Save hundreds on a TCL mini-LED TV with quantum dots and high refresh rate
Amazon and Best Buy have the TCL QM7L mini-LED TV on sale for as low as $797.99 for the 55-inch model, a $200 discount from the usual price. We spotted scaling discounts on larger sizes as well, although Amazon already listed low stock on the 65-inch version. While OLED televisions are great for deep black levels and great contrast, their high price point may be off-putting to some buyers. Mini-LED TVs like this TCL are a more wallet-friendly option, and have high brightness while also supporting features like Quantum Dots for vivid colors.
The QM7L also includes the features you’d expect from a premium television. The 144Hz refresh rate is supported by Variable Refresh Rate to reduce tearing and input lag while gaming, with HDR and Dolby Vision support for great image quality and contrast. The screens have Google TV onboard, with support for AirPlay 2 in case you want to stream from an Apple device.
Other deals to consider
- Star Trek fans can pick up the Picard Legacy Collection on Blu-Ray for $137.49 from Amazon, a thirty percent discount from the normal price. This 54-disc set covers the entirety of Patrick Stewart’s legendary role as Captain Jean-Luc Picard, including all seven seasons of The Next Generation, the four movies that accompanied the series, and all three seasons of Picard.
- The 5,000mAh Anker MagGo power bank is on sale for $29.99 (usually $49.95) at Amazon. This MagSafe-compatible battery pack charges devices for up to 15W wireless charging, or 20W through the USB-C port.
- Woot has the Belkin Thunderbolt 3 Dock Pro on sale for $64.99, a 64 percent discount from its usual price of $179.99, and you can save an extra 25 percent by using code WOOTDOCK at checkout. This dock has a healthy selection of ports, including five USB-A, two Thunderbolt 3, and DisplayPort 1.4, giving laptops with limited connectivity access to plenty of peripherals and an extra screen.
Trump’s EPA wants to let data centers hide their air pollution
Just as new data centers face growing backlash from neighboring communities, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is about to make it harder for people to weigh in on any pollution those centers create.
The EPA plans to toss out a federal rule requiring public notice and an opportunity to comment when certain industrial sites apply for an air permit. Advocates warn that the move would allow data center developers and other industries to break ground without giving nearby residents a say, or even a warning that construction is planned.
"You can see why that would be so interesting to an administration that wants to rush through the …
DLSS 5 leaked and modders are putting Nvidia’s AI effects on everything
Modders are trying out an unofficial version of Nvidia's DLSS 5 on Skyrim, Cyberpunk 2077, GTA V, and a bunch of other games after code for the AI upscaling tech appeared in an early-access build of NBA 2K27. Members of the RenoDX modding channel on Discord reportedly found a way to extract the DLSS "Neural Rendering" file and apply it to Control before it expanded to other games, as reported earlier by Notebook Check and VideoCardz.
In one video, a person shows how Control protagonist Jesse Faden's facial features become more and less defined as they tweak various DLSS 5 settings enabled by the RenoDX modders. With the "Neural Uplift" sett …
The iPhone Fold could make concerts even worse
You know the person blocking your view of the concert because their phone is swaying in the air, recording the entire thing? Get ready for the unfolded version of it.
This week on The Vergecast, we dive right into the big week of Apple news. First, it's the refreshed Mac Mini and Mac Studio, as well as the new M6 and M5 Ultra chips. Apple is advertising them all as achievements in AI inference, but we're skeptical this is more than a marketing ploy for now. Then we get into the newly announced Apple event, why we're not expecting to see an iPhone 18, and whether the folding phone form factor is really good enough yet for Apple.
After that, …
Apple TV now costs $14.99 a month after its fourth price hike in four years
Apple raised the price of its streaming service for new and current subscribers on Friday, bumping it up from $12.99 per month to $14.99, Deadline and Variety are reporting. An annual subscription now costs $119, up from $99. Apple also increased the cost of its individual Apple One subscription, which includes Apple TV and Apple's other subscription services, from $19.95 per month to $21.95.
According to Deadline and Variety, the price change is effective immediately, and current subscribers will be notified of it before their next bill.
This price hike comes almost exactly a year after Apple last increased its Apple TV subscription fe …
Apple TV’s sci-fi thriller Dark Matter gets even trippier in season 2
Confusion is a generally accepted side effect of mystery box shows. They slather on secrets with the promise of a satisfying payoff in the end, and sometimes the cast and crew even have a hard time following what's going on. But even by the standards of the genre, Dark Matter is extreme. Its multiversal premise, which involves a man kidnapping a version of himself from another world, can be hard to wrap your head around, and as the first season went on, things only got harder to follow. With the return of the show for season 2, I have both good and bad news: The show is more dramatic and thrilling than ever, while also being ever so much har …
Anthropic was illegally blacklisted by the Trump administration, court rules
On Thursday, a judge ruled that the Pentagon's blacklisting of Anthropic earlier this year was unconstitutional, delivering the AI lab a win in a monthslong rollercoaster of a battle with the Trump administration.
The lawsuit, filed in March in a California district court, accused the Trump administration of unlawfully retaliating against Anthropic for setting "red lines," or unacceptable military use cases of its AI technology.
"The empty invocation of national security is not a blank check to punish and retaliate against government critics," Judge Rita F. Lin, a district judge in the northern district of California, wrote in the ruling …
The GTA VI ‘extended look’ is now streaming on YouTube
Rockstar has officially published its "extended look" at Grand Theft Auto VI on YouTube and on its website, as promised. The in-depth preview, which "entirely" features footage captured from the PS5 version of the game, initially premiered on Netflix at 3PM ET. But because Rockstar allowed creators to post reaction videos, you've technically been able to watch the video on YouTube before the studio's official upload.
The nearly 27-minute preview largely focuses more on atmosphere, protagonists Jason Duval and Lucia Caminos, and highlighting locations in the game instead of diving deep on specific game mechanics. It feels more like slices of …
The biggest video game of all time looks like a movie
I think I know why Rockstar Games debuted its "extended look" of Grand Theft Auto VI on Netflix instead of immediately dropping it for free on YouTube. Unlike most video game trailers, the almost 27-minute preview of GTA VI felt more like a slice of a prestige crime drama than any video game trailer that I've ever seen. To make a new game that lasts another decade or more and potentially rivals the success of its predecessor, Rockstar is clearly trying to further blur the lines between Hollywood and video games.
The line between games and movies has been getting consistently fuzzier. Look no further than this year's James Bond game, 007 Fi …
Meta addresses ‘pervert glasses’ reputation with a privacy fix and a new marketing campaign
Meta is updating its AI-powered smart glasses to close a loophole that allowed wearers to keep recording after covering the front-facing LED. Alex Himel, Meta's vice president of augmented reality, writes in a post on Threads that "the camera will now stop working if the light is covered during a recording."
The company's line of smart glasses already disables their built-in cameras if someone covers the LED capture light, which blinks to alert others that you're recording or taking a picture. However, some wearers found that they can bypass these restrictions by covering the LED light after they started recording. This latest fix comes a l …
