If you're still on the hunt for good tech gifts to give this year, you still have time to grab some that will arrive before the holidays. Apple's second-generation AirPods are on sale again for $100, while the Fitbit Charge 5 fitness tracker is back down to $130. Both Amazon's Kindle and a few Fire tablets are cheaper than usual, and the company's new smart thermostat is 20 percent off. On top of that, some of the best tech deals we saw for Black Friday and Cyber Monday are still available. Here are the best tech deals from this week that you can still get today.

Apple AirPods (2nd gen)

Chris Velazco / Engadget

The previous-generation AirPods are on sale for $100 right now. While not the latest models, these are still decent earbuds that we liked for their improved wireless performance and good battery life.

Apple AirPods (3rd gen)

Billy Steele/Engadget

Apple's latest AirPods are down to $140 right now, or about $40 off their normal price. We gave them a score of 88 for their more comfortable design, much improved audio quality and longer battery life.

Apple TV 4K

Devindra Hardawar/Engadget

The latest Apple TV 4K is $30 off right now and down to $150, which is a new record low. It may be one of the more expensive streaming boxes out there, but it's worth it for Apple loyalists. We gave it a score of 90 for its speedy performance, Dolby Vision and Atmos support and much improved Siri remote.

Apple Watch Series 7

The latest Apple Watch Series 7 is $20 cheaper right now, bringing it down to $380. It's the most comprehensive wearable Apple makes and it earned a score of 90 from us for its larger screen, faster charging and handy features in watchOS 8.

Fitbit Charge 5

Valentina Palladino / Engadget

You can pick up the Fitbit Charge 5 for $130 right now, or $50 off and the same price as it was on Black Friday. This is Fitbit's most comprehensive fitness band and it earned a score of 82 from us for its full-color touchscreen, built-in GPS, onboard EDA sensors for stress tracking and multi-day battery life.

Amazon Kindle

Engadget

You can grab the standard Kindle for $55 and get three months of Kindle Unlimited for free with it. We gave this e-reader a score of 91 for its improved contrast display, extra front lights and sleeker design.

Amazon Fire tablets

Valentina Palladino / Engadget

A bunch of Fire tablets are on sale again — you can get the Fire 7 for only $35, the Fire HD 8 for $55 and the Fire HD 10 for $100. These are all close to Black Friday prices, so you're still getting a good deal even if you missed the sales a few weeks ago. We gave the Fire HD 8 a score of 81 for its refined design, good performance and new USB-C charging.

Amazon smart thermostat

Amazon

Amazon's new smart thermostat is down to $48 right now, or 20 percent off its normal price. Like similar gadgets, it's designed to save you money on your home heating and cooling by automating the process. it doesn't have all the bells and whistles that other, more expensive thermostats do, but it's Energy Star-certified and supports a feature called Hunches, which will automatically adjust the temperature based on your habits. You can also control it with Alexa if you have an Echo speaker or smart display in your home.

Instant Pot Duo Nova

Instant Pot / Walmart

Walmart has an exclusive version of the 8-quart Instant Pot Duo Nova for $59. That's nearly half off the price that the normal model is going for on Amazon right now. You'll get seven cooking modes along with additional one-touch programs that make it easy to prepare things like soups, stews, porridge and more.

Sony WH-1000XM4

Our favorite pair of Sony headphones, the WH-1000XM4, are down to $248 right now, which is just about $100 off their regular price. We gave these cans a score of 94 for their powerful ANC, immersive sound quality and multi-device connectivity.

iRobot Roomba 694

The Roomba 694 is $95 off, bringing it down to $179. This model came out earlier this year and works well on both hard and carpeted floors, supports WiFi connectivity for Alexa and Google Assistant commands and can be controlled via the iRobot mobile app.

Samsung EVO Select microSD

Samsung’s EVO Select microSDXC card in 128GB is down to $16, or 20 percent off its normal price. This is the latest model and while you can find microSD cards for less, EVO is a reliable brand and you're getting a full-sized adapter with this one.

Ninja Foodi 10-in-1 multi-cooker

This Ninja 10-in-1 multi-cooker remains 41 percent off, bringing it down to $119. In addition to pressure cooking, slow cooking and steaming, this machine can air fry, broil, dehydrate and more. It also has a 6.5-quart capacity, which should be big enough to make food for a mid-sized family or a holiday gathering.

Chromecast with Google TV

The Chromecast with Google TV has dropped to $40, which is $10 cheaper than usual. We gave the device a score of 86 for its 4K HDR streaming capabilities, Dolby Vision and Atmos support plus its much needed and very handy new remote.

Bose QuietComfort 45

Bose's new QuietComfort 45 headphones remain on sale for $279 right now, or $50 off their normal price. We gave them a score of 86 for their clear, balanced audio, improved ANC and long battery life.

Sony WF-1000XM4

Sony's excellent WF-1000XM4 earbuds are down to $248. We gave them a score of 86 for their great sound quality, powerful ANC and improved battery life.

Bose QuietComfort earbuds

Bose's QuietComfort earbuds have been discounted to $199, which is $80 off their regular rate. These are some of the company's best true wireless earbuds and they earned a score of 87 from us for their clear sound, powerful ANC and comfortable size.

Echo Buds (2nd gen)

The second-generation Echo Buds are on sale for $70 right now. Amazon massively improved its wireless earbuds this time around and we gave them a score of 80 for their better sound quality, good ANC and smaller design.

iRobot Roomba j7+

iRobot's latest vacuum, the Roomba j7+, has dropped to $649 while the robot without the clean base is down to $449. This is one of the higher-end robo-vacs the company makes and it has new AI-driven computer vision technology that can detect objects and move around them as it cleans. That means it'll better avoid things like chairs and table legs, as well as unexpected obstacles like pet poop. The j7+ also comes with a clean base into which the robot will empty debris at the end of every cleaning job.

Samsung 980 Pro

Samsung

Samsung's 980 Pro is one of the best internal SSDs you can get right now and a 1TB model is on sale for $170 right now. It has sequential read speeds up to 7,000MB/s and it'll work with the PS5 as long as you have a heatsink attached.

Crucial P5

Crucial’s P5 NAND NVMe SSD in 1TB is on sale for $145 right now, or 19 percent off its regular rate. This drive can reach sequential read speeds of up to 3,400MB/s and its M.2 format makes it a good option for both desktop and laptop users.

Razer Book

Razer's mainstream notebook, the Razer Book, has fallen to $1,500, or 25 percent off its usual price. The model on sale is specced out: it runs on an 11th-gen Core i7 processor, Iris Xe graphics, 16GB of RAM, 512GB of storage and a 13.4-inch UHD+ touchscreen. This laptop includes a generous array of ports, eGPU compatibility and Chroma keyboard lighting.

Razer Wolverine Ultimate

Razer's Wolverine Ultimate gaming controller is down to $100, or $60 off its normal price. The controller that comes with your Xbox is pretty good, but sometimes you might need a little more features from your gamepad. The Wolverine Ultimate may be wired, but it also has interchangeable thumbtacks and d-pads, so you can actually tweak the controller’s layout according to the games you play and your own personal preferences.

Amazon Echo

Amazon's Echo smart speaker is on sale for $60 right now. We gave it a score of 89 for its solid audio quality, attractive design and inclusion of a 3.5mm audio jack.

Amazon Echo Dot

The tiny Echo Dot has dropped to $30, and you can grab the Echo Dot with Clock for only $35. We gave it a score of 88 for its good audio quality for the price, compact design and tap-to-snooze feature.

Google Nest Mini

The Nest Mini is down to $25. It's the affordable speaker to get if you want to put the Google Assistant in your home without dropping too much money, or taking up too much space.

New tech deals

Tunnelbear

One of our favorite VPNs, Tunnelbear, is having a holiday sale that knocks 50 percent off a one-year plan, so you'll pay just under $60 for the service. Tunnelbear supports most devices, including Windows, Android and iOS, and the plan comes with support for up to five devices and 256-bit AES encryption.

NordVPN

NordVPN is offering up a two-year subscription for $89, or 68 percent off its normal price. We like this service for its speed, its no-logs policy, the thousands of servers it has to choose from and that one account supports up to six connected devices.

Sonos refurbished sale

Sonos has discounted a number of its refurbished products, including the Sonos One, which is down to $150, and the Beam soundbar, which is on sale for $259. The company has a pretty good refurbishment program and these prices are hard to come by on any Sonos devices, refurb or not. We gave the Sonos One speaker a score of 90 for its attractive design, excellent audio quality, compatibility with a wide range of music services and multi-room audio support.

Google Nest Doorbell Battery

The Nest Doorbell Battery is $50 off as part of Best Buy's most recent flash sale. This model doesn't require as much hardwiring installation as other smart doorbells since it runs on a rechargeable battery. It works with the Google Home app to send you alerts when people, packages and other things show up at your door, and you can set specific Activity Zones to narrow down which areas you want to keep a close eye on.

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PUBG: Battlegrounds, which kickstarted the battle royale craze that swept the gaming world over the last few years, is going free to play (F2P), much like many of its rivals/copycats. The switch will take place on January 12th, almost five years since it debuted as PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds.

While casual players will be able to earn chicken dinners for free, newcomers will still have to pay up for the competitive Ranked Mode. Publisher Krafton is introducing an optional Battlegrounds Plus upgrade. For a one-off payment of $13, you'll get access to Ranked and custom modes, an XP boost, in-game items and other perks. Those who have already paid for the game will get Battlegrounds Plus and extra goodies.

“As PUBG: Battlegrounds pioneered the battle royale genre and has grown into a globally influential game IP, this is the perfect time to transition to F2P and welcome new players to the game,” Krafton CEO CH Kim said. “Transitioning to F2P is the next step in our journey to widen the scope of the PUBG IP through content that both new and veteran players will love.”

PUBG: Battlegrounds, which Krafton says has sold more than 75 million copies, is still immensely popular. At any given moment over the last month, an average of more than 146,000 people were playing the game on Steam alone. That figure often more than doubled at peak times. The free-to-play switch will likely boost the player count even higher.

Rare's beloved collect-a-thon platformer Banjo-Kazooie will be the latest title added to Expansion Pack, Nintendo's premium online subscription. Expansion Pack — itself an addition to Switch Online — already supports a wealth of classic games from the early 3D era, like Star Fox 64, SuperMario 64, and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, as well as some memorable additions from the Sega Genesis library. 

The roadmap for Expansion Pack teased Banjo-Kazooie back in September, but the company has now confirmed it will be playable on modern hardware come January 2022. While Switch Online can be purchased in 1-, 3- or 12-month increments, Expansion Pack is only available as a year-long subscription. It retails for an additional $50 on top of Switch Online's $20 annual price tag. 

TCL has temporarily stopped selling its Google TV-powered televisions over performance and software issues. It plans to bring the 5-series and 6-series TVs back to Best Buy in the coming weeks, per 9to5 Google. 

Users have complained about the sets on Best Buy product pages andelsewhere, with one noting the OS is "very slow and buggy." TCL says owners will see "marked improvements in the weeks to come" via software updates. A support site notes that the TVs should update automatically, though it provides customers guidance on how to make sure they have the most recent version of the system software.

"We are sorry to hear that some are facing challenges with the stability of the user interface featured on TCL sets with Google TV," a statement on TCL's support site reads. "Our high-performance TVs are constantly evolving and recent software updates have allowed us to make significant progress, but we will continue to refine our products featuring Google TV."

TCL announced its first Google TV models back at CES 2021. The company's Android TV-powered 3-Series and 4-Series sets are still available.

If you missed the chance to get Apple's latest AirPods model last Black Friday, it may have been a blessing in disguise. It sold for $150 that weekend, which is a great deal for the new model, but it now costs even less on Amazon. You can get the third-gen Apple AirPods for $140 right now, which is the lowest price we've seen for the wireless earbuds. Amazon still lists the unit at $170 or just $9 lower than its original retail price of $179, but the website will apply a total of $39 in savings upon checkout. 

We gave the third-gen AirPods a score of 88 in our review and praised them for being a complete redesign of the earbuds. They have a new "contoured" form factor with a tapered silhouette that's more comfortable and fits better, and they're now sweat and water resistant like the Pro model. The earbuds are now also better at determining whether they're in your ear for more accurate auto-pause capability. 

Apple's H1 chip enables one-touch fast pairing that makes connecting them to an iPhone as easy as tapping the screen. Further, the chip gives the earbuds the capability to run always-on Siri, allowing you to issue voice commands without having to use your phone. They also have the same actions as the Pro version, with the options to play/pause and skip tracks, as well as to accept calls with a series of taps on the earbuds. And, perhaps most importantly, the model has much better audio quality than its predecessors. 

That said, if you want something even cheaper, the second-gen AirPods are also currently on sale for $100. In case you have your heart set on the AirPods Pro and don't mind paying a bit more, you can also get that one for $179 right now. 

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

All products recommended by Engadget are selected by our editorial team, independent of our parent company. Some of our stories include affiliate links. If you buy something through one of these links, we may earn an affiliate commission.

This week, Cherlynn and Devindra recap the year's greatest winners and losers in tech. From the expected companies like Apple, Facebook (sorry, Meta) and Google, to the ones we begrudgingly acknowledge, like NFTs and the Metaverse, our hosts look back on 2021's highlights. We'd love to find out what your picks for the best and worst in tech this year might be, too, so feel free to send them our way!

Listen below, or subscribe on your podcast app of choice. If you've got suggestions or topics you'd like covered on the show, be sure to email us or drop a note in the comments! And be sure to check out our other podcasts, the Morning After and Engadget News!

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• Tech’s biggest winners of 2021 – 2:04

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Hosts: Cherlynn Low and Devindra Hardawar
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LG's latest OLED TV was created for those who prefer something with an unusual design and wouldn't look out of place with their furniture and painting collection. The Korean company has given its 65-inch LG OLED Evo TV a makeover, made it part of its Object Collection and gave it a cover that you can move up or down using a dedicated remote control.

If you're not watching anything and just want to use the TV as a clock or to play music — the device's speaker has an 80-watt output — you can roll down the cover halfway and only show a part of the screen. That said, you can choose from the themes LG provides if you want the whole display to be visible. Since it's meant to invoke the look of an art piece, the model is mounted on a metal easel and can simply be leaned against a wall instead of hanged. Even its moving cover resembles canvas, since it uses fabric, particularly fabric by Danish premium textile brand Kvadrat. 

The LG OLED Evo TV Object Collection costs a lot more than its ordinary OLED Evo counterpart, as you probably already expected. It will be available starting on the 15th in Korea for US$8,381 and will have three Kvadrat cover colors to choose from: beige, redwood and green. Customers will also be able to purchase extra covers if they want, so they can change it according to their space's current color scheme.

When it comes to noise cancelling headphones, there are several effective options that will get the job done. It’s putting together great audio quality with powerful noise blocking abilities and other handy features that cause many companies to stumble. The likes of Bose and Sony have damn near perfected the craft while the rest of the pack attempts to usurp them. Yamaha is the latest to throw rocks at the throne by adding a collection of 3D sound options of its latest headphones with active noise cancellation (ANC). The YH-L700A has unique qualities, but $499.95 is a high price for Yamaha’s latest blend of design and features.

Yamaha created a unique aesthetic for the YH-L700A. Opting for square earcups over the typical oval shape. They’re immediately striking – for better or worse. But, the combination of leather, fabric, matte black plastic and silver accents create a refined look. The company also decided to attach the headband at the front of the earcups rather than at the center. This doesn’t make a massive difference in terms of comfort, but it does mean the headband sits further forward on the top of your head. Earcups swivel flat and fold in for easy storage, which makes the YH-L700A a decent option for travel.

There are no touch controls here,Yamaha chose to go with physical buttons instead. On the back edge of the right earcup are power and 3D Sound Field buttons, with the former doubling as the Bluetooth pairing control and the latter allowing you to cycle through presets. On the outside of the right earcup, a small leather-covered panel holds buttons for volume, track controls, play/pause and activating a voice assistant. Those last two options are in the middle (single and double press, respectively) while the two outside arrow buttons adjust volume with a single press or skip tracks with a press and hold. Unfortunately these are difficult to find; they're not embossed deep enough to feel them easily. Over on the left, there’s a single button on the back edge for noise cancelling mode. A single press cycles between ANC, ambient sound and off.

The main attraction on the YH-L700A is Yamaha’s 3D Sound Field feature, complete with head tracking. Basically, the company has developed a collection of seven audio presets for music and movies or shows: cinema, drama, music video, concert hall, outdoor live, audio room and background music. Each one “transforms stereo sound into three-dimensional listening,” according to Yamaha, adjusting the parameters for each virtual environment in an effort to make things sound more immersive. Another aspect of this setup is dynamic head tracking, which gives the illusion of the audio coming from a stationary point in space when you move. It’s a bit weird for music, in my opinion, but it does add something to more cinematic viewing sessions.

It’s obvious that 3D Sound Field significantly tweaks the audio on every preset. However, all of the filters are very heavy handed, drastically changing the EQ and other parameters to the point that none of them work well across genres. Outdoor live, for example, accurately creates the feeling of being at a festival, with the heavy bass and subdued vocals you’d experience in real life. It’s okay for things like metal and rock, but for softer more acoustic styles it’s not great. If you listen to a wide range of music you’ll need to change presets when you venture to a new genre. Oddly enough, the cinema preset is the best all-around setting for tunes. Almost all of the music presets are loaded with reverb, which works for something like the concert hall preset, but it becomes exhausting elsewhere. All of the options recreate their stated venue, it’s just that none of them are really pleasant to listen to for an entire album’s worth of tunes.

When it comes to movies and television, the cinema and drama options are quite nice. There’s no content that highlights this prowess better than Netflix’s Formula 1: Drive to Survive. With a mix of spoken interviews, auto racing and dramatic overtures, there’s a lot for headphones and speakers to handle. The YH-L700A does well with the dimensional sound that’s typically best served by a Dolby Atmos setup in your living room. Everything sounds spacious, and the directional roar of the cars comes through nicely.

Without 3D Sound Field, the YH-L700A is an average sounding set of noise cancelling headphones. There’s good clarity and detail, but the mid-range can be overbearing when you’re listening to a full band. There’s decent, punchy bass but a shot of treble would go a long way here to round out the sound and cut through the chaos of songs like Underoath’s “Damn Excuses.” At times, the lack of highs creates an unpleasant muddy mess. Even with more acoustic genres like bluegrass, upright bass dominates with the other strings taking a backseat. That’s the case throughout much of Sturgill Simpson’s The Ballad of Dood & Juanita. It’s obvious Yamaha was intent on making its 3D audio feature sound good, it’s too bad the “regular” listening experience is mediocre at best.

The YH-L700A packs active noise cancellation, complete with an ambient sound mode that allows you to tune into your surroundings as needed. Like Apple and others, Yamaha outfitted its ANC setup with tech that can adjust the audio to changes in wear. The so-called Listening Optimizer takes measurements every 20 seconds to pick up any variances in seal and air leakage. The headphones can then adjust the sound to account for any issues. While I don’t have any way to measure how effective this is, I can tell you that overall, the ANC gets the job done. It’s not as powerful as the likes of Bose or Sony, but most of the time it’s good enough.

Lastly, there’s a Listening Care feature that attempts to maintain decent sound quality even when you listen at lower volumes. Typically, and to the detriment of our collective hearing health, headphones sound the best at medium high to high volumes. With the YHL700A, Yamaha says Listening Care analyzes sound to keep a full range at low volume. It accounts for changes in background noise during the process, to offer the best possible audio no matter how loud. And while it’s not as consistent as the company would have you believe, rock tunes maintain a decent frequency range well below 50 percent volume. You do lose some detail, as expected, but it’s still perfectly listenable at those levels.

Billy Steele/Engadget

The marquee features can be enabled or disabled from Yamaha’s headphones app. There are options for 3D Sound Field, head tracking, Listening Care, Listening Optimizer and noise cancellation. You can also select your preferred 3D preset from your phone as well as adjust (or disable) the auto power-off timer. The software displays your battery percentage too, so you’re not left wondering what the “battery level high” voice prompt means when you power up the headphones.

Battery life is a major sticking point with these headphones. During my initial tests, I managed just ten and half hours with both ANC and 3D sound enabled and head tracking off. That’s 30 minutes shy of the company’s 11-hour projection. Sure, that’s a lot of tech at work simultaneously, but most flagship noise-cancelling headphones are pushing 30 or more hours of use on a charge. Yamaha says this is possible if you disable the Sound Field tech, extending the expected battery life to 34 hours. The range with the YH-L700A at full strength should be at least 15 hours to justify the asking price. The company released a firmware update ostensibly to improve battery life during the course of my review, but the results didn’t change with ANC and 3D sound both active.

In terms of the movie- and 3D-focused competition, a few options come to mind. Apple’s AirPods Max feature dynamic head tracking and support spatial audio through Dolby Atmos and Atmos Music. It doesn’t have a selection of presets to help you fine-tune things ready at the press of a button, but there is an adaptive EQ that maintains sound quality as conditions and external noises change. AirPods Max also offers the most natural sounding transparency mode out of any headphones I’ve tested. However, they’re still $479, although we’ve seen them as low as $429 recently.

Billy Steele/Engadget

Sony’s WH-1000XM4 is another excellent alternative. The company’s flagship model is packed with handy features like pausing when you speak, quick attention mode and the ability to automatically adjust noise cancelling settings based on activity or location. The 1000XM4 equally impresses in the sound and ANC departments, including support for 360 Reality Audio via supported streaming services, making them our top overall choice for headphones right now. They don’t pack in dynamic head tracking, but they will save you significant money at the current going rate of $248 (full price: $350).

Yamaha has crafted an interesting proposition with its YH-L700A headphones. The company attempted to equally cater to both cinephiles and music nerds with features that work for both movies and television alongside options for casual listening. Battery life with the most attractive tools enabled is disappointing for a set of $500 headphones and the presets would benefit from some restraint. A fully customizable EQ and a slight bump in the battery department would go a long way to justifying the high price here, but for now, Yamaha has a solid set of headphones in need of some fine tuning.

Sonic the Hedgehog turned out to be one of the biggest movies of 2020, despite serious CG character issues that caused a three-month delay. Now, Paramount has dropped the first trailer for the sequel that gives us our first look at a new character, Knuckles, voiced by none other than Idris Elba.

The trailer shows Sonic (Ben Schwartz) and his new sidekick Tails (Colleen O'Shaughnessy). He's once again taking on Dr. Robotnik, aka, Eggman (Jim Carrey) who's seeking a classic Sonic McGuffin, the Chaos Emeralds. However, Robotnik has an Echidna up his sleeve in the form of Knuckles, who shows off his brute strength and weirdly elegant speaking voice. (Elba promised that his Knuckles wouldn't sound sexy, but he is more posh than ever.) 

The first Sonic film became one of the most successful video game adaptations ever, so there's a lot riding on the sequel. Luckily, the slick trailer indicates that we won't be seeing any of the CGI issues that plagued the first film. The sequel is set to be released on April 8, 2022. 

The 2021 Game Awards kicked off last night, mixing the year’s winners (It Takes Two, Deathloop, Kena and several more) with fresh game trailers and bona fide compelling new releases incoming, including Alan Wake 2. (I’m finally playing through the original at the moment, so this piqued my attention.)

TGA

We also got a release date for Final Fantasy VII Remake on PC, new Star Wars, Dune and Star Trek games and several (ten, actually) Lady Gaga hits coming to Beat Saber. There may be something for every gamer.

— Mat Smith

The Game Awards 2021

'Among Us' is heading to VR with help from the 'I Expect You To Die' team

'Slitterhead' is a new horror game from the creator of Silent Hill

Square Enix action-RPG 'Forspoken' hits PS5 and PC on May 24th, 2022

First trailer for the Halo TV series shows Master Chief in live action

The 'Cuphead' DLC will finally arrive on June 30th

Oppo teases its first foldable flagship phone

It may look like a Galaxy Fold.

Oppo

Oppo has teased its first foldable smartphone nearly three years after it unveiled a prototype device. The Find N looks like a device along the lines of Samsung's Galaxy Fold lineup, created after "four years of intense R&D and six generations of prototypes." Expect to hear more next week at Oppo’s Inno Day on December 15th — which is good because the company hasn’t shared many concrete specs just yet.

Continue reading.

NES and SNES creator Masayuki Uemura dies at 78

He played a key role in the history of game consoles.

Masayuki Uemura, the lead creator of the Famicom and Super Famicom (aka NES and SNES), died on December 6th at the age of 78. Uemura, initially employed by Sharp, first became involved with Nintendo after the company's Gunpei Yokoi asked about using Sharp solar cells to produce light gun games. Uemura joined Nintendo in 1971, and the company released gun games that included a home-friendly game called Duck Hunt (yes, the predecessor of the NES title). By November 1981, Uemura was tasked to build a machine that lets you play arcade games on your TV. The result was 1983's Famicom, known to the rest of the world as the Nintendo Entertainment System.

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Amazon will shut down its Alexa.com web ranking site next year

Alexa Internet has been around for 25 years.

Before Amazon's Alexa became known as the company’s voice assistant, it was the name of its web-ranking site. It was established in 1996 and became famous some time ago for analyzing web traffic and listing the world’s most popular websites.

While Amazon didn't explicitly say why it's shutting down the service, Alexa Internet's traffic has reportedly been on the decline over the past decade. At least the name will live on in Amazon’s smart speakers, displays and the rest.

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Paramount+ is adding live streaming channels for Star Trek, ‘PAW Patrol’ and more

Binge-watching, retro style.

Paramount

Paramount+ is adding 18 live channels (just like TV). The initial batch includes one focused entirely on Star Trek, which will stream episodes from new shows like Discovery and Picard and classics such as Enterprise and The Next Generation. (I'm not sure Enterprise is a classic, but you know what I mean.) There are also franchise-specific channels for Survivor, The Challenge and, oh boy, PAW Patrol. 

Good luck, parents.

Continue reading.

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