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Roku’s first OLED TVs are up to $400 off, starting at $699

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Roku’s new OLED TVs are already marked down. | Image: The Verge Roku recently launched its first-ever OLED TVs. The $999 starting price was already impressive for the 55-inch Pro Series model that has a 120Hz refresh rate OLED panel (with four HDMI 2.1 ports and support for Dolby Vision and HDR 10 Plus). The price is even lower right now at Amazon when you enter the code ROKUOLED300 at checkout. It knocks a clean $300 off, as the code indicates, making this the most affordable modern 55-inch OLED you can get right now. If you’re more of a 65-inch TV kind of person, you’re in luck, as there’s a code that knocks $400 off that model to make it just $799 at checkout. Enter the code ROKUOLED400 to bring the $1,299 65-inch Pro Series down to $799. We haven’t had a chance to test either model, but they seem respectable if you want great picture quality without breaking the bank. Roku Pro Series OLED (2026) Where to Buy: $999.99 ...

Qualcomm’s new ‘Elite’ sound chip might finally deliver the Wi-Fi earbud dream

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What if your wireless earbuds - or audio glasses - could stream high-quality lossless audio that doesn't cut out when you leave your phone on the bedside charger or buried in the couch? Qualcomm's new Snapdragon Sound Elite Gen 2 is its first to integrate "micro-power Wi-Fi 6E" right into the chip, so they can connect directly to your home Wi-Fi network, and from there to the cloud. If that sounds like a familiar promise, it's probably because Qualcomm promised something similar back in 2023 with the "S7 Pro sound platform" and its Expanded Personal Area Network (XPAN) tech, saying that Wi-Fi earbuds can do what Bluetooth alone cannot. Name … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/QVhIU2B

Microsoft puts Brad Smith in charge of communications

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Microsoft vice chair and president Brad Smith. | Image: Getty Images Microsoft is moving its communications group out of marketing and into its Corporate, External, and Legal Affairs (CELA) organization. The surprise change will see Microsoft vice chair and president Brad Smith oversee communications, while the company searches for a replacement for Frank Shaw, chief communications officer, who is departing later this year. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella thanked Shaw "for everything he has done for Microsoft" in an internal memo announcing the communications changes. Shaw announced earlier this month that he's leaving Microsoft after nearly three decades supporting the company's communications. Brent Colburn, … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/f69rAYI

Gemini 3.8 Live with Live Avatar gives Google’s AI a face

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Google's new Gemini 3.8 Live update lets users have conversations with the model while watching an animated AI persona respond in real time. The "Live Avatar" will lip-sync and show different facial expressions during conversations, but it's currently only available to Gemini Enterprise customers. As noted by Google, Live Avatar can transition between the 97 languages it supports "without degrading video fidelity or introducing visual drift." One video shared by Google shows its Live Avatar talking in English and Japanese, with its mouth animation lining up with what it's saying in both languages. It can also pull up information on-screen w … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/Kwb5eQu

Sadly, this $1,549 RTX 5070-equipped gaming PC is a very good deal

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CyberPowerPC’s RTX 5070-equipped prebuilt. While PC component prices remain high, you can save a good bit of money on a system by purchasing a prebuilt desktop. Walmart has a well-equipped CyberPowerPC gaming PC on sale for $1,549, almost $600 off its original price of $2,139. It’s powered by an Intel Core i7-14700KF processor, and paired with 32GB of 6000MHz DDR5 memory and an Nvidia RTX 5070 Founders Edition with 12GB of VRAM. The case is a CyberPowerPC MA-O1 , an in-house design with extensive cooling options and three dedicated knobs for adjusting internal RGB lighting colors. CyberPowerPC (Core i7/RTX5070) Where to Buy: $2139.99 $1549 at Walmart While it might not feel like it at first blush, this is a solid value for a gaming PC that’s ready to rock out of the box. The RTX 5070 in this machine is likely to run you upwards of $800 by itself at the moment ( it launched in 2025 for $549 ), and 32GB of fast memory can be $400 or more. For just a...

Microsoft’s new Surface Mouse has haptic feedback and a customizable action button

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Microsoft is launching a second generation of its Surface Mouse next month that includes haptic feedback support. The Surface Mouse also has a customizable action button for the first time, which is primarily designed for quick access to Copilot ( of course ), but can be configured to work with other shortcuts from the Surface app. "Its haptic feedback adds a small, purposeful physical response to the moment you usually only see on a screen: a click registering, a window snapping into place or an object aligning just right," says Brett Ostrum , corporate vice president of Surface Devices. "It is subtle by design, but noticeable within seconds … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/64AXWKG

Data centers are black boxes, but California wants to change that 

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California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a slate of bills on Monday that could finally give communities better data - and more say - on how data centers impact their electricity bills and water supply. As data centers invade a growing number of communities across the US, they've triggered protests over how the infrastructure underpinning AI might stress power grids and local water systems. That's fueled partly by concerns about how difficult it is to see just how much electricity or water they're actually gobbling up. California's new disclosure rules won't offer a full picture, but starting next year, data center operators will have to start s … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/EbodHyt