Nintendo’s designers strove for ‘elegance’ when remaking Ocarina of Time
The Ocarina of Time remake on the Switch 2 smashes together the past and present. The game retains much of the original N64 experience while updating it with modern graphics and gameplay that make it feel contemporary. But the mingling of time periods also extends to the development team. While Ocarina's remake was led by producers Eiji Aonuma (a director on the original game who is now the franchise's steward at Nintendo) and Hidemaro Fujibayashi (best known for directing Breath of the Wild and its sequel), the team also featured a number of younger developers, including some who had never played the original. According to Fujibayashi, thos …
X says its updated web app is way faster
X is introducing a new version of its web app that it says is much faster than before, and it's now rolling out the updated app "one country at a time" for signed-in users.
"Open a profile on X.com over a slow connection," principal engineer Yagiz Nizipli said in a blog post about the changes. "On the old web app, you'd stare at the X logo for more than 22 seconds before the first post appeared. On the new one, it shows up in 2.7." The post also goes into technical detail about how the updated app "replaces the three servers we used to run for people, search crawlers, and link previews with one."
Security researcher Jane Manchun Wong poste …
Qualcomm is betting big on data centers as smartphone sales sink
With smartphone sales tanking by around 20 percent compared to 2025, Qualcomm is looking to data centers to help boost its bottom line. During its Q4 2026 earnings call, the company laid out its plans to make a splash in the AI data center business, through partnerships with companies like Amazon and Meta announced earlier this year. The company expects that portion of its business to grow quickly, forecasting around $650 million in data center revenue during the first quarter of 2027. But it anticipates that will reach $5 billion by the end of 2027 and $15 billion by 2029.
Considering the company's total revenue for 2026 was $10.4 billion, …
17 better ways Elon Musk could have wasted $446 million
One of the basic problems of spending too much time on social media is that you are cooking your brain by reading posts from a pack of attention-seeking lunatics. If your social media of choice is the site formerly known as Twitter, and it is your main source of contact with the outside world, you may delusionally throw away nearly $500 million dollars on midterm elections, just like Elon Musk.
In particular, $47 million of that money from Musk's America PAC was aimed at defeating Texas Democrat James Talarico, who trounced Musk's preferred Senate candidate, Ken Paxton, with 55 percent of the vote. Talarico even made Musk's influence a cent …
How I learned to love an obnoxious phone grip
Much like a great recipe, it started with a stick of butter.
This wasn't real butter; it was a friend's new phone grip, complemented by a phone case with bold stripes. Butter is in vogue now, or at least that's what a 12-year-old told me a few months ago. This stick of butter was labeled "unsalty" and committed to the bit by including the appropriate tablespoon markings, just like the real thing. I was enamored. "Where did you get that?" I asked. It was a PopSocket-branded combo, and I found it so irresistible I ordered an equally eye-catching grip a few weeks later. After years of carrying buttoned-up, minimalist tech, I finally said, "To …
Bose’s QuietComfort Headphones are more than half off
It’s not often that some of the best noise-canceling headphones you can buy are over half off. But right now, the first-gen Bose QuietComfort Headphones are on sale for $169.99 ($190 off) at Amazon, Best Buy, and Bose, matching its best price to date. The newer, second-generation version that launched in August is also down to $199 ($160 off) in multiple colors at Amazon, Best Buy, and directly from Bose, which is just $20 shy of the all-time low price.
Bose QuietComfort Headphones
Where to Buy:
Bose QuietComfort Headphones Gen 2
Where to Buy:
While Bose’s original QuietComfort Headphones are no longer the latest model, they’re still a solid option for anyone seeking effective noise cancellation, good sound, and 24-hour battery life without spending a fortune. They also support multipoint Bluetooth connectivity, so you can connect to two devices simultaneously, and they feature a lightweight, foldable design that makes them easy to pack.
The second-generation QuietComfort Headphones build on that foundation with a few worthwhile upgrades for $30 more. Of note, our reviewer John Higgins considers their default sound profile to be the best he’s heard from Bose, even better than the flagship $449 QuietComfort Ultra Gen 2. They also support lossless audio via USB-C. While he thought that vocals sounded a bit muted, he was able to fix the issue by tweaking the three-band equalizer in Bose’s companion app. Higgins also considers the QuietComfort Headphones more comfortable than the Ultra thanks to their lack of “eardrum suck,” the unpleasant sensation of ear pressure from a strong active noise cancellation effect.
Read our Bose QuietComfort Headphones (second-generation) review.
Gemini for Home now plugs into AT&T’s smart security system
AT&T's smart home security system now integrates with Gemini for Home. The company says its Connected Life system is the "first" home security product to integrate with Google Home Premium, enabling a bunch of Gemini-powered features that can summarize home events, search your video history, and more.
With the update, Gemini for Home can provide detailed descriptions about events captured by your security cameras, such as who delivered a package and how many items they dropped off. You can also search recorded video footage using natural language questions, like "What dug up the yard last night?" or "Who let the dogs out?", as well as revie …
Google’s Pixel 11 phones are up to 27 percent off
You can save a heck of lot of money on Google’s Pixel 11 phones through November 8th, whether you want the best-for-the-least Pixel 11, or the slightly pricier Pixel 11 Pro that takes better photos. Even the big Pixel 11 Pro XL with a longer-lasting battery is hundreds off its original price.
The Pixel 11 Pro deal is the most attractive of the bunch, as the $1,099.99 phone with 256GB storage and 12GB of RAM is down to just $799.99 at Amazon, Best Buy, and at the Google Store, beating its October Prime Day price by $50. It’s $100 less than the base Pixel 11 model sold for at launch, and it’s the phone to get if you want great camera performance, plus extra features like HiLight that, while cool, weren’t really worth paying a premium to access. I’d be very surprised if the price dropped more for Black Friday.
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with opting for the Pixel 11 instead, especially at its attractive $699.99 ($200 off) price that now matches the cost of the iPhone 17E, following Apple’s September price bump. The Pixel 11 is the most affordable phone that supports Google’s software features that are exclusive to this year’s phones, including Magic Capture, Camera Looks, and Proactive Assistance. It has fast 25W wireless charging (up from 15W with the Pixel 10), and has 12GB of RAM, like the Pixel 11 Pro.
I’m still happily rocking my Pixel 9 Pro, but if I were going to upgrade right now, I’d get the Pixel 11 Pro. Yes, I want the better cameras and HiLight. But really, the main reason I’m lured to the Pro is because the trade-in offers are really generous right now. It’s just $10 more to opt for the Pro over the base Pixel 11. My base Pixel 9 Pro with 128GB of storage can fetch $530 in trade-in credit at the Google Store and $525 at Best Buy, which seems great.
Xbox previews two new ways to control cloud games
I revealed yesterday that the new Xbox Nano controller supports a Wi-Fi connection directly to Xbox Cloud Gaming, and now Microsoft is making it official today. Two new Xbox previews will let players try out using a phone as a controller on smart TVs, as well as cloud connect on the Xbox Nano to connect directly to cloud servers.
"Instead of a Bluetooth connection to your TV, cloud connect uses your Wi-Fi to connect directly to the cloud server running your game," says the Xbox team. "That can help reduce input latency, so gameplay may feel more responsive."
Players in the US will be able to preview the new cloud connect option for the Xbo …
Nothing teases a screen-free AI device ahead of launch next month
Nothing CEO Carl Pei said in a post on X that the company's launching its first AI device in December. That's just a little over a year after Pei announced plans for "AI-native" devices and an AI operating system. He didn't give away much about what exactly the new device is, only that one feature it won't have is a screen:
"Our first AI-native product ships next month. It's a tool, but one built with the personality and care that have come to define a Nothing product. It has no new screen, and it couldn't have been an app."
Pei shared an image with the post that says "NOTHING(R)" in the top left corner, above an ambiguous black rounded …