Plan, Learn & Present Faster with NotebookLM and Gemini 3 Together

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Plan, Learn & Present Faster with NotebookLM and Gemini 3 Together

What if you could take the chaos of scattered research, endless documents, and overwhelming data and turn it into something clear, actionable, and even inspiring? Grace Leung walks through how NotebookLM, Google’s innovative AI platform, is reshaping the way professionals approach productivity and creativity. Imagine uploading dozens of files, PDFs, spreadsheets, or overviews, and seeing […]

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How to cancel CyberGhost and get a refund

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I came out of my CyberGhost review with a positive opinion, feeling it had earned its spot in my best VPN roundup. However, even an expert review is subjective, and there's a chance CyberGhost will not work for you. If that’s the case, here's how to cancel your subscription.

Cancelling your CyberGhost subscription won't end it right away, unless you delete your account or get the refund (I'll explain how to do both of those later). Instead, the way to cancel CyberGhost is to stop your subscription from renewing at the end of each billing period. Once you've done that, you can keep using CyberGhost until your current period ends.

The following steps will cancel auto-renewal if you got CyberGhost through its website. If you bought it through an app store instead, see the next section.

  1. Open your browser and go to cyberghostvpn.com.

  2. At the top-right of the screen, click the box labeled My Account. Enter your username and password if you aren't logged in already.

  3. Look at the top-right corner of the new screen and click the CyberGhost logo next to your email address. From the drop-down menu, select Subscriptions.

  4. Find the subscription you want to cancel and select Cancel Subscription.

  5. When prompted, click Continue to Cancel.

Click the logo at top-right, then click Subscriptions to manage auto-renewal.
Click the logo at top-right, then click Subscriptions to manage auto-renewal.
Sam Chapman for Engadget

This will turn off automatic billing for your account. The next time you would have been billed, your subscription will expire. You can resubscribe by purchasing another term. If you're within the refund period — 14 days for a monthly subscription and 45 days for all others — you can now request your money back.

When you subscribe to an app through the Apple App Store or Google Play Store, the store handles the billing; the app provider doesn't process the money itself. If you bought CyberGhost through an app store and want to cancel, you'll have to ask the app store in question, not CyberGhost. Here's how to do it.

If you subscribed through the Apple App Store, you'll need to cancel through your Apple ID. Here are the steps.

  1. Open the Settings app on your home screen.

  2. At the top of the Settings menu, you'll see your name. Tap it.

  3. In your Apple Account menu, tap Subscriptions.

  4. Scroll until you find your CyberGhost subscription, then tap on it.

  5. Tap the words Cancel Subscription, then follow the prompts.

Here's what to do if you subscribed through the Google Play store. Similar to the Apple process, you'll go through the list of subscriptions on your profile.

  1. Open the Google Play Store app.

  2. Tap the circle in the top-right corner with the first letter of your name.

  3. Find the Payments & Subscriptions menu and tap on it. On the next menu that appears, tap Subscriptions.

  4. Scroll down until you find your CyberGhost subscription. Tap on it, then click Cancel Subscription.

  5. Follow the prompts to complete cancellation.

Before you set out to delete your CyberGhost account altogether, make sure you've cancelled auto-renew first by following the steps in the previous section. If you don't, you might still be charged for the subscription you're not using, and it's a huge hassle to end that without an account.

Once you've done that, log into your account on cyberghostvpn.com and click on your account profile at the top-right, just like when you canceled auto-renewal. Below the username/password window and the message about an activation key, you'll see the words Delete My Account in tiny letters.

How to find the button that deletes your CyberGhost account.
How to find the button that deletes your CyberGhost account.
Sam Chapman for Engadget

Click on them. On the page that appears, select Delete My Account again. Follow any more prompts you're given to annihilate your username for good (note that you can't use it again afterwards).

To get a refund on your CyberGhost subscription, you have to be inside the window for the plan you chose. With a monthly plan, the refund period is 14 days. For all other plans, it's 45 days. If this time has elapsed, there's unfortunately no way to get your money back.

If you are within the refund period, you can get your money by sending a request through customer support. You can email support@cyberghost.ro, submit a ticket through this link or open a live chat conversation by clicking the Live Chat button at the bottom-right of any page on cyberghostvpn.com. No matter what method you choose, the conversation will go faster if you have your order number on-hand — check your inbox if you don't know it.

Start a live chat conversation by clicking the live chat button at the bottom-right of any screen on CyberGhost's website.
Start a live chat conversation by clicking the live chat button at the bottom-right of any screen on CyberGhost's website.
Sam Chapman for Engadget

If you went through an app store, you'll need to request your money back from that platform instead. Apple and Google Play handle their own monetary transactions, which means they also process refunds.

After you've cancelled and/or deleted CyberGhost out of your life, you still need a VPN; the benefits of masking your IP address and changing your virtual location don't go anywhere. You can check out my best list (linked at the top) or best free VPN roundup for ideas, or check out the review for my favorite service, Proton VPN.

Proton VPN is my top choice because of its focus on user freedoms and attention to quality in everything it does. If you're willing to pay a bit more for extreme simplicity and total reliability, ExpressVPN is ideal for beginners. If you're a speed demon and just want to keep your downloads fast, go with Surfshark.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cybersecurity/vpn/how-to-cancel-cyberghost-and-get-a-refund-130000311.html?src=rss

An Artist Carved His Dead Oak Into Records That Play Bird Songs

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One thing that the world has been learning the past few years is that people deal with grief differently. That’s why we can never judge how people react to death of loved ones, beloved pets, other living creatures, and even life changes. Artists and creative people in particular sometimes have profound ways of honoring whatever it is that they have lost.

When a 65-year-old oak tree in Steve Parker’s front yard died from a fungal disease called oak wilt, he wanted to create a tribute to this tree that served as a refuge for migratory birds in their area. What he created was a sound sculpture, a record player that could play actual discs with bird songs, a fitting honor to the life and legacy of the tree.

Designer: Steve Parker

Parker cut the trunk of the diseased tree into “wood cookies” or cross-sectional slices. He then carved grooves directly into the discs to create playable records. He then built a victrola or record player that is specifically designed to play the wooden records. This player is placed on a pedestal and the round tree slices are displayed on the walls behind it.

What plays on the wooden records is equally special. He etched the songs of migratory birds that once nested in the oak tree. You hear a scratchy, wooden sound which actually reminds you of that branch that would hit the side of an old farm house, which can be nostalgic or creepy depending on your experience of it.

Creating these wooden records wasn’t easy. Live oak is notoriously difficult to work with because it cracks as it dries, and many woodworkers avoid it entirely. But Parker saw those imperfections as part of the piece’s authenticity. Those cracks and warps in the sound aren’t flaws, they’re features that honor the tree’s natural character even in death.

But the wooden records are only part of “Funeral for a Tree.” Parker also created a companion sculpture called “Sheng Shrine”: a plant-like, valve-driven instrument built from salvaged brass valves from euphoniums and trumpets, copper tubing, and breathing bags. What makes this piece particularly moving is what animates it: CPAP machines and ventilators, the same medical equipment used to help people breathe when they’re ill.

These breathing machines give life to discarded Chinese shengs (mouth organs). The sheng is traditionally associated with the phoenix, and the word itself means life, voice, and sound in Mandarin. Parker collaborated with sheng virtuoso Jipo Yang, who interpreted the bird calls and performed short compositions around them. The sounds you hear include the clicks of tiny relays, the grunts of air pumps that almost sound like snores, and the wheezing as air pushes through the reeds. It’s mechanical yet deeply emotional.

There’s another layer to this work that makes it even more poignant. Parker realized that his grief for the tree echoed the loss of his father to cancer. Both were slow, inevitable declines where care could not prevent loss. When his father was really sick, Parker’s family monitored his breathing to assess his comfort and sense where his body was going. Those CPAP machines and ventilators in “Sheng Shrine” carry those memories. They’re devices associated with life support, transformed into instruments that give breath to dead instruments playing songs for a dead tree.

What makes “Funeral for a Tree” so powerful is that it’s not Steve Parker performing a requiem for the tree. It’s the tree performing its own memorial service. The wood itself becomes the instrument, the bird songs it once sheltered become the music, and the breath that once rustled through its leaves is replaced by mechanical breathing that keeps the dirge alive.

In transforming something most people would haul away as waste into a functioning musical instrument, Parker reminds us that grief doesn’t have to be silent or passive. Sometimes the most profound way to honor a loss is to let it speak for itself, to give it voice and breath and let it tell its own story. In doing so, he’s created something that transcends the personal: a meditation on memory, loss, and the ways we try to hold onto what’s gone.

The post An Artist Carved His Dead Oak Into Records That Play Bird Songs first appeared on Yanko Design.

Papers Please but with zombies, a farming-based shoot-’em-up and other new indie games worth checking out

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Welcome to our latest roundup of what's going on in the indie game space. Several neat-looking games arrived this week, we got release dates for several others that I'm really looking forward to and a brand-new Steam festival was announced. 

The Love, Romance, and Heartbreak Debutante Ball is said to be the first Valentine's Day-themed Steam festival. It'll run from February 13 to 20 and feature more than 100 games, including discounts and demos. A showcase will take place on February 13 at 1PM ET on the Sunny Demeanor Games YouTube channel too.

Organizers say the festival includes a wide variety of games about love, including RPGs, puzzle games and (naturally) visual novels. You might play as a cat or someone trying to fish an engagement ring out of a claw machine, as a secret agent or a couple that's run off to another planet. I'm intrigued! There will be some NSFW games involved, for what it's worth.

Quarantine Zone: The Last Check seems like a 3D version of Papers Please but with zombies. At a checkpoint amid a zombie outbreak, your mission is to screen survivors for signs of infection. If you're unsure of their status, you can send an individual to quarantine for further observation or a lab for additional screening. Otherwise, you can let them in or send them to "liquidation." Get things wrong and it could spell disaster, but at least you have a sidearm (and a weaponized drone) to help you deal with sticky situations.

It looks like there's a lot going on in Quarantine Zone: The Last Check, which is from Brigada Games and publisher Devolver Digital. There are base and resource management aspects as well. It's out now on Steam (usually $20, but there's a 10 percent discount until January 26) and PC Game Pass.

Air Hares seems to draw inspiration from classic top-down shoot-'em-ups. But instead of simply blowing up countless ships, your mission is to restore farmland. You'll fire seeds and water to turn barren land into fertile carrot fields. There are still enemies to contend with — you (and perhaps a co-op partner) can dodge and ram them as you try to protect the land. Expect boss battles, too.

I really like the aesthetic here. It has a '90s-style cartoon look (I suddenly really want a modern Bucky O'Hare game). Also, the song from the trailer is going to live in my head for weeks.

Husband-and-wife team Tim and Megan Bungeroth created Air Hares over six years with the help of several contributors. According to a press release, the game is "inspired by the creators’ personal journey with infertility and the idea of creating life rather than destroying it." 

Air Hares is out now on Steam. It typically costs $9, but there's a 20 percent discount until January 28.

Luckshot Games' Big Hops looks like my kind of 3D platformer: joyous and playful. As a young frog who has been kidnapped, you'll try to find airship parts for a raccoon who has promised to help get you home.

There are tons of movement mechanics here, and Hop's tongue plays a major role in those. You can use it to swing across gaps, hookshot your way to higher platforms and solve puzzles. 

Big Hops is out now on Steam, Nintendo Switch and PS5 for $20. The Switch and Steam versions have a 10 percent launch discount until January 19.

Cassette Boy is a pixel-art game that might appear to be a 2D exploration puzzler, but there's more going on here. You can rotate the world to discover new secrets and hide enemies and hazards from view so you can move past them. If you can't see something on your screen, it doesn't exist. There's a bit of a Fez influence here, it would appear.

Wonderland Kazakiri and publisher Pocketpair are behind this one, which I'm looking forward to checking out when I have a chance. Cassette Boy is available on Steam, Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S for $13.

I really enjoyed the demo for Aerial_Knight’s DropShot (as well as Aerial_Knight’s previous games). I'm for sure going to be playing the full game when it hits PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Steam and Epic Games Store on February 17.

This is a single-player first-person shooter in which you're skydiving with finger guns. You compete with four enemies to grab the only available parachute as you're falling through the air. Rounds are fast-paced too, generally lasting under a minute.

Point-and-click adventure Earth Must Die has been on my radar for a while and we'll all get a chance to try it soon. It's designed to be a playable cartoon (with a runtime of about eight hours) and it has an art style to match. 

The cast is pretty stellar, with Ben Starr (Final Fantasy XVI, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Hades II), Joel Fry (Our Flag Means Death) and a whole load of British comedy figures on board. There's a demo available on Steam now and the full game — from Size Five Games and publisher No More Robots — will land on January 27.

Let's wrap things up for this week something very silly-looking from Monster Shop Games. Pie in the Sky is a Tony Hawk's Pro Skater-inspired action arcade game in which you play as a magpie that terrorizes bystanders. You can knock people off the Sydney Harbour Bridge, ram kids off of scooters, actually go skateboarding and, uh, cause havoc from above. In classic THPS-style, there are hidden areas too. 

This looks like a fun distraction from [gestures at everything]. Pie is the Sky will swoop onto Steam on February 2.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/papers-please-but-with-zombies-a-farming-based-shoot-em-up-and-other-new-indie-games-worth-checking-out-123000437.html?src=rss

Everything You Need to Know About the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra

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Everything You Need to Know About the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra

The Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra, set to debut on February 25, 2024, at the Samsung Unpacked event in San Francisco, represents a significant evolution in Samsung’s flagship smartphone lineup. By combining refined design elements, innovative hardware, and thoughtful software enhancements, the Galaxy S26 Ultra aims to deliver a device that balances innovation with everyday usability. […]

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ChatGPT Go Goes Worldwide, with GPT-5.2 Instant, Clear Ad Labels, and Extended Memory

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ChatGPT Go Goes Worldwide, with GPT-5.2 Instant, Clear Ad Labels, and Extended Memory

What if accessing innovative AI didn’t have to break the bank? In a bold move to make advanced artificial intelligence more accessible, OpenAI has officially launched ChatGPT Go worldwide, and it’s already making waves. As highlighted by the host in a recent YouTube breakdown, this new subscription tier is priced at just $8 per month […]

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Apple’s January Surprise: M5 Pro & M5 Max MacBook Pros Rumored for Jan 28 Launch

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Apple’s January Surprise: M5 Pro & M5 Max MacBook Pros Rumored for Jan 28 Launch

Apple is reportedly preparing to launch the M5 Pro and M5 Max MacBook Pros in late January 2026, possibly on the 28th of January. This announcement follows the quiet release of the base M5 MacBook Pro in October 2025. The upcoming models are expected to introduce a modular chip design, allowing users to customize configurations […]

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Plan, Code, and Review in Parallel with Agents in Claude Code

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Plan, Code, and Review in Parallel with Agents in Claude Code

What if you could manage complex projects with the precision of a symphony conductor, delegating tasks seamlessly while keeping the big picture in focus? Leon van Zyl walks through how Claude Code’s sub-agents are transforming workflows by breaking down intricate tasks into manageable, specialized components. Imagine assigning coding to one agent, design to another, and […]

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The Magic of the Samsung Galaxy Z 5G Roll Revealed

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The Magic of the Samsung Galaxy Z 5G Roll Revealed

Samsung is reportedly developing a new innovation in smartphone technology: the Galaxy Z Roll 5G. Expected to launch in 2026, this rollable smartphone could transform how you interact with mobile devices. Featuring advanced rollable display technology, high-performance hardware, and a sleek titanium design, the Galaxy Z Roll aims to set a new benchmark in the […]

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Can Deep Ocean Underwater Membrane Filtration Provide Limitless Fresh Water

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Can Deep Ocean Underwater Membrane Filtration Provide Limitless Fresh Water

What if the key to solving the world’s growing water crisis lies not on land but deep beneath the ocean’s surface? With millions of people lacking access to clean water and traditional desalination methods facing criticism for their high energy use and environmental harm, the search for sustainable solutions has never been more urgent. Two […]

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