Category: 4. Technology

Meta Ray-Bans have often been very difficult to find in stock at both retailers and online stores for the past two years — and they rarely go on sale. But one of the best ways to not only get a 20% discount but also find some of the styles that have been discontinued or are rarely ever in stock is to use the little-known Meta Refurbished AI Glasses online store. 

I recently ordered a pair of Meta Ray-Bans in the Skylar style with the Shiny Caramel finish with Polar Brown lenses. If you’ve followed Meta Ray-Bans, then you’ve probably seen these before because they are in a lot of the Meta promotional materials. The frames themselves are semi-transparent, so you can see a lot of the technology inside. And the lenses have that amber tint that’s popular in lots of sunglasses because it gives the world a bit of warm orange glow. 

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I was able to buy these for $263, even though they normally retail for $329. Other configurations, like the black with blue transition lenses, were as much as $76 off. As of the writing of this article, Meta’s refurbished store was selling the Wayfarer, Headliner, and Skyler styles. The Wayfarer is the most common style, while the Headliner and Skyler can be more difficult to find.

Also: 5 Meta Ray-Ban upgrades I want to see on September 17

When my transparent brown Meta Ray-Bans arrived, they were in the original box and it was unopened, with the perforated pull tag still in perfect condition — no different than the box of the original pair of black Meta Ray-Bans I bought when the product first launched two years ago.

When I opened the box, everything was in perfect order, just like a new pair. All the accessories, booklets, polishing cloth, and even the paper protectors over the arms of the glasses were all just as they are in the packaging of a brand new pair of Meta Ray-Bans that you’d buy at retail or online. 

I pulled the little protective tab inside the case to activate charging and plugged the case into a USB. After about 30 minutes, I opened the Meta AI app, tapped the glasses button on the far right, hit the plus sign in the upper right corner, and tapped on the Ray-Ban | Meta button. 

Also: I tried Meta’s new Oakley smart glasses in my production studio – my verdict as a content creator

The software immediately recognized that a pair of glasses was in a case nearby. I accepted the prompt and tapped through the menus. 

I pulled the glasses out of the case and examined them, and they were in perfect condition. I put them on and immediately started using them like the other pairs of Meta Ray-Bans I’ve been testing and using for the past couple years. 

What does refurbished actually mean for a tech product?

So if these are just like new and sold at a discount, then what does it mean when you buy a refurbished tech product? These are typically products that have been lightly used and a customer returned or traded in for another product, or that originally had small defects. They go back to the manufacturer for inspection, cleaning, repair (if needed), and another round of quality assurance. 

Also: Google’s upcoming AI smart glasses may finally convince me to switch to a pair full-time

They are then repacked, often in the same original packaging as new products. However, both the US and the European Union have regulations that require refurbished products to be marked and sold as refurbished, and can’t be passed off as new products. That’s why they are typically discounted, even though in many cases they are as good as new. 

In the case of refurbished Meta Ray-Bans, when you buy through the Meta Refurbished AI Glasses online store, then Meta offers a 30-day return policy and a 1-year warranty. Based on my experience, I have no problem recommending that you buy a refurbished pair of these smart glasses, if one of the styles you like is available.

ZDNET’s buying advice

Keep in mind that Meta is likely to unveil its next-generation Meta Ray-Bans Smart Glasses on September 17 at its Meta Connect event. These could have new features like longer battery life and better cameras — two of the items on my wish list. It’s unclear if they will be more expensive, but it appears possible if they are integrating better technology and there’s also the uncertain US tariff situation that could impact the cost of parts. 

The recently released Oakley Meta Smart Glasses have some nice tech upgrades and retail for $400-$500. That could be an indication of where the prices of the new Meta Ray-Bans are going to land. If that’s the case, the deal on these refurbished Meta Ray-Bans could look even better.

• Volvo’s bug-filled EX90 flagship has the Swedish automaker in damage control, the Financial Times reports. 
• It’s racing to patch software and prevent new issues from springing up.
• Now the company faces an uphill battle of rebuilding its reputation for fundamental next-gen car technology.

Like many automakers, Volvo set out into the electric vehicle space to make a statement. A focus on Scandinavian design philosophy, a dash of safety and a whole lot of next-gen tech would solidify its footing. There’s just one thing that the Swedish brand probably wasn’t anticipating: loads of software bugs.

The company’s flagship EX90 is plagued with them. It’s not alone; many legacy car manufacturers are running into digital problems that are complicating the transition to a modern automotive age. Now these same brands are scrambling to fix bugs and launch true software-defined vehicles.

Photo by: Volvo

Earlier this year, Volvo brought back former CEO Håkan Samuelsson to relieve Jim Rowan, who came from the vacuum maker Dyson in 2022 without car industry experience. His mission, according to the Financial Times: salvage a company “buried” under titanic development costs for its EVs, starting with the EX90, and right the ship. 

Samuelsson came in swinging. Within weeks of his rehiring (which is contracted for two years), he announced a sweeping $1.87 billion in cost reductions, including layoffs totaling around 3,000 people. He’s also taking on the bugs. 

“There will always be risks of course for bugs when you introduce software,” Samuelsson said in an interview with the outlet. “But in the last two years, we have had a level that was too high and unacceptable for customers and that is what we have been working on very intensively.”

The acknowledgement comes with the underlying pledge to do better. Still, the company is officially in damage control mode. The EX90 set a dirty stigma for Volvo’s lack of ability to smoothly execute the rollout of future vehicle technology, and that’s not something any auto company wants amid the industry’s biggest shift in a century.

Photo by: Volvo

Samuelsson said Volvo is working to reducing software complexity and ramping up testing standards. That doesn’t mean that Volvo will be free from software glitches in the future, though. Samuelsson openly warned that this effort won’t free Volvo or any other automaker from the digital gremlins entirely:

“There is no book to read about how this should be done […] if you are the first one, you have to write your manual as well,” he said.

Volvo’s woes are far from isolated. Take Toyota, for example, which promised to release its new Arene software platform this year. According to an engineer from Toyota’s software subsidiary, Woven, that spoke with Financial Times, Arene is “horrendous.”

“It’s full of bugs,” said the engineer. “It’s not an operating system, it’s just a series of tools.”

This is a global problem. Legacy automakers are struggling with their own software issues as they retool decades-old, hardware-centric platforms into ones that are built on a software-first principal and managed by agile tech teams. That move alone is a struggle for companies that are so focused on lengthy product lifecycles planned years in advance. It’s even more of a challenge to move from an industry that silos development and engineering for products.

In Volvo’s defense, at least it’s doing something about the problem with some urgency. The automaker is tackling the problem head-on while also showing some humility. Samuelsson is acknowledging that software bugs are an issue and, while the industry will never be fully rid of them, it at least plans to prioritize limiting how impactful they are.

If the automaker can truly write the manual, perhaps other legacy brands will follow. EV-first brands like Tesla and Rivian have shown how powerful software-centric automakers can be—now legacy brands need to get with the times or risk being left behind permanently with a dinged reputation.

IFA, Europe’s answer to the CES, kicks off on September 5 in Berlin, Germany. The show likely won’t be the biggest source of news in September — Apple’s is officially happening on September 9 — but it is usually home to its fair share of announcements. IFA 2024 featured new “AI PCs” from and Dell, including with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Plus chip. There were plenty of more unusual ideas, too: Honor used the show to introduce , for example.

Based on the companies that are confirmed to have presence at the show, similar themes will be woven through IFA 2025. AI and features enabled by it will likely be everywhere, especially in home appliances. Laptops, whether they’re running Intel’s Panther Lake chips or something Arm-based, are sure to be in the mix. And smart glasses will likely continue to be a going concern. Below are the companies who are confirmed to be holding events at the show, and what we think they might announce.

Samsung

With the Galaxy S25, Galaxy Z foldables and Galaxy Watch 8 in the rear view, there aren’t many personal electronics Samsung has left to announce this year. That could be why the company’s IFA press conference seems focused on the smart home. , dubbed “AI Home: Future Living, Now” is supposed to be focused on the company’s home appliances. Specifically, Samsung says it will “highlight the transformative potential of AI in the home.” Samsung already showed off how AI plays into its new at CES 2025, so it’s possible the company could have new additions to the lineup. It’ll hopefully also share when its will be available for purchase.

We also know for a fact that Samsung is hosting on September 4, which could point to some other products the company will show off at IFA 2025. All signs point to the next Unpacked being about tablets and midrange phones. Samsung is rumored to be announcing both the Galaxy Tab S11 and S11 Ultra, which will carry over the general look and feel of the company’s past tablets with a few important tweaks, . Besides battery improvements and Android 16, the biggest change Samsung is reportedly making is using a MediaTek Dimensity 9400 chip in the tablets rather than its own Exynos models or something from Qualcomm. The Snapdragon 8 Elite is considered the top of the line, so opting for MediaTek could raise questions about performance, but we’ll have to use the tablets to know for sure.

Samsung is also rumored to be announcing the Galaxy S25 FE at the event. It becomes less clear by the year what “FE” or “Fan Edition” means, but the Galaxy S25 FE is expected to have some meaningful improvements over the Galaxy S24 FE. Alongside a Samsung-designed Exynos chip, the S25 FE is rumored to feature an improved 12MP selfie camera and a 4,900mAh battery with 45W charging, .

Acer

Like Samsung, Acer is hosting its own at IFA 2025. The company’s of the event is frustratingly vague, but does suggest announcements focused on both productivity and gaming. At IFA 2024, Acer introduced multiple Copilot+PCs, including updates to the company’s and lines with the latest Intel Core Ultra chips and Windows AI features. Updates to both lineups seem highly likely at IFA 2025. Don’t be surprised if Acer shows off some more concept devices, too. The company’s , a laptop with a detachable game controller, was a big hit at last year’s show, and something the company is bound to top.

When it comes to handheld gaming PCs, Acer’s detailed its plans to sell , the Acer Nitro Blaze 11, Blaze 8 and Blaze 7, but yet to release them all globally. It might make sense to use IFA 2025 to finalize that and tease whatever it’s working on next.

Lenovo

When it comes to Lenovo, the company has a tried and true playbook for events like IFA. It demoes a slew of new laptops, updates its non-foldable Motorola phones and introduces one or two absolutely bizarre concept devices. The pattern seems like it’ll .

If the stars of last year’s show were a and an that swivels with a voice command, this year Lenovo’s looking at a different kind of rotation. Leaker Evan Blass at what looks like a new concept laptop with a display that can be rotated into portrait orientation. Blass also shared images of three new Moto phones, and two new Lenovo tablets.

Lenovo has a new handheld PC of its own to announce, too. The company released the earlier this year, and now it’s reportedly ready to announce the Lenovo Legion Go 2. The new handheld is a new AMD Ryzen Z2 Extreme chip, the same detachable, Switch-style controllers and more RAM. If Lenovo announces the handheld, it’ll likely be the most powerful handheld gaming PC available for purchase, with a price tag to match.

Hisense

According to the event description for , the company plans to “further upgrade its RGB-MiniLED TV with powerful hardware improvements and AI-driven software.” Hisense introduced the back in July, what the company claims is the first mass-produced television with dedicated red, green and blue LEDs. The approach lets the TV reach a peak brightness of 8,000 nits, among other benefits.

Detailing how much the TV will cost, and what kind of features its “Hi-View AI Engine X” chip will power makes sense. Don’t be surprised if Hisense also takes time to talk about the even bigger it announced at CES 2025, too.

Anker

With Google fully embracing , there’s never been a better time for Anker to announce new Qi2 chargers. Given that the company’s is supposed to feature “major product launches that bring intelligence into everyday life,” it seems like AI features are a safe bet. That likely means Anker’s Eufy or Soundcore brands could be the real focus. Maybe the company has new AI improvements for its Eufy robot vacuums, or audio improvements for its Soundcore headphones? We’ll have to wait for IFA to start to find out.

Chipmaker AMD is looking into a report from the GMP project about two Ryzen processors that failed during testing. Could too much math be to blame?

The GMP project, an open source precision arithmetic library, this week said it had “fried two Ryzen 9950X CPUs in a few months by running GMP tests.”

GMP tests are computationally intensive, so sustained testing may have done thermal damage to the silicon. Images accompanying the post show visible discoloration, the apparent result of overheating.

One Ryzen 9950X based system failed in February. And in August, the replacement CPU failed too.

“Before this problem is fully understood, we must caution people against using GMP heavily on any Zen 5 processor,” the project post explains. 

“We suspect that GMP’s extremely tight loops around MULX make the Zen 5 cores use much more power than specified, making cooling solutions inadequate.”

According to GMP, the issue here is not the widely reported problem with ASRock motherboards, though it is similar.

The two cited systems had Asus motherboards. Asus has not responded to a request for comment.

“We are aware GMP is investigating observations with their program on Ryzen 9950X processors,” an AMD spokesperson told The Register. “We have reached out to GMP to obtain additional details in order to better understand the situation.”

AMD executives just over a week ago told South Korean tech site Quasarzone that reports of AM5 socket burnouts can be attributed to hardware partners failing to adhere to recommended specifications. The AM5 socket supports Ryzen 7000, 8000, and 9000 series processors.

AMD’s spokesperson confirmed that statement but cautioned that it does not necessarily apply to what GMP has reported. “We cannot speculate on the cause of the GMP observations,” AMD’s spokesperson said.

Torbjörn Granlund, principal author of GMP, told The Register, “AMD is (again) replacing my CPU. They are collecting detailed information on my system and the load I ran when it died. The CPU is on its way to them, therefore you can really say that the CPU has gone to see its maker.

“No other CPU has ever died for me (in the 30 years I have built my own systems). Ryzen 9950X has now died twice. I was under the impression that modern CPUs had some protection to avoid overheating, and that they would clock down when they detected high temperatures.”

Granlund acknowledged that his cooling solution could have been better.

“While the ambient temperature was good, the case ventilation wasn’t great,” he said. “The heat sink was slightly underspec’ed. I am rebuilding the system in a much better case, with a bigger heat sink, and I will run a little script which checks the CPU temperature regularly. A third dead 9950X would not be fun.” ®

WhatsApp said on Friday that it fixed a security bug in its iOS and Mac apps that was being used to stealthily hack into the Apple devices of “specific targeted users.”

The Meta-owned messaging app giant said in its security advisory that it fixed the vulnerability, known officially as CVE-2025-55177, which was used alongside a separate flaw found in iOS and Macs, which Apple fixed last week and tracks as CVE-2025-43300.

Apple said at the time that the flaw was used in an “extremely sophisticated attack against specific targeted individuals.” Now we know that dozens of WhatsApp users were targeted with this pair of flaws.

Donncha Ó Cearbhaill, who heads Amnesty International’s Security Lab, described the attack in a post on X as an “advanced spyware campaign” that targeted users over the past 90 days, or since the end of May. Ó Cearbhaill described the pair of bugs as a “zero-click” attack, meaning it does not require any interaction from the victim, such as clicking a link, to compromise their device.

The two bugs chained together allow an attacker to deliver a malicious exploit through WhatsApp that’s capable of stealing data from the user’s Apple device. 

Per Ó Cearbhaill, who posted a copy of the threat notification that WhatsApp sent to affected users, the attack was able to “compromise your device and the data it contains, including messages.”

It’s not immediately clear who, or which spyware vendor, is behind the attacks. 

When reached by TechCrunch, Meta spokesperson Margarita Franklin confirmed the company detected and patched the flaw “a few weeks ago” and that the company sent “less than 200” notifications to affected WhatsApp users. 

The spokesperson did not say, when asked, if WhatsApp has evidence to attribute the hacks to a specific attacker or surveillance vendor.

This is not the first time that WhatsApp users have been targeted by government spyware, a kind of malware capable of breaking into fully patched devices with vulnerabilities not known to the vendor, known as zero-day flaws.

In May, a U.S. court ordered spyware maker NSO Group to pay WhatsApp $167 million in damages for a 2019 hacking campaign that broke into the devices of more than 1,400 WhatsApp users with an exploit capable of planting NSO’s Pegasus spyware. WhatsApp brought the legal case against NSO, citing a breach of federal and state hacking laws, as well as its own terms of service.

Earlier this year, WhatsApp disrupted a spyware campaign that targeted around 90 users, including journalists and members of civil society across Italy. The Italian government denied its involvement in the spying campaign. Paragon, whose spyware was used in the campaign, later cut off Italy from its hacking tools for failing to investigate the abuse.

Did you receive a notification that your device was compromised? Get in touch with this reporter securely via the username zackwhittaker.1337 on Signal.

The recent OMEGA study¹ found that “inferred sensitivity” mapping may be a potential functional surrogate end point for geographic atrophy (GA) based on its ability to predict retinal function with high spatial resolution and without extensive psychophysical testing, according to Georg Ansari, MD, first author of the report published in Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science. He is from the Institute of Molecular and Clinical Ophthalmology Basel, and the Department of Ophthalmology, University Hospital Basel, both in Basel, Switzerland.

Currently, the treatments available for GA, ie, pegcetacoplan (Syfovre, Apellis Pharmaceuticals) and avacincaptad pegol (Izervay, Astellas Pharmaceuticals) in the US, slow the disease progression. However, no treatment with a prospectively established functional treatment benefit is currently available.^2-4

“The challenge of selecting appropriate functional outcome measures for GA in treatment trials remains significant,” the researchers said.

While the best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA), low-luminance VA, and dark adaptometry have been evaluated as functional metrics, they have failed “to effectively capture the progression of GA, primarily because GA may form in the parafovea, leading to foveal sparing. This phenomenon results in patients maintaining high VA despite having substantial parafoveal scotomas. Consequently, traditional measures such as the BCVA are insufficient for accurately assessing the functional impact of GA,^5,6” Dr. Ansari and colleagues commented.

Microperimetry, which addresses these limitations by evaluating retinal sensitivity across a broader area, including regions affected by foveal sparing,^7,8 is limitedbecause of the sizable retest variability of microperimetry,^9,10 and the burden associated with testing.

Machine-learning and deep-learning algorithms have potential to infer retinal function from domain spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) images in a fully automated manner in non-neovascular and neovascular AMD,^8,11 macular telangiectasia type 2 (MacTel),¹² inherited-retinal degeneration,^13,14 and toxic retinopathies.¹⁵ However, using these methods in clinical trials has been problematic because of the current lack of consensus. They theorized that incorporating patient-specific baseline data, such as microperimetry, could enhance the accuracy of inferred functional assessments in subsequent visits.

In the study under discussion, the investigators evaluated the effectiveness of different machine-learning models for predicting retinal sensitivity in GA secondary to age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and compared the progression of sensitivity loss using observed versus inferred data over time, they explained.

A total of 30 (37 eyes) were included in the study, all of whom underwent microperimetry and SD-OCT imaging at baseline and weeks 12, 24, and 48. The retinal layers were segmented using a custom-written deep-learning algorithm.

They used random forest, LASSO (Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator) regression, and multivariate adaptive regression splines, all machine-learning models, to predict the retinal sensitivity in three scenarios: unknown patients, known patients at later visits, and interpolation within visits. The study goals were the predictive accuracy and the models’ ability to reduce test variability over time, the investigators explained.

What were the results in machine-learning models?

Ansari and colleagues reported, “The random forest model demonstrated the highest accuracy across all scenarios, with mean absolute errors of 3.67 decibels (dB) for unknown patients, 2.96 dB for known patients at follow-up, and 3.10 dB for within-visit interpolation. The inferred sensitivity data significantly reduced the variability compared to the observed data in longitudinal mixed-model analysis, with a residual variance of 2.72 dB² versus 8.67 dB², respectively.”

“This inferred sensitivity mapping approach provides a spatially resolved, automated, and reproducible alternative to traditional psychophysical assessments, which are often limited by variability and practical constraints. Although prior studies have explored cross-sectional structure-function correlations in AMD, our analysis represents a systematic comparison in a longitudinal setting, demonstrating their capacity to track functional progression over time. The findings indicate that inferred sensitivity can serve as a robust functional surrogate endpoint, particularly for natural history studies where psychophysical testing may be impractical,” the authors commented.

Ansari and colleagues summarized, “Our study made it possible to use inferred sensitivity mapping as a potential functional surrogate end point for GA, demonstrating its capacity to predict retinal function with high spatial resolution and without the need for extensive psychophysical testing. In addition, our study demonstrates the superiority of SD-OCT informed ‘interpolation’ over mere hill-of-vision interpolation. Future research should focus on validating this approach in larger, more diverse cohorts and exploring its integration into the design of clinical trials for retinal diseases.”

References

1. Ansari G, Schärer N, Pfau K, et al. Evaluating the progression of retinal sensitivity loss in geographic atrophy using machine-learning-based structure-function correlation (OMEGA 2). Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2025;66:34. https://doi.org/10.1167/iovs.66.11.34

2. Heier JS, Lad EM, Holz FG, et al. Pegcetacoplan for the treatment of geographic atrophy secondary to age-related macular degeneration (OAKS and DERBY): two multicentre, randomised, double-masked, sham-controlled, phase 3 trials. Lancet. 2023;402:1434–1448.

3. Patel SS, Lally DR, Hsu J, et al. Avacincaptad pegol for geographic atrophy secondary to age-related macular degeneration: 18-month findings from the GATHER1 trial. Eye (Lond). 2023;37:3551–3557.

4. Liao DS, Grossi FV, El Mehdi D, et al. Complement C3 inhibitor pegcetacoplan for geographic atrophy secondary to age-related macular degeneration: a randomized phase 2 trial. Ophthalmology. 2020;127:186–195.

5. Sadda SR, Chakravarthy U, Birch DG, Staurenghi G, Henry EC, Brittain C. Clinical endpoints for the study of geographic atrophy secondary to age-related macular degeneration. Retina. 2016;36:1806–1822.

6. Sunness JS, Rubin GS, Broman A, Applegate CA, Bressler NM, Hawkins BS. Low luminance visual dysfunction as a predictor of subsequent visual acuity loss from geographic atrophy in age-related macular degeneration. Ophthalmology. 2008;115:1480–1488.

7. Pfau M, Lindner M, Steinberg JS, et al. Visual field indices and patterns of visual field deficits in mesopic and dark-adapted two-colour fundus-controlled perimetry in macular diseases. Br J Ophthalmol. 2018;102:1054–1059.

8. Pfau M, von der Emde L, Dysli C, et al. Determinants of cone and rod functions in geographic atrophy: AI-based structure-function correlation. Am J Ophthalmol. 2020;217:162–173.

9. Pfau M, Lindner M, Fleckenstein M, et al. Test-retest reliability of scotopic and mesopic fundus-controlled perimetry using a modified MAIA (macular integrity assessment) in normal eyes. Ophthalmologica. 2017;237:42–54.

10. Alibhai AY, Mehta N, Hickson-Curran S, et al. Test–retest variability of microperimetry in geographic atrophy. Int J Retina Vitreous. 2020;6:16.

11. von der Emde L, Pfau M, Dysli C, et al. Artificial intelligence for morphology-based function prediction in neovascular age-related macular degeneration. Sci Rep. 2019;9:11132.

12. Kihara Y, Heeren TFC, Lee CS, et al. Estimating retinal sensitivity using optical coherence tomography with deep-learning algorithms in macular telangiectasia type 2. JAMA Netw Open. 2019;2: e188029.

13. Sumaroka A, Garafalo AV, Semenov EP, et al. Treatment potential for macular cone vision in Leber congenital amaurosis due to CEP290 or NPHP5 mutations: predictions from artificial intelligence. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2019;60:2551–2562.

14. Müller PL, Odainic A, Treis T, et al. Inferred retinal sensitivity in recessive Stargardt disease using machine learning. Sci Rep. 2021;11:1466.

15. Jayakar G, De Silva T, Cukras CA. Visual field sensitivity prediction using optical coherence tomography analysis in hydroxychloroquine toxicity. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2022;63:15.

Yooka-Replaylee, , will be available on October 9. It’ll be playable on PC, Xbox Series X/S, PS5 and Switch 2. It’s getting both a digital and physical release, and preorders for the physical versions are up right now.

Speaking of physical copies, the Switch 2 version will include the full game on the cartridge and no game-key card. Nintendo has given developers the option to release cartridges that are basically empty shells, called game-key cards, that require an immediate download upon being slotted in the console. Collectors aren’t exactly keen on this practice, so an actual cartridge release for Yooka-Replaylee is a welcome bit of news.

This is a remade and enhanced version of Yooka-Laylee, which was itself an like Banjo-Kazooie. Developer Playtonic is staffed with people who worked on Rare titles like the aforementioned Banjo and the Donkey Kong Country games.

Yooka-Replaylee brings some new features to the table, including updated challenges, a fully orchestral soundtrack and, of course, more stuff to collect. There’s also a bigger map, a refined story and enhanced graphics. It looks pretty nifty.

The digital version of the game will cost $30, while physical copies will cost $50. There’s a promotion going for long-time fans, as those who already own the game will get 30 percent off so long as they buy the remaster on the same platform family as the original. This means Switch to Switch 2, PS4 to PS5 and Xbox One to Xbox Series X/S.

When Pocket shut down earlier this year, it hurt more than just folks who wanted to save articles easier. Kobo users could no longer read articles directly from the internet on their eReader — a devastating move for so many readers like myself.

Kobo recently announced it would replace Pocket with Instapaper, a minimalist and sleek service much like Pocket that offers both a free plan as well as a paid premium subscription option, saving us from having to read articles the second we see them. And, on Thursday, that update came to users.

“At Kobo, our passion is better reading for everyone, everywhere.  And now, with the addition of Instapaper’s excellent ‘read it later’ functionality, we have a perfect solution to the long-form reading you find on the web,” Michael Tamblyn, the CEO of Rakuten Kobo said in a press release on Thursday. “When Pocket unexpectedly sunset, we knew we had to find a new way for our readers to dive into their favourite web articles right on their Kobo. Partnering with Instapaper has been a dream, the team has been great to work with, and we’re thrilled to offer this integration so readers can keep enjoying their preferred long-form content, distraction-free, on their Kobo eReader.”

Mashable Light Speed

Here’s how to download articles directly from the internet onto your Kobo with Instapaper.

If there isn’t an option for you to view your articles when you click “more,” you’ll need to update your Kobo. It shouldn’t take too long, and when it starts back up it’ll show you exactly what the update is there for: “Farewell to Pocket,” and “Hello to Instapaper.”

If you want to keep all your data from Pocket on your Instapaper, you can do that, too. Simply export your Pocket data and import it to Instapaper.

Now there’s really no excuse to have that many tabs open.

In late September, Qualcomm will unveil its next-gen flagship chipset, the successor to the Snapdragon 8 Elite from last year. We’ve been tentatively calling this the Snapdragon 8 Elite 2, but today a new rumor out of China claims that might not be its name at all.

Instead, Qualcomm could opt for the initially much more confusing Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5. There are two reasons for this, if it does pan out. First, while “Gen 5” sounds weird since the 8 Elite only came out last year, that chip was actually the successor to the 8 Gen 3 (so it’s “Gen 4” despite not being called that).

The other reason has to do with the much rumored fact that Qualcomm will release an almost-flagship chipset too this year, which it may call Snapdragon 8 Gen 5. This will sit right below the 8 Elite Gen 5, and with all this knowledge the naming does start to make more sense.

Note that the 8 Gen 5 is different from the 8s Gen 5, being higher-end than that while still not quite reaching the level of the 8 Elite Gen 5. Anyway, the 8 Elite Gen 5 was just benchmarked inside the upcoming OnePlus 15.

Source (in Chinese)

75% of Cyberpunk 2077‘s Nintendo Switch 2 sales were physical, CD Projekt has confirmed.

CD Projekt revealed the eye-catching stat in its latest financial results, confirming that not only did the action-RPG benefit from positioning itself as one of Nintendo Switch 2’s day-one launch games, but it also found success by making the game available as physical media.

“We believe that thanks to its high quality and Switch 2 exclusive enhancements, Cyberpunk 2077 Ultimate Edition is well positioned to benefit from the [Switch 2’s] growing user base,” said Michał Novakovski, joint CEO. “As of June, the vast majority of sales — which is around 70% — came from physical copies sold and that reflects the strength of our offering.”

Novakovski believes this is, in part, because “the entire game, along with its expansion, is fully contained on a 64 gigabyte cartridge, providing a plug and play experience which players find particularly attractive.” And that has certainly proven to be the case, with 75.4% of all Cyberpunk 2077’s Switch 2 sales being physical.

It comes as fans continue to debate the practice of publishers providing Game-Key Cards in Switch 2 boxed games instead of a physical cartridge. It’s proven to be a divisive practice among some users, not least because while it allows collectors to have a game’s box on their shelf, they’re essentially useless unless your console is connected to the internet.

The practice is so controversial, however, that Nintendo has launched a survey designed to poll the Switch 2 userbase on its thoughts surrounding digital and physical games, with questions designed to probe the reasons you might consider one option over another. Nintendo’s also interested in finding out if your attitude to digital downloads has shifted over time.

Nintendo Switch 2 Game Boxes