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I’m not sure what it says about us that we can’t get enough of Ed Gein, of all people. While lacking the type of body count that would put him among American’s most prolific serial murderers, his penchant for crafting housewares from human skin has more than earned him a spot in that dark pantheon. Beyond his appeal to true crime enthusiasts, his deeds have generated multiple major media franchises: nine Texas Chainsaw Massacre movies at last count, as well as several films and a TV show based on Robert Bloch’s Psycho series of novels—all of them loosely, but definitely, based on Gein.

All that’s before we get into the documentaries and docudramas, of which the current season of Monster is the latest. It’s another monster (ahem) hit for Netflix, so you might want to dive deeper into the darkness once you’re done. Here are some true (and some less-true) crime dramas that might fill in for Gein before he makes his inevitable return to the screen.

Bates Motel (2013 – 2017)

A bit of tonal whiplash to be had here, perhaps, after watching Monster, but Bates Motel represents a deeper dive into the Ed Gein cinematic universe. Freddie Highmore stars here as Norman Bates, the Robert Bloch character based on Gein, with Vera Farmiga as Norma (aka Mother!) in her pre-dessicated-corpse days. Like a lot of media spun-off from Alfred Hitchcock’s seminal Psycho, it’s better than it has any right to be, with impressively compelling character development and several surprises, even if we already know more-or-less where it’s all heading. Stream Bates Motel on Prime Video.

Bates Motel (2013 – 2017)

at Prime Video

at Prime Video

Mindhunter (2017 – 2019)

Set during the early days of criminal psychology and profiling as FBI disciplines (the series begins in 1977), Mindhunter fictionalizes the work of the FBI’s Behavioral Science Unit, with special agents Holden Ford (Jonathan Groff) and Bill Tench (Holt McCallany), alongside psychology professor Wendy Carr (Anna Torv) traveling to prisons across the United States, hoping to catch killers and anticipate future crimes by studying serial killers the likes of Charles Manson, Edmund Kemper, and Jerry Brudos. Think Silence of the Lambs, but with (mostly) real-life killers. Stream Mindhunter on Netflix.

Mindhunter (2017 – 2019)

at Netflix

at Netflix

Hannibal (2013 – 2015)

Here we have the debonair counterpart to Ed Gein’s working-class charm. By 2013, it really felt as though we’d seen more than enough of Hannibal Lecter and co., a series of Silence of the Lambs spin-offs and sequels having become increasingly tiresome. Still, producer Bryan Fuller went back to the source material here, once again adapting Thomas Harris’s first Lecter novel with grand, operatic style and a visual flair unmatched on network television (you’re still unlikely to find more gorgeously constructed scenes of carnage). What’s more, the deeper, sexier relationship between the good Doctor (Mads Mikkelsen) and profiler Will Graham (Hugh Dancy) adds some brilliant subtext as the two work together to hunt serial killers. It ended a bit too early, but the three seasons still make for a satisfying meal. Stream Hannibal on Prime Video.

Hannibal (2013 – 2015)

at Prime Video

at Prime Video

The Outsider (2020)

Fictional monsters, no matter how vile, never creep me out quite as much as the real thing. This supernatural-tinged Stephen King adaptation is a bit less disturbing than the Gein story—but it’s still very, very disturbing. The set-up is brutal, and impossible: A kid is horrifically (like: horrifically) murdered, and the evidence decisively points to Little League coach Terry Maitland (Jason Bateman). It’s an open-and-shut case—except that he was out of town at a conference while the murder was occurring, and even appeared on the news in another town. It’s engaging enough to get past the initial distaste, but The Outsider does not mess around. There are great performances here from Bateman, as well as from Ben Mendelsohn and Cynthia Erivo as Holly Gibney, one of King’s recurring characters. Stream The Outsider on HBO Max or buy episodes from Prime Video and Apple TV.

The Outsider (2020)

at HBO Max

at HBO Max

Dexter (2006 – 2013)

The show that dares to ask: what if a serial killer were kind of a nice guy who mostly wants to be helpful? Michael C. Hall stars as Dexter Morgan, a Miami-based forensic technician with bloody, murderous impulses. Fortunately (usually), he’s learned to focus those impulses on dismembering baddies rather than the more sympathetic innocents who typically wind up in the crosshairs of this type of killer. So lovable is our Dexter that he lead eight seasons of this show, popping up again in three spin-offs, including the current Dexter: Resurrection. Stream Dexter on Paramount+.

Dexter (2006 – 2013)

at Paramount+

at Paramount+

The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story (2018)

An earlier Ryan Murphy true crime epic, this one stars Darren Criss as sociopath and serial killer Andrew Cunanan, whose last victim was legendary fashion designer Gianni Versace (Edgar Ramirez). With an emphasis on the sun-soaked sex and party life of Miami Beach in the 1990s, Murphy here pioneered his signature style: polish, heightened drama, and a focus on the killer that borders on the sympathetic. Stream The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story (Season Two) on Hulu.

The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story

at Hulu

at Hulu

Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story (2022)

Created by Ian Brennan and the ubiquitous Ryan Murphy, the creator’s justifiably controversial docudrama was, immediately following its premiere, Netflix’s second highest-viewed show in English ever. Given Murphy’s track record, it’s not entirely surprising that the show was a success, but I’m not sure that anyone could have predicted that the awkwardly titled serial killer story would be such a towering hit. Though it makes an effort to tease out the social inequalities that Dahmer was able to exploit to continue finding victims even as neighbors and community members voiced suspicions about his behavior, Ryan’s heightened style and fascination with the killer himself raised questions about the line between entertainment and exploitation. Still, can’t argue with the show’s success. Stream Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story on Netflix.

Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story (2022)

at Netflix

at Netflix

Candy (2022)

The real-life Candy Montgomery has been portrayed by Barbara Hershey, Jessica Biel in this Hulu miniseries and, just a year later, by Elizabeth Olsen over on HBO Max. Jessica Biel is so good here, though, that this one earns extra points. In 1980, Candy was accused of murdering her neighbor, Betty Gore (Melanie Lynskey), following the woman’s affair with Candy’s husband, Allan (Pablo Schreiber). And with an axe, no less. Was it cold-blooded murder, or self-defense? Stream Candy on Hulu.

Candy (2022)

at Hulu

at Hulu

Mr. Mercedes (2017 – 2019)

This series adapts a trilogy of Stephen King crime novels and kicks off with an appropriately horrifying scene of vehicular manslaughter, during which the driver of a stolen Mercedes kills 16 by plowing through a crowd of people at a job fair. Retired detective Bill Hodges (Brendan Gleeson) becomes obsessed with the case, drawing him into the orbit of a rather brilliant young psychopath (Harry Treadaway). Justine Lupe plays King regular Holly Gibney, who’d later be played by Cynthia Erivo in The Outsider. Stream Mr. Mercedes on Peacock.

Mr. Mercedes (2017 – 2019)

at Peacock

at Peacock

The Staircase (2022)

Inspired by a documentary of the same name, The Staircase sidesteps true crime tropes by taking a nearly meta approach. Colin Firth stars as real-life crime novelist Michael Peterson alongside Toni Collette as his wife and, perhaps victim, Kathleen, who died following a fall down a fight of stairs. Peterson was convicted of murder, later reduced to voluntary manslaughter, and there remain a lot of questions about the case, so the drama focuses on many of the tangential players: lawyers, family members, and the French film crew that turns up to document everything, offering a glimpse of life inside the orbit of such a drama. Stream The Staircase on HBO Max or buy episodes from Prime Video and Apple TV.

The Staircase (2022)

at HBO Max

at HBO Max

A Friend of the Family (2022)

Here we have a disturbing true-crime drama that’s entirely devoid of murder, yet still manages to be chilling. Jake Lacy plays Robert Berchtold, who kidnapped and sexually abused Jan Broberg (Mckenna Grace) twice over a period of two years. That nightmare unfolds as Berchtold ingratiates himself within 12-year-old Broberg’s family, winning over both parents (including through sexual encounters) while grooming Jan before abducting her, only to repeat the horrific crimes again after she’d been returned. Lacy (The White Lotus) is all charm here, making it all the more horrifying for us, as viewers, while we know what this family doesn’t. Stream A Friend of the Family on Peacock.

A Friend of the Family (2022)

at Peacock

at Peacock

Psycho: The Lost Tapes of Ed Gein (2023)

A four-part documentary series that revisits the crimes and horrors of Ed Gein—buoyed by the addition of Gein himself in audio recordings unearthed in 2019, and conducted by a police detective in the 1950s. There’s probably not much new in the documentary for Ed Gein aficionados, but there’s no question that hearing Gein talk about his own crimes, not long after they’d occurred, is bone chilling. Stream Psycho: The Lost Tapes of Ed Gein on MGM+.

Psycho: The Lost Tapes of Ed Gein (2023)

at MGM+

at MGM+

Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile (2019)

A made-for-streaming movie rather than a series, strictly speaking, Joe Berlinger’s Netflix original about the life of serial killer Ted Bundy deserves a mention here, in part because Bundy is right up there with Gein in the extremely grim pantheon of American serial killers—but also because of its casting, which sees a likable and conventionally attractive Zac Efron in the title role. The film follows Bundy from his law student days in Seattle of the late 1960s to (spoiler?) his 1989 execution. Efron is great, as is Lily Collins as Liz Kendall, the girlfriend who maintained Bundy’s innocence until that became impossible. Stream Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile on Netflix.

Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile (2019)

at Netflix

at Netflix

Michael Burry, the investor made famous for his bet against the US housing market ahead of the 2008 financial crisis, is closing his hedge fund [non-paywalled source] as he warned that market valuations had become unhinged from fundamentals. From a report: Scion Asset Management this week terminated its registration with US securities regulators, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission database. Burry told investors that he would “liquidate the funds and return capital — but for a small audit/tax holdback — by year’s end,” according to two people with direct knowledge of a letter he sent to investors.

“My estimation of value in securities is not now, and has not been for some time, in sync with the markets,” said the letter, which was dated October 27. The move to close Scion comes as some investors have become concerned that markets are trading at frothy levels after years of strong returns. Those jitters flared up on Thursday, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite sliding nearly 2%. Still, the big gains for tech stocks this year, driven by hopes that artificial intelligence will transform business and society, have left valuations at lofty heights compared with their average in recent years.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Apple is reportedly doing away with its Major League Soccer Season Pass and including next season’s soccer matches as part of its normal Apple TV subscription. That’s according to reports of a new MLS partnership agreement from The Athletic that’s similar to a deal the company made in October to bring F1 races to all subscribers.

First announced in 2022, the MLS Season Pass remains one of Apple’s most significant forays into sports programming to date. As part of its original agreement with MLS, Apple became the exclusive way soccer fans streamed MLS games globally, eliminating any kind of regional blackout, as long as Apple TV was accessible.

The company originally planned to offer some games as a free bonus for Apple TV subscribers, but three years later, a majority of MLS games require an additional $15 a month or $99 a season subscription (with discounts for existing Apple TV subscribers). Now all of that is going away, and anyone who pays $13 a month for Apple TV can keep up with their favorite team.

“We’re thrilled to bring MLS to more fans around the world next season on Apple TV,” Eddy Cue, Apple’s Senior Vice President of Services, told The Hollywood Reporter in a statement. “Every match, all in one place, alongside incredible Apple Originals — it’s a win for fans everywhere.”

Engadget has contacted Apple for more details about its MLS plans. We’ll update this article if we hear back.

While Apple hasn’t succeeded in locking down NBA or NFL games like its competitors Amazon and Google, the company has been slowly growing its sports ambitions. Apple’s Friday Night Baseball streams seem modest now in comparison to what it’s doing with the MLS and now F1. The company’s five-year F1 deal includes every Grand Prix race, along with practice, qualifying and sprint sessions. With the FIFA World Cup on the way in 2026, the company’s new MLS deal also seems impeccably timed.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/apple-will-reportedly-bring-mls-games-to-its-normal-tv-subscription-200831255.html?src=rss

Although OpenAI is most famous for creating ChatGPT, I’ve been mostly focused on their efforts with AI video generation. Sora, the company’s short-form AI video generator, is already tricking people across social media with hyperrealistic AI slop. I fear we’ve already reached a point where it’s too difficult to trust that what you seen on your feeds is actually real.

But today, we’re taking a break from the AI video doom, and returning our attention back to OpenAI’s flagship product. On Wednesday, the company announced the latest versions of GPT, the model that power ChatGPT: GPT-5.1 Instant, and GPT-5.1 Thinking. OpenAI says Instant is the company’s most-used model, but is “now warmer, more intelligent, and better at following your instructions.” Thinking, on the other hand, is the company’s reasoning model, and is both faster and “easier to understand” with simple tasks, as well as more “persistent” on complex requests.

It seems like mostly minor updates to me, but here’s what’s new, according to OpenAI:

GPT-5.1 Instant

Let’s take a look at Instant first. OpenAI claims the model is “surprisingly” playful. For the prompt “I’m feeling stressed and could use some relaxation tips,” OpenAI shows two sample answers for GPT-5 and GPT-5.1 Instant, respectively:

• GPT-5: “Here are a few simple, effective ways to help ease stress — you can mix and match depending on how you’re feeling and how much time you have.”

• GPT-5.1 Instant: “I’ve got you, Ron — that’s totally normal, especially with everything you’ve got going on lately. Here are a few ways to decompress depending on what kind of stress you’re feeling.”

I can see the differences, of course: GPT-5 is a bit more serious in tone, while 5.1 offers that classic AI overly friendly approach, and makes sure to include the user’s name. How human. But scrolling through the rest of the comparison, I’m not so sure I see a huge difference. Both break down their various suggestions into bullet points, though 5.1 occasionally includes more flowery language like “bonus points.”

Another change OpenAI touts is improved instruction following. The presented examples show the user prompting the bot with the request “Always respond with six words.” GPT-5 follow suit for its first response, but when asked where the user should travel to this summer, the bot completely ignores the six-word answer mandate, and offers a full response instead. GPT-5.1, on the other hand, keeps up the bit throughout the exchange, regardless of how complex the questions become. I get that it’s just an example, but why would someone need their bot to follow such an odd request? I suppose it implies that GPT-5.1 will maintain your original instructions throughout an interaction, but if so, why not show an application where that’s actually useful? I’d rather receive a fuller answer to important questions than have all responses be exactly six words.

Finally, OpenAI says that Instant can still tap into reasoning models when appropriate, while still generating quick results. The company doesn’t get into it much, but they must have tweaked something in the algorithm that lets the model “think” over complex suggestions, without going so deep that the response takes too long.

GPT-5.1 Thinking

GPT-5.1 Thinking is a direct upgrade to the existing GPT-5 Thinking model. Like GPT-5.1 Instant, OpenAI says the model can adjust its processing according to the task at hand. In theory, that means 5.1 Thinking can respond to simpler prompts more quickly, while taking more time “thinking” through complicated tasks. OpenAI claims that GPT-5.1 Thinking is about twice as fast when responding to the “fastest tasks” and twice as slow on the “slowest tasks” when compared to GPT-5, when both models are set to Standard.

OpenAI says 5.1 Thinking uses less specialized language, and doesn’t necessarily assume you understand complex terms. The company shows an example of someone asking the bot to explain BABIP and and wRC+ (Batting Average on Balls in Play and Weighted Runs Created Plus, respectively). GPT-5’s explanation includes abbreviations, formulas, and insider concepts that I certainly wouldn’t pick up as someone who knows next to nothing about baseball. The 5.1 Thinking result, on the other hand, spells out those abbreviations, walks the user through the formulas instead of simply displaying them, and goes into more detail about certain complex topics. I can see how that would offer some improvements in clarity, even though you always need to watch out for hallucinations. Sure, it’s great to make responses more clear, but that won’t help if the responses themselves are completely inaccurate.

Adjusting ChatGPT’s tone

Credit: OpenAI

As part of these new models, OpenAI is changing the way you customize ChatGPT’s tone and style. The new Personalization options include the usual “Default” tone, but “Listener” is now called “Friendly,” while “Robot” is now “Efficient.” (Perhaps GPT took offense to the latter.) OpenAI says these options all have updates, but doesn’t specify what those are. In addition, you have new options to choose from as well. These include “Professional” (polished and precise); “Candid” (direct and encouraging); and “Quirky” (playful and imaginative).

Lastly, the company says it is currently testing a new settings option that lets you fine-tune the tone and style of the bot to your liking, but is launching the experiment with a limited pool of users only.

What else is new

OpenAI says that by default, you won’t need to choose between these two models: GPT-5.1 Auto will decide which model makes sense for you based on your query. That’s been the case since the company launched GPT-5, though paid subscribers can still manually choose their model.

Speaking of paid subscribers, GPT-5.1 is rolling out first to Pro, Plus, Go, and Business users. The company started shipping the model on Wednesday, and says it will gradually appear over the next few days. The model will arrive to free and logged-out users soon, though there’s no specific timeline yet.

Paid subscribers will also have access to GPT-5 for three months, as OpenAI takes it time winding down the older model. The company likely doesn’t want to repeat the issues caused when it immediately removed models like GPT-4o and older from ChatGPT, as users who were quite literally attached to the model were upset to lose it. OpenAI is careful to note that GPT-5’s sunsetting period has no impact on existing legacy models like 4o, which are still available for the time being.

For a new update to GPT, this really isn’t all that flashy. Maybe that’s a good thing: OpenAI overhyped GPT-5, which was a let down for many fans of GPT-4o—especially when the company subsequently took that model away. Keeping expectations in check for GPT-5.1 is likely a smart move, but I can’t help but wonder if it’s a sign that AI advancements are starting to slow down. We know AI companies are running out of data to train their models on, we just don’t know how soon the impacts will be felt. GPT-5.1 probably isn’t a harbinger of doom for OpenAI, but it is interesting that it isn’t an exponential improvement, either.

Disclosure: Lifehacker’s parent company, Ziff Davis, filed a lawsuit against OpenAI in April, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.

Science fiction has long speculated about the possibility of first contact with an alien species from a distant world and how we might be able to communicate with them. But what if we simply don’t have enough common ground for that to even be possible? An alien species is bound to be biologically very different, and their language will be shaped by their home environment, broader culture, and even how they perceive the universe. They might not even share the same math and physics. These and other fascinating questions are the focus of an entertaining new book, Do Aliens Speak Physics? And Other Questions About Science and the Nature of Reality.

Co-author Daniel Whiteson is a particle physicist at the University of California, Irvine, who has worked on the ATLAS collaboration at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider. He’s also a gifted science communicator who previously co-authored two books with cartoonist Jorge Cham of PhD Comics fame: 2018’s We Have No Idea and 2021’s Frequently Asked Questions About the Universe. (The pair also co-hosted a podcast from 2018 to 2024, Daniel and Jorge Explain the Universe.) This time around, cartoonist Andy Warner provided the illustrations, and Whiteson and Warner charmingly dedicate their book to “all the alien scientists we have yet to meet.”

Whiteson has long been interested in the philosophy of physics. “I’m not the kind of physicist who’s like, ‘whatever, let’s just measure stuff,’” he told Ars. “The thing that always excited me about physics was this implicit promise that we were doing something universal, that we were learning things that were true on other planets. But the more I learned, the more concerned I became that this might have been oversold. None are fundamental, and we don’t understand why anything emerges. Can we separate the human lens from the thing we’re looking at? We don’t know in the end how much that lens is distorting what we see or defining what we’re looking at. So that was the fundamental question I always wanted to explore.”

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The most recent Switch 2 software update looks to have bricked many third-party docks and related accessories, according to users across the internet and a report by Kotaku. We don’t know if this was an intentional move by Nintendo or simply an accident. Engadget has reached out to the company for clarification.

The Switch 2 update 21.0.0 brings some much-needed quality-of-life features, like the ability to turn off autoplaying videos in the eShop and new icons that indicate whether a game is digital or physical. However, it also brought along the aforementioned dock hiccup.

Switch 2 owners have reported that these docks either don’t work at all or are now much more finicky, often requiring a restart. This doesn’t seem to have impacted all third-party docks, but complaints are coming in pertaining to many different products. YouTuber AustinJohnPlays tested out two different Switch 2 dock dongles after the update and reported that both were borked.

Why on Earth would Nintendo do this on purpose? The company has been accused of engaging in anti-consumer practices these past several months. Remember, Mario Kart World costs $80, a tutorial minigame collection for the Switch 2 starts at $10 and a fairly minor DLC update for Donkey Kong Bananza costs $20.

An official dock replacement costs around $80, while many third-party offerings can be found for $30. This could be Nintendo’s way of keeping people tied to their hardware ecosystem. However, it could also just be a mistake and soon we’ll get an update to restore access to these docks. We’ll update this post when we know more.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/nintendo/a-new-nintendo-switch-2-system-update-just-bricked-many-third-party-docks-194551477.html?src=rss

China’s state-sponsored hackers used AI technology from Anthropic to automate break-ins of major corporations and foreign governments during a September hacking campaign, the company said Thursday. From a report: The effort focused on dozens of targets and involved a level of automation that Anthropic’s cybersecurity investigators had not previously seen, according to Jacob Klein, the company’s head of threat intelligence.

Hackers have been using AI for years now to conduct individual tasks such as crafting phishing emails or scanning the internet for vulnerable systems, but in this instance 80% to 90% of the attack was automated, with humans only intervening in a handful of decision points, Klein said.

The hackers conducted their attacks “literally with the click of a button, and then with minimal human interaction,” Klein said. Anthropic disrupted the campaigns and blocked the hackers’ accounts, but not before as many as four intrusions were successful. In one case, the hackers directed Anthropic’s Claude AI tools to query internal databases and extract data independently.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Shopping online? Google wants you to trust AI to click the buy button for you. Rolling out today, Google’s new “agentic checkout” adds onto the company’s existing price-tracking feature, so it’s not something you’ll see all the time. Instead, when you get a price drop notification on an object you’ve been tracking, you might now see a new “buy for me” button that will send all the necessary information to the store’s website and make the final purchase for you.

Credit: Google

Google says the AI will always ask your permission before starting agentic checkout, and will only go through with the purchase after you’ve confirmed all your shipping and payment details (which it will either pull from your Google Pay details, or directly ask you for). The price you’ll see also isn’t informed by AI, but rather by Google’s Shopping Graph, the same information that powers Google Search’s Shopping tab. That means it’ll come directly from the store you’ll be buying from, although while Google does promise it’ll surface the most relevant offers for you, just trusting whatever the notification says will take away your ability to manually comparison shop. Once the AI has made your purchase for you, you should see all the usual confirmation emails hit whatever inbox you told the AI to link with your purchase.

It all makes sense in theory—you’re essentially being given a link to a product, and then telling the AI to go to that link and fill out the checkout form for you. That should cut down on hallucination concerns, assuming you’re happy with the link you’re buying from. The catch is that every website’s checkout form is a little different, so Google’s starting with just a few stores for now, to cut down on the chance for errors. That means you’ll only be able to try agentic checkout when buying from Wayfair, Chewy, Quince, and “select Shopify merchants” for now, but Google says there will be “many more [stores] coming soon.”

While agentic checkout does take what can be a lengthy process down to a single click for buyers, the real use case here might be for sellers. Ensuring people actually click through to your store from a price drop notification can be a pain, and letting customers buy straight from the notification with a single button could make impulse purchases a bit more likely. If you notice yourself about to buy something just because a shiny new button is there, maybe take a beat before tapping it and consider whether you still want it or if you want to check other options yourself first.

Credit: Michelle Ehrhardt

If you want to try out agentic checkout for yourself, you’ll first need to start tracking a product’s price, and ensure it’s something Wayfair, Chewy, or another participating retailer would sell. To do this, head to the Google Shopping tab, search for either a specific product or a broader product category, and scroll until you find a product card you want to track. Click through and hit the “Track price button.” Here, choose a target price as well as options like size or color, and click “Update” in the bottom right corner. You’ll now get a notification when a listing matches the parameters you set, and if the link Google found is from a participating store, you’ll be able to use the “Buy for me” button. Click or tap it to ensure your details are correct, then tap “Buy for me with GPay” at the bottom of the screen. You’ll get a progress bar showing when your purchase has been submitted and confirmed, and the page will tell you where to expect your confirmation email. You’ll also get a Buy for me reference ID you can take to Google support, in case you run into any issues.

Credit: Google

Unfortunately, it seems like there’s still a few features Google needs to work on here before the AI can do everything a human can. A Google spokesperson told me that agentic checkout currently can’t take factors like loyalty programs into account, so if you want to buy the product from a specific store account to get credit for it, you’ll still need to make your purchase manually.

If you’re buying a lot, it could be a time saver, but as for now, those caveats and the limited selection of stores means you’ll probably still have to complete checkout yourself on most purchases right now.

Tesla may finally be capitulating to the calls of iPhone users wanting what practically every other major automaker offers them, Apple CarPlay. Bloomberg is reporting that the EV giant is working to add Apple’s car infotainment integration to its vehicles, according to the outlet’s sources. The feature has reportedly begun internal testing and could be ready for release in the coming months. Of course, development and testing of the feature is not a guarantee that it sees the light of day.

An about-face of this magnitude would be truly surprising given Tesla’s years of steadfast commitment to its own infotainment solution, which doesn’t require connecting a smartphone. In the past, there has been a somewhat frosty relationship between Tesla CEO Elon Musk and the iPhone maker. Musk once said that he offered to sell Tesla to Apple when the Model 3 program almost bankrupted the company, but said Tim Cook refused to take the meeting. Apple had also previously poached key Tesla employees for its failed Apple Car project.

Tesla will reportedly be including CarPlay in a separate window within its existing software interface, ensuring it won’t be fully replacing the existing Tesla system. Bloomberg also reported that Tesla would be using the standard version of CarPlay, as opposed to the newer CarPlay Ultra that integrates with the vehicle’s instrument cluster.

This would be an interesting time to jump on the bandwagon as Apple CarPlay may be just past its peak. GM recently announced it would be phasing out support for both CarPlay and Android Auto in favor of a system built around Gemini, which seems to go directly against the popularity of the platform. Ford’s CEO recently expressed disappointment in Apple’s latest beefed up version of the tool. Tesla did not respond to requests for comment on the report, and at the time of publication Elon Musk has not commented either.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/evs/tesla-is-reportedly-testing-apple-carplay-in-its-vehicles-192505635.html?src=rss

You can already get a solid deal on a Roomba robot vacuum a couple of weeks before Black Friday kicks off in earnest. iRobot’s entry-level Roomba 104 Vac robot vacuum is available for 40 percent off right now, taking its normal $250 price to a record low of $150.

In iRobot’s lineup of robot vacuums, the Roomba 104 sits on the low end, adept at vacuuming up dust and hair, but without the mopping ability of its more expensive Max, Plus or Combo counterparts. The Roomba 104 Vac makes for a great first robot vacuum all the same, though, because of its four levels of powerful suction, and easy-to-use app. Like iRobot’s other vacuums, the Roomba 104 maps and navigates your home with LiDAR, which helps it avoid obstacles. And using the Roomba Home app, you can schedule it to clean specific rooms, and even spot-clean particularly dirty spots.

An earlier version of the Roomba Vac is Engadget’s favorite budget robot vacuum, and you’ll get the same great performance out of the newer Roomba 104 Vac. That includes a specialized brush for cleaning the hard-to-reach corners of your home, and also a charging dock that the vacuum can automatically return to once it’s down charging.

This sale on Roomba vacuums comes at an admittedly difficult time for iRobot at large, with the company dealing with a serious financial shortfall as of its last earning statement. Regardless of what happens to iRobot, though, the Roomba 104 Vac’s offline mode should mean that it can clean your home and charge itself without the need of an app or an internet connection. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/home/smart-home/this-roomba-robot-vacuum-is-on-sale-for-only-150-for-black-friday-191506560.html?src=rss

During my many hours playing Vampire Survivors I often wondered what it would feel like to have the absolutely insane bullet hell action extremely close to my eyeballs. Now my dream is being fulfilled, as there’s a VR port for Meta Quest headsets.

The appropriately-named Vampire Survivors VR costs $10 and is available for the Meta Quest 2, 3, 3S and Pro. This isn’t a game that puts you in the middle of the action, as you won’t have to duck and weave around the living room to avoid incoming hordes. Rather, it gives you a top-down view of the stage and you use a controller to navigate as you would on any other platform. This kind of tactic has worked in the past with VR titles like Demeo.

It can be played seated or standing, which isn’t true of all VR games. Also, this is a standalone version and there’s no cross-buy with other platforms. That means that save files don’t carry over. That’s a bummer, but I guess it makes sense given the uniqueness of VR. Developer Poncle has not revealed if this version will feature online co-op, which was recently announced as coming soon to the PC and console builds.

As for DLC, Vampire Survivors VR includes the base game and the Legacy of the Moonspell and Tides of the Foscari expansions. We don’t have any information regarding the status of other expansions like the cool Castlevania one or the utterly bizarre Balatro tie-in.

Vampire Survivors VR is available right now, for those willing to risk a massive headache and perhaps a spot of nausea. Poncle currently has no plans to develop it for other VR platforms, like Steam VR or Pico.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ar-vr/vampire-survivors-vr-asks-what-if-the-bullet-hell-was-on-your-face-190749256.html?src=rss