If you've been thinking of buying Apple's HomePod (2nd generation), now's the time to act — it's on sale right now at Verizon for $175. That's a significant $125 discount (42 percent off) and represents one of the best deals we've seen on the smart speaker to date. In addition, Verizon is currently offering a deal on the HomePod Mini, letting you get a pair for $150, or 25 percent off.

With sound that's clearer and richer than offerings from Amazon and Google, the second-gen HomePod garnered a solid 84 score in our review last year. However, it's really only aimed at Apple users, working best with iPhones, Apple TVs and other devices from the company, along with services like Apple Music.  

As a smart home device, it's compatible with Matter and Thread on top of Apple's own HomeKit protocol, so you can use it to control a growing range of security cameras, thermostats, plugs and other smart home accessories. It also has built-in temperature and humidity sensors, and its included mics do well to pick out your voice through noise.

Speakers like the Sonos Five and Sonos Era 300 cost more but offer a bit better sound, while the Sonos Era 100 is normally a bit better value (Google Assistant and Amazon Echo users should look elsewhere). In addition, there's no Bluetooth audio and Siri isn't the most capable assistant At $175, however, the second-gen HomePod is a solid deal if you've been eyeing one.

If you don't need the sound quality of the HomePod, the HomePod Mini is also on sale at Verizon in a "buy one, get the second one half off" deal (two for $150, basically). That will get you a stereo pair or let you stock a couple of bedrooms. It comes with nearly all the same smart home features if that's your main concern, while offering superior sound quality to the Echo Dot and Google Home Mini.

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Another Ubisoft studio is pitching in to help develop Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake. Ubisoft Toronto has announced on X/Twitter that it's joining the company's Montreal division to work on the game. In 2022, Ubisoft Montreal took over the project from Ubisoft Pune and Mumbai after several days from its target release date of as far back as January 2021. The company said back then that Montreal was "building upon the work achieved" by its studios in India. In an interview last year, though, producer Jean-Francois Naud revealed that the project was still "in conception" and that it's "looking at feedback from the community and finding [its] own way of delivering the game."

Ubisoft Montreal was "the very birthplace of the epic Sands of Time trilogy," the company wrote in its message when the studio took the reins. The original Sands of Times was itself a reboot of the original Prince of Persia series of PC games by Jordan Mechner. Montreal was also the studio behind a number of Splinter Cell series and Rainbow Six series titles, as well as most Assassin's Creed games. Meanwhile, Toronto developed Far Cry 5 and 6 and Watch Dogs: Legion. It's also currently working on the Splinter Cell remake that's being rebuilt from the ground up using the company's own Snowdrop engine.

The Sands of Time Remake has no new release date yet. 

Intel recently revealed that its upcoming Lunar Lake chips would be available this fall for Copilot+ AI PCs, but the company waited until Computex to give us more technical details. For one, they'll offer up to 48 TOPs (tera operations per second) of AI performance, thanks to an updated neural processing unit (NPU). In comparison, Intel's previous Meteor Lake chips sported a 10 TOPS NPU, while AMD announced its Ryzen AI 300 chips yesterday with 50 TOPS NPUs. The AI race is on, if you couldn't tell.

Intel will once again have to play catch up in the AI PC space: AMD's Ryzen AI 300 chips will be available in July alongside Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite and X Plus. It's unclear when, exactly, Lunar Lake systems will launch this fall. Still, for the Intel faithful, Lunar Lake appears to be a major upgrade. It will also sport a new Xe2 GPU, which will offer 80 percent faster gaming performance than the last generation, as well as an AI accelerator with an additional 67 TOPS of performance. (We're still waiting to see how AMD's new Radeon graphics will compare.)

Additionally, Lunar Lake will have revamped performance and efficient cores (P-cores and E-cores), and it should also deliver up to 40 percent lower system-on-chip power than Meteor Lake. Intel also says the chip features an "advanced low-power island" for efficiently handling background tasks. Clearly, both Intel and AMD are going to do whatever it takes to combat Qualcomm's Copilot+ hardware. Those mobile chips are inherently more power efficient — they reportedly get over 20 hours of battery life on Copilot+ Surface devices (though we haven't tested them yet).

When it comes to connectivity, Lunar Lake will offer the updated standards you'd expect: Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4, PCIe Gen5 and Thunderbolt 4. (It's strange that Intel isn't committing to Thunderbolt 5 yet, since it plans to launch that standard later this year.)

Intel

Given just how far off Lunar Lake actually is, Intel didn't have more information to share about specific chip models or deeper specs. But judging from the company's benchmarks, released during a media briefing ahead of Computex, it'll should be faster than Meteor Lake while running Stable Diffusion.

New York is poised to pass a law that will bar social media platforms from showing algorithmic feeds to teens without parental consent. The Wall Street Journal reports that lawmakers in the state have reached a “tentative agreement” on a bill that will be voted on later this week.

State officials, including Governor Kathy Hochul, introduced a bill requiring parental consent for algorithmic feeds last year. The Stop Addictive Feeds Exploitation (SAFE) for Kids Act doesn’t restrict the type of content teens can view on social media apps, but they wouldn’t be able to view algorithmic feeds without permission from their parents or guardians. The latest version of the bill will also block teens from seeing in-app notifications overnight without parental consent, according to The Wall Street Journal.

If passed into law, New York would become the latest state to attempt to rein in social media platforms’ access to teens with age verification requirements. Utah passed a law last year requiring social media apps to get parental consent, though the measure was later scaled back. Lawmakers in California have also proposed limiting teens’ access to algorithmic feeds.

Samsung has filed a lawsuit against Oura to try to head off intellectual property disputes as the Galaxy Ring launch draws near. The suit notes that Oura has used its patent portfolio to sue smaller wearable tech competitors and has hinted it may do the same against the much larger Samsung. Welcome to the weird modern world of mega-corporations suing startups to prevent them from filing suits of their own.

“Oura’s actions and public statements demonstrate that Oura will continue asserting patent infringement against other entrants into the U.S. smart ring market, including Samsung,” the lawsuit, first reported on by The Verge, reads. “Oura’s immediate response to the announcement of the Galaxy Ring was to point to the purported strength of its intellectual property portfolio.”

The lawsuit claims the Galaxy Ring doesn’t infringe on Oura’s patents. However, in justifying its suit, it lays out a pattern of what it frames as aggressive IP protection by the Finnish startup. It lists cases where Oura sued smaller competitors like Ultrahuman, Circular and RingConn “as soon as, or even before, they entered the U.S. market.”

The document also cites Oura embarking on a media tour immediately following the Galaxy Ring announcement, touting the company’s “over 150 patents.” It specifically calls out patent-related quotes published by TechCrunch and a CNBC interview where Oura CEO Tom Hale hinted the company may use its IP portfolio against Samsung.

Daniel Cooper for Engadget

Samsung’s legal filing essentially tries to paint Oura as a patent troll, claiming many of the Finnish company’s patent disputes have been for features common to the entire category of smart rings, like electronics, sensors, a battery and scores that weigh health metrics. That approach conjures memories of Samsung’s old patent disputes with Apple. A common theme in those decade-old courtroom battles was Samsung accusing the iPhone maker of holding bogus patents that should never have been granted because they used obvious technologies or methods shared by the entire industry. (It worked with mixed results in those cases.)

Samsung filed its new lawsuit against Oura in the Northern District of California, San Francisco Division. Oura is based in Finland but has a US wing of its operations based in Delaware, including offices in San Francisco with more than 50 employees.

The lawsuit reveals extra detail about Samsung’s Galaxy Ring, which the company first showed off in a render in January before revealing physical models at the Mobile World Congress in February. The document says Samsung only finalized the Galaxy Ring’s design in “mid-May 2024” and plans to enter mass production in mid-June.

It adds that the Galaxy Ring will arrive in the US “in or around August of this year,” which aligns with expectations that the company will launch it at a summer Unpacked event.

Instagram ads may soon be much harder to ignore. As TechCrunch reports, Meta is testing a new type of non-skippable ad in the Instagram feed, which the company is calling an “ad break.”

With the new ads, which have already been spotted by some users, you can’t scroll past the feed ad until the”ad break” finishes. According to screenshots shared on Reddit and X, it appears that the “breaks” are a few seconds long, though it’s not clear if the length could change should Meta decide to make the new format official. “Ad breaks are a new way of seeing ads on Instagram,” an in-app message states. “Sometimes you may need to view an ad before you can keep browsing.”

While non-skippable video ads are common on other platforms, like YouTube, it’s a new and much more aggressive format for Instagram. It’s also notable that the company is experimenting with the ads in its main feed rather than in Reels or Stories, where video ads are more common (but for now still skippable).

Meta didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment, but the company confirmed to TechCrunch that it was testing the new ad format. “As we test and learn, we will provide updates should this test result in any formal product changes,” a Meta spokesperson said.

A collection of leaked internal Google privacy cases provides a rare glimpse into the company’s volume and handling of breaches, accidents and other incidents. 404 Media obtained and pored through the database, which covers thousands of internally flagged privacy and security issues from 2013 to 2018. 

Google verified the trove’s authenticity with Engadget but claimed some of the reports were related to third-party services or didn’t end up being cause for concern. “At Google employees can quickly flag potential product issues for review by the relevant teams,” a company spokesperson wrote to Engadget. “When an employee submits the flag they suggest the priority level to the reviewer. The reports obtained by 404 are from over six years ago and are examples of these flags — every one was reviewed and resolved at that time. In some cases, these employee flags turned out not to be issues at all or were issues that employees found in third party services.”

404 Media writes that, when taken on an individual level, many cases only impacted a few people or were fixed quickly. “Taken as a whole, though, the internal database shows how one of the most powerful and important companies in the world manages, and often mismanages, a staggering amount of personal, sensitive data on people’s lives,” 404 Media’s Joseph Cox wrote.

Examples include a potential security issue where a government client of a Google cloud service had its sensitive data accidentally transitioned to a consumer-level product. Google’s internal report added that, as a consequence, a US-based location for the data was “no longer guaranteed for this customer,” according to the report.

Google

In 2016, another case flagged a glitch in Google Street View, where a filter in the service’s transcription software designed to omit captured license plate numbers failed to do its job. “As a result, our database of objects detected from Street View now inadvertently contains a database of geolocated license plate numbers and license plate number fragments,” the report acquired by 404 Media details. (Oops!) That report said the data was purged.

Another incident highlighted a case where a bug in a Google speech service accidentally captured and logged an estimated 1,000 hours of children’s speech data for about an hour. That case report claimed the team deleted all of the data.

Other cases in the database range from “a person” modifying customer accounts on Google’s ad platform to manipulate affiliate tracking codes to YouTube recommending videos based on users’ deleted watch histories. One report even highlights how a Google employee (unintentionally, according to the report) accessed Nintendo’s private YouTube videos and leaked info ahead of the video game company’s announcements.

The full report from 404 Media, which details more of the internal reports, is worth reading for anyone curious about the types of privacy and security incidents a company of Google’s magnitude faces — or causes itself — and how it addresses them.

A long time ago I watched a video about John Nese, owner of the iconic Galco’s Soda Pop Stop in LA, and one thing that stuck with me was his response after being asked how much soda he drinks. Nese said that even though he’ll have one or two a day, what it really boils down to is that he “just likes the bubbles.” However, as much as I enjoy hunting down special flavors in stores, nothing beats the convenience of making your own sparkling concoctions at home. So when I heard that Breville was releasing a carbonated beverage maker with a feature not available from rivals like SodaStream I knew I wanted to test it out. And in just a few short weeks, the Infizz Fusion has quickly become one of my favorite and most-used kitchen gadgets.

Design — Expectedly upscale

At $250, the InFizz Fusion costs a lot more than basic soda water makers, which can go for $100 or less. However, it’s clear Breville is using that extra money to create a premium design including a stainless body with a die-cast lever and a magnetic drip tray. This means it’s closer to more premium rivals than plasticky alternatives like almost all of SodaStream’s offerings. And while your taste may vary, the InFizz and Aarke’s line or Carbonators are probably the only two that look good enough to live on my counter full-time instead of being hidden away when not in use. That said, I wish Breville would release an optional glass bottle, as currently the InFizz Fusion is restricted to plastic 0.6- and 1-liter containers. And because its bottles use a proprietary connector, you can’t swap in canisters from competitors.

Operation — The easiest bubbles you’ve ever made

Gassing up liquids with the InFizz is incredibly straightforward. First, you screw a one-pound CO2 tank into the hole on the boom. The InFizz comes with one Breville-branded canister, though you can use generic replacements from Sodastream and others. You just need to remember to buy tanks with threaded tops instead of ones with quick-connect fittings. Then you pour water into the bottle (the colder the better), attach Breville’s FusionCap and then twist the whole setup into the machine itself. From there, you just press the lever on top for a second or two and that’s it. There’s no need for power or to plug a cord, so you have tons of flexibility about where it’ll live in your kitchen.

Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget

When attaching the FusionCap to the bottle or the bottle to the machine, there’s a very obvious and satisfying thunk that lets you know when each component is seated properly. I only had one blowout when I first started using the InFizz and after I learned from my mistake, it never happened again. I found the routine that worked best for me was to fill the bottle and then stash it in the fridge overnight, which made it a cinch to get crisp, chilled seltzer first thing in the morning in less than 30 seconds. It’s really that easy. Sometimes, I saw tiny ice cubes while I was carbonating, which I took as a sign that the water was cold enough. That said, it’s important not to add ice intentionally, as that can damage the machine.

One note is that before you use it, you will want to give it a rinse. After unboxing it, I noticed the InFizz Fusion’s bottle had an oily smell. Thankfully, alongside the InFizz itself, Breville includes a funnel, a strainer and a brush, the latter of which helped erase the odor after a quick wash.

How it tastes - Bubbles, bubbles everywhere

Like a lot of carbonated water makers, you have the freedom to hold the lever down a bit longer, in case you’re like me and you like big bodacious bubbles (similar to what you get in Pepsi) as opposed to the finer effervescence you get in something like Perrier. But the InFizz Fusion’s secret party trick is that it carbonates more than just water. You can add bubbles to cider for a refreshing twist on a fall treat. Or you can give new life to soda that’s gone flat. You can even uplift wine to create your own sparkling alternative in your kitchen. Pretty much any liquid you’d want to drink, the InFizz Fusion can inject with bubbles. And right now, there’s only one other home soda maker that can do this – the Drinkmate – which puts Breville’s machine in a more rarified crowd.

Photo by Sam Rutherford

Now this might not sound like a big deal, but as we get closer to summer, you know what’s even more refreshing than lemonade? An icy cold glass of sparkling lemonade. Alternatively, you can add bubbles to OJ, which is essentially a homemade version of Orangina, and I’d argue it tastes even better because it hasn’t been languishing in a bottle for the past few months. With the InFizz Fusion, there’s an entire world of things you can seltzerize.

At this point, you might be wondering why you can’t make lemonade from seltzer. And you can. However, if you make sparkling water first and then stir in lemon juice and sugar, you tend to knock a lot of bubbles out in the process. And for stuff like OJ, unless you’re making things from a concentrate, there may not be a way to start with pure water. The one thing you have to watch out for though is that when carbonating drinks that are more than just water, you may run into extra bubbles. But that’s where the red tab on the FusionCap comes in, as it allows you to release pressure slowly so your concoction doesn’t erupt and make a mess.

Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget

That said, some drinks work better than others. Milk-based beverages are pretty much a no-go, as the carbonation process curdles the dairy, resulting in a product that just tastes off. And while you can add bubbles to coffee, the CO2 adds an extra dimension of sourness that probably isn’t what you want. After all, there’s a reason effervescent java is usually injected with nitrogen instead of carbon dioxide.

My one suggestion is that in addition to the one-liter bottle that comes with the machine, if you’re into making all sorts of bubbly beverages, you may want to pick up a spare 0.6-liter container too, because as tasty as stuff like sparkling OJ or cider are, they’re typically better consumed in smaller doses lest you end up drinking too many empty calories.

Wrap-up

Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget

Look, if all you want is a machine for making seltzer, you’ll probably be better off with a basic SodaStream. Alternatively, if you just want a more premium bubble machine that comes with the bonus of having optional glass bottles, Aarke’s Carbonator Pro makes for a solid upgrade pick. Or you could go with the InFizz Aqua, which is the same basic device as the Fusion except that it can only carbonate water. But if you want a device that can turn almost any drink into a sparkling treat while also sporting an upscale design, Breville’s InFizz Fusion is where it’s at.

The Google Pixel 8 Pro remains the large-screen Android smartphone we'd recommend to most people, and right now it's back on sale for $749 at Amazon, Best Buy and Google's online store. We've seen this deal before, but it matches the largest discount we've tracked for an unlocked model outside of trade-in or carrier-exclusive offers. The phone technically has a list price of $999, though it's often sold for $799 since it was launched last October. Either way, you're saving at least a bit more than usual. This price applies to the base model with 128GB of storage, but higher-capacity models are also $250 off their MSRP if you need more space.

If you don't mind trading in an old device, however, Google has also raised the trade-in values for certain phones when they're put toward a Pixel 8 Pro. If you're upgrading from a Pixel 6 Pro, for instance, you can tack on a $400 refund, while a Pixel 7 Pro in good condition can give up to $500 back. Those are higher than what the company is offering for the smaller Pixel 8 or foldable Pixel Fold. Google says this promo will run through June 22. (Just be sure to follow Google's instructions if you go this route, as the company uses a third party for its trade-in program.) Best Buy will also take an extra $100 off if you activate the phone with a carrier.

We gave the Pixel 8 Pro a score of 93 in our review last year, and it still offers top-notch camera performance, a vibrant 6.7-inch OLED display and a relatively clean take on Android, with OS updates guaranteed through October 2030. The screen supports a variable refresh rate up to 120Hz, which makes scrolling feel smooth, and the soft glass finish looks and feels nice. The software, meanwhile, is aided by a few AI-based features that are actually handy (and don't involve eating glue): A Magic Editor tool lets you cut out unwanted objects in the background of photos, for one, while an Audio Magic Eraser feature helps eliminate ambient noise from videos. (You can use Magic Editor features with other phones, but you're limited to 10 uses per month unless you own a Pixel or pay a subscription fee.)

You'd get the Pixel 8 Pro for the camera and software first, though. Its Tensor G3 chip can handle just about anything you throw at it, but alternatives like the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra are technically faster and may not get as warm when stressed. Likewise, while the phone's battery can get you through a full day, it's not quite class-leading, and its 30W charging speed could stand to be faster. Still, there's plenty to like here. Our biggest issue with the Pixel 8 Pro was that it costs $100 more than its predecessor out of the gate, but this deal helps soften that blow.   

If you want a smaller or more affordable handset, the 6.1-inch Pixel 8 offers most of the same features and is also on sale for $549. That's not the lowest price we've seen, though it's a better value than Google's newer midrange Pixel 8a phone when it's discounted to that extent. 

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The TP-Link Deco AXE5400 WI-Fi mesh router system is on sale for $310 via Amazon. This pack gets you three units that cover up to 7,200 square feet. Unless you’re Scrooge McDuck, that’ll likely be enough to bring sweet, sweet internet anywhere in the home.

This is our very favorite mesh Wi-Fi system currently available. It just works, with minimal frustration. The setup is easy, the app is useful and, of course, the wireless signal is strong. After testing this system, we said that it “expertly balances raw power and user-friendliness.” It’s also a good value for the money, made even more so by today’s sale.

This is a tri-band system, which is always nice, and it can handle up to 200 devices at once. It supports Wi-Fi 6. There’s a newer model that supports Wi-Fi 7, but a three-pack costs around $800. If you’re dead set on a Wi-Fi 7 router, consider a two-pack instead of a three-pack to save some money. We have found during testing that two mesh routers is more than enough for many average-sized homes. 

We don’t have any significant gripes about the TP-Link Deco AXE5400, aside from some nitpicks. The power cord is on the shorter side, which may require an extension. The app, while useful, could use a bit more polish. Other than that, this is a near-perfect mesh router system.

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