Gadget Hacks: Page 26

Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition arrives natively on Mac through Steam on May 28, handled by specialist porting studio Feral Interactive, with an App Store release planned for later in 2026, Engadget reported today. Until now, the official support page listed the game as Windows-only and pointed Mac users toward Parallels as a workaround, per Age of Empires support documentation. That guidance is now obsolete.

Motorola's first book-style foldable goes on sale May 21 at $1,900 with 512GB of base storage. The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 has been on shelves since last July at $1,999.99 for 256GB at the entry tier, per CNET and the Samsung Newsroom. That $100 price gap and doubled base storage is the opening move in a clear attempt to undercut Samsung's most documented weaknesses in this category: battery capacity, charging speed, and out-of-box value.

The Fire TV Stick 4K Plus and 4K Max are the last Amazon streaming sticks that let you install apps from outside the official store. Starting with the Fire TV Stick 4K Select, all future Fire TV Sticks run Amazon Fire TV Vega OS, a Linux-based system built entirely in-house, and the shift comes with a smaller app library, no practical sideloading, and a platform engineered around Amazon's priorities rather than yours. AFTVnews confirmed two weeks ago that Amazon still describes Vega as the...

YouTube is rolling out picture-in-picture to free mobile users around the world, ending a long-standing gap that kept the floating video player locked behind a Premium subscription for users outside the United States. The catch: music content stays off-limits on the free tier, and that restriction applies even to paid subscribers on the cheaper Premium Lite plan.

Apple and TBWA\Media Arts Lab Shanghai this week launched a China-specific Apple Watch campaign built around accounts from three users whose watches triggered emergency responses during a car crash, a fall, and a cardiac event. The campaign, titled "Thankfully, I Was Wearing It" and live across digital and social channels since April 22, arrives two months after Apple said AFib History became available on Apple Watch in mainland China, adding a clinical monitoring tool to the emergency-response...

The Android Auto alarm dismiss issue still has no native in-car fix. When an alarm fires mid-drive, the head unit offers no dedicated dismiss button drivers are left choosing between a voice command and reaching for their phone. For a platform built around minimizing driver distraction, that gap is hard to overlook.

YouTube's most effective move against ad blockers isn't the warning banner millions of users have learned to dismiss. It's a mechanism embedded in the platform's own video delivery stack, one that makes ad-blocked playback feel sluggish and unreliable, without displaying any message explaining why. For casual users, it reads as a bad connection. The ambiguity is the point.

Artemis II Crew iPhone Videos: Why NASA's Camera Policy Matters

MacBook Pro Charger Accessory Compatibility Guide: A3607 Slot Changes

Xbox hardware revenue fell 25% in Microsoft's fiscal year 2025 on lower console sales volume, the second consecutive annual decline after a 13% drop the prior year, according to the Microsoft Annual Report 2025. Those figures, published last October, cover Microsoft's fiscal year ending June 2025. The back-to-back declines point to something more persistent than a single rough year, though whether that reflects a hardware cycle trough or a structural shift is a question the filings leave open....

Apple shipped Adaptive Temperature, its most ambitious Apple Home new features addition in years, back in September 2025. For months, it worked on exactly zero thermostats. The first compatible device only launched earlier this month. That gap between software ambition and hardware reality defines where Apple Home stands right now: genuinely improving, but only accessible if you own the right gear, most of which comes from a single manufacturer.

Uber has added hotel booking directly to its app, giving U.S. users access to more than 700,000 properties worldwide through a partnership with Expedia Group, paid via the Uber Wallet already on their phone, PhocusWire reports. The value is sharply tiered: Uber One subscribers get meaningful discounts and credit returns, while non-members are essentially browsing Expedia inventory through a different front door.

The iPhone 18 Pro vs iPhone Ultra decision is harder than any previous iPhone upgrade cycle. Not because both options are equally good, but because they're not really competing for the same buyer. For anyone currently on an iPhone 15 Pro or older and planning to spend $1,100 or more on a flagship this fall, that distinction matters more than any spec sheet comparison.

Samsung is shutting down its Samsung Notes OneNote sync feature after July 2026, the company confirmed through an in-app notice this week. Starting in August, notes written on Galaxy phones and tablets will no longer flow automatically into Microsoft OneNote. Galaxy users who relied on that connection to view their mobile notes on a Windows PC have about two months to decide what to do next.

The MacBook Pro is about to get its could see one of its most significant transformations in years, according to supply chain reports, and the timing couldn't be more intriguing. While Apple's laptop lineup has seen steady evolution with each generation, industry whispers suggest something much bigger is brewing behind the scenes in Cupertino. We're not talking about the usual spec bumps or minor design tweaks—this appears to be a fundamental reimagining of what a professional MacBook can be.

Picture this: you're scrolling through your phone, launching apps, switching between tasks, and everything just feels... snappier. The apps open a split second faster, transitions feel smoother, and your battery seems to last a bit longer. You might wonder if you imagined it, but there's actually something pretty clever happening behind the scenes.

You know what caught my eye recently? A purple Motorola Razr 2026 has surfaced, and honestly, it's about time we saw some personality in foldable phone colors. While Motorola just rolled out its reportedly showcased a book-style foldable concept at MWC 2026 with those traditional Pantone Blackened Blue and Pantone Lily White options, this purple variant signals something deeper than just design flair—it suggests Motorola has solved the fundamental engineering challenges and now feels confident...

You know that feeling when your 3DS lights up green after passing someone on the street? That little moment of discovery when you opened your system to find a new Mii waiting in StreetPass Mii Plaza made the simple act of carrying your Nintendo 3DS everywhere feel purposeful. StreetPass officially ended its run in April 2024, closing a chapter on one of Nintendo's most innovative social gaming experiments. But here's where things get interesting: developers are breathing new life into that...

Apple's gaming subscription service continues its steady march forward with an exciting April lineup that showcases the platform's evolving strategy. The tech giant recently revealed that six new titles will join Apple Arcade throughout the month, according to MacRumors, marking another significant content drop for the $6.99 monthly service. Apple's catalog expansion now encompasses over 200 games that remain completely free of advertisements and in-app purchases, as noted by Apple. This latest...

When Apple announced a $599 MacBook, it wasn't just tech enthusiasts who took notice—the entire PC industry collectively held its breath. Apple's MacBook Neo represents the company's cheapest laptop ever released, according to HotHardware, and it's sending shockwaves through boardrooms across Silicon Valley. The device runs on Apple's A18 Pro chip (the same A18 Pro chip used in Apple's iPhone 16 Pro lineup) paired with 8GB of RAM, as reported by HotHardware. Early reviews are painting a...