Gamescom Opening Night Live 2023: how to watch and what to expect

Geoff Keighley will host his fourth Gamescom Opening Night Live ceremony today, on August 22. This showcase — which serves as a stopgap of sorts between reveals atSummer Game FestandThe Game Awards— helps kick off a massive European gaming convention and tends to focus on significant news and updates for games that we already know about. Gamescom Opening Night Live returns in full form this year, with a 30-minute preshow and games likeAlan Wake 2, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III, Mortal Kombat 1,and more already confirmed for the event....

July 4, 2025 · 3 min · 440 words · Karen Juarez

Google Maps makes reviews more useful with hashtag support

Hardly a day seems to go by without Google rolling out yet another feature for its Maps app, some more useful than others. The latest one to land is hashtag support for reviews. That’s right, Google Maps has followed in the footsteps of your favorite social media apps by letting you add hashtags to reviews of local businesses, and enabling readers to tap on them to find out more about a particular topic....

July 4, 2025 · 2 min · 377 words · Lisa Fuller

Halo: Infinite isn’t a stunner, but it’s exactly what the Xbox Series X needs

Microsoft finally showed the first realHalo: Infinitegameplay during itsXbox Series X Games Showcaseon July 23, and the memes soon followed. Gamers eager to dish out the salt were quick to jump on the title for its shift in art direction and lack of obvious visual wow-factor. There are good reasons for the shift, however, and the decision not to prioritize visuals over gameplay will prove to be inHalo: Infinite’sfavor. This looks like true old-school Halo delivered on modern hardware....

July 4, 2025 · 4 min · 702 words · Joshua Lambert

Harvard looks to the natural world to make its snake robots even faster

Snake-inspired robots are a surprisingly active class of robotics, and researchers from Harvard’s John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have just found a way to make them even better. Aswe’ve written before, the lab is experimenting with soft robotic outer shells that are created using a Japanese paper craft called kirigami. This involves utilizing cuts to change the properties of a material. With nothing more than this deceptively simple method, the researchers have developed a way to create a new 3D outer shell that makes its snake robots move faster — by gripping the ground like a real snake....

July 4, 2025 · 2 min · 359 words · Kimberly Fisher

Here’s why 2024 is going to be a slow year for the Mac

We’ve finally made it into 2024, and if you’re of the Apple persuasion, it feels like there’s a huge amount to look forward to this year. Yet that’s not true for everything Apple makes — in fact, this could be an incredibly quiet 12 months for the Mac. I recently wrote about how 2024 is going to bepacked with major releases from Apple, yet among all the goodies that will be coming our way this year, there’s only one Mac announcement that I’d consider notable for fans of Apple’s computers....

July 4, 2025 · 5 min · 856 words · Caitlin Davis

How to download iPadOS 17 on your iPad

While we have yet to see any new iPads this year, Apple has just unleashediPadOS 17, a major update for its tablet operating system that promises to breathe new life into any recent iPad model you already own. Once you install iPadOS 17, you’ll be able to enjoythe iPhone’s lock screen featureson the larger screen, plus theinteractive widgetsthat also came to the iPhone inthis year’s iOS 17 update. In addition, iPadOS 17 boastssome nice improvements to Stage Manager, a new tablet-sized Health app, significantly improved PDF support in Notes, andeven a throwback wallpaper from the original iPad era....

July 4, 2025 · 5 min · 1010 words · Chris Lewis

How to play Fortnite with Xbox Cloud Gaming

Fortniteis one of the most successful games of all time, due in part to being available on a slew of platforms. It has a massive audience across PlayStation, Xbox, PC, and even Nintendo Switch. Recently,the gamebecame available on mobile devices via Xbox Cloud Gaming, allowing players to streamFortnitefor free via a browserin many regions. This essentially gives players access to the full version ofFortnitewithout having to download or install anything onto a device....

July 4, 2025 · 2 min · 377 words · Dennis Frye

How to upgrade weapons in Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown

How to upgrade weapons in Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown Upgrading your weaponry, including swords, bows, and amulets, is vital in Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown. Our guide provides the knowledge you need for these upgrades. Prince of Persia: The Lost Crownimmerses players in a world of danger and enigma, offering an array of challenges and hidden truths to uncover. Sargon’s quest weaves through time-bending locales, paying homage to the series’ heritage....

July 4, 2025 · 3 min · 442 words · Jessica Mckee

I can’t take my eyes off my email inbox. So I turned it into a to-do app

For years, I’ve hopelessly careened from one to-do app to another — leaving behind a trail of embarrassing, long, and unfinished to-do lists. I blamed this behavior on what I believed were imperfect services and I thought that eventually, I would find the one that I would stick to. I was wrong. The truth is, to-do apps are too intimidating for me. They are cluttered with all the tasks I am supposed to do and at the end of a day, they are a damning reflection of just how unproductive I have been — the last thing I want to be daily reminded of before bed....

July 4, 2025 · 5 min · 999 words · Christopher Hayes

I Started Playing The Sims 3 In 2024's Ruined The Sims 4 For Me

Summary The lowest-rated and most divisive mainlineSimsgame,The Sims 4, has been a constant thorn in the side of many a fan since it first released a decade ago in 2014, but it wasn’t until I picked up its predecessor,The Sims 3, that I truly understood the fandom’s many, many issues with the newer game. Now they’re my issues too. MySimsjourney began back in 2000 with the release of the originalThe Sims....

July 4, 2025 · 5 min · 1033 words · Jason Harrison

I switched to a 42-inch gaming monitor and — surprise — I love it

I switched to a nearly 42-inch gaming monitor, and I thought I would hate it. But it’s been close to a month, and the Asus ROG PG42UQ is still sitting on my desk. It’s a 41.5-inch OLED monitor, offering a juiced-up version of LG’s wildly popular C2 OLED, and it could mark a trend toward larger formats in thebest gaming monitors(especially as we stare down displayslike LG’s OLED Flex). Outside of OLED, there are now several 42-inch (-ish) monitors on the market, including Aorus’ FV43U and Acer’s Predator CG7....

July 4, 2025 · 6 min · 1222 words · Courtney Garcia

Insane Black Ops 6 movement already buffed before launch

Insane Black Ops 6 movement already buffed before launch Black Ops 6 beta’s first weekend was a huge success, with players loving its fast-paced gameplay, and Weekend 2 is building on that by making movement even quicker. Treyarch releasedpatch notesdetailing the changes for the beta’s second weekend, which included nerfs to theJackal PDWand a buff for theC9 SMG. However, the most impactful changes were the huge range of movement boosts given to the majority of the game’s guns....

July 4, 2025 · 2 min · 335 words · Brianna Rowe

iPhone 13 comes out on top in new SellCell value depreciation report

The smartphone reseller SellCell hasreleased a new reporttracking the value depreciation of the leading phone models on the market, which sees Apple’s iPhone 13 come out on top by a significant margin. SellCell’s report compares a range of models of the iPhone 13 (including the Mini, Pro, and Pro Max editions)to Google’s Pixel 6/ProandSamsung’s Galaxy S22, S22+, and S22 Ultra. Its methodology involved the analysis of sales data for each smartphone range, considering the typical trade-in value based on units in both “good” and “like-new” conditions....

July 4, 2025 · 3 min · 546 words · Amy Dorsey