick and laying on the boost in hopes that my tiny podracer would somehow make it to the end of the race without crashing and burning multiple times. Some of this issue arises from the limited view in front of me, though much can be attributed to the imprecise controls here. Unlike the Playset Mode, this is better with controllers.
Performance holds up nicely. There are very few times that I notice any framerate issues, even when the podracing scenes become congested with several other racers and on-screen particle effects. The moments I do see them are during transitions from VR to MR and occasionally when resizing and zooming the overhead map during exploration sequences.
Star Wars: Beyond Victory Review – Final Verdict
Every time I put on a VR headset for a new Star Wars experience, I’m always chasing that same feeling as the kid sitting in that theater in 1977. When the screen opens on a field of endless stars, anything feels possible, and Beyond Victory gets close to that feeling a few times with the Playset Mode bringing back the magical feeling of being that kid again.
Unfortunately, ILM’s use of shifting realities for Adventure Mode feels experimental, and the podracing is ultimately disappointing. The option to podrace in first-person VR would dramatically change Beyond Victory into something both intense and satisfying, while not forcing the fast-paced movement on players who aren’t ready for that. Without that option, I’m left suggesting these aren’t the droids you’re looking for.
UploadVR uses a 5-Star rating system for our game reviews – you can read a breakdown of each star rating in our review guidelines.
Star Wars: Beyond Victory – A Mixed Reality Playset feels like a pretty clear directive to make a high quality MR game that showcases Quest 3’s passthrough capabilities. In that respect, it’s a partial success, as the MR/VR hybrid serves up some neat diorama-style racing action blended with a surprisingly heartfelt narrative, all the while packing in a healthy dose of the same high production value and visual wonder that made Vader Immortal such a success. Still, it was difficult to shirk the feeling halfway through that I’d much rather be playing this in VR.
Star Wars: Beyond Victory Details:
Developer: Industrial Light & Magic Publisher: Disney Electronic Content Available On:Quest 3 & 3S Reviewed On: Quest 3 Release Date: October 7th, 2025 Price: $20
Gameplay
Star Wars: Beyond Victory offers up three single-player gameplay modes: a story-driven campaign, an arcade racing mode with four available tracks, and an extra little MR mode that lets you choose, resize and articulate game models and place them around your room.
While it does serve up a two-hour campaign, I can see why the “playset” naming was added here. Beyond Victory is more of an MR mini-game grafted to a much more engaging VR narrative, short as it may be.
It does this by periodically dropping you in and out of MR and VR modes when the game decides it’s time, like entering a building to fix your podracer (VR), actually podracing (MR), fetching a part for your friend (MR), or having one of those important narrative beats that really gives ILM a chance to flex its animation skills—which are absolutely second to none. Those narrative chunks happen both in MR and VR, with MR narratives playing out like multi-shot 3D cutscenes.
Putting you in the boots of the up-and-coming podracer Volo Bolus, you find yourself mixed up with the crafty and vicious podracing legend Sebulba, who has plans to help you get back on your feet after a nasty crash. Under Sebulba’s tutelage, you begin racing again—but at a price. No spoilers here, but let’s just say it involves crime.
Long after the credits rolled, I was still thinking about Volo’s struggles to balance his love for racing while trying to be true to his friends. It’s not about the grander rebellion against the Empire, or a Luke Skywalker analogue who is ‘The Chosen One’ with all of the requisite plot armor. You’re just a podracer who doesn’t want to get into trouble. But trouble finds you.
Across the campaign’s eight chapters, which feature some of the medium’s best animation, you’re treated to a handful of Mario Kart-style races. And the mixed reality 3D game board definitely taps into the LEGO portion of my brain, letting you resize it to fit your room. You can get it as small as a chess board, or as big as I got it here.
In the game’s four races (or race-adjacent getaway scenes), you’ll pick up health, boosters, and secondary ability recharges, which for Volo is a boosted jump to help you get ahead of nasty obstacles like jutting rocks and sticky orb-things. Each racer has their own loadout, which you can explore in the Arcade section of the game. There, you’ll find other racers and all four tracks. In campaign mode though, you’re locked into Volo’s racer, which isn’t upgradable.
Racing is a fun little experience, but it’s admittedly one without a ton of depth—more of a neat sideshow to the narrative. I don’t want to call it dinky, because it is a pretty fast-paced experience, but I think the ‘wow factor’ of it being on my living room floor is really doing the heavy lifting. I would be ‘wowing’ a lot more in VR, I can tell you that.
Okay, so this isn’t the VR podracing game of my dreams. And while racing micromachines can be mildly cool, the rest of the game’s MR implementation is a definite sore spot. More on that in the Immersion section below.
Image courtesy ILM. Meta
Moments in VR are typically filled with expressive narrative beats and moments to go hands-on with contraptions and objects that really sell the whole Star Wars universe vibe. But then there’s an MR overworld to navigate (seen above), which was something so painfully boring in comparison. Piloting my little two-inch Volo back and forth around the map is a questionable design choice—maybe one born from the necessity of justifying more mixed reality where it might be better replaced with first-person VR.
Thankfully, there is a good slice of fully immersive zones, which basically signal a return to actually fun interactions and more immersive narrative beats. In short, MR racing: alright. Anything else MR: no thanks.
In VR, you’ll be treated to interesting one-off tasks to repair your ship, which include a bevy of tools and contraptions, like welders, automatic screw drivers, and ship parts galore—all of which are cleverly given to you by your second set of arms. Need a wrench? Your hand just presents it to you at the height of a holster.
In the end, I think ILM did an okay job of integrating MR into Beyond Victory given the current hardware, which isn’t really saying much.
It’s still early days, and Quest 3 can’t really understand your room, which means developers don’t have the ability to create systems that can dynamically use it to good effect—one such exception being Starship Home (2024)—making the sort of 3D gameboards you see in Beyond Victory a sort of low-hanging fruit. It is admittedly just a playset, after all, and I think setting player expectations was an unfortunate necessity.
Immersion
For all its MR dull spots, Star Wars: Beyond Victory tries its level best to make up for it with a series of expertly realized VR set pieces and character design, the latter of which shines when it comes to motion capture, animation, voice acting—the lot.
In VR, it’s just as impressive as Vader Immortal, which is one of my favorites to show off in the Venn diagram of my Star Wars nerd-friends who don’t own a VR headset.
That said, by relying on MR, the studio essentially unlocked the ability to include a ton of cutscenes, which do some of the heavy narrative lifting—making it feel like I was watching a 3D TV in my living room—okay, maybe more of a volumetric TV.
From a game mechanics perspective, I’m not against having any of that when it actually makes sense within the context of the world. As it is, Beyond Victory shifts you between MR and VR not because you need to pilot a podracer like a drone, or move a two-inch droid around the map because your real body is partially imprisoned in carbonite, or for any other reason that might suspend disbelief for the full two hours.
Image captured by Road to VR
You’re just in your living room one moment, and unceremoniously in a podracer garage with Sebulba the next. Simple narrative explanations, and maybe a bit of magic to dress my room up in MR to make it feel more like a galaxy far far away (and less like where I’m writing this review), could have bridged that inexplicable gap from being so jarring.
Okay, I do have one gripe about the game’s VR bit. Oftentimes there are invisible walls in larger areas, which force you to stay within a set zone, usually for narrative reasons. Since Beyond Victory isn’t fundamentally a large format VR game though, I found it mostly forgivable, although still less immersive than it might have been.
Comfort
For all my gripes, the MR mode is very comfortable, allowing you to reposition and resize the board to fit your playing style, whether that be on the floor or in your lap. Podracing is frenetic, so your physical room anchoring you in place should be comfortable for most everyone.
As for the VR, there aren’t any wild rides or moments of forced locomotion outside of the optional head shake, which you can turn off in the settings. Locomotion options include your standard set of comfort modes, including teleport and smooth movement, smooth and variable snap-turning, and also standing and seated modes.
‘Star Wars: Beyond Victory – A Mixed Reality Playset’ Comfort Settings – October 7th, 2025
This is great news for people who don’t want to wake the neighborhood up when a streaming show suddenly turns into an aggressively loud ad for migraine medication.
Governor Gavin Newsom just signed the law and the ban goes into effect on July 1, 2026. On that date, streaming services won’t be allowed to “transmit the audio of commercial advertisements louder than the video content the advertisements accompany.”
�TURN DOWN THE VOLUME
Californians don’t want to hear commercials at a volume any louder than what they were previously enjoying their program at.
I just signed legislation enforcing this regulation across streaming platforms.
Newsom said that California is “dialing down this inconvenience across streaming platforms, which had previously not been subject to commercial volume regulations passed by Congress in 2010.” He’s referring to the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation (CALM) Act, which barred the audio of TV commercials from being broadcast louder than the TV program being aired. California’s new law makes streaming platforms comply with those same volume regulations.
The bill was authored by State Senator Tom Umberg, who said it was inspired by “every exhausted parent who’s finally gotten a baby to sleep, only to have a blaring streaming ad undo all that hard work.” The full text of the bill is available right here.
California holds some major sway in the entertainment industry, so here’s hoping that this type of legislation will come to other states. Americans don’t agree on much, but everyone hates loud ads.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/california-bans-loud-commercials-on-streaming-platforms-155809660.html?src=rss
Changes are coming to the Play Store in spite of a concerted effort from Google to maintain the status quo. The company asked the US Supreme Court to freeze parts of the Play Store antitrust ruling while it pursued an appeal, but the high court has rejected that petition. That means the first elements of the antitrust remedies won by Epic Games will have to be implemented in mere weeks.
The app store case is one of three ongoing antitrust actions against Google, but it’s the furthest along of them. Google lost the case in 2023, and in 2024, US District Judge James Donato ordered a raft of sweeping changes aimed at breaking Google’s illegal monopoly on Android app distribution. In July, Google lost its initial appeal, leaving it with little time before the mandated changes must begin.
Its petition to the Supreme Court was Google’s final Hail Mary to avoid opening the Play Store even a crack. Google asked the justices to pause remedies pending its appeal, but the court has declined to do so, Reuters reports. Hopefully, Google planned for this eventuality because it must implement the first phase of the remedies by October 22.
The sequel to 2022’s surprisingly engaging first-person clean-‘em-up, PowerWash Simulator, finally arrives on October 23.If you enjoyed the first game (along with the other 17 million people it got its hooks into), it looks like you’re in for even more shockingly dirty locations on which you can unleash your trusty power washer.
A new release date trailer shows off a variety of tools you can use to get the job done, as well your own customizable home base that you’re free to decorate, cover in muck and clean to your heart’s content. There are also cute cats to play with, a very knowing reference from the developers to this being a 2025 video game, which means you must be able to pet an animal of some description.
The latest trailer doesn’t focus on it, but PowerWash Simulator 2 also introduces split-screen co-op. The original quickly cemented itself as the ultimate chillout game, so you can now kick back and clean twice as effectively with the help of a buddy. You can also share campaign progress when playing online with friends.
PowerWash Simulator 2 hits the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Switch 2 and PC on October 23, and it’s coming to Game Pass, for those still hanging around those parts after Microsoft’s recent price hike. Here’s hoping for an eventual DLC add-on as good as the first game’s (slightly random) Shrek tie-in.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/powerwash-simulator-2-arrives-on-october-23-154854867.html?src=rss
We’re generally fans of the new windowed multitasking features in iPadOS 26—for people who want to use their iPads more like traditional laptops, the new system is more powerful, flexible, and predictable than the old Stage Manager, and it works on a wider range of iPads.
But some users on Reddit and elsewhere objected to Apple’s wholesale removal of the old multitasking mode, Split View (which allowed two apps onscreen at a time with a handle for adjusting the amount of screen they took up) and Slide Over (which allowed a small window to be swiped over top of your screen and then quickly dismissed when you were done with it).
Split View was reasonably easy to recreate with the new system, but users who had relied on Slide Over bemoaned the lack of an equivalent feature in iPadOS 26. Apple apparently agrees because the second developer beta of the upcoming iPadOS 26.1 adds Slide Over support back into the operating system (as reported by MacRumors). Like the old Slide Over window, the new one sits on top of all your other apps and can be invoked and dismissed whenever you want.
New to Prime Day? We have a primer on everything you need to know. Sales are accurate at the time of publication, but prices and inventory are always subject to change.
I take my post-workout recovery seriously. I’ve tried all kinds of different massage guns and non-gun gadgets, and it’s no exaggeration to say that these kinds of devices have changed my life. TheraBody is probably the most well-known household name in massage guns, and right now, the TheraBody TheraGun Prime—normally priced at $319.99—is available for $219.99 on Amazon during Prime Day.
The Theragun Prime really stands out because it’s seriously quiet compared to most massage guns out there. A lot of cheaper models sound like you’re using a power tool on your muscles, but Theragun’s QuietForce Technology keeps things nice and low-key. You can actually use it while watching TV or without bothering everyone around you. Plus, the signature triangular handle design comes in handy, especially when you need to reach those awkward spots on your back and shoulders without contorting yourself or asking someone for help. The battery life is another huge plus—you get about two hours per charge, which means you’re not constantly hunting for the charging cable.
What’s really cool is that it connects to your phone via Bluetooth. The Therabody app walks you through different routines and shows you how to target specific sore spots, which is super helpful if you’re not totally sure what you’re doing. The Prime has four speed settings that go from 1,750 to 2,400 percussions per minute, so you can keep it gentle for a warmup or really dig in deep after a tough workout. It’s versatile enough that beginners won’t feel overwhelmed, but it still packs enough punch for serious athletes.
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.
Walmart’s Prime Day competition sale runs from Oct. 6 at 7 p.m. ET through Oct. 12 and includes deals up to 50% off. It’s an especially good option if you have Walmart+.
Best Buy’s Prime Day competition sale runs from Sept. 27 through Oct. 12, and has some of the best tech sales online. It’s an especially good option if you’re a My Best Buy “Plus” or “Total” member.
Target’s Prime Day competition sale runs from Oct. 5 through Oct. 11, and it has deals going up to 50% off. You can become a Circle member for free.
