Category: 4. Technology

Summer is here and for many of us, travel is on the mind. But with costs increasing seemingly across the board, stretching our budgets for a vacation is a luxury some of us are reconsidering. Hyatt is here to help make your summer travel aspirations a reality by slashing the cost of your stay during its Americas Summer Sale. 

Right now, World of Hyatt members can save up to 25% off qualifying stays at participating hotels. Not a member? Don’t sweat, it’s free to join.

A couple of caveats to consider: First, you must be a member to take advantage of this promotion. Second, be sure to make your booking between now and July 7 to qualify. Additionally, your stay must fall between July 2 and Sept. 30 at a participating location. Note, too, that the discount applies to room rate only and reservations are subject to availability. 

Hey, did you know? CNET Deals texts are free, easy and save you money.  

Hyatt has hotels in the US, Canada, Mexico, Central and South America and the Caribbean, so you should be able to find a destination that works for you. Some popular options worth considering (and that are offering 25% off your booking) include the Grand Hyatt Baha Mar, a beachfront getaway in the Bahamas or the Tommie Austin, which is part of JdV by Hyatt in Texas, which sports a rooftop pool and bar. And for families looking to travel to Florida theme parks this summer, consider the Hyatt House Orlando for your stay. 

Why this deal matters

Travel is expensive, so when you can find a deal on lodging it’s usually in the off-season. Hyatt is making it easier to book a vacation this summer by slashing a quarter off the price of your stay. With locations in multiple cities and countries, this is a great chance to get out of the house — whether you’re a global jet-setter or picking a nearby spot. And if you need more travel savings, we’ve found discounted luggage, too.

Amazon’s early Prime Day sale started off slow, but as the event draws closer to its official kickoff on July 8th, it’s beginning to pick up steam. Right now, for example, Prime members can grab an Amazon Echo Hub at Amazon for just $119.99 ($60 off), marking a new low price.

As you might expect, Amazon’s controller makes managing your smart home a breeze. Rather than switching between apps or using voice commands, the Echo Hub allows you to control your smart home from a single, easy-to-use interface. With just a tap of its eight-inch touchscreen, anyone at home can turn on lights, adjust the smart thermostat, or view a live feed from their video doorbell or security camera. If you use Alexa Routines, you can even create personalized shortcuts to automate multiple tasks, meaning you can dim the lights, lock the doors, and adjust the thermostat with just a single tap. And while it works best with other Amazon devices, what makes it a terrific value is that it also supports both Matter and Thread, allowing you to connect it to platforms beyond Alexa.

As an added bonus, the Echo Hub can function like a stripped-down Echo Show, one you can power via a single ethernet cable and place either on your counter or mount on your wall for a cleaner, more streamlined setup. You can also use it to showcase favorite photos, check your to-do list, play music, and even stream videos. The sound quality isn’t as impressive as it is on Amazon’s newer smart displays — and it lacks support for video calls — but it makes up for it by offering a more private, distraction-free experience that’s void of both ads and unwanted cameras.

Apple has filed a patent for a new type of image sensor that could give future iPhones and other Apple devices the ability to capture photos and videos with dynamic range levels approaching that of the human eye.

The patent, titled “Image Sensor With Stacked Pixels Having High Dynamic Range And Low Noise,” was first spotted by Y.M.Cinema Magazine and describes an advanced sensor architecture that combines stacked silicon, multiple levels of light capture, and on-chip noise suppression mechanisms to reach up to 20 stops of dynamic range.

For comparison, the dynamic range of the human eye is estimated to be around 20 to 30 stops, depending on how the pupil adjusts and how light is processed over time. Most smartphone cameras today capture between 10 and 13 stops. If Apple’s proposed sensor reaches its potential, it would not only surpass current iPhones but also outperform many professional cinema cameras, such as the ARRI ALEXA 35.

The patent outlines a stacked sensor design made up of two layers. The top layer, called the sensor die, contains the parts that capture light. The layer underneath, the logic die, handles processing, including noise reduction and exposure control.

Currently, Apple uses sensors made by Sony across the iPhone lineup. Those sensors also use a two-layer design, but Apple’s version includes several original features and takes up less space.

One of the most important parts of the sensor design is a system called a Lateral Overflow Integration Capacitor (LOFIC). This allows each pixel in the sensor to store different amounts of light depending on how bright the scene is, all in the same image. With this, the sensor can handle extremely wide lighting differences, such as a person standing in front of a bright window, without losing detail in the shadows or highlights.

Another part of the design focuses on reducing image noise and grain. Each pixel has its own built-in memory circuit that measures and cancels out heat-related electronic noise in real time. This is done on the chip itself, before the image is saved or edited by software.

Patent filings cannot be taken as evidence of Apple’s immediate plans, but they do indicate areas of active research and interest for the company, as well as what it is considering developing for future devices.

Summer is just about here, and I have the perfect Bluetooth accessory that’s worth scooping up before you hit your next destination. Amid the possibility of a new generation of the Apple AirTag, we’re seeing big discounts on the Bluetooth tracker, making this the best time to buy the current generation. The Apple AirTag 4-Pack is on sale for 24% off right now, and the AirTag is one of those products I love so much that I must share it with everyone. 

Also: The best Amazon Prime Day tech deals live

I use AirTags to track wallets, keys, remote controls, and even my young kids. Over the past few years, AirTags have become this iPhone user’s go-to tracking device since they’re easy to use, small enough to slip in a bag or outerwear, and extremely reliable. And because there are so many aftermarket cases and holders made for AirTags, you can use them to track anything, including your bike, luggage, and car. 

Also: How to find out if an AirTag is tracking you – and what to do about it

You can now buy an Apple AirTag 4-pack from Amazon for $75 — which is about $25 for peace of mind. AirTags are nearly $30 each at regular price, so this is a legitimately good deal. Plus, this is a few dollars off from the lowest price we’ve ever seen for the 4-pack. If you’d prefer to only purchase one AirTag, you can for $24, but this value pack is the only way to score an AirTag for $20 right now. 

Thanks to my husband, who always forgets where he puts his wallet, keys, and even his shoes, I’ve gone through several different Bluetooth trackers. While I can easily solve his incessant forgetfulness to lock the doors and close the garage with smart devices, I struggled for years to find a reliable Bluetooth tracker for our smaller items — until I tried the AirTag.

The Apple AirTag is so reliable for iPhone users that you can find out where it is down to a fraction of a foot’s length with your phone. The iPhone’s Find My app tracks the AirTag through Bluetooth, the Find My network, and ultra-wideband (UWB), a connectivity protocol that shows high-accuracy directional data. This results in highly accurate tracking information to help you find your lost devices within minutes.

Also: I finally found Bluetooth trackers for Android users that function better than AirTags

Once I tried the AirTag, I couldn’t consider returning to another Bluetooth tracker. The Apple AirTag is reliable enough to trust blindly with my home’s most frequently lost items. Thanks to how many AirTag holders for different devices, I use AirTags for my husband’s wallet, our car keys, our remote control, and even wristbands for my kids.

I like to keep tabs on our younger kids, so I give them an Apple AirTag on a wristband when we go to crowded places. As much as I try to hold their hands when out and about, I have three kids and only two hands, so it’s easy to find my rowdy toddler trying to escape my grip in search of shiny things or fun places to hide. While I tend to be hypervigilant of said threenager, having my kids wear AirTags gives me an extra piece of mind during fairs and other crowded events.

Looking for the next best product? Get expert reviews and editor favorites with ZDNET Recommends.

How I rated this deal 

AirTags are a popular Bluetooth tracking tool for locating keys, wallets, luggage, and more. But they’re not always available at a discount, especially since they’re Apple products. I’ve been following the price of this AirTag 4-Pack for a year and a half during the busiest sales events, including Amazon Prime Day, Black Friday, and more. ZDNET’s rating system grants this 24% offer a 3/5 editor’s deal rating. This certainly isn’t the lowest price I’ve seen for AirTags (a $65 price offered some months ago), but this $75 price is one of the best prices I’ve seen in 2025.

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Most of Earth’s water is in the oceans and too salty to drink. Desalination plants can make seawater drinkable, but they require large amounts of energy. Now, researchers reporting in ACS Energy Letters have developed a sponge-like material with long, microscopic air pockets that uses sunlight and a simple plastic cover to turn saltwater into freshwater. A proof-of-concept test outdoors successfully produced potable water in natural sunlight in a step toward low-energy, sustainable desalination.

This isn’t the first time scientists have created spongy materials that use sunlight as a sustainable energy source for cleaning or desalinating water. For example, a loofah-inspired hydrogel with polymers inside its pores was tested on chromium-contaminated water and, when heated by the sun, the hydrogel quickly released a collectible, clean water vapor through evaporation. But while hydrogels are squishy and liquid-filled, aerogels are more rigid, containing solid pores that can transport liquid water or water vapor. Aerogels have been tested as a means of desalination, but they are limited by their evaporation performance, which declines as the size of the material increases. So, Xi Shen and colleagues wanted to design a porous desalination aerogel that maintained its efficiency at different sizes.

The researchers made a paste containing carbon nanotubes and cellulose nanofibers and then 3D-printed it onto a frozen surface, allowing each layer to solidify before the next was added. This process formed a sponge-like material with evenly distributed tiny vertical holes, each around 20 micrometers wide. They tested square pieces of the material, ranging in size from 0.4 inches wide (1 centimeter) to about 3 inches wide (8 centimeters), and found that the larger pieces released water through evaporation at rates as efficient as the smaller ones.

In an outdoor test, the researchers placed the material in a cup containing seawater, and it was covered by a curved, transparent plastic cover. Sunlight heated the top of the spongy material, evaporating just the water, not the salt, into water vapor. The vapor collected on the plastic cover as liquid, moving the now clean water to the edges, where it dripped into a funnel and container below the cup. After 6 hours in natural sunlight, the system generated about 3 tablespoons of potable water.

“Our aerogel allows full-capacity desalination at any size,” Shen says, “which provides a simple, scalable solution for energy-free desalination to produce clean water.”

Reference: Zhao X, Yang Y, Yin X, Luo Z, Chan KY, Shen X. Size-insensitive vapor diffusion enabled by additive freeze-printed aerogels for scalable desalination. ACS Energy Lett. 2025. doi: 10.1021/acsenergylett.5c01233

This article has been republished from the following materials. Note: material may have been edited for length and content. For further information, please contact the cited source. Our press release publishing policy can be accessed here.

Eevee’s so awesome that July 2025 will mark its third appearance in Pokémon GO Community Day events. July’s Community Day Classic featuring Eevee takes place July 5 and 6, 2025, from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m. local time, proving once again that Eevee’s magic can’t be contained to a single day. During this time, Eevee will appear more frequently in the wild, and fortunate Trainers might even encounter Shiny Eevee.

As always, event bonuses are hotter than Flareon’s fiery breath, and the following bonuses will be in effect throughout the event.

• Evolve Eevee into Espeon after exploring 1 km with Eevee as your buddy (through July 12, 2025, at 10:00 p.m. local time)

• Evolve Eevee into Umbreon after exploring 1 km with Eevee as your buddy (through July 12, 2025, at 10:00 p.m. local time)

• Evolve Eevee into Sylveon after earning seven hearts with Eevee as your buddy (through July 12, 2025, at 10:00 p.m. local time)

• 1/4 Egg Hatch Distance

• Lure Modules activated during the event will last for three hours

• Incense (excluding Daily Adventure Incense) activated during the event will last for three hours

Trainers who evolve Eevee before July 12, 2025, at 10:00 p.m. local time will get an Evolution that knows a featured attack. Catch or evolve Eevee to get the following attacks.

• Eevee caught or hatched during this time will know the Charged Attack Last Resort

• Vaporeon will know the Charged Attack Scald

• Jolteon will know the Charged Attack Zap Cannon

• Flareon will know the Charged Attack Superpower

• Espeon will know the Charged Attack Shadow Ball

• Umbreon will know the Charged Attack Psychic

• Leafeon will know the Fast Attack Bullet Seed

• Glaceon will know the Charged Attack Water Pulse

• Sylveon will know the Charged Attack Psyshock

It would be a slight exaggeration to say there are as many research opportunities as there are Eevee Evolutions. But between the event’s Special Research, Special Background Timed Research, and Field Research, there are plenty of ways to keep busy and earn useful rewards. July Community Day Classic–themed Field Research tasks are mostly focused on catching Eevee to earn rewards such as Stardust, Great Balls, additional encounters with Eevee, and more.

Tickets for Community Day Classic Special Research are available in the in-game shop for US$1.99 (or the equivalent pricing tier in your local currency). Evolve your research game by completing the tasks to earn rewards including one Premium Battle Pass, one Rare Candy XL, additional encounters with Eevee and its Evolutions, and three encounters with Eevee that have a Delightful Days–themed Special Background.

Last but certainly not least, keep the momentum going with Special Background Timed Research. Log in during the event to receive Timed Research leading to an encounter with an Eevee with a Delightful Days–themed Special Background. Trainers will also have an increased chance of encountering Shiny Eevee in these research task rewards. Tasks associated with Timed Research must be completed and rewards claimed by July 12, 2025, at 10:00 p.m. local time.

Have a nice, normal Community Day Classic, Trainers!

Last month at WWDC, Apple announced a major upgrade for Apple TV: TVOS 26. This upgrade introduces a significant visual overhaul and several unprecedented entertainment features. The platform offers a new layout and interface, along with smart features that weren’t available in TVOS 18.

At the heart of the update is a new design language called Liquid Glass, which gives the interface a more vibrant and expressive look. Across iOS 26 devices, Liquid Glass offers floating, three-dimensional menus and windows, translucent UI elements like icons and menus allowing background visibility, and a rounded design with softer edges for a more organic interface look.

Also: The best Apple TV VPNs of 2025: Expert tested and reviewed

For Apple TV, in particular, the redesign will now showcase cinematic poster art for a more immersive browsing experience. The update also streamlines profile switching and app logins, making it easier to access personalized content. Apple’s TVOS 26 is also expected to incorporate new Apple Intelligence features in the coming year.

Additionally, Apple Music Sing will now let users sing along — karaoke style — with friends using their iPhones (as a microphone) with on-screen lyrics. Even better, multiple iPhones can be connected simultaneously, allowing friends and family to join in. They can queue up their favorite tracks and send emoji reactions that appear on the TV screen in real-time.

Other notable updates include a more personalized FaceTime experience with the addition of Contact Posters and an expansion of Live Captions to translate languages like Spanish, French, German, and more.

Also: The 5 biggest MacOS features announced at WWDC 2025

The beloved Aerial screen savers are also enhanced with captivating landscapes, and for the first time, users can choose which categories of screen savers to display. Finally, a key audio upgrade will now allow users to designate any AirPlay-enabled speaker as the permanent, default audio output for their Apple TV.

Lastly, at WWDC 2025, Apple TV+ announced new content options on its streaming app. A short list includes: “Foundation,” “Chief of War,” “Slow Horses,” “The Savant,” and several others.

Get the morning’s top stories in your inbox each day with our Tech Today newsletter.

In my three-plus decades of watching Microsoft, I’ve seen the company do some truly dumb things. The transition from Windows 10 to Windows 11 deserves a spot at the top of the list. What’s most impressive is that the strategy it’s been executing is bad for Microsoft’s customers, and bad for the company’s bottom line. A real lose-lose proposition.

Also: Microsoft unveils Windows 11 25H2 – here’s who can try it now and how

In 2021, when Microsoft’s engineers were putting the finishing touches on what would become Windows 11, the plan was to make it a conventional release that would have allowed most Windows 10 PCs an easy upgrade path. But someone at Microsoft killed that plan, creating a series of headaches that will become exceptionally costly and painful for businesses and consumers at the end of 2025. 

And it didn’t have to be this way. To understand why, we need to talk about the long history of Microsoft Windows support policies.

Microsoft’s 10-year support lifecycle

Since the mid-1990s — the start of the modern Windows era — Microsoft has committed to support every new commercial release of Windows for at least 10 years — five years of mainstream support and five years of extended support. That commitment was formalized a quarter-century ago with the release of Windows 2000; it expanded to officially include consumers in 2012.

And that 10 years was about the operating system, not the hardware. Because of the company’s obsessive focus on backward compatibility, you could pretty much count on your PC being able to run the latest version of Windows for at least a dozen years and maybe even 15 years. If you bought a PC with Windows 7 preinstalled in 2010, you were able to upgrade it to Windows 8 in 2012 and then Windows 10 in 2015, and many of those devices are still running Windows 10 productively in 2025.

Also: How to get Windows 10 extended security updates for free: 2 options

That’s why it was such a rude shock when Microsoft released Windows 11 in 2021 with a set of unexpectedly rigid hardware restrictions. The requirements were so severe that they blocked upgrades even on PCs that had been purchased new only two or three years before Windows 11 was released. That effectively reduced the support lifecycle to well under 10 years for hundreds of millions of PCs designed and built between 2016 and 2019.

If you felt like you’d just had the rug pulled out from under you by someone in Redmond, well, you’re not alone.

The chaotic launch of Windows 11

Windows 11 went through one of the most compressed development cycles in the long history of the OS. Announced in June 2021, tested in an Insider Preview cycle for about three months, then released in October 2021.

The way that announcement played out was just an absolute mess from a corporate communications standpoint. The online launch event on June 24, 2021, was so glitchy that most of the invited press and analysts were unable to watch it. And that was just the start. To remind myself of how insane that week was, I reread a piece I wrote at the time: “Will your PC run Windows 11? Even Microsoft can’t say for sure.”

Also: Can’t upgrade your Windows 10 PC? Here are your options before it all ends in 3 months

Oh man, did that bring back a flood of unpleasant memories. I encourage you to read that post and look at the number of times I had to update it after Microsoft execs backtracked, revised, hemmed and hawed with every detail of the launch. They then memory-holed the confusing record they had created, doing such a thorough job that even the Internet Archive can’t locate the original documents.

But after doing that research and reading contemporaneous posts from other sources covering the same topic at the same time, I think I know what happened.

When Windows 11 was announced, Microsoft had prepared two sets of system requirements.

• The first set of requirements included detailed CPU compatibility checks as well as the requirement for a TPM 2.0. Microsoft called this the Soft Floor.
• The second set would have allowed any machine that was made for Windows 10 to be upgradeable to Windows 11, although they would see a message warning them that an upgrade is not advised. This was called the Hard Floor, and it would have given PCs built between 2015 and 2018 an upgrade path that would keep them running after Windows 10 support ended in 2025.

Those requirements were public on June 25, 2021, when a Microsoft volunteer moderator on the Windows community discussion forum reassured some anxious questioners that their unsupported processors were a “soft floor requirement.” He even quoted from the Compatibility Cookbook.

Also: How to install Windows 11 your way (and avoid Microsoft’s restrictions)

The next day, he edited the post to acknowledge that the information was no longer valid and that the referenced pages had been removed. You can see the original text in strikeout mode here:

Oops.

What happened?

I have no inside knowledge about what was going on inside the conference rooms at One Microsoft Way that week, but my guess is that two factions in the executive suite were fighting over what to do with one Windows 11.

One group was holding out for allowing both sets of requirements to coexist so that they could retain Microsoft’s traditional 10-plus-year support lifecycle.

Also: How to do a clean install of Windows 11: See which option is best for you and why

All the documentation that came out around the Windows 11 announcement in June 2021 acknowledged both sets of requirements. The engineers who had been building Windows 11 wanted to release a broad set of compatibility recommendations that discouraged — but did not prohibit — upgrades on older PCs that met the hard floor. “Devices that do not meet the hard floor cannot be upgraded to Windows 11, and devices that meet the soft floor will receive a notification that upgrade is not advised.”

The other group wanted to draw a line in the sand, customers be damned.

Guess who won.

As part of their victory lap, those hard-liners ruthlessly erased every trace of the original requirements, at least in document form. For more than three years, a Microsoft Support page called “Ways to install Windows 11” included detailed instructions on how to modify the registry and create installation media to upgrade Windows 10 PCs that contained at least a TPM 1.2 and had an unsupported CPU. Microsoft removed those instructions in December 2024. (You can find a copy of the original page on the Internet Archive.)

But it didn’t remove the registry keys and other workarounds that had made it possible to upgrade those older but still functional Windows PCs so they could have their normal 10-plus years of life. You can still use those small tweaks today to install and run Windows 11 on hardware that met the “hard floor” requirements. (That’s Option 1 in my guide: “How to upgrade your ‘incompatible’ Windows 10 PC to Windows 11 – 2 free options.”)

Also: How to clear the cache on your Windows 11 PC (and why you shouldn’t wait to do it)

Blocking those perfectly functional machines from upgrading was rude, it was thoughtless, and it was, from a purely capitalist point of view, an amazingly effective way to alienate a huge proportion of your customer base.

Why did this happen?

Hundreds of millions of PCs that are running Windows 10 today can’t be upgraded to Windows 11 using supported tools. How many? Who knows? My best guess is that about 50% of the Windows 10 installed base is ineligible for an upgrade, which adds up to at least 500 million PCs — maybe a couple hundred million more, if you believe Microsoft’s optimistic numbers.

For PCs in managed corporate environments, Microsoft can squeeze out $427 per machine for a three-year subscription to the Extended Security Updates program, or convince those customers to upgrade to new hardware or move those workloads to cloud-based Windows 365 PCs. Either strategy will put money in Microsoft’s pocket.

Also: 6 things I always do after setting up Windows 11 – and why you should too

As for consumers and small, unmanaged businesses, well, y’all have been an afterthought for the past four years. But the prospect of having all those machines suddenly cut off from security updates runs the risk of creating a security nightmare at the end of this year. So, in a move that any reasonable person could have predicted four years ago, Microsoft in late June caved — not by extending the end-of-support date for Windows 10 but by agreeing to give away one-year ESU subscriptions to consumers with Microsoft accounts who are willing to jump through a few hoops.

That doesn’t solve the problem. It just kicks the can down the road for 12 months and gives consumers and small businesses something to be even more confused about. I expect to receive an avalanche of email this fall from people unsure about their options and nervous about whether it’s safe to keep using their old, perfectly good PC. Some of them will simply pay the $30.

And let’s be clear: If these requirements are really about security, then why is Microsoft willing to take money from its business customers to allow it to keep delivering updates to the “insecure” older operating system for three full years after the end-of-support date? And why is it limiting individual customers and small businesses, who are running the same OS on identical hardware, to a one-year extension?

Also: 7 quick ways to make Windows 11 less annoying right now

It’s almost like Microsoft thinks those small-fry customers are more trouble than they’re worth, just a headache. It can squeeze out some revenue by making Windows more annoying, but those commercial/enterprise customers are a much more dependable and lucrative source of revenue.

Bottom line: It didn’t have to be this way. Microsoft could have chosen to roll out Windows 11 in a more traditional way, giving a compatibility break to older machines. Instead, it chose this path. And now it’s paying the price.

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The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria developer Free Range Games has reportedly laid off the entire development team of an unannounced game, which totaled around 80 employees.

Via LinkedIn, multiple developers shared the news and announced their job searches over the past week. This includes senior UX/UI designer Quinn Le, senior technical narrative designer James Binns, executive producer Jacob Van Rooyen, quest designer Tracy Runanin-Telle, and senior producers Adrienne Daniel and Joseph Knox.

“On Monday, the project I’ve been working on for the last 4 years was pulled from our hands, and our entire development team was laid off,” Lee wrote. “We are all saddened, off-balance, but most of all, looking to the future.”

Knox said that the project had “its publisher pull funding,” which has affected “80 devs.” Daniel also mentioned this figure in their farewell post. Runanin-Telle’s profile mentions an unannounced project, in which the designer did “content creation for multiple quests in an open-world setting,” amidst a myriad of other tasks.

Free Range Games is yet to make an announcement acknowledging the latest reported layoffs. Two weeks ago, at least five developers wrote a post saying they were now seeking new work opportunities. Four of them used the same messaging, which reads as follows: “Hi everyone! I’m seeking a new role and would appreciate your support. If you hear of any opportunities or just want to catch up, please send me a message or comment below.”

Related:Xbox closes The Initiative and cancels its Perfect Dark reboot

Shortly after, one of them, lead quest designer Adam Alim, wrote, “here we are again with the layoffs,” sharing details about their past experience alongside a portfolio.

Free Range Games previously laid off employees in April 2025

According to the company’s LinkedIn profile, there are at least 117 employees associated with it. The reported layoffs mark the second time the company has let go of workers this year. The first took place three months ago, which the studio announced via social media.

The company didn’t disclose the exact number of employees affected in the earlier layoffs, but it did say that “some of them” had “chosen to share their profiles” along with the announcement. The list included 13 people across multiple departments.

The studio is currently working on an online skateboarding game called Wrekless, which is set to release “soon” on Steam Early Access. It’s unclear if this is the project that was reportedly shut down. The studio has previously served as an external developer on games like The Callisto Protocol and Oddworld: Soulstorm.

Related:Former Ubisoft execs convicted for sexual assault, psychological harassment

Game Developer has reached out to Free Range Games for comment on the matter.

The Roku Ultra streaming device is on sale for $79, the lowest price we’ve ever seen. 

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Although I’m an iPhone user with an Apple TV 4K, I love using different streaming devices — I never feel committed to a single brand. Different brands offer different features, and adding a new device to an older TV can make it feel like a brand-new television. This happened with my Fire TV when I added a Roku Ultra.

Also: The Google TV Streamer surprised me in the best way – and I’m an extreme cord cutter

I have a habit of getting deeply discounted Fire TVs during major shopping events like Black Friday and Prime Day. I got a 50-inch 4-Series Fire TV during Prime Day 2022 and a 43-inch Omni Series Fire TV during Prime Day 2023. The 4-Series television looks great, but its FireOS platform has begun to slow down significantly even though the model came out only three years ago – I guess it’s the price you pay for an inexpensive TV.

This could be a storage issue, but I’ve tried deleting apps I don’t need and the cache on apps I do, and nothing makes a significant difference. The TV only has 2GB of RAM, so it could also be unable to keep up with all the apps I run on it.

This set is the main character in my family’s TV room and gets many streaming hours courtesy of my kids. This room is adjacent to their playroom, so it’s like a one-stop shop where they play, draw, read, and watch TV. It’s also where we have family movie nights.

When I began testing the new Roku Ultra, I ditched the built-in FireOS and added the new streaming device to the TV. The Roku Ultra made the 4-Series Fire TV perform better than when it was first purchased, and it also looks better than ever, likely thanks to the extra memory on the device. 

Also: Apple TV vs. Roku: Which streaming device should you buy?

Testing the Roku Ultra has made it one of my favorite streaming devices, and it’s all due to a single underrated benefit among smart devices: simplicity. 

The Roku Ultra is an unassuming device with a simple operating system that is easy to learn and navigate, even for those who aren’t tech-savvy. It doesn’t bombard you with ads and suggested content when you turn on your TV and lets you dive right into navigating its intuitive, app-based platform. 

Also: The Amazon Fire TV Omni QLED is great for gaming and streaming, and still 25% off

The Roku platform has ads, but they’re banner ads rather than obnoxious content that plays automatically when the TV is idle on the home screen (looking at you, FireOS). The Roku Ultra is also compatible with Wi-Fi 6, though not with Wi-Fi 6E or Wi-Fi 7, as other streaming players are. 

Faithful to simplicity, the Roku Ultra doesn’t feature extra bells and whistles; instead, it keeps all the technology within the device and remote control. The Roku Ultra looks similar to previous versions, if a bit larger, but the new remote is an absolute winner. 

Aside from being 30% faster than other Roku streaming devices, the new Roku Ultra comes with the latest Roku Voice Remote Pro. This is easily the best remote control among streaming devices, packed with all the features you’ll need: backlit buttons, a customizable shortcut button, a rechargeable battery with a USB-C port, and a voice-controlled remote finder feature.

Also: The most immersive gaming speaker system I’ve ever tested is almost 30% off at Amazon

Since my kids seem to always be in the TV room watching our Fire TV, the remote control is often lost. It’s been squished into the reclining mechanisms on one of the chairs, resulting in a cracked Alexa Voice Remote that, thankfully, still works. Now I only have to say, “Hey Roku, find my remote” when I can’t see it. 

Among streaming players, Roku also features the most free channels; Roku Channel offers more than 400 live channels. If live TV is something you’ve been missing since cutting the cord, I’d definitely recommend Roku’s subscription-free live TV system. 

ZDNET’s buying advice

The Roku Ultra is perfect for anyone looking for a fast, reliable streaming device that is easy to use with almost any smartphone. Unlike the Apple TV 4K and the Google TV Streamer, direct competitors catering to specific audiences, the Roku Ultra supports both Apple AirPlay and screen mirroring from Android, so you can cast your media to your TV regardless of the operating system on your phone. 

I’d recommend the Roku Ultra streaming device to anyone looking for a fast, intuitive device who doesn’t want to marry a single mobile operating system.

Also: I tested Amazon’s Mini LED Fire TV, and it competes with more expensive Samsung and LG models

Though Fire TV devices also support screen mirroring from iOS and Android, the FireOS platform is more cluttered than the Roku system, with a lot of suggested content on the home screen and more ads. I also find that Fire TV devices are more prone to slowing with age, seemingly bogged down by updates and memory issues.