Category: 4. Technology

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I use as many ad-blocking programs as possible, but no matter how many I install, real-life advertising is still there, grabbing my attention when I’m just trying to go for a walk. Thankfully, there may be a solution on the horizon. Software engineer Stijn Spanhove recently posted a concept video showing what real-time, real-life ad-blocking looks like on a pair of Snap Spectacles, and I really want it. Check it out:

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The idea is that the AI in your smart glasses recognizes advertisements in your visual field and “edits them out’ in real time, sparing you from ever seeing what they want you to see.

While Spanhove’s video shows a red block over the offending ads, you could conceivably cover that Wendy’s ad with anything you want—an abstract painting, a photo of your family, an ad for Arby’s, etc.

How close are we to real-life ad-blocking?

While it’s a test at present, real-life ad-blocking for the people doesn’t seem far off. The technology is there now: current-generation consumer AI glasses like Meta Ray Bans can already identify what you’re looking at with scary accuracy.

Replacing ads is a little trickier, though. While there are AR smart-glasses on the market, like the XReal Airs, and upcoming Snap Specs, and AR experiences in VR headsets like the Meta Quest 3 can already strip out parts of the real environment and replace them, there isn’t anything on the market with full AR that is practical enough for wearing all the time. Battery life and weight are the problems, but those are solvable. There are so many companies competing for the smart glasses market, it seems like only a matter of time until it’s practical to achieve real life ad-blocking.

Companies versus consumer and the creation of the ultimate echo chamber

I could see this being a killer app for smart glasses in the near future: It’s the kind of things that consumers would really want. But it’s also the kind of thing that advertisers and marketers would really not want, and this might be the biggest obstacles to real-life ad-blockers. You could envision a “cat-and-mouse” game similar to the one that’s been playing out online for years, with companies trying ingenious ways to thwart the ad-blocking glasses, like disguising ads as something else. Would there be legal challenges? Would there be issues with a mega corporation that releases smart glasses not wanting to piss off every other company? And what happens if you want to edit out ads for the very device you’re wearing?

There are sociological concerns as well. People probably wouldn’t stop at replacing ads with pixel art. They’d be editing out anything that personally annoys them: homeless people, construction sites, other humans who have traits they don’t like. Curating your own visual experience in the real world could lead to the creation of personal echo chambers that make the world look more to your liking, but less like it is, the ultimate echo chamber.

Ethical concerns aside, I would be first in line for a pair of glasses that edited reality to my liking. I know I would use them responsibly, even if I’m not sure about everyone else. Maybe I wouldn’t wear them all the time. Just almost all the time.

As part of the “Treasure Tail: Zoshigaya” quest in Persona 5: The Phantom X, you’ll need to help the Orange Tabby Cat find their Orange Tabby Treasures around Zoshigaya. After the first time you interact with the Finding each Orange Tabby Treasure can be fairly difficult as they aren’t marked on the map and a few of them require a couple extra steps. However, once you do, you’ll receive valuable rewards and another treasure hunt.

Here’s where to find every Orange Tabby Treasure in Zoshigaya in Persona 5: The Phantom X.

All Orange Tabby Treasure locations in Zoshigaya

To complete the “Treasure Tail” side quest, you’ll need to find seven Orange Tabby Treasures. Luckily, you’ll get the first one in a cutscene immediately after you start the quest, so you only need to find six more. To help you in your search, we’ve made a map of Zoshigaya that is marked with the location of each treasure.

Additionally, you can find a more detailed description of each location in the sections below.

Orange Tabby Treasure #1 — In blue bucket behind man on phone

The first Orange Tabby Treasure can be found almost immediately after you start the Treasure Tail side quest. When facing the Orange Tabby Cat, turn around to spot a person on their phone and look behind them to find the first treasure inside of a blue bucket.

Orange Tabby Treasure #2 — On top of condenser unit

The second Orange Tabby Treasure can be found near the station on top of a condenser unit, which is an outdoor AC unit.

Orange Tabby Treasure #3 — In blue garbage bin

The third Orange Tabby Treasure can be found in a blue garbage bin inside a fenced bike parking area. As you cannot enter the fenced area, walk up to the fence to interact with the treasure.

Orange Tabby Treasure #4 — Beside bushes near home

The fourth Orange Tabby Treasure is right beside your own home. Interact with the bush beside the two people talking to retrieve it.

Orange Tabby Treasure #5 — Flower pot in alleyway

The fifth Orange Tabby Treasure is found inside a flower pot in an alleyway across the street from the capsule machines. To get this treasure, you’ll need to visit the Flower Shop in the Shibuya Underground Mall and purchase the Extra-Strength Nutrients.

Once you have the nutrients, return to the flower pot and interact with it to get the treasure.

Orange Tabby Treasure #6 — Under table

The sixth Orange Tabby Treasure is located under the table at the northern end of the map.

Treasure Tail Zoshigaya rewards

Now that you have all of the treasure, return to the the Orange Tabby Cat and complete the quest to receive the following rewards:

Welcome to Video Games Weekly on Engadget. Expect a new story every Monday or Tuesday, broken into two parts. The first is a space for short essays and ramblings about video game trends and related topics from me, Jess Conditt, a reporter who’s covered the industry for more than 13 years. The second contains the video game stories from the past week that you need to know about, including some headlines from outside of Engadget.

Please enjoy — and I’ll see you next week.

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June has passed me by in a haze of air travel, mild illness, protests and Pride, and it’s now officially time to close the book on Summer Game Fest 2025. around this year’s show and they’re all worth a read, but before moving on for good, I wanted to highlight a final batch of games that I can’t stop thinking about. This week, I present three mini previews straight out of SGF 2025 — and only two of them are horror games, which is a stupendous display of growth on my part.

Crisol: Theater of Idols

Crisol: Theater of Idols wasn’t on my radar until I sat down and played it at the Blumhouse booth, but now it’s pinging loud and clear, as if the booms were emanating directly from the blood-soaked bowels of Hell. It’s a first-person survival-horror action game set in a demented version of Spain that’s filled with monsters of modern folklore. Murderous marionettes and giant, ornately adorned skeletons hunt you through dark streets and towering gothic buildings, lamplight glinting off of every gross 3D detail. The whole demo felt like getting lost in a terrifying, nightmarish carnival, and I enjoyed every bit of it.

In Crisol, blood is your source of ammunition, and you drain the corpses of humans and chickens to refuel your health bar as well as your guns. Crisol is tense and gorgeous, reminiscent of Dishonored or Resident Evil Village, and enemies are both robust and tricky to evade. Crisol is the debut game from independent Spanish team Vermila Studios, which received an for the project in 2020. It’s being published by Blumhouse and is due out this year on , PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S.

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Grave Seasons

There’s something deeply wrong in Ashenridge, the idyllic rural village where Grave Seasons is set. At first glance, Grave Seasons is a cute, narrative-based farming sim with detailed pixel art, juicy romance options and layers of home-maintenance mechanics. You spend time planting, watering, harvesting, crafting items, picking up trash and chatting with villagers — and then you dig up a severed hand. Pilar, your flirty neighbor who runs the tailor shop down the road, says something ominous about the fate of your house’s previous owner. The vibe shifts; the shadows start to look sinister. Night falls and the real horror is unleashed, sudden, violent and all the more shocking in such a peaceful setting. A supernatural serial killer is on the loose in Ashenridge and, in between planting crops, it’s up to you to investigate (and maybe date) the murderer.

Grave Seasons is a game that will live or die by its tone, and so far, developer Perfect Garbage has absolutely nailed the vibe of nefarious, creeping dread. Ashenridge is a beautiful little town with tons of people to meet and activities to complete, and the character avatars are sexy, sweet and super intriguing. A paranormal murder investigation is simply the cherry on top of a competent farming and dating sim, and I’m eager to take a bite out of the full game. At SGF 2025, developers said the complete Grave Seasons experience should take about 20 hours. Grave Seasons is being published by Blumhouse, and it’s scheduled to hit and consoles in 2026.

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Escape Academy 2: Back 2 School

Escape Academy is of the past five years and I am inordinately stoked for the sequel, which turns the school into an open world of puzzles, riddles and cringey puns. With Escape Academy 2: Back 2 School, developer Coin Crew is going all-in on the student roleplaying vibe, and the entire campus is littered with mysteries. It’s also playable as a split-screen, couch co-op experience, which is one of the series’ greatest strengths. Frantically screaming solutions at your friend just feels better in person than over a Discord call, you know?

I played the original Escape Academy with a local partner, so that’s how I tried out the sequel at SGF 2025. I dragged Engadget EIC Aaron Souppouris to the iam8bit booth and we dove in, starting in a classroom covered in sneaky environmental clues. In Escape Academy 2, the assignment is simple — get out — but the execution is complex, and we were soon throwing out names, dates and math problems, trying to solve a series of tricky, interconnected puzzles and leave the room. After getting just one hint from the developers, we made our way to the hallway, which was lined with locker-based riddles, and eventually reached the headmaster’s office, which was a contained playground of puzzle gaming. We had to use a pen and piece of paper to keep track of a few sections, and overall, our interactions felt fresh. Coin Crew isn’t just rolling out the same problems with different solutions for the sequel, and the new riddles were clever, innovative and super satisfying. (The same can’t be said about all of the puns, but that’s part of the charm.)

Escape Academy 2: Back 2 School features both local and online co-op, so you’ll be free to yell at your friends in whichever format you prefer. Coin Crew is still working on the game and there’s no release date yet, but it’s available now to .

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The news

The only thing worse than not disclosing AI use in the creation of a video game is not disclosing it and then deploying it so sloppily that players immediately notice. Indie developer and publisher 11 Bit Studios learned this lesson firsthand with The Alters, a futuristic base-building game starring an astronaut and his alternate-reality clones. Within a week of the game’s release on June 13, posts started and showing AI-generated text in the game, across multiple languages. On June 30, 11 Bit released a statement confirming its use of AI in developing The Alters, saying it was utilized only in background text and to help with last-minute localization efforts. “No matter what we decided, we should have simply let you know,” the studio wrote.

I’d really love to stop writing headlines like this. Microsoft is preparing to lay off a large number of Xbox employees this week, as part of a planned 3 percent reduction in staff across the company. That’s a loss of roughly 7,000 jobs in total, and according to , Xbox leaders are expecting “substantial cuts across the entire group.” The firings follow a round of at Xbox in January 2024, another , and last year’s of Arkane Austin, Alpha Dog Games and Tango Gameworks (the latter of which lives on under Krafton). Meanwhile, Microsoft reported a net revenue of $25.8 billion in the first three months of 2025, with an 8 percent yearly increase in revenue from Xbox content and services. Congrats?

Netflix started beefing up its video games division around 2021, with the Night School and the rollout of an in-app gaming library offering popular mobile titles at no extra charge to subscribers. Netflix currently supports more than 100 games, including Death’s Door, Hades, The Case of the Golden Idol, The Rise of the Golden Idol, Braid Anniversary Edition, Katana ZERO and the Monument Valley series — but these are disappearing in July. A total of 22 games will be deleted from Netflix at various times in July, and the culling follows similar cutbacks in the company’s interactive division, including the recent closure of an .

Because we know you’re going to get something — what are you picking up at the Steam Summer Sale this year? Share your spoils in the comments! If you’re overwhelmed, allow me to humbly suggest , , or .

On a related note, don’t forget to check out (the nearly complete) Playdate Season 2.

… but it’s definitely not any more. Resident Evil: Requiem producer Masachika Kawata and director Koshi Nakanishi clarified that their new game is an offline single-player experience, but they said that early in development, the team seriously considered making it online and open-world. This experimentation fueled rumors about Requiem introducing a new direction for the Resident Evil franchise, but it turns out the final product will be a with the ability to swap between first- and third-person views. Spooooky.

Newswise — In a new study published in Nature, researchers at the University of Chicago Medicine Comprehensive Cancer Center explore a surprising phenomenon in which high doses of radiation cause growth in existing metastatic tumors that weren’t directly treated with radiation.

Scientists previously observed that radiation can cause distant tumors to shrink after radiation, known as the “abscopal effect.” The UChicago researchers therefore dubbed the new, opposite response the “badscopal effect,” as a play on words for when unrelated metastatic tumors grow after radiation. They believe this unexpected response happens because high dose radiation increases the production of a protein called amphiregulin by tumor cells that are directly treated with radiation. High amounts of amphiregulin weaken the immune system’s ability to fight cancer and make cancer cells better at protecting themselves. The findings point to promising new therapeutic strategies that could lead to more effective treatments for metastatic cancer.

Radiotherapy: a double-edged sword?

Radiotherapy is often used alone or in combination with surgery and chemotherapy to control localized tumors. More recently, radiotherapy has been used to treat cancers that have limited spread, termed “oligometastasis.” Scientists believe that radiotherapy activates the immune system, producing regression in tumors at distant sites that are not directly treated with radiation (i.e. the abscopal effect). However, many patients who receive radiation for oligometastasis or as part of an immunotherapy regimen fail to respond to treatment because of the progression of distant metastasis.

“Our lab postulated that high doses of radiation might actually promote tumor growth at unirradiated sites under certain conditions, potentially accounting for some of these failures,” said senior author Ralph Weichselbaum, MD, Chair and Daniel K. Ludwig Distinguished Service Professor of Radiation and Cellular Oncology at UChicago Medicine.

Uncovering the ‘badscopal’ effect

“Studies from the 1940s suggested radiation might cause tumor spread, but that never made sense to me because radiation is a highly effective anti-cancer agent within the tumor bed,” Weichselbaum said. “However, the communication between the irradiated site and distant metastatic sites is fascinating.”

To investigate this tumor-to-tumor interaction, the research team analyzed biopsy samples from a clinical trial in which patients with diverse histological types that were treated with high dose focused radiotherapy known as Stereotactic Body Radiotherapy (SBRT) and checkpoint blockade (Pembrolizumab). That clinical trial team, led by Steven Chmura, MD, PhD, Professor of Radiation and Cellular Oncology and Director of Clinical and Translational Research for Radiation Oncology at UChicago, found that tumors at preexisting metastatic sites increased in size following SBRT, suggesting radiation might promote tumor growth.

To understand how radiation at the primary site affects distant tumors, researchers led by András Piffkó, MD, a post-doctoral fellow in the Weichselbaum lab, conducted gene expression profiling of patient tumors before and after radiation treatment. They discovered that in tumors that had been treated with radiation, the gene encoding for a protein called amphiregulin was significantly increased.

Amphiregulin binds to epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), a widely expressed transmembrane tyrosine kinase, and activates major intracellular signaling pathways governing cell survival, proliferation, migration and cell death.

The researchers then studied this effect using animal models of lung and breast cancer. They found that while radiation reduced the number of new metastatic sites, it increased the growth of existing metastases. Radiotherapy significantly upregulated amphiregulin in tumor cells and blood. Blocking amphiregulin with antibodies or eliminating its gene in the tumor cells using the gene editing technology CRISPR reduced the size of tumors outside of the radiation field.

“Interestingly, the combination of radiation and amphiregulin blockade decreased both tumor size and the number of metastatic sites,” Weichselbaum said.

The role of immune suppression

To explore the mechanism further, the researchers analyzed blood samples from a second clinical trial conducted by Chmura, in which lung cancer patients received SBRT either following or at the same time as immunotherapy. They found that failure to decrease amphiregulin following SBRT in the serum of patients was associated with an adverse outcome. Additionally, they found an increase in myeloid cells with immunosuppressive characteristics was associated with metastasis progression and death.

In a previous study published in Cancer Cell, Weichselbaum and team demonstrated that ablating immunosuppressive myeloid cells reduces both the size and frequency of metastasis in animal models. By contrast, in the current study, they saw an increase in immunosuppressive myeloid cells in animals where amphiregulin was highly expressed in tumors and blood following radiation but not in tumors that did not express amphiregulin. Amphiregulin appeared to block the differentiation of myeloid cells, leading to an immunosuppressive phenotype.

In collaboration with Ronald Rock, PhD, Associate Professor in the Department of Biochemistry at UChicago, the team discovered that amphiregulin and radiation upregulated CD47, a so-called “don’t eat me” signal on tumor cells that blocks the ability of macrophages and myeloid cells to engulf tumor cells.

Blocking amphiregulin and CD47 in combination with radiotherapy resulted in highly effective metastatic control in animal models. The study results indicate a paradigm shift for the use of radiation therapy in patients with locally advanced and metastatic tumors, in which molecules upregulated by radiotherapy could be detected and neutralized. This in turn could lead to a new type of personalized radiotherapy, especially in patients with metastatic disease.

“These results open a whole new way of thinking about the systemic effects of radiotherapy,” Weichselbaum said. “Based on these findings, we are planning to conduct a clinical trial to further explore and validate the results.”

The study, “Radiation-induced amphiregulin drives tumor metastasis,” was supported by the National Cancer Institute, Ludwig Foundation, the Chicago Tumor Institute, generous gifts from Mr. and Mrs. Vincent Foglia and the Foglia Foundation, Mr. and Mrs. David Kozin and Mr. and Mrs. James Weichselbaum.

Additional authors include András Piffkó from the University of Chicago, USA, and the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Germany; Kaiting Yang from the University of Chicago, the Ludwig Center for Metastasis Research, and South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, P.R. China; Arpit Panda, Janna Heide, Katarzyna Zawieracz, Leonhard Donle, Ernst Lengyel, Ronald Rock, and Everett E. Vokes from the University of Chicago; Krystyna Tesak, Jason Bugno, Chuangyu Wen, Emile Naccasha, Dapeng Chen, Steven Chmura, Sean Pitroda, and Hua Laura Liang from the University of Chicago, and the Ludwig Center for Metastasis Research, Chicago; Chuan He from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of Chicago, Chicago; Liangliang Wang from the University of Chicago, the Ludwig Center for Metastasis Research, Chicago, and Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, P.R. China; Yanbin Fu from the University of Chicago and Weill Cornell Medicine, New York; Douglas Tilley from Temple University, Philadelphia; and Matthias Mack from the University of Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany.

Apple is also reportedly planning a “Vision Air” product, with production expected to start in Q3 2027. Kuo says it will be more than 40 percent lighter than the first-generation Vision Pro, and that it will include Apple’s flagship iPhone processor instead the more robust Mac processor found in the Vision Pro—all at a “significantly lower price than Vision Pro.” The big weight reduction is “achieved through glass-to-plastic replacement, extensive magnesium alloy use (titanium alloy deemed too expensive), and reduced sensor count.”

True smart glasses in 2027

The Vision Pro (along with the planned Vision Air) is a fully immersive VR headset that supports augmented reality by displaying the wearer’s surroundings on the internal screens based on what’s captured by 3D cameras on the outside of the device. That allows for some neat applications, but it also means the device is bulky and impractical to wear in public.

The real dream for many is smart glasses that are almost indistinguishable from normal glasses, but which display some of the same AR content as the Vision Pro on transparent lenses instead of via a camera-to-screen pipeline.

Apple is also planning to roll that out, Kuo says. But first, mass production of display-free “Ray-Ban-like” glasses is scheduled for Q2 2027, and Kuo claims Apple plans to ship between 3 million and 5 million units through 2027, suggesting the company expects this form factor to make a much bigger impact than the Vision Pro’s VR-like HMD approach.

The glasses would have a “voice control and gesture recognition user interface” but no display functionality at all. Instead, “core features include: audio playback, camera, video recording, and AI environmental sensing.”

The actual AR glasses would come later, in 2028.

The Nintendo Switch 2 has been available in the US for more than three weeks — and we finally saw a second wave of availability at retail as June was coming to an end. While it’s too early to declare the Switch 2 to be easy to obtain, the fact that Best Buy and Walmart had units to sell online on June 23 and June 25, respectively, is a good sign that attentive shoppers may be able to take advantage of a Switch 2 restock this summer without paying a ridiculous markup.

That said, if you’re looking to join one of the millions of people who have already snagged the $450 console since it officially went up for sale on June 5, you may need to include in-store pickup or joining a rewards program as an option. The former (with online reservations) seems to be the methodology that Best Buy and Target currently prefer, while Walmart’s latest Switch 2 drop offered early access to those with Walmart+ (its membership program).

In the meantime, one place not worth checking for the Switch 2 is Amazon. A report today confirmed that its absence from Amazon’s online store was the result of an ongoing dispute between the retailer and Nintendo — though there have been signs of a thaw on games and accessories. All that said, if you’re still on the hunt, we’ve rounded up all of the latest information we could find on how to buy the Nintendo Switch 2 and where you can pick one up.

Where to buy the Nintendo Switch 2

Walmart most recently offered the Switch 2 online on June 25, with Walmart+ members getting an hour’s head start. Currently, both the Mario Kart World bundle and the standalone console are “available” via third-party retailers, but listed for much higher than their standard $500 and $450 price tags — with limited quantities available. We wouldn’t recommend buying these; instead, wait for the console to be listed at its regular MSRP. Naturally, the world’s largest retailer is also selling the console at its brick-and-mortar locations, though the company has noted that quantities are limited and inventory will vary by location.

Best Buy made additional consoles available on June 11 around 12PM ET, and again on June 23 after selling out quickly on launch day (June 5). Those restocks lasted for the better part of an hour and required in-store pickup, but the device is now sold out again.

Target had the Switch 2 in stores on June 5 and restocked its online inventory for at least a couple of hours starting around 3:30AM ET on June 6. It then had another restock on June 12 around 2:30PM ET, but that appears to have died out in less than an hour. We also noted it showing up in stock in at least one Philadelphia location on June 24.

GameStop has advertised in-store availability, though exactly how much stock your local store may have will vary by location. Online, the device has been unavailable for the past week, with the listings for the base console and Mario Kart bundle now pointing to a “Find a Store” page. We saw a $625 bundle that includes Mario Kart World, a microSD Express card and a few other accessories pop up a bit more frequently than the standard SKUs, but it’s no longer listed (and it was kind of a raw deal anyway).

You may still have some luck at certain membership-based retailers. A Mario Kart World bundle at Costco that includes a 12-month Switch Online subscription has gone in and out of stock since launch day. Sam’s Club has had a bundle without the Switch Online sub as well, though it’s out of stock now. We also saw the console at BJ’s early on June 5, but it’s no longer live there.

Verizon briefly had the Switch 2 available on launch day, but that’s dried up. Only those with Verizon service were able to order, and the process was apparently somewhat rocky.

Amazon hasn’t had any form of Switch 2 listing on its website, nor has it listed Mario Kart World. A June 30 Bloomberg report confirmed what had been widely rumored for weeks: Nintendo was apparently punishing Amazon for continuing to surface third-party retailers selling trans-shipped games. However, some Switch 2 games have started popping up, so it’s possible the console may appear at some point, too.

Newegg has listed the Switch 2 on its site for several weeks, but it’s given no indication as to when it’ll begin sales. While some listings are available via a third-party seller, they’re at massively inflated prices.

With all of these stores, we’ve seen the Mario Kart World bundle available in greater quantities online than the base console, which costs $50 less. But given that Mario Kart is the Switch 2’s biggest launch game and retails for $80 on its own, that may not be the worst thing.

Nintendo, meanwhile, is only offering the Switch 2 via an invite system. This requires you to have been a Switch Online member for at least 12 months and logged at least 50 hours of Switch 1 playtime as of April 2. It can’t hurt to sign up if you meet the criteria, but don’t expect it to bear fruit immediately — it’s taken weeks for many people who registered in April to receive their invite.

You can find a list of every Switch 2 retail listing we could find below. Just be aware that this is meant to be a reference, not a rundown of everywhere the device is available right this second.

Where to buy Switch 2 + Mario Kart World bundle:

Where to buy Switch 2:

Where to buy Nintendo Switch 2 games and accessories

Nintendo is selling a number of Switch 2 accessories alongside the console, from its (pricey) Pro Controller to cases to cameras for the new GameChat feature. Most of these became available on June 5. The same goes for games like Mario Kart World and the Switch 2 version of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. Another big Switch 2 release, Donkey Kong Bananza, won’t be available until mid-July but is still up for pre-order now.

As of this publication, just about all Switch 2 games are broadly available. Stock for the accessories remains a little spottier, but most devices are still available at multiple retailers. Nintendo’s official Switch 2 carrying cases have been the main exceptions, so you may need to look to third-party alternatives if you want some protection for your console right away.

Mario Kart World ($80)

Donkey Kong Bananza ($70)

Additional Switch 2 games

Samsung microSD Express Card (256GB) for Nintendo Switch 2 ($60)

Joy-Con 2 bundle ($95)

Switch 2 Pro Controller ($85)

Switch 2 Camera ($55)

Hori Nintendo Switch 2 Piranha Plant Camera ($60)

Joy-Con 2 Charging Grip ($40)

Joy-Con 2 Wheels (set of 2) ($25)

Switch 2 All-in-One Carrying Case ($85)

Switch 2 Carrying Case and Screen Protector ($40)

Nintendo Switch 2 Dock Set ($120)

Nintendo GameCube Controller for Switch 2 ($65)

Apple is considering enlisting the help of OpenAI or Anthropic to power its AI-upgraded Siri, according to a report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. As Apple continues to struggle with the development of an upgraded “LLM Siri,” it reportedly asked OpenAI and Anthropic to create versions of their large-language models to test on the company’s private cloud infrastructure.

As reported by Bloomberg, Rockwell asked his team to test whether Anthropic’s Claude, OpenAI’s ChatGPT, or Google’s Gemini performs better at handling basic requests compared to its own models, with Anthropic’s apparently seen as the most promising. While Google has Gemini AI features for Android and its Pixel lineup, Samsung licenses Google’s AI model for its phones. It is also reportedly close to cutting a deal with Perplexity, which already has a tie-up with Motorola. Earlier this month, Bloomberg reported Apple executives had considered acquiring Perplexity to help boost its AI ambitions.

LLM Siri was largely absent from Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference earlier this month, where SVP of worldwide marketing Greg Joswiak admitted that the technology “didn’t hit our quality standard.” Bloomberg notes that Apple’s plans to incorporate a third-party AI model into Siri are still at an “early stage” and that it’s still considering using in-house models.

Apple will release a cheaper MacBook Air laptop powered by an iPhone processor, according to a Monday post on X by respected analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of TF International Securities.

https://t.co/3WFsSlGgT5

— 郭明錤 (Ming-Chi Kuo) (@mingchikuo) June 30, 2025

According to the report, the 13-inch thin-and-light laptop will enter production in late 2025 or early 2026 and will be powered by the A18 Pro processor, the same chip powering the iPhone 16 Pro. This laptop might also give you more color options, including pink and yellow, along with the standard silver. 

Apple is targeting a 5-7 million unit production run for 2026. While the A18 Pro chip would be a significant downgrade from the M-series chip, it’s about on par with 2020’s M1 chip, making it more than powerful enough for everyday tasks. 

A representative for Apple didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Of Apple’s 2024 Mac shipments, the MacBook Air accounted for 33% of sales, according to Consumer Intelligence Research Partners. Despite the popularity of the MacBook line, Apple only has 9.2% of global computer market share, according to Statista. Currently, Dell, HP and Lenovo all command greater share of the market than Apple, likely thanks to wider product portfolios and enterprise sales. 

Considering the MacBook Air starts at $999, a cheaper A18 Pro-powered MacBook Air could eat away at lower-end computer sales and bring MacOS to more price-conscious consumers. And, given that the A18 Pro supports Apple Intelligence, the company’s vision of AI-enabled computing, it could introduce AI to more laptop buyers.

Any Halo fans hoping to hear something about what’s next for the long-running Xbox franchise should tune into Halo World Championship 2025. That’s according to the Halo Studios team, which shared an update via Halo Waypoint on Monday.

“We don’t usually comment on such matters, but this time we want to enter the chat and share a little more perspective for Halo fans who might be on the fence about whether to attend this year’s event,” the team says, addressing recent speculation surrounding when exactly something will be seen.

At last year’s championship, Halo Studios shared that it was rebranding away from its prior name, 343 Industries, while also unveiling an Unreal Engine 5 teaser called Project Foundry that served as an exploration of the Halo universe using the new technology.

The studio confirmed that it was switching to Unreal Engine 5 for future projects, abandoning the Slipspace engine that was used to build Halo Infinite and had served as a successor to the Blam! engine of the original Halo games.

“Speculation is always fun, but if you want the official scoop on what Halo Studios has been working on, you won’t want to miss this year’s Halo World Championship. We really hope you’ll join us in Seattle this October!”

What projects is Halo Studios working on?

It’s interesting to me that Halo Studios continues to emphasize “multiple projects” as opposed to just saying the team’s next game. There are a couple of different possibilities worth mentioning.

Rumors abound that Halo: Combat Evolved is getting a remaster or remake of some kind, which would line up with the assets seen in the Project Foundry teaser, as well as comments from Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer.

During the Xbox Games Showcase 2025, Spencer noted that 2026 would see a “new Fable, the next Forza, Gears of War E-Day, and the return of a classic that’s been with us since the beginning.”

While Halo wasn’t mentioned by name, it’s hard to imagine exactly what other classic Spencer would be referencing.

If this does pan out, then I sincerely hope it leans more toward a remake rather than a remaster. Halo: Combat Evolved was already remastered and can be played on Xbox and PC as part of the Master Chief Collection.