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On Monday, Apple officially announced the AirPods Max 2. As the name implies, this is the first major update to the AirPods Max since Apple introduced the over-the-ear headphones in 2020. The company previously rolled out a minor refresh for the AirPods Max, but this only replaced the original pair’s Lightning port with USB-C, and enabled Apple to add a couple neat perks via software update. AirPods Max 2, however, come with new features out of the gate—features that Apple’s earbuds have actually had for years.

First, an answer to the question most likely on your mind: No, Apple did not change the price. These headphones are still $549, which is expensive, even for high-end over the ear headphones. Take a look at PCMag’s list of the best headphones for 2026, and you’ll see similar options from competitors like Sony and Bose reach up to $450 or $460, but none break $500—and you’ll often find huge discounts on these headphones to boot. The AirPods Max’s price tag has always made these headphones hard to recommend, even though I personally love them. That’s still the case with the AirPods Max 2.

Still, Apple is offering a lot more functionality for the same price, and seeing as $549 in 2020 is worth nearly $700 in 2025, you are getting quite a bit more for your money with the AirPods Max 2. The new headphones get Apple’s H2 chip, which Apple says improves noise cancellation by up to 1.5 times, and enables “even more natural” Transparency mode. The company says the new headphones have a new high dynamic range amplifier “for even cleaner audio,” while maintaining the sound signature from the previous generation AirPods Max. Meanwhile, Spatial Audio sounds “better than ever” with “more accurate and consistent bass response, and more natural-sounding mids and highs.” Like the USB-C AirPods Max, these headphones support 24-bit 48 kHz lossless audio when connected via a wired USB-C cable.

AirPods Max 2’s “new” features

So, according to Apple, AirPods Max 2 sound better than AirPods Max. That’s to be expected from a new generation of headphones. In my view, however, the real upgrade here are all the “intelligent” features that AirPods Max 2 now support. For the first time, AirPods Max supports Adaptive Audio, which automatically adjusts noise cancellation and Transparency levels to match your environment. That also includes Conversation Awareness, which automatically lowers the volume and reduces background sounds when you start speaking. That way, you can hear someone clearly while having a conversation with your AirPods Max on, and when you’re done talking, your audio comes back at its previous volume.

The new AirPods also support Voice Isolation, which blocks out background noise and emphasizes your voice during calls, as well as Personalized volume, which adjusts the volume based on your past preferences. There’s “Loud Sound Reduction,” which caps the loudness of externals sounds while preserving the sounds themselves. (You could wear these to a concert and still hear everything, but protect yourself from sounds that are too loud.) You can also nod or shake your head to interact with Siri, rather than speak your commands. (If Siri asks you whether you’d like to respond to a message, you can nod to accept, or shake your head to dismiss.) You can also take advantage of Live Translation, Apple’s feature that translates conversations on the fly.

The thing is, none of these features are actually new, and with exception to some (namely Live Translation), have been available on some AirPods models for years. It’s great that Apple finally added them to the AirPods Max, but it is frustrating that the USB-C model didn’t include them for that $549 price point.

Apple says that you can pre-order AirPods Max 2 starting March 25, in midnight, starlight, orange, purple, and blue, and that the headphones will be available starting early next month. Now that these headphones are official, however, keep an eye out for discounts on the previous generation AirPods Max. Amazon tends to have good deals on AirPods Max from time to time, and now that there’s a new model, the previous ones should go down in price even more—as long as there’s availability. As of this piece, the best deals appear to be on renewed models.

AirPods Max (Renewed)

$399.00
at Amazon

$399.00
at Amazon

An animated reboot of Firefly is in early development at 20th Television Animation with Nathan Fillion involved. The project has Joss Whedon’s blessing and will be run by writers Tara Butters and Marc Guggenheim, with early concept art already underway. According to the Hollywood Reporter, “The series would be set in the timeline between the original, 11-episode TV run in 2002 and the 2005 feature film continuation, Serenity.” You can watch Fillion announce the Firefly reboot on Instagram.

When the first episode of the original series premiered in late 2002, Slashdot reader fm6 wrote: “Firefly, Joss Whedon’s ‘anti-Trek drama’ premieres tonight, on Fox, 8 E/P. I normally despise hypespeak, but this time it’s the only language that fits: this is groundbreaking, mind-boggling, totally original. I’ve seen a bootleg of the pilot (which, unfortunately, the network is holding back) and I promise you this is the most geek-friendly SF you’ve seen in a long time. Yes, more so than Star Trek and B5, and way past Star Wars. I’ve never seen the future so skillfully, realistically, and lovingly portrayed. Here is the Official Site and a leading fan site.” “This is the single new show this season I have added a season pass for to the old Tivo,” CmdrTaco said at the time. “But I’ll probably watch it live. This looks like it could be as good as we hope.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

A coalition of Big Tech companies is working on a more comprehensive solution to combat online scams. As first reported by Axios, Google, Microsoft, LinkedIn, Meta, Amazon, OpenAI, Adobe and Match Group announced the signing of the Online Services Accord Against Scams. The new agreement is meant to put up a united industry-wide front against online fraud and scams, particularly those from sophisticated criminal networks that use multiple platforms.

According to the Axios report, the measures will include adding fraud detection tools, introducing new user security features, and requiring more robust verification for financial transactions. The agreement will also set up best practices for scam detection, prevention and reporting, while encouraging the sharing of information between companies and law enforcement. On the policy side, the coalition will call on the governments to “declare scam prevention a national priority,” according to Axios. While these measures are extensive, the report noted that they’re all voluntary since the accord doesn’t mention any penalties if the companies don’t follow through.

Many of the companies involved in the new accord already have experience in dealing with scams found on their own platforms. Earlier this month, Meta announced several new features across Facebook, Messenger and WhatsApp that would alert users about suspicious friend requests or accounts. Last year, LinkedIn introduced a new verification requirement for company recruiters or executives to address scams targeting job seekers on its platform.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cybersecurity/tech-companies-are-teaming-up-to-combat-scammers-144616545.html?src=rss

Galaxy phone owners have been able to use Samsung DeX to access a desktop mode for years at this point, and now Google Pixel users have a similar feature to call their own. The latest Android 16 QPR3 release, pushed out at the start of March 2026, lets you plug a Pixel phone into a monitor and access a desktop-like interface.

If you’re completely new to these desktop modes, they let you operate your phone as if it’s a Windows or macOS computer (sort of). The Android software and the apps don’t change, but you get a taskbar at the bottom of the display, the ability to run apps in windows alongside each other, and a few other helpful tweaks.

In theory, this can be a real boon to productivity. Sit down at your desk, and you can carry on using all the apps you’re familiar with on your phone, only with the added convenience of a larger display, as well as a mouse and keyboard. Mobile apps like Slack and Google Docs are now capable enough that most features available on the desktop can be used on mobile.

A simple launcher lets you access your apps.
Credit: Lifehacker

There are quite a few caveats, however. You need a Pixel 8 or newer for this to work, as well as a USB-C DisplayPort connection. You’re also going to need a Bluetooth mouse and keyboard connected to your phone to make the most of this: Pixels don’t yet have the use-your-phone-as-a-trackpad functionality of Samsung DeX.

If you do have the necessary hardware in place for this to work, it’s worth giving it a try, even at this early stage. You might find it’s helpful for working on the go and hot desking, or for finding a quiet place to work somewhere at home.

Using the desktop mode on a Pixel

While the desktop mode is now officially part of Android proper, don’t expect a flawless experience just yet. I managed to get my Pixel 9 hooked up to a monitor via a USB-C-to-DisplayPort connection, but this only worked directly—not through a hub. The display resolution maxes out at 1080p.

When you connect a compatible monitor to your Pixel’s USB-C port, you’ll see the choice to Mirror the phone display to the big screen or to open the new Desktop mode; it’s the latter one you want. With that done, you should see the desktop interface, and you can start clicking around with your connected mouse.

You can pin apps side by side.
Credit: Lifehacker

Everything is pretty easy to understand: You’ve got a taskbar at the bottom where your apps live, navigation buttons in the lower right corner, and a launcher button for opening more apps. Each app launches in a window that can be moved or resized as needed. If you hover over the resize button, you’ll find you can snap two apps side by side, if you want to.

One key benefit is that Chrome runs in desktop mode, so you get the full web experience—it’s great to be able to browse websites properly, rather than having to navigate through mobile versions. That said, when you try to log into sites such as Google Docs or Slack, you’ll get kicked out into the equivalent Android app, so it’s not quite the same as using an actual desktop computer.

It is possible to get stuff done, for sure—I typed out half of this article through Google Docs for Android on an external monitor—and for something in its early stages, it’s definitely usable. I appreciated being able to launch podcast and chat apps on a larger display and not have to worry about whether they were syncing back to my phone properly.

Many apps—including Netflix—don’t take full advantage of the extra space.
Credit: Lifehacker

App developers clearly haven’t caught up to this desktop mode yet. Apps like WhatsApp had misaligned buttons and oversized text in places, while most apps reverted to a standard tablet interface rather than a desktop one. With Netflix, for example, browsing the available titles felt like using a phone but just on a much bigger scale.

These problems will most likely get sorted over time, and it would be nice to see Google continuing to add features as well—such as the ability to use your phone as a trackpad for the desktop interface, once it’s connected, and better native monitor resolution support. With a bit more polish, this could be a seriously useful Android upgrade, and hopefully we’ll hear more about it at Google I/O in May.

As a tech journalist who uses Google Docs a lot, I’m used to clicking past various AI prompts and offers of assistance whenever I want to write something with my own human brain. Now, I’m going to have to use up even more clicks to hide the AI integrations on a blank page—though, this time, some of them actually seem genuinely useful.

Google is further upgrading Gemini’s capabilities in Google Drive and its online office apps: Docs, Slides, and Sheets. You can now produce entire documents and spreadsheets with a prompt, create text that matches a particular style, and pull in relevant information from your Google Drive files, Gmail, Google Chat, and the web. These changes make Gemini inside Google Workspace “more personal, capable and collaborative” Google says, and they’re rolling out now to Google AI Pro and AI Ultra subscribers with English set as their default language.

The old (top) and new (bottom) Gemini interfaces in Google Docs.
Credit: Lifehacker

Google Docs gets new Gemini features

The new changes are most evident when you open up a new document: You’ll see a new Gemini bar down at the bottom of the screen, together with various options for matching the style of another document with AI-generated text, and dropping in elements like an email draft or notes from a meeting. You can bring up this bar at any time by clicking the Gemini star icon at the bottom of your document.

You can type any prompt you like into the Gemini bar. Want a short story about fish? Need to send a stern email about on-street parking to the neighbors? Gemini can help. I actually tried the fish story one, and it wasn’t too bad, in a generic sort of way. If you click the + (plus) button down in the lower left corner, meanwhile, you can choose to import data from Google Drive, Google Chat, Gmail, and the web.

Gemini wrote me a short story about fish.
Credit: Lifehacker

This gives you a host of options. You can draft an email to your boss, and pull from your previous correspondence with them, for example, or plan a travel itinerary based on the recommendations someone has given you in Google Chat. I got Gemini to produce a table listing all the Oscar 2026 winners and it worked flawlessly. (Thank you to the human writers who published this information online.)

There are more ways to refine existing text, as well as generate new text. Just highlight a part of a document, then use a prompt to describe the changes you’d like. I asked Gemini to make the introduction to this article “more upbeat and jokey” and it suggested dropping in phrases like “hold on to your hats” and “AI bestie.” (I declined to add them.) I also gave the new style matching feature a go. In a blank document, if you click the sliders icon on the Gemini bar, you can choose Match writing style to pick out an existing Google Doc. Your subsequent prompts for text generation will then match the style of the selected documents.

You can choose where Gemini looks for importing data.
Credit: Lifehacker

When I pulled from my own work, Gemini was able to produce text that did read vaguely like I’d written it, but it was still rather stilted and, well, artificial. (That said, I could tell the difference from standard AI text.) For me, it’s the ability to pull in information from elsewhere that makes this most useful, rather than the text generation capabilities. I told Gemini to connect to Google Drive and summarize everything I’d written for Lifehacker this year, and it did a respectable job: The doc was neatly formatted, informative, and (as far as I could tell) accurate.

Gemini also has new features in Sheets, Slides, and Drive

The updates in Sheets and Slides are similar to Docs: You get a much more prominent Gemini prompt box, and the ability to import data from your other files, chats, and emails. I keep a text document of teams for our local five-a-side soccer matches, and tried to get Gemini to create a spreadsheet showing how often each player had shown up. It worked perfectly. Impressive stuff.

I also tried to get Gemini to produce an entire spreadsheet around a fictional school sports day, and again it came up with results that I couldn’t really fault. I could then apply edits to the demo spreadsheet with further prompts, and didn’t have to bother with editing cells at all. The AI will sometimes ask you to approve a particular action, but it’s mostly a smooth and straightforward process.

Google suggests you could build a spreadsheet organizing a house move, for example, pulling in relevant emails and documents as needed. You can also use web or Google Drive searches to fill in data alongside relevant row and column headings—like the Oscar example mentioned earlier. You can plot the years across the top with an ‘Oscar Best Picture Winner’ heading, and Gemini does the rest. The Gemini integration inside Slides isn’t quite as advanced yet, however. The ability to generate entire decks is still “coming soon” Google says. However, you can already pull in data from other sources and the web, match slideshow styles to an existing deck, and use prompts to tweak all aspects of your presentation. For me, this was still a bit hit or miss, with some odd formatting and text choices.

As a Brit, the only upgrades I haven’t been able to try out myself are the Gemini upgrades for Google Drive interface. Unlike the other updates, these are only available in the U.S. for the time being. Based on Google’s information and the demos I’ve seen, you can think of these upgrades as AI Overviews for your cloud storage rather than the web as a whole.

This school sports day never happened: Gemini made it up.
Credit: Lifehacker

That means you can ask natural language questions about whatever’s in your Google Drive, questions like “how many times have I written about Gemini in 2026?” for example. Google’s own example is selecting a bunch of tax documents and asking Gemini for questions you should give your tax advisor about them.

My gripes about AI-generated text and the erosion of our abilities to write aside, these upgrades do seem genuinely useful. They promise to reduce the time you spend on simple and repetitive tasks, and make creating files with information from your other Google apps (or the web at large) much more straightforward.

The AirPods Max 2 are almost here. Apple announced this morning that the first true update to its over-hear phones are up for pre-order on March 25 and will be shipping in early April. They look identical to the predecessor, with large, colorful earcups and a matching headband. But inside is the H2 chip that Apple first introduced with the AirPods Pro 2, which enables a host of new features. Chief among those is improved noise cancelation — Apple says with the H2 and improved audio algorithms, the AirPods Max 2 are 1.5 times more effective at reducing noise than the old model.

From an audio perspective, there’s a new amplifier on board here as well for clearer music and improved spatial audio performance. If you want lossless music, you can get that by using the included USB-C cable.

There are also a host of new features for the AirPods Max 2 enabled by the H2. These include an “Adaptive Audio” mode that balances between transparency and ANC modes depending on the environment so you can hear things when you need to while still blocking extraneous noise. Similarly, the conversation awareness features lower the volume of your content and increase transparency when your’e speaking. Live Translation comes to the AirPods Max 2 as well, a feature that uses your AirPods and iPhone to translate incoming speech to and from the language of your choosing.

Apple

Essentially, the AirPods Max 2 now have almost all the features you’ll find in the AirPods Pro 3, just in an over-ear design. What hasn’t changed is the price — AirPods Max 2 still cost $549, notably more than most of the competition. Despite the high price, the first AirPods Max did sound exceptional — they’ve just been hard to recommend for years because of the aging feature set and cost.

Given that the first AirPods Max were released in 2020, these new headphones are long overdue and are probably what we should have got in 2024 when Apple added USB-C but otherwise didn’t change anything besides refreshing the colors.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/audio/headphones/apple-announces-the-airpods-max-2-with-improved-noise-cancelation-and-h2-chip-133319594.html?src=rss

Republican lawmakers in multiple states and Congress are advancing proposals to shield polluters from climate accountability and prevent any type of liability for climate change harms—even as these harms and their associated costs continue to mount.

It’s the latest in a counter-offensive that has unfolded on multiple fronts, from the halls of Congress and the White House to courts and state attorneys general offices across the country.

Dozens of local communities, states, and individuals are suing major oil and gas companies and their trade associations over rising climate costs and for allegedly lying to consumers about climate change risks and solutions. At the same time, some states are enacting or considering laws modeled after the federal Superfund program that would impose retroactive liability on large fossil fuel producers and levy a one-time charge on them to help fund climate adaptation and resiliency measures.

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This week, the young people on TikTok have uncovered a new way to prepare breakfast and an evocative way to describe the feeling that something bad is coming. That’s a pretty good week, but they’ve also taken to LARPing as artificial intelligence, and finding something interesting about Staples stores. Here’s what all of that means.

What are “frambled eggs”?

I can’t believe I never thought of this. “Frambled” is a portmanteau of “fried” and “scrambled.” It’s eggs prepared partly scrambled, but with the yolk intact. The culinary breakthrough seems to have been invented by TikToker @bussyrelate in this video:

Although their commenters are calling it a “sunny scramble,” as if it’s an known egg preparation style. New or not, everyone else on TikTok is giving it a shot.

Judging from the videos I’ve been watching, there are two schools of frambled eggs. One is scrambled egg whites with intact yolk. The other is one egg fully scrambled mixed carefully in the pan with an egg where the yolk isn’t touched. The preferred method seems to be to scramble ’em right in the pan, but you could separate the whites and yolks, scrambled the whites, and then put them in the frying pan. If you want to be fancy.

What does “The saxophones are getting louder” mean?

This meme-speak phrase isn’t used that widely among young people, but it’s such an evocative piece of slang, you should know it anyway. “The saxophones are getting louder” describes a feeling of impending disaster. It’s a reference to the scene in 1991’s Boyz n the Hood where the sound of a screeching saxophones precedes the death of Ricky.

The meme seems to have started with this video:

but has since expanded to include any situation in which doom is imminent.

The saxophones start getting louder when you remember there’s pistachios in the dessert right after your allergic brother gives it a taste:

when the nurses at the hospital start moving quickly:

when there are gunshots at the pool party:

and maybe whenever you start really thinking about what’s happening:

If you like ominous videos as much as I do, check out the collection connected to the sound clip.

“Your AI Slop Bores Me” lets people replace AI

I love a free web game, especially one that comments on AI. Your AI Slop Bores Me cuts the artificial out of artificial intelligence and lets you ask questions or request drawings from an anonymous human instead. Or you can become the AI and answer queries. The answers highlight the difference between fake intelligence and people. You don’t get responses like this from ChatGPT:

Credit: Stephen Johnson

or like this:

Credit: Stephen Johnson

Viral video of the week: Staples Baddie

If you’re like me, you think ubiquitous office supply store Staples is boring, if you think of Staples at all. But we are so wrong. To a growing number of young people, Staples is more than a place to get printer paper when you forget to order it from Amazon. Staples is cool, and it’s thanks to one person: TikTok user and Staples employee Kaeden Rowland. Dubbed “Staples Baddie,” Rowland’s TikTok channel is blowing up, with millions of views on videos describing the things you can do at your local Staples. Like make a custom mug:

Or a personalized signature stamp:

You can make stickers, too. Or have a mailing sent out to masses of people. There’s a lot.

While Staples Baddie’s popularity is no doubt making Staples Corporate happy, another supposed Staples wage slave is not happy at all. “I’m a Staples worker and Staples Baddie is ruining my life,” says Aran in a TikTok response video. “Staples was not a busy store. We would maybe have three people in the store at any given time. Now that the Staples Baddie has gone viral, we get hundreds of people every day.”

“I was really loving how my job was just kind of sitting around,” Aran concludes.

On a deeper level, this could all be a corporate advertising. According to CNN’s reporting, Staples Baddie is legitimately a Staples employee, but I saw the story of Aran on People.com, and that publication seemed unaware that Aran doesn’t actually work at Staples: In other videos they’ve posted, Aran has claimed to work at Spirit Halloween, AMC, and has said they are a med student.

Even if he doesn’t work there, according to many Staples employees online, Aran’s point is legit, and Staples Baddie is making things harder for everyone else at the chain store. “If they’re just a regular person and not a marketing ploy, higher up employee or being paid extra, it makes me mad that customers see a fun glimpse instead of what we deal with, how we’re treated and how little we get paid,” posts Reddit’s u/Dear_Ad63.

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Samsung’s new Galaxy S26 Ultra launches with the usual Ultra series promise: the biggest screen, the most capable cameras, and the most features in the company’s lineup. It also launches with prices that reflects that ambition ($1,299.99 to $1,799.99). That said, Samsung is running an early promotion from March 16 through April 20 that can soften the blow. Buyers can save up to $720 with an eligible instant trade-in credit, or get $150 in credit without a trade-in to use toward other eligible Samsung devices. The deal applies directly through Samsung’s store, where the phone is also available with configuration options for storage and color.

Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra

Trade-in deal: up to $720 in instant credit

at Samsung

at Samsung

The S26 Ultra builds on the formula Samsung has refined over the past few years. The phone keeps the large Ultra-style display, now using Samsung’s newest OLED panel with a high refresh rate and a peak brightness designed to stay readable in direct sunlight. Samsung also introduced a new privacy display feature that limits viewing angles so people nearby cannot easily see what’s on your screen. That feature was introduced alongside the phone during the company’s 2026 Unpacked event, and it is aimed at commuters or frequent travelers who often use their phone in public places. Samsung is also leaning heavily on the camera system this year. As we covered in our earlier look at the S26 cameras, the company appears confident about improvements to image processing and zoom performance.

The Ultra line still targets people who treat their phone as their primary camera, and the hardware reflects that focus. Samsung built the S26 Ultra around a large multi-sensor camera system paired with its latest computational photography tools, aimed at users who regularly shoot photos, video, or social media content from their phone. But the device remains big and expensive even with discounts. Samsung raised prices across the S26 lineup this year, which we covered in our breakdown of the price increase. That makes the launch promotion more relevant for anyone already planning to upgrade from an older Galaxy device.