Dreame’s dream of a rocket-powered car is dead
Dreame, the Chinese vacuum company that aspires to be a global technology giant, is reportedly shutting down its automotive project after funding from the government dried up.
According to CarNewsChina, the company's automotive division called "Project Starry Sky" once employed over 1,000 people, but now only a handful legal and HR staffers remain, charged with winding down the operation. In a statement, Dreame said it "recently adjusted certain operations that were in the exploratory phase," and that going forward, it would focus on four key business areas: "smart home, outdoor/garden, smart mobility, and embodied AI." (A spokesperson for …
Take a look at Microsoft’s new 25th anniversary Halo accessories
The new Designed for Xbox 25th Anniversary collection features a handful of limited edition gadgets available for pre-order today. Paying homage to the Halo special edition of the original Xbox, almost everything in the collection is translucent "OG Green," matching the Xbox Series X25 limited edition console it announced in June at E3. That includes 25th anniversary versions of the Razer Basilisk V3 Pro 35K mouse, Razer BlackWidow V4 75% gaming keyboard, and Razer Hammerhead V3 X HyperSpeed earbuds.
There's also a translucent green 8BitDo Ultimate charging dock for Xbox Series X/S and Xbox One controllers, along with …
Bose’s smallest Bluetooth speaker is a great deal at 35 percent off
Bose may be best known for its QuietComfort headphones, but the brand’s Bluetooth speakers have earned a great reputation for featuring great sound and build quality. The compact Bose SoundLink Micro — its most compact Bluetooth speaker — is currently discounted to $79.99 at Amazon, a pretty great discount from its usual $129 price tag.
The rounded-off square speaker is almost pocketable, and easily slides into a purse or backpack; it’s just over four inches wide, 1.54 inches deep, and weighs less than a pound. It’s dustproof and waterproof, with an IP67 rating that matches the larger Bose Bluetooth speakers, and should last a full day at the beach or by the pool. The speaker will run for up to 12 hours on a single charge, and has convenient nylon strap for attaching it to your backpack or to your bike’s handlebars.
Other deals to consider
- Best Buy has the 5TB Seagate Game Drive discounted to $169.99 (usually $219.99) until the end of the day. While it might seem odd to buy a non-SSD external drive in 2026, the price here is better than we’ve seen recently for this capacity. This model is compatible with computers as well as Xbox consoles, although only games predating the Xbox Series S/X era will be able to be played directly from the drive. Newer games will need to first be copied over to your console’s speedy SSD.
- Woot is selling a variety of refurbished Apple Watch Series 9 units for as low as $189.99, depending on the configuration you choose. While they’re a couple of generations old, it’s rare to see recent models that low, and this is one of the older Apple Watches that will support watchOS 27. Woot is covering the devices with a one year warranty in case there are any issues down the road. Read our review.
- Until the end of the day, you can grab an Ultraloq Bolt door lock for $74.99 from Amazon (usually $109.99). This Wi-Fi smart lock features both numerical and fingerprint sensors, giving you a few options for quickly unlocking your door. You can check the status and lock or unlock the door from your phone, and it integrates with other smart home platforms like Alexa, Apple Home, and Google Home.
Gamescom Opening Night Live 2026: The biggest announcements and trailers
It’s time for another Geoff Keighley-hosted blast of gaming news. Gamescom’s two-hour Opening Night Live event is scheduled to kick off on Tuesday at 2PM ET, with a preshow starting 30 minutes before. Thanks to teases on social media, we already have some idea of what to expect, including looks at Final Fantasy VII Revelation, The Witcher 3’s new Songs of the Past expansion, Gears of War: E-Day, and the Game of Thrones strategy game.
The event is happening just ahead of a potentially very big fall for the games industry. Grand Theft Auto VI is scheduled to release on November 19th, and the rest of the games industry is largely steering clear of GTA VI’s launch. That means the next several weeks are packed with major releases, and we could see some of those new games at Opening Night Live, too. (Though GTA VI probably won’t show up given that it’s set to have a reveal event of its own on Thursday).
Here’s our coverage from Gamescom and Opening Night Live. You can watch the livestream of the show on YouTube.
- Path of Exile II’s 1.0 launch is set for December 11th.
- Building a city brick by brick.
- Crazy Taxis.
- Mewgenics is coming to PS5, Switch 2, and Xbox Series X / S.
- Proudly made in Ukraine.
- Agent 47… smoke weed every day.
- Lots of gameplay from a new D&D game.
- PUBG gets a little edgelord with it.
- The new Control looks out of control.
- More Mega Man.
- Crimson Desert is getting an “enhanced” version.
- A look at the cast of Silent Hill: Townfall.
- Here’s the story trailer for Gears of War: E-Day.
- MonHoYoverse.
- The new Onimusha’s demo is getting bigger.
- The Battletoads team is making an art game.
- RollerCoaster Tycoon is back.
- GeForce Now is getting support for the Steam Controller
- The Witcher 4 developers target a 2028 release
Instagram’s ‘First Draft’ trims your Reels clips for you
Instagram is launching a new Reels-editing feature that automatically trims your video clips to focus on the highlights. The feature, called First Draft, is rolling out to Instagram's iPhone app and provides a "starting point" that you can build upon with other edits, according to an announcement on Tuesday.
An example shared by Instagram shows a user selecting multiple clips for a reel and then tapping the "First Draft" button. From there, Instagram analyzes the clips - each of which is more than a minute long - before trimming them down to eliminate pauses and showcase the most important parts. Instagram then combines the snippets into a …
Nothing OS 5.0 brings a new Glyph Interface app and a more customizable homescreen
With the new design of Nothing OS 5.0, app icons and widgets can use adaptive color to get color tints pulled from your wallpaper, which update whenever your wallpaper changes. Alongside Android's built-in Dynamic Colors, the company says it allows you to have specific elements change to match your wallpaper "while Nothing's predominantly monochrome character stays underneath."
While I like Nothing's simplified, monochrome app icons, it's nice to get an option for adding some limited areas of color to the homescreen. Nothing's launching it as "an additional theme," so you can keep using the old design if you like.
The Android 17-based upd …
GeForce Now is getting support for the Steam Controller
Nvidia's GeForce Now cloud gaming service will officially support Valve's Steam Controller and Steam Machine starting later this year. With Steam Controller support, you'll be able to play games with Valve's great new gamepad when using the GeForce Now app on your Steam Deck or Steam Machine. If you're using GeForce Now on Windows or macOS, support for the Steam Controller is coming "later," Nvidia says.
GeForce Now is getting a few other upgrades, too. Nvidia will soon add new DLSS 4.5 controls for DLSS Super Resolution, Dynamic Frame Generation, and Ray Reconstruction. (Ray Reconstruction is also officially launching for RTX GPUs in early …
Polestar claims it was blindsided by sales ban
Polestar said the Trump administration strung it along for months before finally rejecting its request to continue selling its electric vehicles in the US under a rule outlawing vehicles with connected software from China.
In an August 18th letter sent to dealers and obtained by The Verge, Polestar said it doesn't have a clear answer as to why its application to continue selling its EVs in the US was denied, considering its sister company Volvo was authorized to sell its vehicles despite similar corporate ownership. (The letter was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.)
The US Department of Commerce approved Volvo in May 2026 to con …
Apple’s ‘new’ polishing cloth is the same except $10 cheaper
Apple just dropped a new polishing cloth, and unlike its refreshed Mac Mini models, it comes with a price cut, as spotted earlier by MacRumors. The polishing cloth is still "made with soft, nonabrasive material" but costs $9 instead of $19.
It doesn't look like anything else has changed, as the description matches an archived version of Apple's old polishing cloth, which it no longer lists on its website. The polishing cloth is compatible with what looks like the same massive list of Apple products, including the iPhone 5 and up. It "cleans any Apple display, including nano-texture, safely and effectively."
Curiously, the products Apple re …
OpenAI says its Jalapeño chip can power faster AI responses than the competition
OpenAI says its new AI chip, Jalapeño, completes tasks more efficiently and returns responses faster than other AI systems, according to a blog post published on Tuesday. During a briefing with reporters, OpenAI hardware vice president Richard Ho said Jalapeño offers the "best of both worlds" with lower latency and higher throughput, as AI systems typically "have to make a trade-off between the two."
First introduced in June, Jalapeño is an Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) made in partnership with Broadcom. It's designed for AI inference - the process of running a trained AI model to complete a task or deploy an agent.
To mea …