If you've been looking to pick up a spare gamepad for your Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S or PC, it might be a good time to pull the trigger, as Microsoft's official Xbox Wireless Controller is on sale for $44 at Amazon and Walmart. Microsoft itself has the device for a dollar more. While this isn't an all-time low — we saw the controller go for $5 less over Black Friday, for instance — the Xbox pad has typically retailed in the $50 to $55 range in recent months. Note that this price applies to the white, black and red models; the pink, green and "electric volt" colorways, which usually cost $5 more, are each on sale for $49.

The Series X/S controller has the same broadly comfortable shape as older Xbox pads, with responsive face buttons and triggers, smooth joysticks and a pleasing sense of heft. Its d-pad is much more clicky than the one on Sony's DualSense PS5 controller, and it still uses an asymmetrical joystick layout, but whether those are negatives is largely a matter of preference. There's Bluetooth for pairing with a PC or mobile device, as well as a dedicated "Share" button for capturing screenshots and gameplay clips. While you don't get the advanced haptic feedback features of the DualSense, the whole thing is a bit less wide, and it's generally easier to use on a PC, especially if you use clients besides Steam. Alternatives like the 8BitDo Ultimate Bluetooth Controller and Microsoft's own Elite Series 2 pad (which is on sale for $140) offer a wider array of features, but if you just need the basics, the standard Xbox controller should do the job.

The main hang-up is that it still relies on AA batteries for power. That lets it last longer on a charge than the DualSense, but you'll have to buy a separate rechargeable battery pack if you don't want to swap out batteries on the regular. If you can live with that hassle, however, you can lessen the need to buy new batteries by grabbing a pair of rechargeable AAs like the Panasonic Eneloops. 

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The right accessories can make an old MacBook feel new again, or level up your experience with a brand new laptop. For example, a good wireless mouse can be more comfortable on your longest work days than your MacBook’s trackpad, and it’s always handy to have a few extra chargers around. We at Engadget have tested out numerous MacBook accessories over the years, and the recommendations below are some of our favorites at the moment.

Logitech Brio 500

Our current favorite webcam will up the video quality of all of the conference calls you take. The Logitech Brio 500 records 1080p 30fps video, and its improved light correction will help you put your best face forward regardless of the environment in which you’re streaming. Much like Logitech’s other webcams, the Brio 500 is a plug-and-play solution — just connect it via one of the USB-C ports on your MacBook and start a call. But you can customize things further if you want using the LogiTune software, which lets you change things like field of view, contrast, brightness, autofocus and more. The Brio 500 also supports Logitech’s RightSight technology, which keeps you in the middle of the frame even when you move around, similar to Apple’s Center Stage feature on its iPads. Admittedly, an external webcam will be most useful for those working with an older MacBook that still has a 720p built-in camera, but even those with new MacBooks can get use out of the Brio 500 — and if you spend most of your days on video calls, you’ll want the extra bump in quality and superior customizations that Logitech’s accessory provides. — Valentina Palladino, Senior Commerce Editor

Yilador webcam cover

The built-in cameras on MacBooks may have gotten better over the past few years, but they still don’t include a cover for when you want a little extra privacy. Webcam covers like these from Yilador are cheap and effective — these are super thin at 0.027 inches and adhere right over your webcam, allowing you to slide a shutter over the camera when you’re not using it. They’re easy to install, and the adhesive is secure enough that the cover won’t fall off but you can also remove the cover and stick it onto a new laptop when you eventually upgrade. The standard black option is great if you want the cover to blend in with the bezels surrounding your MacBook’s display, or you can opt for a fun design that features pizzas, fruits or cute little characters. — V.P.

LapGear lap desk

If you take your MacBook from room to room with you, you’ve probably found yourself working in some less-than-ergonomic positions. When you want to relax on the couch or your favorite armchair and still get some work done, a lap desk like this one from LapGear can make it more comfortable. It has enough surface area to fit 13- and 15-inch MacBooks, with extra side space where you can use a Bluetooth mouse along with your notebook. The raised ledge towards the bottom will prevent your laptop from sliding off, and the two storage wells at the top are good places to store pens, sticky notes, snacks and more. — V.P.

Anker 555 USB-C Hub

The latest MacBook Pros may have a bevy of ports, but they’re the only Mac laptops that have that level of connectivity. Anker’s 555 USB-C hub and accessories like it will be a necessity for anyone working with a new Air or an older Mac model. Anker’s hub gives you eight ports: two USB-A ports, one HDMI port, SD and microSD card slots, one Ethernet jack and two USB-C ports, one of which provides 100W power to charge your MacBook. The USB-C and USB-A ports can handle 10 Gbps file transfers and you can connect a 4K/60Hz monitor to the HDMI slot. Anker’s accessory may be ultra-portable, but it has enough power and versatility to be the only laptop hub you need. — V.P.

Belkin 4-Port GaN 108W BoostCharge Pro

In our fast charger guide, Apple’s included 140W power adapter was the quickest to refill an M1 MacBook Pro, but it only has a single port. As our reviewer Sam Rutherford points out, that seems like a missed opportunity. Belkin’s four-port GaN BoostCharge Pro 108W charger gives you space for two USB-A and two USB-C cables and was the second fastest performer, getting the laptop from ten percent to 75 percent in about 45 minutes. The starting price is also about $10 cheaper than Apple’s. The BoostCharge Pro wasn't the top pick in our 100W-plus category because it lagged when powering an Android phone, but if you’re looking for a reliable wall charger for your MacBook, this will serve you well. — Amy Skorheim, Commerce Writer

Anker 100W USB-C charging cable

It would be nice if you could grab a random charging cable and have it work correctly with any device. But not all cables are the same: If you want to take advantage of a fast charging brick or the quick-charge port of a power bank, you’ll need a power delivery cable with a high wattage rating. Anker’s USB-C to USB-C 100W cable was the conduit of choice when Sam tested out fast chargers for our guide. It’s plenty long at 10 feet and it’s affordable at $16 (and we’ve seen it go on sale for less). While it supports data transfer, it’s not rated for video output. For that, you’ll want a video cable or one marked as Thunderbolt 3 or 4. — A.S.

Mophie Powerstation Pro AC

When you take your MacBook on the road, it’s nice to have a way to juice it back up if an outlet isn’t available. Mophie’s Powerstation Pro AC is a massive, 27,000mAh power bank with 20W USB-C and USB-A ports, a 60W USB-C power delivery port and a 100W AC plug. In our tests, it recharged a 16-inch MacBook Pro from ten percent to 75 percent in 89 minutes — and that’s while using WiFi, a VPN, Slack and multiple active tabs in Chrome. The 140W power brick that comes with that laptop is too power-hungry for the 100W AC port, but plugging the USB-C end of the MagSafe cable into the Powerstation worked great. — A.S.

Roost Stand

Hunching over a MacBook all day is murder on your back and neck, so it’s wise to make your everyday setup more ergonomic by using a stand paired with a separate keyboard and mouse. The Roost Stand adjusts to seven different heights and can accommodate up to a 16-inch MacBook Pro. It folds up to a slim stick and weighs just over six ounces, making it not only good for your desk, but also as part of your go-everywhere digital-nomad setup. Just be prepared: when I set mine up in public, I always get questions from strangers. — A.S.

Logitech Ergo mouse

There is a mouse graveyard in my office cabinet — devices I’ve tried and discarded because they didn’t help with my shoulder aches. The solution was a trackball mouse and Logitech’s MX Ergo is the best I’ve found. It tilts for a more natural “handshake” grip and has a slow-mo trackball button for more precise movements in Photoshop and other apps. The scroll wheel is speedy but precise and you can switch between two computers (or one MacBook and one iPad) with the pairing button. You can even program the various buttons to do app-specific things using Logitech’s software. My only gripe is the antiquated micro-USB charging port, but the battery lasts long enough that I only have to use it once every few months. It’s pricey at $100, so you may prefer the $70 Ergo Lift. It also offers a handshake grip, but without the roller ball, and has Bluetooth or USB dongle connectivity options. — A.S.

Magic KeyBoard with Numeric Keypad

We’ve already suggested you don’t work all day directly on your laptop, so along with your stand and external mouse, you’ll need a keyboard. Apple’s own Magic Keyboard with numeric keypad is a solid work-from-home or office option. It pairs quickly and reliably with any MacBook, and I appreciate the expanded key selection, which includes a forward delete key. Apple claims the battery lasts about a month with regular use, which jives with my experience, and you can recharge from your laptop while you work (a no-brainer feature the Magic Mouse doesn’t have). On the other hand, if you enjoy the pleasing clack of mechanical keys, consider some of our favorite 60-percent keyboards. — A.S.

Logitech K380

I’ve carried Logitech’s K380 keyboard for travel and coffee shop sojourns for five years (and I’m currently typing on it). It puts up with rough treatment and connects easily to a roster of machines, including Mac, iOS, Windows, Android and Chrome OS. It has a that critical forward delete key and three Bluetooth pairing buttons so you can switch quickly between different devices. It takes three AAA-cell batteries, but lasts for over a year on a set. The top-row function keys support a few Mac-specific shortcuts like volume, mute, playback control and the “expose” function that shows all your open apps at once. — A.S.

Blink is today announcing its latest external security camera, the Blink Outdoor 4, which boasts better image quality, improved low-light sensitivity and a wider field of view. For the quality claims, the proof will be in the viewing, but in terms of hard figures, the field of view has increased from 110 degrees to 143 degrees. It says the better image quality both in day, and night, are thanks to the company’s latest slice of custom silicon, which offers on-device computer vision. What hasn’t changed is the claim of two years’ battery life before you’ll need to replace the pair of AA batteries nestled inside.

It’s the second Blink device to offer person detection after its wired floodlight camera, which was announced around this time last year. But that feature is only available if you opt for Blink’s add on subscription plan, which will set you back $3 a month or $30 for the year. Do so and you’ll also get the ability to get dual-zone motion detection and more fine-grain alerts depending on what’s going on in your yard. It’s available to order today, with $119.99 getting you one camera and a Sync Module 2, which enables you to hook the device to your local WiFi network.

At the same time, the company has taken the time to brag about its surge in popularity in the last year. It claims a more than 40 percent increase in sales, with more than 60 percent of that being to customers new to the brand. Of course, that’s probably aided in part by its focus on affordable hardware that’s been supercharged by Amazon’s regular, and generous, discounts on its first-party devices.

Amazon’s latest deal makes it easier to secure your home without breaking the bank. The Labor Day sale includes 35 percent off the company’s Blink Video Doorbell (reduced to $39 from its original $60). You can also order a bundle including the doorbell and one Blink Mini module to use as a chime for $64 (30 percent off its typically $95). In addition, Amazon has standalone Blink Mini deals starting at $25, and you can snag the Blink Wired Floodlight for $60 (40 percent off). Most of the deals approach Prime Day lows.

The Blink Video Doorbell captures video at 1080p resolution. It has infrared capabilities for nighttime recording, motion detection and two-way audio. You can install the doorbell wired or wireless; it requires a Blink mini (bundled with the doorbell for $64) for an indoor chime if you decide not to use your home’s existing wiring. It lets you view a live feed of who’s at your door with a paired phone or an Alexa device with a display. The doorbell can provide alerts via Alexa devices, it runs on two (included) AA batteries and Amazon says it’s sealed for protection against rain.

Amazon also has several Blink Mini bundles on sale. You can pick up a single unit for $25 (typically $35), a two-pack for $46 (usually $65) or a three-pack for $64 (regularly $100). The Blink Mini is a wired entry-level indoor security camera that can outfit your home with live feeds on the cheap. The motion-activated cameras can record day or night, and they have built-in speakers and a mic for remote two-way audio.

Finally, the Blink Wired Floodlight is available for $60 (40 percent off its regular $100). The device produces 2600 lumens of LED lighting with motion detection and a built-in siren. Its camera shoots in 1080p while providing a color nighttime view and two-way audio. The floodlight works with Alexa, allowing live view (for Alexa devices with screens) and voice-powered arming and disarming.

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Several months back, Sony teased a dedicated remote-play device for the PlayStation 5. Now it’s got a name and a price. The PlayStation Portal will cost $200 when it lands later this year,.

Aesthetics-wise, it looks like a tablet wedged between two halves of a DualSense controller. The eight-inch LCD screen can stream games at up to 1080p visuals at 60 fps. The device also includes DualSense features, such as haptic feedback. It can stream games from your PS5 console, so when someone else is using the TV or you're in another room (or even traveling), you can still play remotely via WiFi.

Sony

But it’s shaping up to be a surprisingly limited device if you’re outside of WiFi networks. PlayStation Portal doesn't run any apps locally, with everything pulled from your PS5. Handhelds like the Razer Edge can are able to run Android apps locally, while some third-party devices, think the ASUS ROG Ally or a Steam Deck, can remote-play your PS5, too.

The biggest omission could be cloud game streaming, something available to PS Plus Premium subscribers with a PS5. Sony says cloud game streaming isn't supported on the handheld.

– Mat Smith

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Corsair made a huge standing desk

You can even extend the six-foot wide surface.

Corsair

When IKEA just isn’t delivering, and you need your work desk to dominate your home, there’s Corsair's Platform:6 Modular Computer Desk. It’s six feet wide, with an additional one foot by two and a third foot extension. The flagship Platform: 6 Creator Edition desk also has a top-mounted pegboard for mounting cameras, controllers and other accessories. Every Platform:6 has a modular rail system, and you can include dual electric motors to adjust the height using an LCD controller. No price has been announced yet.

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Qualcomm's new Snapdragon G Series chips are for handheld and mobile gaming

One of the new chips is the follow-up to Snapdragon G3x, which powers the Razer Edge.

Qualcomm has announced its follow-up to the Snapdragon G3x chip, which powers the Razer Edge handheld console. The company says the G3x Gen 2's CPU performance is 30 percent faster than its predecessor's, and its GPU performance is twice as fast. It's capable of powering a handheld device with cross-platform gaming capabilities, as well as devices used for Android, PC, cloud and remote console gaming.

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India is the first country to land at the Moon's south pole

Chandrayaan-3 is also India's first successful Moon lander.

India’s Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft's Vikram lander has successfully touched down on the Moon, marking the country's first successful landing on the lunar surface. It's just the fourth country to do so after the Soviet Union, US and China. More importantly, it's the first country to land near the Moon's south pole — a difficult target given the rough terrain, but important for attempts to find water ice. Other nations have only landed near the equator.

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Apple's 15-inch MacBook Air M2 is already more affordable than any other laptop the company has ever offered with this size of screen. Now, you can grab the 256GB model at Amazon for just $1,099 (in midnight and space gray), back down to the lowest price we've seen to date. And if you need even more storage, the 512GB model is available for $1,299 ($200 off), also an all-time low price. 

The 15-inch MacBook Air is more than just a larger version of the 13-inch model, as Engadget's Nathan Ingraham discovered during his review. While it's still as thin and light as you'd expect, he found that the combination of the large screen and powerful processing made it good enough that he could see using it as his only computer.

That's in large part due to Apple's M2 chipset that gives the 15-inch Air a great price to performance ratio. It also offers a comfortable keyboard and trackpad, plus battery life that actually exceeded the company's 18 hour spec for video playback during out testing. The bigger screen has a 2,880 x 1,864 resolution, but it shares the same pixels per inch (224) as that of the 13-inch version. Though it lacks the punch of the mini LED displays found on the MacBook Pros, the Liquid Retina panel still offers 500 nits of brightness and a 60Hz refresh rate. 

While Apple's M2 chipset is a year old at this point, the 15-inch Air model only came out in June so it's unlikely to be refreshed anytime soon. If your focus is content creation, a MacBook Pro might be a better choice. But if you do a mix of things from productivity to video editing, the 15-inch Air is an great choice — especially for road warriors who want to carry the least amount of weight possible. If you want to grab either the 256GB or 512GB models, it's best to act soon, though, as stock tends to run out fast. 

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If you've been wondering who's making the most money from the AI boom, NVIDIA may have the answer in it's latest earnings report. The company announced revenue of $13.51 billion in the second quarter, more than doubling the $6.7 billion it made last year and crushing market expectations. On top of that, it earned $6.18 billion in GAAP net income, nine times the $656 million it made in Q2 2022. 

NVIDIA's gaming segment did pretty well too, thanks to $2.49 billion in Q2 revenue, up 22 percent from last year. During the quarter, it started shipping the budget-oriented GeForce RTX 4060 GPU, announced the Avatar Cloud Engine (ACE) for games and saw the addition of 35 DLSS games including Diablo IV. (Earlier this week, it unveiled DLSS 3.5 designed to use AI to make ray-traced games look better.)

But it was very much the AI and data center segments that pushed NVIDIA to new heights. It saw a record $10.32 billion in revenue in that sector alone, up 141 percent from Q1 2023 and 171 percent from a year ago. 

Earlier this year, CEO Jensen Huang said that back in 2018, NVIDIA had a "bet the company" moment when it started using AI to power DLSS, "and while we were reinventing CG with AI, we were reinventing the GPU for AI." He later added that "the future is a large language model (LLM) at the front of just about everything," from VFX to heavy industry. 

NVIDIA's prescience is now paying off with the company's flagship H100 Tensor Core GPU. It's also been building more complex systems like the HGX box, which puts eight H100 GPUs into a single computer. All of that helped it create immense cashflows with top customers spending heavily on NVIDIA GPU tech to build complex AI models — like Microsoft with its Azure segment. 

In addition, the company's use of custom software and apps makes it difficult for customers to switch rivals like AMD. "Our Data Center products include a significant amount of software and complexity which is also helping for gross margins," said NVIDIA finance chief Colette Kress in an analyst call.

All that led to a perfect storm of profit. "During the quarter, major cloud service providers announced massive NVIDIA H100 AI infrastructures. Leading enterprise IT system and software providers announced partnerships to bring NVIDIA AI to every industry. The race is on to adopt generative AI," Huang said in a statement. "Companies worldwide are transitioning from general-purpose to accelerated computing and generative AI." The company expects more to come, forecasting around $16 billion in revenue for Q3. 

Razer is releasing an Xbox Edition of its popular Kishi V2 mobile gaming controller. The device is available in two SKUs, for iPhone and Android phones, and brings plenty of Xbox-centric features into the mix. For instance, the controllers boast iconic Xbox branding and a white color-way to tie it all together.

The Xbox integration isn’t just cosmetic. There’s updated companion software to make the most out of brand collaboration, including full integration with Game Pass and new haptics that correlate to AAA Xbox titles. That gives these controllers cross-compatibility with hundreds of games available via the platform and the magic of cloud streaming. Razer says this refresh has been optimized to ensure lag-free gaming and the various inputs have been enhanced for improved control and precision. There’s also a dedicated Xbox button for powering on the controller and for initiating Game Pass.

The exterior has been switched up for improved ergonomics during those lengthy Game Pass sessions. The analog bumper triggers are more pronounced and the whole thing has a soft feel that should make it rest easy in the hands during use.

Of course, you aren’t tied to Xbox games here. This is still a standard Kishi Pro controller that’s powered by the Razer Nexus app, so you can play PC games, smartphone titles and more. To that end, there’s a virtual controller mode that lets you map out buttons to match a specific game.

Razer’s Kishi controllers have been a big hit for the company, starting with an Android model and eventually including an iPhone version. This newest release accompanies a broader launch for the Kishi V2 Pro model, that features a headphone jack and the aforementioned haptics. The Pro controller isn't new, exactly, but it used to be exclusively tied to the Razer Edge gaming handheld device. Now you can buy it standalone in this Xbox format or via plainer options. 

Dr. Mario did not prepare us for this. In a pioneering effort, researchers from UC San Francisco and UC Berkeley, in partnership with Edinburgh-based Speech Graphics, have devised a groundbreaking communications system that allows a woman, paralyzed by stroke, to speak freely through a digital avatar she controls with a brain-computer interface.

Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCIs) are devices that monitor the analog signals produced by your gray matter and convert them into the digital signals that computers understand — like a mixing soundboard’s DAC unit but what fits inside your skull. For this study, researchers led by Dr. Edward Chang, chair of neurological surgery at UCSF, first implanted a 253-pin electrode array into speech center of the patient’s brain. Those probes monitored and captured the electrical signals that would have otherwise driven the muscles in her jaw, lips and tongue, and instead, transmitted them through a cabled port in her skull to a bank of processors. That computing stack housed a machine learning AI which, over the course of a few week’s training, came to recognize the patient's electrical signal patterns for more than 1,000 words.

But that’s only the first half of the trick. Through that AI interface, the patient is now able to write out her responses, much in the same way Synchron’s system works for folks suffering from locked-in syndrome. But she can also speak, in a sense, using a synthesized voice trained on recordings of her natural voice from before she was paralyzed — same as we’re doing with our digitally undead celebrities.

What’s more, the researchers teamed up with Speech Graphics, the same company that developed the photorealistic facial animation technology from Halo Infinite and The Last of Us Part II, to create the patient’s avatar. SG’s tech “reverse engineers” the necessary musculoskeletal movements a face would make based on analysis of the audio input, then feeds that data in real-time to a game engine to be animated into a lagless avatar. And since the mental signals from the patient were mapped directly to the avatar, she could express emotion and communicate nonverbally as well.

“Creating a digital avatar that can speak, emote and articulate in real-time, connected directly to the subject’s brain, shows the potential for AI-driven faces well beyond video games,” Michael Berger, CTO and co-founder of Speech Graphics, said in a press statement Wednesday. “Restoring voice alone is impressive, but facial communication is so intrinsic to being human, and it restores a sense of embodiment and control to the patient who has lost that.“

BCI technology was pioneered in the early 1970s and has been slowly developing in the intervening decades. Exponential advancements with processing and computing systems have recently helped reinvigorate the field, with a handful of well-funded startups currently vying to be first through the FDA’s regulatory device approval process. Brooklyn-based Synchron made headlines last year when it was the first company to successfully implant a BCI in a human patient. Elon Musk’s Neuralink entered restricted FDA trials earlier this year after the company was found to have killed scores of porcine test subjects in earlier testing rounds.

Don’t tell anyone, but the Nintendo Switch emulation scene has been thriving pretty much since day one, due to an early hardware vulnerability. It’s relatively simple to pirate Switch titles and play them on PCs, portable consoles like the Steam Deck and even lower-powered Android phones. This is a problem for the big N, and it’s addressing it by partnering up with cybersecurity company Irdeto and its anti-tampering software suite Denuvo.

Denuvo is one of the more popular software suites to minimize tampering and associated emulation. This is a middleware that developers pay for and integrate into the actual game code, thus making it much harder to emulate on other devices. The tools are common with PC titles but, until now, were unavailable for Switch developers.

Though Denuvo is useful beyond the prevention of emulation, that seems to be the primary intent here, with Irdeto touting a new dev portal called the Nintendo Switch Emulation Protection program. The company calls it a “revolutionary technology to protect games launching on Nintendo Switch from piracy.” It also notes that Switch piracy hurts PC sales as well, as the games pirated from Nintendo’s console are playable on PC, bypassing Steam, Epic and other official online retailers.

Now, this might be good news for Switch devs, but Denuvo has a spotty track record, despite boasting that it has protected more than 1,000 games from emulation. This is DRM software, plain and simple, so it’s known to slow down performance when installed, leading some publishers to actually remove the middleware post-launch. Additionally, there’s been some high-priority misfires with the software, with hackers cracking Middle-Earth: Shadow of War in less than a day, and that’s with Denuvo installed. It’s also known for being quite expensive, likely putting the software out of reach for smaller studios and development teams.

The Nintendo Switch is over six years old, with a successor expected in the nearish future. In other words, why did this take so long? Nobody knows. Like it or not, the developers portal goes live this week.