It's spring cleaning season, but that doesn't mean you need to get on the floor and scrub. Robot vacuums are a great way to keep your home clean while doing little to nothing, and a few robovacs from Shark are currently on sale. One of the best deals comes courtesy of a 44 percent discount on Shark's AI Robot Vacuum and Mop. The device is down to $270 from $480 — only $20 more than its all-time low price.

Shark's AI Robot Vacuum and Mop is a great option for anyone looking to try a robot vacuum or upgrade their entry-level model. It's nearly identical to Shark's much pricier Ultra 2-in-1 Robot Vacuum and Mop, which appears on our list of the best robot vacuums for 2024 — it just doesn't have a self-emptying base. 

The AI Robot Vacuum and Mop does have quite a few gadgets, including home mapping and AI laser navigation for detecting row-by-row precision and detecting objects four inches or taller. The mop executes 100 scrubs per minute and follows no-mop zones. You can use UltraClean mode on specific, busier rooms, with Shark claiming vacuum work 30 percent better at cleaning carpets in the setting. 

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If you've missed picking up the latest Apple Watch in past sales, now's your chance. The Apple Watch Series 9 is back down to its record-low price thanks to a 25 percent discount. The 41mm smartwatch is on sale right now for $299, down from $399. The deal is only available on the model with a Midnight aluminum case and a matching nylon sports loop.

The Apple Watch Series 9 debuted last September and garnered a 92 in our review. We even named it our pick for 2024's best overall smartwatch. One of the biggest changes for the Series 9 was the addition of Double Tap. This feature allows you to bring your thumb and index finger together (on the watch-wearing hand) to activate controls like hanging up a call. The Apple Watch Series 9 is also the first in its lineup to offer on-device Siri. This shift means Siri works a bit faster and is also available even when your watch is offline.

The Series 9 smartwatch offers a comprehensive range of health features, including a heart rate monitor, sleep monitoring and cycle tracking. Plus, as an added bonus, the Apple Watch Series 9 is carbon neutral, so you can feel a little better about buying another device.

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In October, Microsoft unbundled Teams from Microsoft 365 and Office 365 suites in the European Union and Switzerland to avoid potential fines. Now, the company is expanding this offering, selling Microsoft Teams separately from Microsoft 365 and Office 365 worldwide, Reuters reports. "Doing so also addresses feedback from the European Commission by providing multinational companies more flexibility when they want to standardise their purchasing across geographies," a Microsoft spokesperson told the publication.

Current users can now choose to keep their current deal or switch to one of the separate offerings — especially helpful for anyone who uses the Office suite but prefers another communication service like Zoom or Google Meet. Commercial customers new to Microsoft's offerings can pick up Teams on its own for $5.25, while Office sans Teams is going for anywhere from $7.75 to $54.75.

Microsoft's journey to unbundling Teams and Office started in 2020 when Slack filed an antitrust complaint with the EU. The now Salesforce-owned company alleged that it was illegal to include Teams in the Office suite and that Microsoft was blocking customers from removing the chat platform. The European Commission has subsequently been investigating this matter, with Microsoft announcing in April 2023 that it would separate Teams from Microsoft 35 and Office 365. Though the move went into effect last fall, Microsoft is still at risk of owing the EU a hefty fine if found to have broken antitrust laws.

A new report found Meta and Google are restricting reproductive health information in Asia, Africa and Latin America. MSI Reproductive Choices and the Center for Countering Digital Hate, which partnered on the report, claim that the companies have restricted local abortion providers' ads and allowed misinformation to fester, among other misdoings. 

Take Mexico, which decriminalized abortion in 2023 but where services are not yet legal in all 32 of its states. Meta won't allow MSI to share abortion-related ad content in the country due to remaining bans. However, the local team reported that other sexual and reproductive health content has also received blocks. MSI's teams in Nepal and Vietnam echoed this issue, with Meta allegedly removing ads promoting cervical cancer screenings and information on IUDs and contraceptive pills, respectively. MSI now has a "blanket advertising ban" from Meta in the two countries and claims the company provided no clear justification. Ghana's team reported Google blocked their ads with the phrase "pregnancy options."

"Women and girls are being neglected by these major tech platforms who are putting their bottom lines above the public good," Whitney Chinogwenya, marketing specialist at MSI Reproductive Choices, said in a statement. "Accurate online information is a lifeline for those seeking timely care and facts about their reproductive options. Yet anti-choice groups are able to spread disinformation and toxic narratives online with impunity. And what is worse, platforms like Google and Meta are currently enabling, and profiting from this dangerous propaganda." 

MSI's teams in Ghana, Kenya and Nepal expressed difficulty connecting with Meta and receiving information on why their ads were limited — though Bangladesh's team was able to get in contact and resolve their issues. Kenya, Nigeria and Vietnam faced another problem: imitation Facebook pages and websites, sometimes with nothing different than a phone number. MSI requested that Meta and Google remove these scammers (some of which requested money from prospective clients) but claims the companies delayed action or took none. 

Researchers gathered evidence through correspondence and interviews with MSI's teams in locations such as Bangladesh, Ghana, Kenya, Mexico, Nepal, Nigeria, South Africa and Vietnam. Further information came from an analysis of Meta's Ad Library, which the report claims showed evidence of the company displaying and profiting from false or misleading anti-abortion ads in Ghana and Mexico. Users reportedly in these two countries viewed these ads up to one million times between 2019 and 2024. Approved ads included claims that "global powers and international companies" paid for decriminalizing abortion movements to "eliminate the Mexican population."

The report also looks at abuse directed at MSI's workers in Kenya, which the organization claimed Meta turns a "blind eye" towards. Ghana's team reported anti-choice organizations have used WhatsApp, a Meta-owned platform, to pedal conspiracies around family planning being a method to depopulate Africa and MSI's workers "introducing 'satanic' sexual education in schools to 'destroy the youth.'" 

The Center for Countering Digital Hate's CEO and founder, Imran Ahmed, accuses social media companies of mining "users' personal data in the Global South but take little care to protect local human rights and civil liberties. It reeks of colonialism — the greed, arrogance and double standards in how they treat less-wealthy markets. They have little regard or understanding of the complex cultural and political factors that can deprive people of their legal right to reproductive healthcare, nor do they grasp that the uneven application of their own content moderation policies greatly exacerbates these problems."

Meta is reviewing the findings, but spokesperson, Ryan Daniels told The Guardian: "We allow posts and ads promoting healthcare services, as well as discussion and debate around them. Content about reproductive health must follow our rules, including those on prescription drugs and misinformation, and ads promoting reproductive health products or services may only be targeted to people 18-plus. We prohibit ads that include misinformation or mislead people about services a business provides, and we will review the content of this report."

A Google spokesperson told the publication: "This report does not include a single example of policy-violating content on Google’s platform, nor any examples of inconsistent enforcement." Google then responded directly to the claim that it blocked ads with the term "pregnancy options" stating, "If the ads were restricted, it was likely due to our longstanding policies against targeting people based on sensitive health categories, which includes pregnancy."

Engadget has reached out to Meta and Google for further comment. 

If you're part of the intersection of virtual reality enthusiasts and major league baseball fans, then there's good news for you. MLB has launched Home Run Derby VR on the Meta Quest Store, making it available for Quest 2, Quest 3 and Quest Pro users. The game was previously on Meta's App Lab.

MLB Home Run Derby VR gives gamers the chance to explore 30 different ballparks and play up to 100 different levels. "This upgraded game offers an exciting opportunity to experience each venue like never before and utilizing advanced motion controls and realistic batting mechanics, users can step into the virtual batter's box to emulate their favorite sluggers from anywhere in the world," MLB shared in its announcement.

The game also offers multiplayer mode for up to four people or tournaments for up to eight. Users can choose winners by score, fastest exit velocity or longest home run. Plus, achievements can unlock bat skins, batting gloves and more for their Meta avatars. MLB Home Run Derby VR is available for $30 in the Meta Quest Store, but non-Meta users can pick it up on Rift or Steam VR platforms.

This launch isn't MLB's first foray into VR: The organization hosted its first "virtual ballpark" regular-season game in September. The experience allowed viewers to "enter" the stadium and watch avatars correspond to real-time gameplay between the Tampa Bay Rays and the Los Angeles Angels.

There's good news for anyone looking to upgrade their phone as the Google Pixel 8 is currently down to a record-low price. Woot is running a 33 percent discount on the new Google Pixel 8 — one of our picks for 2024's best smartphones — dropping its cost to $470 from $700. The sale is on for the next five days or until the smartphone sells out. 

The new Google Pixel 8 launched last October and scored a 90 in our review due to features like its Tensor G3 chip. Google claims the chip allows the Pixel 8 to support more text and natural voice recognition. Plus, the company boasts that the G3 chip has twice the number of machine learning models as the G1 in the Pixel 6. This strength is more important than ever with AI's growth and the recent launch of Magic Editor, a content-aware fill and lasso hybrid.

Externally, the Google Pixel 8 looks a little different. The screen has shrunk a tad to 6.2 inches from 6.3 inches screen on the Pixel 7 — a small but noticeable change. Also visible on the smartphone are a 50MP primary camera and a 12MP ultra-wide camera. 

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The Amazon Big Spring Sale might be over, but there are still plenty of deals worth shopping across the site. Anyone looking to upgrade their meals will want to check out the 20 percent discounts on Breville's Smart Ovens, including the Air Fryer Pro. Our pick for 2024's best air fryer toaster oven is down to $320 from $400 — its Black Friday low.

Breville's Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro allows you to cook almost anything you want. It has 13 cooking settings, ranging from typical ones like broil, bake and warm to more specific options like cookies, proof and dehydrate. Taking up one cubic foot of space, the Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro is basically a second oven that can make perfectly crispy fries. In fact, it's so big you could fit a 14-pound turkey, 9x13 sheets or a Dutch Oven inside it. 

Worth noting: Despite having the title "Smart Oven," Breville's Air Fryer Pro, it's not smart in the way most things these days are. Breville's Joule Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro is the one to go with if you want an actual "smart" device — as in one that can talk to Alexa. It will notify you when your food is done and offer guided recipes in an app, among other perks. Plus, it's also 20 percent off right now, down to $440 from $550.

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Game Help, which provides developer-created tips and videos to help you progress without leaving the game, has been a staple of players' PlayStation 5 experience since it launched in 2020. Now, Sony has announced Community Game Help, an expansion of the feature allowing you to view hint videos of other users' gameplay across select titles. 

Community tips will be accessible in the same way as Game Help: click the PS button, launch the Control Center, and find an Action Card labeled "Hints Inside." Any card with gamer videos will have a Community Game Help label. In addition to using these tips, Sony encourages players to rate how helpful each tip is to inform which videos will show up in the future. 

You can opt-in or out of allowing Sony to use clips from your gameplay as hints for other players. If you choose to share, then Sony will automatically capture videos while you play certain parts of a game. However, any streaming or other personal info appearing on your screen won't be shown in the shared videos. You should also receive a notification if Sony shares your gameplay as a hint. Moderators will reportedly sort through all the videos and determine which should be included in the Community Game Help cards — though the feature won't be available for another few months. 

Meta's relationship with politics and political content on its platforms has been a source of enormous controversy, with the platform routinely accused of highlighting material designed to rile up users in the name of engagement. The company has, in recent years, tried to distance itself from its reputation and is now allowing users to restrict algorithmically-suggested political content on both Threads and Instagram. Meta defines political content as "likely to mention governments, elections, or social topics that affect a group of people and/or society at large" — so, in reality, almost everything. The option to limit this far from narrow set of posts is now rolling out to users with the setting automatically set to on by default, the company confirmed to The Verge.

Meta first announced the feature in February, sharing that the company wants "Instagram and Threads to be a great experience for everyone." The statement continued, "If you decide to follow accounts that post political content, we don't want to get between you and their posts, but we also don't want to proactively recommend political content from accounts you don't follow." Basically, if you turn on this feature, it will limit political content visibility through Explore, Reels, in-feed recommendations, and suggested users. Political posts from accounts you follow should appear in your feed as usual.

You can check if the feature has reached your account or turn it off in Instagram's settings. Just go to suggested content, and you'll see a tab called political content. Click on that, and there will be two options: limit or don't limit political content from accounts you don't follow. However, choosing to restrict it doesn't necessarily mean a total embargo. A note under the open specifies, "You might see less political or social topics in your suggested content." Whichever you choose will apply to both Instagram and Threads.

The Amazon Big Spring Sale isn't over yet, and new deals are still popping up all over the site on everything from outdoor cameras to smartwatches—including our favorite budget Apple Watch for 2024. The second-generation Apple Watch SE is 24 percent off, dropping to $189 from $249. It's not the device's record-low price, but the $60 off brings it pretty close.

The second-gen Apple Watch SE garnered an 89 in our review thanks to the comprehensive features it offers for much less money than the company's alternatives. The smartwatch has all the usual options, like heart-rate monitoring, crash detection, and emergency calling. The retina display offers up to 1,000 nits brightness, and the battery lasts 18 hours. 

If you're considering buying an Apple Watch SE, one thing to keep in mind is that it's not IPX6 rated for dust resistance like the Series 8 and Ultra. However, it is water resistant up to 50 meters.  

Your Spring Sales Shopping Guide: Spring sales are in the air, headlined by Amazon’s Big Spring sale event. Our expert editors are curating all the best spring sales right here. Follow Engadget to shop the best tech deals from Amazon’s Big Spring Sale, hear from Autoblog’s car experts on the best spring auto deals on Amazon, and find spring sales to shop on AOL, handpicked just for you.