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✅ 🧐 Fabulously designed and luxurious to wear
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✅ 🎧 Warm, full soundstage with terrific bass accuracy
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✅ 📺 TV Audio Swap gives you private surround sound
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✅ 🎮 Delivers atmospheric and directional sound for gaming
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❌ 🤑 TV Audio Swap only works with $800 Sonos Arc for now
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❌ 📱 TV Audio Swap only works with iOS devices currently
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❌ 🤖 Android users will find fewer features in the Sonos app
I was on the podcast hosted by The Shortcut subscriber Steve Clair called Self Starter (episode coming soon), and afterward, he asked me about the best over-the-ear headphones – something in between the JBL and Sony XM5’s and the $1,000 B&Os, but not weighty during workouts like Apple’s AirPods Max.
The Sonos Ace headphones are my new answer – they have a premium fit and sound that won’t break the bank or strain your neck. Read Kevin’s review and buy it from Walmart for the cheapest price by a few dollars.
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🆕 Microsoft has revealed a new Xbox Series X controller called Sky Cipher
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🎮 It features a transparent plastic shell on the front of the controller
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♻️ The controller will also ship in new environmentally-conscious packaging
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🎉 It’s the 30th custom controller design Microsoft has announced
Remember the fad of clear tech, like this 90s throwback from the N64 era Atomic Purple controller? Well, it’s making a comeback 25 years later. We reviewed the Nothing Phone (2a) recently, and now it’s Xbox’s turn for a throwback.
The new Xbox Sky Cipher controller lets you see all the inner workings of Microsoft’s pad, like the rumble motors whirring, and it’s a design that the company has experimented with previously. The Forza Horizon 5 Limited Edition and 20th Anniversary Special Edition feature a transparent shell, and they’re two of the best Xbox Series X controller colors for that reason.
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📰 Game Informer magazine shut down and its staff was laid off
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🛑 GameStop, its owner, gave no official reason for the closure
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🦔 Started in 1991, its first issue featured a Sega Genesis-era Sonic
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👴 The 33-year-old magazine was among the last out of the US
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👀 You can still read Edge, PC Gamer, and Nintendo Force in print
I still have a lot of old video game magazines in my possession and until Friday, I could say most but not all of them have ceased publication. Now… all of them have closed. Game Informer, the 33-year-old video game magazine, has been shut down by its owner, GameStop.
On X, we got insight into how close Game Informer was to having a final issue from now-former Content Director Kyle Hilliard: “We were about 70% done with the next issue and it was going to have a GREAT cover.”
Throwback: Kyle wrote for my first video game publication, Gaming Target, back in 2010. Kyle, like the rest of the Game Informer team, is now looking for new work after a decade of writing for the last major video game out of the US.
Gone are the days when you could expect major video game reveals as cover stories from a monthly magazine. Companies now premier trailers at The Game Awards or publish blog posts on their own sites – especially Sony. Its PS5 Pro this fall and rumored PSP 2 handheld in 2025 may get this treatment, which allows for a tightly controlled message with no editorial input. That, along with the layoffs, is the biggest gut punch of Game Informer’s closure for gaming consumers.
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🙋♂️ ‘Friend’ is an AI companion that lives in a pendant you wear around your neck
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🤔 It’s NOT supposed to help you answer questions, play music, or offer similar functionality to something like Rabbit R1 or Humane AI
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🤗 Instead, it’s supposed to mimic having a best friend with you at all times
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🎙️ The device has a built-in mic and communicates via text on your phone
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📆 It’s due to ship next January and won’t include a subscription fee
Friend is a new AI companion device that’s designed to be always listening, according to the start-up. A nearly two-minute video depicts it as a wearable pendant that you can tap to talk to. It’ll share chatty messages with you throughout your day – sometimes encouraging, and sometimes sarcastic. That’s it.
💰 $1.8 million on the domain? Friend founder Avi Schiffmann spent $1.8 million (72% of the start-up’s cash) on the Friend.com domain, reports 404Media.
🙅♂️ I bought this so you don’t have to. Like my Rabbit R1 review, I spent the $99 so I can tell you not to buy this thing when it launches. There’s no use in both of us wasting money. That’s my job. Check back in January, my human friends/subscribers.
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🤝 Google Maps is borrowing some of Waze’s best features
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👀 It’ll be easier to see incident reports and users can share information
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🚗 Nearby parking spaces for buildings will be shown
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👮♂️ Speed cameras or police presence will also appear
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🔐 Waze will also receive new features, such as being able to use the app when your phone is locked
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🤔 Google owns Waze, but the apps remain separate – for now
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🧑⚖️ A bipartisan group of senators introduced the No Fakes Act bill
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✋ It’ll be illegal to create an AI replica of someone without consent
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🎭 It has support of SAG-AFTRA, Disney & the Motion Picture Association
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🎶 Major music labels and talent agencies are also backing the bill
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👮 If it becomes law, it’ll apply to everyone, celebrity or not
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💰 $500 million is Delta’s bill for the massive CrowdStrike IT outage
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😫 It had to cancel 5,000+ flights as Microsoft systems were inoperable
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🧑⚖️ Delta CEO: we’ll seek damages for the disruptions. “We have no choice.”
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💀 Flashback: The CrowdStrike outage a global The Blue Screen of Death
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📆 Squid Game returns to Netflix on December 26, 2024
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😮 It’s been 3 years since the hit Korean show first aired
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👊 Netflix made a spin-off reality gameshow called Squid Game: The Challenge
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🔜 Season 3 has already been teased for 2025, which means fans won’t have to wait long for the finale
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🆕 Sony has announced the three PlayStation Plus games for August
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⭐️ Free games (if you’re a PlayStation Plus subscriber)
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🧱👾 LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga
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😱 Five Nights at Freddy’s: Security Breach
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⚔️ Ender Lilies: Quietus of the Knights
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💰 Save money on PS Plus with our discount code at the bottom
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👏 Nothing Phone 2a Plus improves upon the excellent Nothing Phone 2a
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🤳 New 50MP front camera added, a 56% improvement over Phone 2a
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💨 10% faster vs Phone 2a with a MediaTek Dimensity 7350 Pro 5G chip
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🔋 Its 5,000mAh promises two days or 22 hours of YouTube
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💰 Price: $399, $50 more than the Nothing Phone 2a we reviewed
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📆 US pre-order date: August 7 via the Nothing beta program
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🚫 Microsoft’s Bing has been blocked from searching Reddit
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✋ Reddit prohibits Bing (and other non-Google engines) from crawling its site
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🙄 You’ll find Reddit to be the 1st search result offered in Google these days
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🤝 Reddit + Google have a licensing deal to train Gemini AI on Reddit
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😡 It seems to give Reddit preferential (unfair) treatment in Google rankings
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🤖 This deal has negatively impacted Google’s AI Overview, recommending dangerous results
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🟦 $100 PlayStation giftcard for $83
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🟩 $50 Xbox Gift Card for $42
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❎ 50% off Xbox Game Pass $27 (Microsoft’s MSRP is $51 and soon to be $60 for 3 months)
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❎ Full year of Xbox Game Pass Core for $39.49
We’re expanding our discount codes for paid subscribers as a pack-in. It’s sort of like CD-ROM pack-ins for subscribers of 90s magazines.
😬 Can’t afford it? Totally fine. I’m opening up more ways to be a paid subscriber for people who can’t spare the $5/mo ($4.16/mo) to keep us going. Support us in other ways by referring your friends & family to The Shortcut. Help us grow!
