This month has been filled with conflicting rumors of an Apple product launch that either will or won’t happen, but Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman now says the October event is on, and it could bring a long overdue iMac upgrade. In the Power On newsletter, Gurman reports that sources close to Apple said a Mac launch is in the works for this month. Based on current retail supplies and shipping dates for certain models, Gurman suggests we could see a new iMac and possibly some new MacBook Pros.

“Apple retail stores are in short supply of the iMac, as well as the 13-inch MacBook Pro and high-end MacBook Pro — two other models that may be due for a refresh,” Gurman wrote, noting that current shipping estimates for these models show delays until November. That, plus the timing of the company’s earnings call — in November this year, instead of October — suggests Apple has something planned. Gurman speculates the launch event may take place on October 30 or 31.

The 24-inch M1 iMac came out in April 2021 and hasn’t been updated since, making it a good candidate for a refresh. The 13-inch M2 MacBook Pro, which was released in June 2022, is also due for an upgrade.

This month has been filled with conflicting rumors of an Apple product launch that either will or won’t happen, but Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman now says the October event is on, and it could bring a long overdue iMac upgrade. In the Power On newsletter, Gurman reports that sources close to Apple said a Mac launch is in the works for this month. Based on current retail supplies and shipping dates for certain models, Gurman suggests we could see a new iMac and possibly some new MacBook Pros.

“Apple retail stores are in short supply of the iMac, as well as the 13-inch MacBook Pro and high-end MacBook Pro — two other models that may be due for a refresh,” Gurman wrote, noting that current shipping estimates for these models show delays until November. That, plus the timing of the company’s earnings call — in November this year, instead of October — suggests Apple has something planned. Gurman speculates the launch event may take place on October 30 or 31.

The 24-inch M1 iMac came out in April 2021 and hasn’t been updated since, making it a good candidate for a refresh. The 13-inch M2 MacBook Pro, which was released in June 2022, is also due for an upgrade.

Google will have to pay over $1 million to an executive who alleged the company discriminated against her based on her gender and later retaliated when she spoke up about it. Ulku Rowe, a Google Cloud engineering director, accused the company of hiring her at a lower level, lower paid position than men with less experience who were hired for similar roles at the same time, according to Bloomberg Law. She also claimed she was passed over for a promotion in favor of a less qualified male colleague.

A New York jury on Friday decided that Google did commit gender-based discrimination, and now owes Rowe a combined $1.15 million for punitive damages and the pain and suffering it caused. Rowe had 23 years of experience when she started at Google in 2017, and the lawsuit claims she was lowballed at hiring to place her at a level that paid significantly less than what men were being offered.

It comes nearly five years after some 20,000 Google employees organized a walkout to demand changes around the company’s handling of sexual misconduct and discrimination. While the company pledged to do better on sexual harassment, its response still left a lot to be desired on the topics of bias. According to Bloomberg Law, the Rowe lawsuit is the first such case Google has faced since the protests.

Blizzard hasn’t exactly been subtle in marketing Diablo IV, but its latest PR stunt is especially on the nose. To celebrate the release of the game’s new season, Season of Blood, and the high-payoff Blood Harvest events it introduced, Blizzard has launched a month-long blood drive in the US that’ll unlock in-game rewards as more people participate. Once donations reach 666 quarts altogether, players will be able to enter a sweepstakes for “a custom liquid-cooled PC infused with real human blood.”

The first tier of rewards, a batch of five weapons cosmetics, will unlock once donations hit 33 percent of the goal. At the 66 percent mark, players will also be granted access to the Loch Raeth Maor Barbarian armor cosmetic. When donations reach 100 percent of the goal — a total of 666 quarts of blood — the Vermilion Eye Piebald Mount will become available, and the sweepstakes for the custom PC will open.

Aside from the whole “human blood in the coolant” gimmick, the Seasons of Blood custom PC features NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 4090, an Intel Core i9 CPU, 64GB of DDR5 RAM, 3 TB SSD Storage, and the Quantum Vector GPU Waterblock for cooling. And, the sweepstakes won’t just be reserved for those who donated. Once the goal is met, any player in the US over 18 can enter. The blood drive is open from now through November 20, and you don’t need to go anywhere special to get in on it. Players 18+ can donate at their local blood centers, then submit proof on the Diablo Blood Harvest website.

A typical blood donation is 1 pint, so it’ll take a little over 1,300 donations to hit the final goal. Players can keep track of the blood drive’s progress by visiting the above website and its motivational fountain of gushing blood. At the time of writing, it’s already at 15 percent — or almost halfway to the first goal. 

Considering the Red Cross recently announced we’re in the middle of a blood shortage, it’s maybe not the worst idea. All of the rewards will be doled out a few days after the blood drive closes, on November 22. Happy harvest!

The high-end Roomba s9+ may normally be too expensive for most people to justify spending on a robot vacuum, but a one-day-only deal has shaved the price nearly in half, bringing it down to an all time low of $500. If you’ve been holding off on buying the premium model, which we ranked as one of the best robot vacuums out there, now’s the time to scoop it up.

The Roomba s9+ is a splurge in every sense of the word, and boasts 40x the suction power of iRobot’s more basic vacuums. Its 1.5-foot-tall self-emptying base holds up to 60 days worth of waste. And with a sleek, black and copper design, it isn’t an eyesore. The s9+ is D-shaped, as opposed to being fully circular, meaning its flat edge can more effectively get into corners. We found the s9+ paired quickly with WiFi and the iRobot app for an easy setup, and wasn’t unreasonably loud when it emptied its bin.

The vacuum works on carpets and hard floors, and has multi-surface rubber brushes to handle more difficult types of debris, like hair. It also promises to filter out microscopic particles and allergens like those that might be accumulating around the house from your pets. But, while it’s meant to excel at cleaning up pet hair, its sensors aren’t made for spotting and avoiding pet poop. It does, however, have “Careful Driver” technology to avoid slamming into objects while it cleans. At the current discount, the s9+ offers premium cleaning power at a mid-range price.

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

Instagram has started allowing some users to create polls in the comments on their posts, giving creators yet another way to milk their content for more engagement. Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, announced the test to his broadcast channel, noting that polls can be added to the comments on both regular feed posts and Reels. It’s just a small test for now, but Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in his own update that it will be “rolling out to everyone soon.”

Polls in the comments section will look much like they do in Stories, where they’ve already been available to users for years in the form of a sticker. Per the screenshot shared by Mosseri, other users will be able to see how many people voted on a given poll. It’s unclear right now how long polls will remain open after they’re posted, or if users will have the option to choose from different time frames to continue receiving votes, like users on Twitter can.

Instagram has been working on making its comment section more of an interactive space, and this past spring finally added the ability for users to post GIFs in the comments. The platform is also testing options for a more tailored Stories experience that builds on what it started with Close Friends, letting users create multiple lists to reserve certain content for specific groups of people.

India has announced plans to build its own space station by 2035, and carry out a human mission to the moon five years later. The country has ramped up its space program in recent years, becoming the first in the world to successfully land a spacecraft near the lunar south pole just this past August. Shortly after, in September, it launched a probe to study the sun. But, human spaceflight is new territory. Its upcoming Gaganyaan mission will be the first time India has sent astronauts to space using its own capabilities, and it’s now gearing up to start testing the vehicles that will support a human crew.

In a meeting led by India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the country’s space agency laid out a plan to achieve its first crewed launch in 2025 ahead of its eventual moon mission. It has a demonstration flight of its Crew Escape System Test Vehicle currently set for Oct 21, and will later send its launch vehicle on three test missions without humans on board. All in all, India is planning around 20 tests in the leadup to sending astronauts to space.

The country says it’s building a new launch pad and a next generation launch vehicle to make its admittedly “ambitious” other goals possible. In addition to establishing the Bharatiya Antariksha Station — or the Indian Space Station — by 2035 and launching a crewed mission to the moon by 2040, India also has its sights on interplanetary missions. Modi expressed interest in the development of a Venus orbiter and a Mars lander, too.

The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative is opening a research center in New York City dedicated to developing new techniques for early disease detection and treatment. CZ Biohub NY, as it’s being called, will work with Columbia, Rockefeller and Yale universities to better learn how immune cells detect and attack specific diseases, and eventually use this insight to engineer cells that could do the job more precisely.

The charitable organization headed by Priscilla Chan and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has committed $250 million to the effort, according to STAT, alongside investments of $10 million each from the State of New York and New York City. In a blog post announcing CZ Biohub NY, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative said it will start by focusing on cancers and other diseases that often go undetected until they’ve advanced to the point of being difficult or impossible to treat. That includes “ovarian and pancreatic cancers; neurodegenerative diseases, including Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s; as well as aging and autoimmunity,” CZI says.

CZ BioHub NY aims to get to the bottom of how immune cells work, down to their ability to spot tissue-specific changes that can be among the earliest indications of a disease’s onset. Then, its researchers hope to be able to create cells that can sniff out these abnormalities even earlier than they’re currently able, and be sent to the disease sites directly for more effective treatment. These bioengineered immune cells would “scout, report, and repair damage to our cells before it leads to serious illnesses,” said Chan.

The New York hub is the latest in CZI’s growing network of research institutions, and joins three others that have been established in San Francisco, Chicago, and Redwood City. All have pledged to break ground on their respective scientific goals within a time frame of 10-15 years. Now, according to STAT, the New York biohub just needs to secure a site to work out of.

If Apple does release a cheaper Vision Pro headset, it’s likely to be a stripped-down version with fewer external cameras, no EyeSight feature and an iPhone chip in place of the current Mac chip. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reported in his Power On newsletter that the company is looking at these options as ways to bring the cost down to between $1,500 and $2,500 for a lower-end model. Apple Vision Pro, which is set to begin shipping in early 2024, currently starts at an eye-watering $3,500.

In an earlier report, Gurman said the cheaper Vision Pro would also use lower resolution displays inside the headset. The big indication now is that it may drop the external display that enables its signature EyeSight feature, according to Gurman. EyeSight projects the wearer’s eyes onto an outward-facing OLED display so anyone who approaches can see where their attention is focused. It was one of major selling points in Apple's Vision Pro announcement, though it isn’t exactly mission critical.

According to Gurman, a follow-up to the premium Vision Pro is in the works already, too. That will have EyeSight, and potentially a more lightweight design that opts for built-in prescription lenses for those who need it rather than the Zeiss inserts it’s working with now.

Apple’s M3 MacBook Pro may arrive in the beginning of 2024, with the M3 MacBook Air to follow a few months later, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. Gurman had previously predicted that a MacBook Air featuring the new chip might see an October launch, but he now says it seems to be shaping up for a release between next spring and summer “at the earliest.”

In the latest installment of his Power On newsletter, Gurman reports that the 13-inch and 15-inch M3 MacBook Airs are now in the engineering verification test (EVT) stage. M3 MacBook Pros, on the other hand, are further along in the process and “nearing mass production.” According to Gurman, “The 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros with M3 Pro and M3 Max chips have reached the DVT stage — short for design validation test.” This puts them on track for release “between early and spring 2024,” he notes. Apple released its 2023 MacBook Pros with M2 Pro and M2 Max chips in January.

Gurman’s report also contradicts rumors from this weekend that Apple will introduce new iPads this week. Supercharged and 9to5Mac reported that the iPad Air and iPad Mini are getting chip upgrades, with the former adopting the M2 chip and the Mini upgrading to A16 Bionic. In his report, Gurman says upgrades along these lines are in development, but writes, “I don’t believe updates of any significance are imminent.”