Technology

Score another one for regulatory scrutiny. Following a 2022 Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) investigation, Google said on Friday that it's adding the UK to the list of countries where it supports user choice billing. This lets Android developers in the nation allow users to pay for in-app purchases using alternative billing systems.

Google says the UK will get user choice billing beginning on March 29. It will start with non-gaming apps, which aligns with how Google has handled these rollouts in other regions. Areas where alternate billing is already available include the US, Japan, Brazil, Australia, Indonesia, South Africa and European Economic Area (EEA) markets.

Developers who enroll in the program can only offer alternative payments in addition to — not in place of — Google Play billing. They'll receive a four percent discount from Google's service fees.

The move is closely tied to the nation's regulations. In 2023, the company floated user choice billing as a concession to help settle a UK CMA antitrust investigation that began the previous year.

Although Google acknowledged the CMA's influence on its decision in its announcement, the company framed the move in a blog post as giving the people (in this case, developers) may want. "While over 90% of our developers are 'satisfied' or 'very satisfied' with Google Play's billing, which provides a secure way for people to buy subscriptions and digital goods in apps, we recognise that some developers may want more choice in how they process payments," Google Competition Counsel Myrto Tagara wrote.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/google-play-will-offer-user-choice-billing-in-the-uk-180145121.html?src=rss

Mushroom fans rejoice. Adult Swim has ordered a second season of its animated hit Common Side Effects. This is happening just ahead of the finale of the first season, which airs this weekend.

For the uninitiated, Common Side Effects is something of an odd duck. It’s a cartoon, but it’s more of a thriller than a comedy. Mike Judge (Silicon Valley, King of the Hill) and Greg Daniels (The Office, Parks and Recreation) are onboard as executive producers, so there are some jokes. I guess it could be called a dramedy, but comedic thriller seems more apt.

The plot follows two former high school lab partners who discover a mystical mushroom that can cure just about every disease. This forces them to go on the run from the DEA, big pharma and shadowy business entities. The animation style is certainly unique, and may not be for everyone, but the show really comes into its own after a few episodes.

The voice cast includes Mike Judge, who played both Beavis and Butt-Head, and Martha Kelly, who starred in the animated Carol & the End of the World. She’s also fantastic in Baskets and absolutely terrifying in the second season of Euphoria. The remaining cast includes Joseph Lee Anderson, Dave King and Emily Pendergast.

Along with the renewal announcement, Adult Swim president Michael Ouweleen called the show a “boundary-pushing and genre-defining piece of television.” He also praised fans for “lighting up socials to spread the word.”

Common Side Effects was created by Steve Hely, who wrote for American Dad and 30 Rock, and Joe Bennett, who made the criminally underrated (and now cancelled) Scavenger’s Reign. The pair said their goal for the show is “to transform planet Earth and restore the human spirit” but that they’ll “settle for a second season.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/common-side-effects-has-been-renewed-for-a-second-season-by-adult-swim-173256630.html?src=rss

Google's Pixel 9a, a candidate to be the "midrange smartphone king," was announced last week but delayed at the last second due to a component problem. Today, we finally know when the handset will arrive: April 10 in North America.

In an update to a Pixel 9a support page (via 9to5Google) on Friday, Google wrote that the phone will arrive on April 10 in the US, Canada and the UK. On April 14, it will land in a long list of European countries: Germany, Spain, Italy, Ireland, France, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Portugal, Switzerland, Poland, Czechia, Romania, Hungary, Slovenia, Slovakia, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia and Finland. Meanwhile, Australia, India, Singapore, Taiwan and Malaysia have to wait until April 16.

Sam Rutherford for Engadget

Pre-announcement reports suggested the phone would arrive on March 26, but Google said on the day of its unveiling that it was delayed into April. An unverified leak hinted that the pushback was related to camera-related heating problems, but Google only said it was to address a "component quality issue that’s affecting a small number of Pixel 9a devices." Regardless of the specifics, at least the problem ultimately only amounted to a short delay.

The Pixel 9a has dual cameras, a Tensor G4 chip and AI tools like Magic Editor, Magic Eraser, Best Take and Photo Unblur. (However, an Ars Technica report suggests it runs an "extra extra small" version of Gemini.) In his hands-on, Engadget's Sam Rutherford found the midrange phone to offer compelling features and performance relative to its $499 and up pricing. The phone isn't yet available for pre-order.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/the-pixel-9a-launches-on-april-10-in-the-us-161940732.html?src=rss

Jennifer Salke is stepping down as the head of Amazon MGM Studios, according to reporting by Deadline. She’s been at the post for over seven years, which is a ripe old age for a studio head. Before Amazon, Salke was president of NBC Entertainment.

She will not be replaced. Instead, the head of studio role will be eliminated as part of a new structure for the division. Prime Video honcho Mike Hopkins said in a memo that the company "decided to flatten our leadership structure a bit." The studio will split into two distinct arms, with one focusing on TV and the other handling films.

"We will be taking a couple of weeks to have thoughtful conversations with Jen’s directs and others to finalize the ideal long-term structure for the Amazon MGM Studios organization as a whole, and we’ll have more to share on that work soon," Hopkins said.

Salke isn’t leaving the studio entirely. She’s transitioning to a first-look film and TV deal with the company. However, industry rumors suggest that it’s more like a firing than a voluntary career change. She was largely absent from the deals that brought in Amy Pascal and David Heyman as the producers of the next James Bond film.

Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson sold creative control of 007 to Amazon for around $1 billion earlier this year. Insiders have suggested that Broccoli and Salke didn’t get along, which Jeff Bezos allegedly caught wind of. It has been reported that one condition of Pascal and Heyman signing on was that the pair would not report to Salke.

We don’t know what any of this means for James Bond, other than new movies are most definitely coming. It’s also been suggested that the platform could be prepping an affiliated TV show.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/jennifer-salke-steps-down-as-head-of-amazon-mgm-studios-161856700.html?src=rss

Trevor Milton, the founder of electric truck company Nikola, has received a full and unconditional pardon from President Donald Trump. A jury found Milton guilty of one count of securities fraud and two counts of wire fraud in October 2022. In 2023, he was sentenced to four years in prison.

Milton announced the pardon in a press release and the White House confirmed it to CNBC. It came two weeks after prosecutors asked a judge to order Milton to pay $680 million in restitution to Nikola shareholders as well as $15.2 million to a wire fraud victim. However, due to the pardon, the judge is unable to order any restitution.

Prosecutors argued that Milton pumped up his company's stock by lying to investors about "nearly all aspects" of Nikola's business, such as having a fully functional electric truck. Nikola (which filed for bankruptcy last month) released a video in 2018 that appeared to show a Nikola One prototype moving by itself, but prosecutors claimed the truck was rolling down a hill and that Milton had a hand in the video's creation. Following a damning report by short-selling firm Hindenburg Research that prompted an SEC investigation, the company said in 2020 it never claimed that the "truck was driving under its own propulsion in the video," which has been made private on YouTube. Milton now plans to release a documentary to tell his side of the story.

Milton has given Trump and his associates millions of dollars in political donations, according to reports. Filings show he donated $750,000 to MAHA Alliance — now-Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr's political action committee — in September and $920,000 to the Trump 47 Committee in October, just ahead of the election. CNBC notes that Milton did not make any six-figure political contributions before 2024, per federal campaign finance records. 

Trump has pardoned hundreds of people in the first couple of months of his second term, including around 1,500 who were convicted or charged with crimes related to the insurrection at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. On his second day in office, Trump pardoned Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht, who was sentenced to life in prison after being charged with money laundering, narcotics trafficking and computer hacking.

Meanwhile, the family and associates of Sam Bankman-Fried are reportedly campaigning for Trump to pardon him. The founder of cryptocurrency exchange FTX was sentenced in 2024 to a 25-year prison sentence after he was found guilty of seven fraud and conspiracy charges.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/evs/nikola-founder-trevor-milton-receives-a-full-pardon-from-president-trump-160107880.html?src=rss

Grab your popcorn. Nintendo just announced the official release date of the live-action Legend of Zelda movie. It hits theaters on March 26, 2027, which is just about two years from now. The film was first announced back in 2023.

The company dropped this bombshell on the official Nintendo Today! app that was surprise-released during a recent Direct livestream. The stream promised that the app would be a constant source of news and information. It looks like that promise was not hyperbole.

The Legend of Zelda live-action film releasing on March 26, 2027 (via Nintendo Today!) pic.twitter.com/8DzgH5e1YF

— Wario64 (@Wario64) March 28, 2025

Anyone who opened up the app this morning saw a short video of a Tri-Force floating alongside the iconic Zelda theme music. After that, text confirmed the release date for the movie. Now we’ll all have to check that darned app every day for more news.

The release date, however, is pretty much all we know about the film. It’s being directed by Wes Ball, who made Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes and the Maze Runner trilogy. There’s no casting information yet, or a look at sets or anything like that. We don’t even know who is writing it. Ball has said that he envisions the film as “live-action Miyazaki," referring to the legendary Studio Ghibli director.

Will Nintendo ready a Zelda game to accompany the film? We have no idea, but Super Mario Bros. Wonder followed the release of the Super Mario Bros. Movie a couple of years back.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/nintendo/the-legend-of-zelda-movie-hits-theaters-on-march-26-2027-150145662.html?src=rss

Google is revamping its smart home lineup, ending production on two of its devices in favor of integrations with third-party manufacturers. First, it will sunset the Nest Protect smoke & CO alarms. Existing products will continue to function and receive security updates until their expiration dates. They will also remain available for purchase while supplies last. Second, it will end production for the Nest x Yale smart lock. As with the Nest Protect, the remaining inventory will still be available for purchase and the devices will continue receiving security updates.

Rather than manufacture its own smoke alarm, Google announced that it will take a partnership approach. The company is teaming up with First Alert for a new smart smoke and carbon monoxide alarm that will integrate with existing Nest Protect devices and can be controlled from the Google Home app. First Alert hasn't provided an exact release date, but says the new alarm coming soon to the US and Canada and will be priced at $130. It'll be available in both Google and First Alert's stores, and also sold through retail stores and "professional distribution partners."

And on the lock side, Google will again partner with Yale. The pair is developing the Yale Smart Lock with Matter, which is meant to work with the Google Home ecosystem just as well as the Nest-branded lock. As the name suggests, it'll play nice with all manner of devices using the Matter smart home protocol, and Yale says its battery will last for up to a year. It'll be available "later this summer" at $170 in a variety of finishes.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/home/smart-home/google-will-stop-making-the-nest-protect-smoke-alarm-150024379.html?src=rss

Baby Steps is a video game about hiking. This is, of course, a ridiculous concept.

Before we get to the game’s protagonist, an adult toddler in a thin onesie, or its unserious side characters and nonsensical narrative, we have to acknowledge the absurdity at its very core. Leisurely walking around in nature is perhaps the most organic, least technological activity a person can engage in, and the desire to digitize this experience, recreating it for consumption from the butt-shaped cushions of your couch, is silly. It’s such a patently Game Developer™ impulse that, actually, I find it adorable. Much like the rest of Baby Steps.

Baby Steps is a walking simulator from a trio of veteran game developers: Dance Central creator Maxi Boch, Ape Out developer Gabe Cuzzillo, and Bennett Foddy of QWOP and Getting Over It fame. It’s heading to PC and PlayStation 5 this year, and since its announcement video dropped in June 2023, it’s been a hotly anticipated curio for fans of annoyingly precise traversal mechanics and offbeat indie shit. It’s a larger audience than you might think.

I played about 45 minutes of Baby Steps at GDC 2025 while Boch, Cuzzillo and Foddy looked on and intermittently told me how good I was at walking. The game stars Nate, an unemployed adult dude who lives in his parents’ basement, as he explores an arid mountain landscape one shaky, unsure step at a time. Maneuvering his body in the proper way is the main goal, and it’s a tricky one. Using a gamepad, you control Nate’s legs individually, one per trigger, and his limbs are incredibly sensitive to small changes in button depression. Pull a trigger tight to lift and bend one of his knees, and release it bit by bit to swing out his lower leg and place his foot precisely where it needs to be. Press forward with the left stick to give Nate just the right amount of momentum, get your trigger rhythm right, and suddenly, hey, you’re walking here.

It sounds easier than it is. Thanks to the game’s incredibly precise mechanics, Nate falls over easily, faceplanting in the dirt and tumbling backward over rocky slopes like a ragdoll, covering his grey onesie in mud and sweat. This same precision also makes Nate shockingly sturdy at times, like when he pulls his whole body onto a ledge with a single step, ending in a perfectly balanced flamingo stance. There’s room in the controls for both mastery and mayhem, and by the time I put down the gamepad, I was walking Nate around with all the grace of a perfectly adequate five-year-old. I was proud of this accomplishment, too, damn it.

Devolver Digital

Literally placing one foot in front of the other requires so much concentration in the game’s first few minutes that it’s easy to ignore Nate’s surroundings, but as walking becomes easier, you’re finally able to look around and ask, “What the hell am I doing here?” The first two chapters of Baby Steps are set on a mountainside dotted with craggy rocks, patches of brown grass, long-abandoned wooden buildings, random carousel horses and dirt pits, and the only indication of where to go is an orange glow emanating from a ridgeline high above Nate’s spawn point.

The few folks Nate meets along the way — a charmingly aloof guide and at least one other, much more prepared hiker — are incredibly entertaining to interact with, but they’re also pretty unhelpful with existential questions. Nate murmurs and monosyllabizes his way through conversations, and he tends to get cut off by the NPCs’ eager observations. Like when I was playing, Nate fell and got stuck at the bottom of a muddy hole, and his guide friend showed up and immediately said, “This hole used to be dry. Hey, did you pee in the hole? Did you pee in this hole?” In response, Nate made anxious noises and generally panicked.

The comedy in Baby Steps is sharp and chaotic, with a delirious, improvised edge. Foddy does the voice work for most of the characters, and he tends to just make up their lines at the mic. The result is a messy yet refreshing conversational flow, and every cutscene I encountered made me chuckle.

Devolver Digital

Most aspects of Baby Steps made me smile, in fact. At one point I entered a fast-walking groove while wandering along a rocky path on the edge of the canyon, and I realized the birdsong and the thuds of my own steps had morphed into a rhythmic song, encouraging my gait with a steady, organic beat. The game’s soundscape comes courtesy of Boch, and it intentionally ebbs and flows according to the way you play the game. Combine this responsive, immersive soundtrack with the constant focus you have to keep on Nate’s movements, and Baby Steps quickly becomes a hypnotic experience. The game’s details only encourage this feeling — the mountain is strangely beautiful, rendered in crisp 3D graphics, and it’s completely explorable, with no invisible walls in sight. If you can see it, you can attempt to climb it. Nate’s onesie collects sweat along the small of his back, under his arms, and in all the crannies you’d expect, and it also picks up mud when he falls, but the stains wash away when you get in water. On-screen prompts are rare. There are hidden hats to wear and penis graffiti to admire, and Nate can take numerous paths to reach the same point, bouncing pancake butt leading the way.

Behind all the absurdity, Baby Steps is an incredibly well-crafted, hyper-detailed relaxation tool. While it is laugh-out-loud funny, its mechanics cut deeper than its oddball trailers suggest, and in practice, it actually left me feeling meditative. Baby Steps is a serious silly game.

Baby Steps is being published by Devolver Digital, and it’s due to hit PS5 and PC via Steam later this year.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/baby-steps-preview-serious-gameplay-in-a-silly-walking-sim-150008737.html?src=rss

Those who are enrolled in the Android Auto testing program can now check out new features as part of the 14.1 beta, including support for a few games. As things stand, four Android games are available on compatible vehicle displays — Candy Crush Soda Saga, Angry Birds 2, Farm Heroes Saga (another match-three game) and Beach Buggy Racing. They could help you pass the time when, say, you're waiting for your EV to charge or to pick up your kids from school.

According to 9to5Google, which tried out the feature, you need to have the games installed on your phone to play them on your car's screen. They'll also only be accessible while the vehicle is parked. The publication noted that, when you get ready to move the car, the game will close right away. Until you park again, you can't tap on a game to reopen it. In addition, 9to5Google was unable to actually play Angry Birds 2 — the app got stuck on an "internet required" screen — though Beach Buggy Racing appeared to run well enough.

Also part of this beta is a fullscreen mode for apps. To back out from that, you may need to swipe down from the top of the display. This gesture reveals an Exit button.

Google announced Android game support in the latest Android Auto beta as part of its latest feature drop for Pixel devices. As The Verge points out, however, cars with Google built in already allow users to play a broader range of games while the vehicle is parked. As such, this appears to be a case of Google trying to give Android Auto more feature parity with cars that have Google built in. Still, it is not yet clear if or when Google plans to bring Android gaming and fullscreen support to the stable track of Android Auto.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/beta-test-brings-candy-crush-soda-saga-and-angry-birds-2-to-android-auto-143021332.html?src=rss

This week, we learned that even government officials are addicted to their group chats — except with the Trump administration those chats include war plans and potentially classified information. In this episode, we dive into the sheer recklessness and stupidity of Signalgate. And speaking of reckless, we also discuss 23andMe's bankruptcy and the privacy concerns around selling off customer DNA data.

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 podcast, Engadget News!

Subscribe!

• iTunes

• Spotify

• Pocket Casts

• Stitcher

• Google Podcasts

Topics

• Signalgate: What happened, who was involved, and how to safely add someone to a Signal group chat – 0:48

• 23andMe files for bankruptcy, customers are urged to delete their sensitive data – 21:25

• Canon’s PowerShot V1 and R50 V cameras go all in on vlogging – 27:21

• Apple announces WWDC dates, updates Airpods Max, and dodges fines in the EU – 32:52

• How did Napster sell for $207 million in 2025? – 45:32

• Around Engadget – 48:44

• Working On – 55:22

• Pop Culture picks – 57:56

Credits 

Hosts: Devindra Hardawar and Cherlynn Low
Producer: Ben Ellman
Music: Dale North and Terrence O'Brien

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/engadget-podcast-signalgate-and-the-collapse-of-23andme-121504641.html?src=rss

Instagram has rolled out an update for Reels that will let users go through more of them more quickly. As TechCrunch has reported, the app now allows users to play Reels at 2x the speed by long-pressing on the right or the left edge of the screen. They'd simply have to release it if they'd like to resume watching at normal speed. Some users have had access to the feature for a while now, while others used to have it until Instagram removed it from their accounts, likely because the app was only testing it out. Now, an Instagram rep has told CNET that it's rolling out to everyone. We previously didn't have the feature and can confirm that we've gained access to it within the past few hours. 

The representative said that the option has been highly requested by the app's users. Being able to fast-forward Reels has become somewhat of a necessity for a lot of people today, seeing as Instagram's short-form videos are no longer limited to 15 seconds in length like they used to be. Reels can now be as long as three minutes, and there are signs indicating that the app could allow uploads as long as 10 minutes. We wouldn't be surprised if Instagram started allowing Reels that long in the future. Instagram and TikTok have had history of adopting new features previously unveiled by the other, and TikTok allows videos recorded within its app to be 10 minutes long. In fact, TikTok has had the option to watch videos at twice the speed for a while now, which is even more necessary for the app, since its users can upload videos up to an hour in length. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/instagram-will-let-you-watch-reels-at-twice-the-speed-120047663.html?src=rss

The US will append a 25 percent tariff on top of any existing tariffs on all cars produced outside its borders. Additional fees will be imposed on imported components too like engines, transmissions, powertrains and electrical components. There’s a number of carve outs for US-based companies, as well as those sourcing gear from Mexico and Canada. But the move has been taken under the guise of “protecting” America’s car industry from imports.

Of course, hefty tariffs are no guarantee consumers will flock to buy American if other brands are pricier. We’ve been here before: The ’70s oil shock meant bulky and inefficient American cars were suddenly money pits. That made light and efficient Japanese cars far more attractive to buyers who didn’t want to go broke at the gas pump. And that was despite a tariff regime that, as PBS reported in 2017, was equivalent to a 60 percent levy. Before 1980, Chrysler, GM and Ford were kings — now they muscle with Toyota, Honda and Hyundai for a slice of the pie.

Given the new administration’s work to undermine the EV transition, it’s likely we’ll see a big pivot back to gas-powered vehicles. Especially as the one EV company likely to benefit from such a move has potentially diminished its reputation in the eyes of some buyers. The end result, however, may likely erode any sort of advantage the US auto industry has, allowing China the chance to race ahead in the rest of the world.

— Dan Cooper

Get this delivered direct to your inbox. Subscribe right here!

The biggest tech stories you missed

• The Pentagon warns government officials that Signal is being targeted by Russian hackers
  I’m not sure why we should worry, it’s not as if government officials are secretly using Signal to agree war plans, are they?! Sorry… what’s that?

• The minimalist Light Phone III is officially available for purchase
  It offers private GPS for folks who don’t want Google tracking their movements.

• No Man’s Sky now lets players dig up planets to look for ancient alien skeletons
  Better charge up that Terrain Manipulator.

• A new MEMS tweeter for wireless earbuds doesn’t require an amplifier
  Better sound in a smaller package is always welcome.

• Utah just became the first state in the country to pass an age verification law for app stores
  Nobody involved in this law has ever put their thumb on a TouchID sensor to allow an app to download because their kid hasn’t shut up about something for three hours.

iPad (2025) with A16 review: No Apple Intelligence, no problem Plus, it’s cheap. Jeff Dunn for Engadget

Engadget’s Jeff Dunn has put the new 2025 base-model iPad through its paces, and it comes with no surprises. The new slate gets a faster chip, A16, and 2GB more ram than its immediate predecessor. Naturally, compared to the pricier iPads, its performance isn’t going to pull up too many trees, but you’re not using a base model iPad for intensive work. Plus, it’s not going to get any Apple Intelligence features, which I’ll take any day of the week and twice on Sundays.

Continue Reading.

Canon goes all in on vlogging with the PowerShot V1 compact and R50 V mirrorless cameras It’s a tank parked on Sony’s lawn. Steve Dent for Engadget

Canon has announced two new compact mirrorless cameras for the vlogging crowd, the R50V Mirrorless and PowerShot V1 Compact. Both are attempts to muscle in on Sony’s turf in the videography space, boasting 4K video (1080p as a webcam), fancy autofocus tricks and a fully articulating display (at the expense of an electronic viewfinder). Engadget’s Steve Dent will review them in due course, but it’s hard to wonder if the vlogging space really needs yet more entrants, especially right now.

Continue Reading.

Block reportedly lays off almost 1,000 employees It has more than 10,000 staff members.

Block, Jack Dorsey’s payments company which owns Square and Cash App, has laid off 931 workers. The outfit denies the move is to cut costs, saying it’s to improve efficiency and flatten the organization by eliminating managers. As much as I’m sad for those folks who have lost their jobs, I’m staggered that 931 workers is only around eight percent of its workforce.

When the tedious bores moaned Twitter was overstaffed, I knew they were talking out of their backsides. After all, a global social network needs bodies to keep the site running, engage with advertisers and moderate such a sprawling platform. And while most financial institutions need plenty of qualified folks to comply with financial laws — not that Block has a stellar record in that area — 10,000 people to run Square and Cash App seems like a lot.

Continue Reading.

Robinhood is moving into banking services with luxury perks and same-day cash delivery I’m sure Gamestop buyers would love to bank with Robinhood.

This fall, Robinhood will offer banking services to users with a Gold subscription, with all the usual perks banks throw at customers. That includes checking and savings accounts, money transfers to more than 100 countries and same-day cash deliveries to your door. You can even get your own wealth-management service, for all of the vast riches you’ve got left over once you’ve paid your rent, your car loan and bought six eggs from your local corner store.

Continue Reading.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/general/the-morning-after-will-the-us-imported-car-tariffs-work-112509770.html?src=rss

If your Wi-Fi signal is struggling to reach every corner of your home, a signal booster — also known as a Wi-Fi extender — might be the fix you need. Whether you're dealing with annoying dead zones, buffering video calls or laggy gaming sessions, the right Wi-Fi extender can help expand coverage and improve connectivity without forcing you to move your router.

There are different types of Wi-Fi extenders to choose from. Some models use external antennas to push the signal farther, while others, like mesh extenders, create a seamless, whole-home network. If you're simply looking to extend coverage into a specific room, a Wi-Fi repeater can do the job — but it may cut your bandwidth in half. More advanced extenders, however, can help maintain strong speeds and reliability throughout your home.

We've rounded up the best Wi-Fi extenders to suit different needs, whether you're looking for an affordable fix or a high-performance upgrade.

Table of contents

• Best Wi-Fi extender for 2025

• How do Wi-Fi extenders work?

• What to look for in a Wi-Fi extender

• Wi-Fi extender FAQs

Best Wi-Fi extender for 2025

How do Wi-Fi extenders work?

These handy wireless devices do exactly what their name suggests: extend your Wi-Fi network so it covers more areas of your home. Most wireless extenders plug into an AC outlet and connect to your existing router so they can then rebroadcast it to spots that your router alone may not cover well. As a rule of thumb, you’ll get the best results by placing the extender half way between your router and the dead zone you’re trying to fix.

One important thing to note about Wi-Fi range extenders (also sometimes called “repeaters”) is that most of them actually create a new Wi-Fi network when rebroadcasting your existing one. That network will have a new name (it’ll often be your default network’s name with an EXT appended at the end, unless you change it) and that means you’ll have to connect to different networks when in different parts of your home. While that’s a small tradeoff in return for improved coverage, some will be more inconvenienced than others.

If you’d rather have one, much larger network in your home, you’re better off upgrading to mesh networking systems. Mesh systems come with a main router and access points that, by default, create one large Wi-Fi system that should be accessible throughout your whole home. They tend to be the best Wi-Fi routers you can get, but that also translates to more expensive, and possibly more complicated, devices. Mesh Wi-Fi systems are, by far, more costly than a simple extender, plus you may have to work with your ISP to get your home’s existing network working on your new router.

What to look for in a Wi-Fi extender Speed

Extenders today can support single, dual or tri-band Wi-Fi, and they will tell you the maximum speeds they support on all of their available bands. For example, one dual-band device might support 600Mbps speeds over its 2.4GHz band and up to 1300Mbps over its 5GHz band, for a combined maximum speed of 1900Mbps. For the best performance, you’ll want to go with a Wi-Fi extender that has the highest speeds possible (and those, as you might expect, tend to cost more). Some extenders even support Wi-Fi 7, giving you the latest in wireless technology for higher bandwidth, faster speeds and lower latency.

However, it’s important to remember that Wi-Fi extenders are not true “signal boosters” since they are not designed to increase speeds across your home. In fact, you may find that the extender’s network is slower than your router’s. Instead, extenders are designed to increase the strong Wi-Fi coverage throughout your home, making them ideal for filling in dead zones. Some mesh extenders can help create a more seamless network, reducing the drop in speed and improving connectivity in larger spaces.

Range, and number of supported devices

With the name of the gaming being coverage area, taking note of a device’s range is important. Depending on the size of your home and property, you may only need up to 1,200 square feet of coverage. But those with larger homes will want to spring for an extender that can support upwards of 2,000+ square feet of coverage.

Similarly, those with lots of gadgets will want an extender that can handle them all at once. If you spend most of your time on your phone or laptop and maybe have your smart TV online for a few hours of Netflix each day, you could get by with a more limited extender. Smart home aficionados and tech lovers should invest in one that won’t buckle under the pressure of a few dozen connected devices. This is especially important if you plan on linking all of the devices in a certain part of your home to your Wi-Fi range extender’s network, rather than directly to your existing router. Some models with external antennas can improve performance by providing stronger, more directional signal coverage.

Design

There isn’t a ton of innovation when it comes to design in the Wi-Fi extender space. Most of the ones you’ll find today are rounded rectangles roughly the size of your hand that plug into a standard wall outlet. They usually have a few indicator lights that will show you when the extender is connected, how strong its signal strength is and when there’s a problem, and some will even have moveable external antennas that companies claim provide even better Wi-Fi signal. Generally, they are pretty simple to install and get connected, but if you’re struggling with how to set up your Wi-Fi extender, there are plenty of YouTube videos you can check out.

Aside from that, there are the scant few standalone Wi-Fi extenders that sit on an end table or a desk, and those look pretty similar to regular ol’ routers. But make no mistake, anything labeled as an extender or a “Wi-Fi repeater” will need an anchor router in order for it to work.

Another convenient feature you’ll find on most Wi-Fi extenders is an extra Ethernet port (or a few). This allows you to use the extender as a Wi-Fi access point if you connect it to your existing router, or an adapter to provide devices like TVs, smart home hubs or game consoles a hardwired connection to the internet. Unsurprisingly, this wired connection usually provides you with the fastest speeds possible, so you may want to use it for your most crucial devices.

Wi-Fi extender FAQs What's the difference between a wifi booster and extender?

Nowadays, there’s really no difference between a Wi-Fi booster and Wi-Fi extender - they’re just different names for the same thing. Previously, however, Wi-Fi boosters were devices that received signals from wireless routers, broadcasting them to another network. This essentially extends the range of the signal. Wi-Fi extenders expand the coverage within your home’s Wi-Fi network, but often you will see extenders described as boosters.

Is a Wi-Fi extender better than a mesh router?

Mesh routers, or mesh Wi-Fi systems, use multiple devices (or nodes) across your home to create a larger home network. Essentially, you have multiple routers around your home with these systems, and that will hopefully provide the best coverage possible. Wi-Fi extenders, on the other hand, are usually just one device that extends your existing Wi-Fi signal, and they often require you to switch networks when connecting. Wi-Fi extenders are more affordable, though, and are great if you’re traveling or need a Wi-Fi signal in harder-to-reach areas. However, a mesh router can offer a better long-term solution to upgrade your entire home’s Wi-Fi.

Should I use multiple Wi-Fi extenders?

Some people may need to use multiple Wi-Fi extenders, for instance, if your home is large or has dead zones in different areas. But if you do use multiple Wi-Fi extenders, there’s a chance of interference. You may also need to manually connect to the extenders separately, which isn’t always convenient.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/best-wifi-extender-130021313.html?src=rss

There's a lot in the world to be angry about today. So, why not do like we did in the '90s and channel that aggression into beating the living hell out of bad guys in a delightfully loud and over-the-top arcade game? Marvel Cosmic Invasion takes characters like Spider-Man, Captain America and Wolverine and gives them a beat-'em-up that looks straight out of a grunge-era cabinet.

If this sounds like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge, that's no coincidence. Marvel Cosmic Invasion is not only cut from the same cloth; it's from the same team (developer Tribute Games and publisher Dotemu). The idea is to recreate the look, sound and feel of side-scrolling '90s button-mashers like X-Men, The Simpsons and the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles with modern touches.

Tribute Games / Dotemu

Like Shredder's Revenge, it exploits the advantages of modern graphical engines without betraying its muses' old-school pixel art. Appropriately, the characters' visual style is inspired by 90s-era Marvel comics.

You'll choose a team of two superheroes and can tag between them mid-fight. At launch, you can play as Captain America, Wolverine, Spider-Man, Storm, Phyla-Vell, Venom and Nova. The developers are mum about which characters we might see in the future, but it's hard to imagine Marvel stalwarts like Thor, Iron Man, Black Panther, Hulk and Black Widow not swooping in at some point.

Tribute Games / Dotemu

Its story sounds as extravagant as you'd want from a '90s-inspired Marvel beat-'em-up. "The immortal Super Villain Annihilus has launched an unprecedented attack across the galaxy, threatening all life as we know it," the description reads. "Fighters both Earth-born and cosmic must now join forces in a star-spanning adventure against the deadly Annihilation Wave. Brawl through the streets of New York City all the way to the depths of the Negative Zone to foil Annihilus' vow to spread death across the cosmos."

You can play with up to four players, local or online. (And it supports crossplay!)

Marvel Cosmic Invasion will be available for PC, Switch, PS5 / PS4 and Xbox. There's no word yet on pricing or an exact release date, but Dotemu says it will arrive later this year. In the meantime, you can check out the announcement trailer below.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/marvel-cosmic-invasion-is-a-90s-style-beat-em-up-in-the-mold-of-shredders-revenge-191110625.html?src=rss

In the final days of our pre-Switch 2 world, Nintendo is trying to rethink how sharing games works. The biggest announcement from the company's latest Direct was its upcoming Virtual Game Cards feature, a new approach to sharing digital games that improves on the company's current system, but still carries limitations that keep it from feeling truly modern.

Virtual Game Cards attempt to make digital games as easy to share as physical ones. That starts with the company visually representing games as "cards" and using the language of loading and ejecting them, and extends to how simple they are to share. Two Switch consoles logged into your Nintendo Account can share any digital game just by "ejecting" it from one and "loading" it on another. The only catch is that the consoles need to be connected over local wireless (as in, be physically near each other) when the trade happens, and be able to access the internet to download the game and run it for the first time.

You can similarly share a Virtual Game Card with anyone in the same Nintendo Account family group for two weeks, after which the game automatically returns. In both cases, saves for each game stay on the console where the game was played, making it simple to share the Virtual Game Card again and keep playing.

In comparison to Nintendo's current system, which requires defining a Switch console as "primary" and able to be used offline and other devices as a "secondary" and needing an internet connection to play shared games, Virtual Game Cards are a meaningful improvement. If you're a parent trying to share games with your kids or a super-fan with multiple Switches (something Nintendo no doubt wants to encourage), Virtual Game Cards have basically solved the problem — or at least made it much easier to manage and understand. The company isn't exactly leading the pack here, though.

If I own a game on PlayStation, I can download it on my Playstation 4 and PlayStation 5, and play on either console, without needing to go through the rigamarole of ejecting virtual cards. The same goes for Steam games. Valve even goes further and lets the vast majority of games be shared and played on accounts connected to the same Steam Family, without your computers needing to be near each other when you "hand-off" games.

People are highly sensitive to any kind of DRM. Just ask Xbox, which had big plans to change how loaning games work when the Xbox One was announced, but had to dramatically backtrack after basically everyone complained. 

Nintendo isn't pulling an Xbox, per se, but it is pitching something adjacent. Virtual Game Cards are inarguably better than how things work now, but they require an internet connection and they still limit how many people can play a game at once. Nintendo came up with a better mental model for sharing games, but not necessarily a better way to do it.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/nintendo/nintendos-digital-switch-game-sharing-plan-could-be-so-much-simpler-190353732.html?src=rss

Shadow Labyrinth, an utterly bonkers riff on Pac-Man and sidescrolling Metroidvania games, will hit digital store shelves on July 18. It’ll be available for Nintendo Switch, PC via Steam, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.

The game casts players as Swordsman No. 8 as he befriends a yellow orb called Puck. For the gaming historians out there, Puck-Man was the original name for Pac-Man. The gameplay involves switching from the classic sword-wielding hero to Puck, with the latter able to crawl on walls and (surprise) gobble up yellow dots. There’s also a third form, a mecha construct called Gaia.

The gameplay looks frenetic and fairly violent, which seems like an odd choice for everyone’s favorite perpetually hungry orb. Bandai Namco is making the game, however, and it made the very first Pac-Man all of those decades ago. I’m going to give them the benefit of the doubt here. In any event, it’s not as if developers haven’t experimented with Pac-Man in the past. The famished fiend has been featured in racing games, platformers, endless runners, puzzlers and more. What’s one more genre to add to the mix?

Shadow Labyrinth will be available in the original version and as a Digital Deluxe edition. That one comes with a digital artbook and the soundtrack.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/shadow-labyrinth-the-edgy-pac-man-metroidvania-arrives-on-july-18-185011811.html?src=rss

Ubisoft is continuing its efforts to course-correct after several challenging years. Today, the video game company announced that it will launch a subsidiary centered around three of its most familiar franchises: Assassin's Creed, Far Cry and Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six. The as-yet-unnamed subsidiary will fold in the teams working on those three series, including Ubisoft studios in Montréal, Quebec, Sherbrooke, Saguenay, Barcelona and Sofia.

This new business will receive an investment of €1.16 billion (roughly $1.25 billion) from its longstanding partner Tencent, granting the conglomerate a minority ownership stake. Following the transaction, Ubisoft will narrow focus to its other franchises, such as The Division and Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon.

"Today Ubisoft is opening a new chapter in its history," CEO and Co-Founder Yves Guillemot said. "As we accelerate the company’s transformation, this is a foundational step in changing Ubisoft’s operating model that will enable us to be both agile and ambitious."

Ubisoft has been cutting costs and jobs over the past several months after several of its new projects flopped. There have been hints for a while that the company's leaders were interested in either finding a buyer or exploring a joint venture with Tencent to help reverse its fortunes. It's encouraging that the recent Assassin's Creed: Shadows has already reached 3 million players, but Ubisoft will probably need a few more wins to fully stabilize.

There is some extra good news in the announcement. The description of the new subsidiary does specify that "it will drive further increases in quality of narrative solo experiences." So while we can expect to also see multiplayer and free-to-play offerings from the Ubisoft umbrella, they aren't giving up on single-player games.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/ubisoft-spins-out-subsidiary-with-a-billion-dollar-investment-from-tencent-183516992.html?src=rss

Meta has spent the last few years remaking Facebook’s main feed into a “discovery engine” that primarily serves up recommended content from pages, groups and accounts users don’t already follow. But while the company has said the change is necessary to compete with TikTok, it’s also frustrated Facebook users who miss seeing posts from people they actually know.

Now, Meta is trying to remedy this with a revamped “Friends” section of the app that will only show posts and content related to your Facebook friends. The company says the update is the first of many meant to bring “OG” features back into the 21-year-old social network.

With the update, the “Friends” tab of the Facebook app that used to only be for friend requests will now be home to a feed exclusively made up of content related to your friends. This includes feed and Story posts, as well as Reels, birthdays, friend requests and “people you may know suggestions.”

While Meta is spinning the change as a part of a larger push to make Facebook feel more “social,” it’s not the first time the company has offered dedicated feeds for “friend only” content. In fact, Mark Zuckerberg showed off dedicated “friends” feed in 2022 amid the company’s push to bring more recommendations to users’ “home” feeds. That feed, which surfaces posts from friends in reverse chronological order, is still available, though it’s somewhat buried in the app.

It’s not clear what else Meta has in store for other “OG” Facebook features that could play on nostalgia for the 21-year-old social network. (Facebook’s once infamous “poke” feature already had a brief resurgence last year.) But it’s apparently a priority for Zuckerberg.

“I actually think that there's this whole opportunity that I think is going to be pretty fun to to go after and build which is just to kind of go one-by-one and build up a a bunch of these things that used to be these joyful experiences that people had as part of Facebook that just kind of don't exist on the internet today,” Zuckerberg said in a podcast appearance promoting the change.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/mark-zuckerberg-decides-content-from-your-actual-friends-is-an-og-facebook-feature-180803853.html?src=rss

More than a decade after debuting on the iPhone in 2014, the Monument Valley series is making its way to Switch consoles. On Thursday, Nintendo announced Monument Valley and Monument Valley 2 would hit the eShop on April 15, with Monument Valley 3, the most recent entry in the series, arriving sometime this summer.  

This isn't the first time Monument Valley and Monument Valley 2 have been available outside of mobile devices. In 2022, series creator Ustwo Games released the two games on PC. The work the studio did then likely made the job of porting the games to Switch a lot easier; there was likely no need to rework the art assets for the console's widescreen display. Both games will come with all the additional chapters, add-ons and DLC Ustwo released over the years.  

For most people, this will probably be their first chance to play Monument Valley 3. Although the game has been available on mobile devices since the end of last year, it requires a Netflix subscription to access, and with the cost of the Standard plan increasing at the start of the year to $18 per month, it's understandable if you decided to skip it.   

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/nintendo/the-monument-valley-games-are-finally-coming-to-the-switch-171801177.html?src=rss

Light, the company behind a pair of minimalist handsets, just released the Light Phone III. This is the perfect device for those who are tired of modern smartphones, with their easy access to doomscrolling and their abundance of wonky AI tools. 

The Light Phone III features a sleek black-and-white OLED display, which is a new design element. The previous models included e-paper screens. The big draw, however, is not what this phone has but what it doesn’t have. There are no third-party apps. There’s no access to social media, the internet or even email. It’s intended to be, first and foremost, a phone.

It’s not completely bare. This model includes an embedded NFC chip for making payments, a bare-bones music player, a podcast player, a messaging app, a flashlight, voice notes, a calendar, a timer and an alarm. It also includes a simple camera system that was inspired by point-and-shoot models. There’s a two-step shutter button with center focus and a fixed focal length. The company calls it “genuinely fun.”

The Light Phone III has a navigation app, which is likely the most useful part of modern smartphones, but with a twist. The company paid for private access to navigational information, so Here (the mapping platform powering the app) has no visibility into where you go or what you search for.

Other specs include 6GB of RAM, up from 1GB in the Light Phone II, 128GB of memory and a newer Qualcomm chip. It includes a fingerprint ID on the power button, a USB-C port and some loudspeakers at the bottom. The battery is also user-replaceable, which is a huge bonus. It’s larger than previous generations and I find it to be pretty cute. It's around the width of a modern iPhone, but much shorter. This was on purpose, the company says, to make it easier to text while holding it vertically.

There is a spot of bad news here. The Light Phone III costs $799, which dwarves the price of the second-gen model (though it is far more capable of a device). That said, you can still put in an order at the pre-order price of $599 for now — we'll see how long that sticks around for.

Update, March 27 2025, 1:15PM ET: This story has been updated to note that the Light Phone navigation app uses Here, not Google for mapping. It also has been updated to note that the $599 pre-order price is still available for now. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/the-minimalist-light-phone-iii-is-officially-available-for-purchase-150056138.html?src=rss