It’s an open secret that not many people actually like video calling, unless you’re meeting a baby for the first time or something. Who wants to comb their hair just to answer the phone? Meta has answered our prayers and delivered a toolset that brings cartoon avatars to the world of video conferencing.

The company frames this as a “third option” that rests between an audio-only call and a full video call. You can participate in video conversations, but it’ll be your avatar that the other participants see, leaving you free to wear a luxuriating face mask or to lay in the squalor of an unkempt apartment. The feature’s available now for Messenger and Instagram users.

Meta’s been steadily placing the focus on its avatar-creation system, recently announcing that users have made over a billion of the lil cartoon scamps. The avatar creator allows for a near-perfect digital simulacrum of your actual face and body. The system was originally created for use in VR applications but has since moved to smartphones and the like.

It’s worth noting that the avatar creator lets you attach some legs to your digital self, but these legs won’t show up when making video calls (sorry, digital foot fetishists.) Meta says it’s constantly working to improve the avatar creation system, with more realistic and textured animations coming in the future. Also, there’s no rule that says your digital avatar has to look like you, so feel free to video call your friends as a talking llama.

The August premiere date of the highly-anticipated Disney+ Star Wars: Ahsoka series is rapidly approaching and there’s an action-packed new trailer that’s sure to delight fans of the animated Star Wars: Rebels series. It’s filled to the brim with live-action appearances from beloved Rebels characters like Hera Syndula, Sabine Wren, Chopper, Ezra Bridger and even series antagonist Grand Admiral Thrawn.

The show takes place in the same timeline of The Mandalorian, but stars Ahsoka Tano, former apprentice of sand-hating Anakin Skywalker. Tano (Rosario Dawson) never appeared in the prequel films but was a mainstay in the Star Wars: Clone Wars cartoon before moving onto Star Wars: Rebels and, finally, season two of The Mandalorian.

Fans have long-surmised that Ahsoka would follow-up the cliffhanger ending (no spoilers) from Rebels, and they're definitely getting their wish. The trailer's packed with call-backs to the cartoon, even lingering on an animated still that appeared in the series finale back in 2018. For long-time franchise fans, the trailer boasts the very first live action appearance of Grand Admiral Thrawn, played by Lars Mikkelsen.

Thrawn was the primary villain in Timothy Zahn’s Heir to the Empire book trilogy that followed the adventures of Luke Skywalker and the gang after the events of Return of the Jedi. Those books aren’t canon, because Luke went on to become a blue milk-loving hermit or whatever, but Ahsoka looks to be incorporating certain elements from the novels, as have recent seasons of The Mandalorian. Many fans speculate that the juiciest parts of Zahn’s books will make up the basic plot of the forthcoming ‘Filoni-verse’ movie, a crossover event featuring all of the newer TV characters.

Ahsoka premieres on August 23rd, with two episodes dropping at the same time before heading to weekly installments. In addition to Dawson and Mikkelsen, the series stars Natasha Liu Borzizzo, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Eman Esfandi and recently-deceased character actor Ray Stevenson.

Apple’s latest and greatest smartwatch, the Series 8, has dropped to its lowest price ever, thanks to Prime Day. You can pick one up for $280, beating the previous low of $330. We called the Series 8 “well-rounded and full-featured” in our review last year, stating that it’s “arguably the best smartwatch around.”

To that end, the Series 8 is generally considered to be the best standard smartwatch available right now, thanks to solid fitness-tracking features, car crash detection, blood oxygen measurement tools, onboard music storage and so much more. The battery life is improved over the Series 7 and the build is extremely durable.

While the Series 8 is currently the best arm candy on the block, Apple’s likely to launch an improved Series 9 this fall. If you long for the newest tech, you might want to wait a few months, though the Series 9 will most likely cost a fair bit more than $280.

If $280 is a bit too rich for your blood, you can pick up the entry-level Apple Watch SE for just $200, thanks to a related Prime Day deal. The SE shares many features with its more expensive sibling, including crash detection, a Retina display and a durable aluminum casing.

Your Prime Day Shopping Guide: See all of our Prime Day coverage. Shop the best Prime Day deals on Yahoo Life. Follow Engadget for the best Amazon Prime Day tech deals. Learn about Prime Day trends on In the Know. Hear from Autoblog’s car experts on must-shop auto-related Prime Day deals and find Prime Day sales to shop on AOL, handpicked just for you.

Sony’s budget-friendly premium WH-CH720N headphones have sunken to their lowest price ever, $98, as part of a Prime Day deal. The regular price for these cans is $150, so this is a steep discount of over $50.

The WH-CH720N headphones are budget-friendly, but offer plenty of high-tech bells and whistles typically reserved for higher-priced models. In our review, we called out the pristine sound quality, decent battery life, comfortable fit and capable active noise cancellation (ANC). In other words, these headphones were a steal at $150, so the reduced price point puts them squarely in ‘impulse buy’ territory.

What are the downsides? These aren’t ultra-premium headphones, so they lack certain features. For instance, there’s no speak-to-chat tool that automatically pauses audio when you start talking. There’s also no accelerometers on-board, so the headphones won’t pause when you take them off. You have to exert energy and slap that pause button yourself. Oh, the horror.

Sony’s headphones do, however, include adaptive sound control features that automatically make adjustments depending on your location or activity. There’s also a manual EQ slider, DSEE upscaling and multipoint Bluetooth. The Amazon Prime Day is available for both the black and white versions.

Your Prime Day Shopping Guide: See all of our Prime Day coverage. Shop the best Prime Day deals on Yahoo Life. Follow Engadget for the best Amazon Prime Day tech deals. Learn about Prime Day trends on In the Know. Hear from Autoblog’s car experts on must-shop auto-related Prime Day deals and find Prime Day sales to shop on AOL, handpicked just for you.

Animation is big business for Hulu, as the streamer’s roster of cartoons regularly rank in the top ten for hours watched on the platform, thanks to shows like Bob’s Burgers, Futurama, King of the Hill and many more. Seeking to capitalize on the popularity of adult animation, Hulu’s launching a sub-brand to house all of its animated and anime-based content, as originally reported by Variety. Animayhem is now the home for legacy content like the above titles and original content like Solar Opposites and Koala Man.

All told, the hub/sub-brand allows access to 2,600 episodes of traditional animated programming, spread across 46 series, and a whopping 18,400 episodes of anime, spread across 435 series. That’s over 20,000 episodes of cartoon goodness, for those keeping count. As such, Hulu is advertising the platform as the streamer’s “Animation Destination.”

The surprise-launch of Animayhem comes just two weeks before the latest Futurama reboot, and that’s just the start of the streamer’s plans for animation domination. Hulu’s ordered new episodes of Mike Judge’s King of the Hill and it plans on having a heavy presence at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con, promising an immersive experience called “Hulu Animayhem: Into the Second Dimension.”

In the meantime, the hub’s already available as part of the standard Hulu subscription, so go ahead and binge Archer, Family Guy and all the hundreds upon hundreds of available anime series like One Piece and Naruto.

If you’ve ever wanted to point that ole’ growth ray at your childhood toys, UK-based The Little Car Company has got you covered. The organization has built an adult-sized version of the Tamiya Wild One RC car that took the kid world by storm back in the 1980s, as reported by Car and Driver. This is a fully electric vehicle with eight swappable battery packs that add up to an advertised 124 miles of range.

The Wild One Max has got plenty of get-up-and-go, with a top speed of 62 mph. However, the main draw is just how closely this full-size vehicle resembles its fun-size cousin. Just look at this thing. Even cooler? The EV makes its public debut next weekend at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in West Sussex, England, which is where many manufacturers unveil wacky automobile concept designs.

This is more than just a concept car, though, as it’s going to be street legal and available for purchase, with an estimated cost of around $45,000. You won’t be able to cruise the hills of Virginia with this beast, however, as it’s only launching in the UK due to US-based federal vehicle standards.

The Tamiya Wild One Max was originally announced back in 2021, but the design has changed significantly since then. It’s bigger, more powerful and, of course, more expensive, as the original design was set to cost around $8,500. The new design also features a revised front suspension system, an interior that fits two occupants and an overall weight of 1,100 pounds.

Interestingly, manufacturer The Little Car Company is better known for shrinking classic cars into smaller-sized collectibles and not the other way around. It looks like the company has gone from Honey, I Shrunk the Kids to Honey, I Blew Up the Kid. More power to ‘em.

If you’re in Europe with cash to burn, you can purchase an optional Road Pack along with the EV that includes a windscreen, a pair of tiny wipers, mirrors, mudguards and detachable lights. Though this vehicle qualifies as a quadricycle in Europe, thus allowing it to be registered for road use, you won’t be able to take this thing on highways.

The well-reviewed Google Nest Hub (2nd gen) is now available for just $55 via a Wellbots code. That’s a discount of $45, as the smart display normally retails for $100. All you have to do is order the product from Wellbots and put in the promo code of “45HUBENG.” You’ll be well on your way to owning a smart display that’s been praised for its loud speakers, sleep tracking capabilities and seamless access to Google Assistant.

Wellbots and Google have paired up for even more deals, as the Pixel Watch is available for $75 off with the code “75WATCHENG” and you can pick up a pair of Pixel Buds Pro earbuds for $55 less than the original retail price, via the code “55PIXENG.”

The second-generation Google Nest Hub is already over two years old, so the company could be prepping a third-generation model for the near future, but it definitely won’t be $55. Also, the company recently released a version with a larger screen, called the Nest Hub Max, which clocks in at $220.

In the meantime, if you want a smart display with plenty of high-tech features like automatic dimming, a snazzy visual interface and smart home controls, plunk down that $55 and purchase a Nest Hub.

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A Canadian judge has ruled that the popular “thumbs-up” emoji not only can be used as a contract agreement, but is just as valid as an actual signature. The Saskatchewan-based judge made the ruling on the grounds that the courts must adapt to the “new reality” of how people communicate, as originally reported by The Guardian.

The case involved a grain buyer sending out a mass text to drum up clients and a farmer agreeing to sell 86 tons of flax for around $13 per bushel. The buyer texted a contract agreement to the farmer and asked for the farmer to “confirm” receiving the contract. He issued a thumb’s up emoji as receipt of the document, but backed out of the deal after flax prices increased.

The buyer sued the farmer, arguing that the thumb’s up represented more than just receipt of the contract. It represented an agreement to the conditions of the contract, and a judge agreed, ordering the farmer to cough up nearly $62,000, likely causing a string of puke emojis.

The farmer, Chris Achter, said in an affidavit that he “did not have time to review” the contract and the thumb’s up was just acknowledgment of receipt. Justice Timothy Keene relied on Dictionary.com’s definition of the emoji which notes the image is used to “express assent, approval, or encouragement in digital communications, especially in Western cultures,” ultimately siding with the grain buyer.

“This court readily acknowledges that a 👍 emoji is a non-traditional means to ‘sign’ a document but nevertheless under these circumstances this was a valid way to convey the two purposes of a ‘signature’,” Justice Keene wrote.

The defense argued that giving this type of power to an emoji would open the “floodgates” to enhanced interpretations of other emojis. While the justice dismissed this line of reasoning, anyone who regularly texts the LOL emoji without actually laughing out loud is likely quaking in their boots right now.

When you think of true surround sound stereo systems, you imagine cumbersome multi-speaker affairs that take all day to set up. Sony may have just upended that notion with its HT-AX7 portable theater system, complete with 360 spatial sound mapping. The hook here is that the speakers are detachable and the whole system can easily be moved from room to room without a trip to the chiropractor.

The system uses the company’s proprietary spatial sound mapping technology to create phantom speakers at the front, rear and overhead. These audio sources integrate with three detachable and fully portable speakers, enveloping listeners in a “bubble-like sphere” of spatial sound. The system is designed so anyone can set it up, so there’s no need for a special installation of any kind.

Beyond the portable form factor, the HT-AX7 system uses a real-time algorithm to upscale stereo sound into 3D surround sound. You can also disengage this feature for garden variety “room-filling sound.” All of the associated speakers are wireless and automatically pair with one another, further easing the installation process. This is a stereo system released in the year 2023, so there’s also an app for making adjustments to the sound and to the spatial field.

As for other bells and whistles, the wireless speakers get 30 hours of use per charge and boast quick-charging capabilities. These are Bluetooth-enabled speakers, so you aren’t tied to the TV, which is traditional with home theater setups.

Sony’s HT-AX7 home theater system costs $500 and is available for preorder right now. The units begin shipping on July 18. That price is fairly decent if you’re looking to build a budget-friendly home theater system.

It’s been a whopping four years since Pokémon Sleep was announced, in the wake of the Pokémon Company’s success with Pokémon Go. For a while everyone thought the bizarre sleep tracking app would disappear into the dustbin of vaporware history, but there’s a brand-new ‘gameplay’ trailer and an approximate release date of late July.

We put gameplay in italics because this isn’t a game. It’s a sleep-tracking app with a Pokémon skin. The app pairs you with the snooze-loving Snorlax. You increase your bond with the giant oaf by, you’ll never guess, sleeping. Getting a good night’s sleep increases your score and allows Snorlax to siphon “drowsy power” from your poor, lifeless husk. In return, more tired Pokémon visit and gift you rare sleep styles. Rinse and repeat until your “Sleep Style Dex” is filled to the brim. Gotta catch 'em all.

You can also moderately increase your bond with Snorlax by feeding it berries and specialized drinks, but that won’t bring exhausted Pokémon like Slowpoke and Diglett to your “sleep island.” That requires rest and accurate sleep tracking.

To that end, the sleep tracking capabilities seem fairly robust, leveraging your phone’s microphone and accelerometer sensors to see how much you toss and turn or if you snore. Your personal sleep style seems to inform which pocket monsters come to visit. For instance, if you toss and turn all night, expect Togepi to impart its “Rocking Sleep” style. If you snore, Jigglypuff will offer a song via its signature “Singing Sleep” style. The company hasn’t noted which Pokémon comes to visit if you lay in bed all night staring at your phone surrounded by potato chips, nor have they stated why a sleep tracker took over four years to develop.

The app is a walled-garden and doesn’t integrate with any fitness tracking or sleep tracking apps. It does, however, pair up with the Pokémon Go Plus bracelet, letting users begin sleep tracking by pushing a button on the device. Using the bracelet also encourages a rare visit from a nightcap-wearing Pikachu. A bracelet costs around $30 and the forthcoming Pokémon Sleep is a free app.