It’s not over yet. If you haven’t grabbed something discounted in the Black Friday sales, don’t worry, because plenty of them have been rebadged for Cyber Monday — the most ’90s sounding day of the year. To celebrate, a petite edition of TMA.
We’ve collected the best of the bunch still available at time of writing. This year, there are plenty of deals on streaming services and other subscriptions; we think the Disney+ Hulu bundle ($60 for one year) is one of the stronger offerings, considering it typically costs $13 per month. That’s less than half price, if you can’t be bothered to do math in the early hours of Monday morning. Better still, the offer is available to new and existing subscribers.
Other recent discounts include 25 percent off the Pixel 10 Pro and 20 percent off Sonos’ top soundbar, the Arc Ultra.
Check out all the biggest deals on our Cyber Monday 2025 hub — and come back for our regularly scheduled TMA tomorrow.
Welcome back! I hope you had a great Thanksgiving. Meanwhile, we’re facing the annual torrent of Black Friday deals (and non-deals). I stand by $100 off the PS5 probably being the most intriguing discount this year, as it’s a rare one — and consoles have continued to get more expensive in the last few years.
There are other big discounts on more tech I personally bought (at full price, ugh), like Anker’s Laptop Power Bank, down from $135 to $88. I confess to giving a full show-and-tell performance when someone asks me about this giant battery pack, capable of charging laptops, Switch consoles and multiple phones. The best feature is the two built-in cables: one as a carrying strap, the other a retractable cable that is very satisfying to use. 25,000mAh is more than enough for multiple phone top-ups too.
Alongside small discounts on some Apple devices like the latest AirPods Pro, the iPad (A16) is down to $274. It’s the cheapest current-gen Apple tablet and more than enough for most. Sure, we wish the display were laminated and had some anti-glare coating, but a 21 percent discount? That mostly makes up for that.
Going on experience, most of the best deals have been announced by now, but a few surprises could pop up in the early hours of the morning. Keep an eye on our Black Friday 2025 deals page for the latest deals before they sell out.
Dyson’s Black Friday sale covers vacuums and related products, with a $600 discount on its 360 Vis Nav robot vacuum — the cheapest we’ve ever seen it. Stick vacs, what Dyson is best known for perhaps, are also discounted, with the Dyson V12 Detect Slim cordless vacuum down to $400 ($330 off) at Amazon and Dyson. (We loved the green laser beam feature for ensuring you’ve cleaned every inch of your floor.) The Dyson V9 Motorbar cordless vacuum is even cheaper at $270, more than half off.
When you have as many cameras as Sony, you can call something a flagship midrange.
Tech news is a little light, as most companies push their sales and stock-clearance offers. However, Sony appears to be ready to announce another addition to its Alpha camera lineup. The company shared an image on the Sony Alpha Instagram account with the text “Chase your dream” and the date December 2 at 9AM EST. The giant “V” is likely an unsubtle reference to a Sony A7 V, a follow-up to the Sony Alpha 7 IV. Rumors suggest the A7 V could feature a new 33MP “partially stacked sensor” designed by Sony. It might be able to capture 30 fps video in electronic shutter mode and 4K 60 fps video without cropping the sensor. That could make it more potent than Sony’s cinema cameras, like the FX2.
You may need to pay to stream from a friend’s server.
Some bad news for anyone who’s been using Plex to stream stuff from a buddy’s personal media server. The service is starting to enforce a paywall for remote streaming from an individual server to TV apps. Plex is rolling out the change on its Roku app this week, followed by its other TV apps (on the likes of Fire TV, Apple TV and Android TV) and third-party clients that use its remote streaming API in 2026.
The owner of a media server will need a Plex Pass subscription to grant other people remote access to it through the service. A Plex Pass now costs $7 per month, $70 per year or $250 for a lifetime membership. Yeah, it's the opposite of a deal.
Yes, it’s Tuesday, but the Black Friday sale bonanza continues to start earlier (wielded by even more retailers) each year. Our team was, is and will be curating the best Black Friday tech deals for this year’s retail push and with less than a week to go, plenty of the best offers are already live.
One surprise: PlayStation 5 discounts, with $100 off all the versions of the console . That brings the PS5 Digital Edition down to $399, the standard PS5 to $449 and the new PS5 Pro to $649.
In recent years, Black Friday sales have included even the most premium recent models, though the discounts are a little less remarkable. For example, the AirPods Pro 3 are currently on sale with a $29 discount on Amazon. Sadly, no discount for the iPhone Pocket.
Get the ad-supported plan for $3 per month for one year.
HBO Max has rolled out a limited-time one-year subscription for $3 per month, a total cost of $36 for a year. The deal’s Basic With Ads plan, which allows full HD streaming on two devices, costs $11 a month at full price.
The MasterClass Black Friday deal has up to 50 percent off subscriptions. Annual plans cost $120 to $240, so it’s a notable discount — and it works for returning users too.
Meanwhile, Audible is offering three months for $3, with access to Audible’s enormous library of published audiobooks, podcasts and Audible Originals. Sadly, it’ll then revert to the usual $15 a month.
Deactivating Facebook may lessen depression, anxiety and loneliness.
Meta allegedly suspended internal research into the mental health effects of its products after it showed that people who stopped using Facebook experienced less depression, anxiety and loneliness. This comes from unredacted court filings in a lawsuit filed by multiple US school districts against major social media companies. According to Reuters, the filings also showed internal research staff expressing the findings had merit. One compared the findings to the tobacco industry “doing research and knowing cigs were bad and then keeping that info to themselves.”
Yesterday, Malaysia announced it plans to ban social media for young people, like Denmark and Australia.
Dell’s 16 Premium looks as beautiful as ever, but the company’s usability issues from the XPS lineup remain. It’s kept the invisible trackpad, and the keyboard’s function keys disappear under sunlight. It’s gorgeous and fast, but as a premium device, we want more functionality, more battery life, more ports. Just… more.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/general/the-morning-after-the-best-early-black-friday-2025-deals-121500600.html?src=rss
Square Enix loves to remaster, remake and reheat its RPGs. The latest title to get the treatment is the critically acclaimed Final Fantasy spin-off, Final Fantasy Tactics.
Tactics has undergone its own remakes before, with War of the Lions bringing the game to the PlayStation Portable and, eventually, iOS and Android. However, now across all the major consoles, Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles is a different remake again – and even dismisses some of the characters and additions in War of the Lions. I never finished either version, and two things are apparent: I have missed out, and this is hard.
Originally released just a few months after Final Fantasy VII, which introduced polygon characters, FMV and more, Tactics’ sprite aesthetic seemed quaint in comparison. With compact isometric levels, turn-based battles are closer to Tactics Ogre and Disgaea than the lineup and strike battles of mainline Final Fantasy games of the time. The game was a critical hit, even if it didn’t match the popularity of Cloud et al.
Tactics is far less forgiving. Battle dynamics lean heavily on random number generation; your squad is often outnumbered, and you can easily be undone when resurrection spells and defensive magic fail to land. The first time my revival spell failed, I audibly swore at my Switch 2. But the taste of defeat? It’s usually seasoned just right. It’s gaming umami.
I wanted more, even at the notorious difficulty spike in a battle against knight-gone-wrong Wiegraf. In this fight, I faced him, a far more powerful fighter, solo, and proceeded to die roughly 20 times in a row. On standard difficulty, you rarely have to do this, but I had to craft a specialized version of the protagonist that could hit hard, heal himself, and generally just stay alive long enough for the second stage of this fight.
The Ivalice Chronicles can be played in two ways. The modern version features high-resolution sprites, backgrounds, and effects, while retaining the original’s isometric view, which can be rotated and tilted for the best view of the action. There’s an HD-2D nod with a thick depth of field blur to add a more modern feel.
If you want your Tactics pixelated, you can play the original version, although you can’t transition between the two, which seems like a missed opportunity. (You can toggle your saves across the versions in other RPGs with similar dual versions, like Dragon Quest XI S.)
More than the graphical downgrade, though, you’re missing out on polished voice acting, which not only elevates the diorama cutscenes and political intrigue but also peppers battles when you field main characters and they unleash certain job class attacks.
Talking of jobs, Tactics’ system remains the same, with base jobs like knight, white knight and freelancer giving way to dragoons, summoners and, much later, bizarre-but-powerful roles like arithmetician (the power of math!) and ninja.
The difficulty curve of Tactics is very much here. It was embarrassing how much I struggled to overcome spikes in difficulty, but then again, I never finished the original. (And, like a true hero, I refused to research broken job builds or easy grind spots.)
A crystalline attack hits an enemy in an isometric battle.
Square Enix
You can grind, raise levels of your characters, rake in money, and pick up crucial job points. But the wiser method is figuring a battle loop where your characters repeat actions. When the character attacks, heals, steals and generally does anything besides just moving or staying put, it earns Job Points. These are the most crucial parts of growing your squad, as abilities and passive skills can be ported between jobs; it’s how you can customize your entire party to demolish certain kinds of enemies. Lots of archers? A skill called archer’s bane means they’ll struggle to get a hit. Lots of slow-moving enemies in a tight space, rain hell with your summoner, but with an ability to regain MP as they move around.
At times, it still feels like a slog to repeat battles and garner enough JP for that skill you know will turn the tide of a challenging fight. Fortunately, a new battle speed toggle makes them a little less dull.
It's funny to feel nostalgic about a game I never played the first time around. But there’s something familiar and cosy to Final Fantasy Tactics. I’m surprised at the depth of what seems at first to be a pretty simple fighting system.
While the voice acting and additional quality-of-life upgrades are great, it’s a shame that Square Enix didn’t include extra jobs (and characters) introduced in other iterations, like the PSP version. Still, it's another great tactical RPG for the Nintendo Switch, increasingly the best place to play the genre. Fortunately, however, it's available across PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, and PC as well.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/final-fantasy-tactics-ivalice-chronicles-review-140000972.html?src=rss
Happy Friday! As the annual tech discount chaos of Black Friday approaches (good deal here and here and several more here), European policymakers have proposed easing some of the EU’s strictest regulations on artificial intelligence and data privacy. The move aims to remove roadblocks for tech companies and stimulate business growth in the region, potentially marking a major pivot away from the bloc’s reputation as the industry’s toughest regulator.
Changes would allow AI companies to access shared personal data to train their models, while also overhauling GDPR cookie rules. Instead of constant pop-ups, users could set preferences once in their browser and give consent with a single click. (OK, I’m onboard with that.)
Strict rules for “high-risk” AI applications, originally set for next summer, may be delayed until proper support tools are in place. Critics are warning this could be seen as Europe bowing to pressure from Big Tech and political shifts in the US. The proposal now heads to the European Parliament.
A company selling AI-enabled toys suspended sales after a consumer safety report found few restrictions on what its toys would say. The report, by the US Public Interest Research Group Education Fund, found FoloToy’s products would discuss everything from sexually explicit topics, like BDSM, to “advice on where a child can find matches or knives.” The toys all appear to use OpenAI’s GPT-4o model to respond naturally to children’s questions and comments. Missing from that setup was apparently hard limits on subjects the toys would respond to.
FoloToy has opted to suspend sales of its products while it conducts “a company-wide, end-to-end safety audit across all products.”
xAI appears to be nuking posts claiming its CEO is fitter than LeBron James.
xAI is once again nuking a bunch of posts from Grok on X after the chatbot made a series of outrageous claims. The company isn’t only cleaning up a bunch of pro-Hitler posts but also a bout of cringe-inducing sycophantic praise for its CEO, Elon Musk. Over the last couple of days, Grok began offering extremely over-the-top opinions about Musk. The bot claimed Musk is the “undisputed pinnacle of holistic fitness” and that he is fitter than LeBron James (hah!). It also said he is smarter than Einstein and would win a fight against Mike Tyson.
Musk is blaming “adversarial prompting” for Grok going off the rails. “Earlier today, Grok was unfortunately manipulated by adversarial prompting into saying absurdly positive things about me,” he wrote. He did not explain how straightforward questions could be considered “adversarial.”
Two years ago, Ooni attempted the indoor pizza-making party with the Volt 12. It had its flaws, but there were enough redeeming features (and interest) to warrant a follow up. The Volt 2 ($699) is a complete overhaul, with a slicker design, which is slightly smaller than the first generation. It’s also cheaper than the original. Read on for the full review.
The Chrono Divide project (via PC Gamer) lets you play the 2000 RTS Red Alert 2 in Chrome, Edge or Safari. It even works in mobile browsers. It supports cross-platform multiplayer using all the original maps. Red Alert 2’s single-player campaign modes are still a work in progress for now. The project’s website said: “The end-goal is reaching feature parity with the original vanilla Red Alert 2 engine.”
While unofficial videos from filming The Legend of Zelda hit the internet first, Nintendo also unveiled the first images of its live-action project. One photo shows Link and Zelda amid the hills of New Zealand — if you’ve got characters with Elven ears, you have to film in NZ.
As Engadget’s Nathan Ingraham notes, Zelda appears with a bow and quiver, so hopefully it’s a more modern spin than the damsel-in-distress original. I mean, the game is named for her. Filming has just started, so this is all we have until a proper trailer arrives.
DJI’s latest drone — and it’s hard to keep track — is the Neo 2. It’s a relatively inexpensive, lightweight model for creators and hobbyists, and it’s loaded with new features, like LiDAR obstacle detection, improved video quality, and longer battery life. Gesture control is a major new Neo 2 feature that isn’t on other DJI drones. Wave a hand up, down or sideways to climb and bank, move two hands apart or together to make it approach or move away, clench a fist to stop it and hold out your palm to land. Like a bird! Manual flight controls on your smartphone is another new feature not on other DJI drones. It’s also only slightly more expensive than its predecessor.
There have never been more remote workers in my life, so finding a sweet present to improve their nine-to-five has often been my approach. We’ve rounded up a few techy ideas that should make their days a little more delightful — and we didn’t even suggest noise-cancelling headphones. Because they probably already have them.
Meta and Google are facing delays with long-promised undersea cable projects, according to a report by Bloomberg. A Meta spokesperson blames the delays on a “range of operational factors, regulatory concerns and geopolitical risk.” Meta’s 2Africa subsea cable system is designed to give fiber internet to the African continent. It’s also intended to connect Europe with Asia and Africa. The Google-backed Blue-Raman intercontinental cable system in the region has also been delayed, following its initial announcement in 2021. The company has not provided an updated timeline.
Apple’s entry-level smartwatch has improved so much it delivers an experience comparable to pricier Apple Watches. The most important upgrades in the SE 3 are the always-on display, faster charging speeds and on-device Siri. This brings a lot of parity to other Apple Watch devices in the most crucial areas.
It doesn’t have everything: The SE 3’s optical sensor is older and lacks the capabilities of Series 10 and 11 smartwatches, which feature electrical heart rate sensors. You’ll still get notifications for irregular rhythms and low cardio fitness as well as high and low heart rate notifications. All of this for $259? (Or $200 if you’re quick.) It’s the most tempting first step into Apple’s wearable yet. It might be time for me to upgrade from my Series 8.
The Nintendo Switch 2 is the console launch of 2025, and it will undoubtedly be at the top of many wish lists for both kids and adults. If you were hoping to save a bit on the console during Black Friday, you may be disappointed. However, the marquee Nintendo deals for the holidays come as console bundles. When the Switch 2 launched earlier this year, it was available as just the console only for $449 or bundled with Mario Kart World for $499. Both options are still available, but there’s a new bundle to consider as well, the console with the new Pokémon Legends: Z-A game, which also costs $499.
The Nintendo eShop will have cyber deals on games November 20 through December 3. The shop will feature “holiday offers on select games,” but we don’t know which games they will be. Meanwhile, other retailers will have discounts on some physical Switch games, including Princess Peach: Showtime!, The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, Luigi’s Mansion 3 and Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Deluxe. Those will each be $40, while other games like Super Mario Odyssey, Nintendo Switch Sports, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door and Splatoon 3 will be $30.
Kojima Productions has a new collaboration for anyone who wishes to enhance their lower-body strength and stability — or simply prepare for cosplay in 2026. The studio has teamed up with exoskeleton maker Dnsys for a limited run of a model based on Death Stranding 2: On The Beach. It’s said to mimic the game’s load-balancing system by offloading up to 200 percent of the wearer’s body weight from their knees to help protect the joints. Dnsys said it adds 50 percent more power to steps and “intelligent gait control” to improve balance on stairs and uneven terrain.
According to a report from Android Headlines, Samsung may stick with its Plus models of Galaxy phone — and ditch the just-got-here Edge line. A leaker has given us a glimpse at the forthcoming S26+, and it looks similar to the company’s other smartphones. The small, raised camera island has been tweaked a bit, and the report suggests the S26+ will be 7.35mm thick, which is in line with the S25+. It also seems to be decidedly chunkier than the S25 Edge, so this is likely not a swap: The next Plus device won’t be the Edge.
Rockstar Games has announced Grand Theft Auto VI 's launch is being delayed once again to November 19, 2026. That’s roughly a year from now. It was previously delayed from its 2025 launch window to May 26, 2026. And now again.
If you have the feeling it’s been a while since the last GTA game, you’d be right. GTA V was originally released in 2013 and has been re-released multiple times since then. In fact, it’s a rare game that’s spanned PS3, PS4 and PS5.
Rockstar is likely self-assured that the game will do fine. Grand Theft Auto Online, a multiplayer mode for GTA V that can also be downloaded as a standalone game, remains a hit.
“We continue to supply content to GTA Online, and in fact we’ve had terrific results there. And GTA+ continues to grow its membership. In fact, it’s had 20 percent growth year-over-year. And GTA V has sold more than 220 million units,” said Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick in an interview with The Game Business.
The budget-friendly system is in early production.
Apple may debut a low-cost Mac laptop in the first half of 2026. According to a Bloomberg report, it’s in early production, and Apple is testing the devices internally. The idea may be to create a rival to cheap Chromebooks and Windows PCs, nudging folks into that money-spinning ecosystem. The company is said to be making the system with casual users, students and businesses in mind. (I’d guess many of those users are paying more for MacBooks with power they’ll never really tap into.)
The report suggests it’ll have a “lower-end LCD display,” and it’s expected to run on an A-series iPhone processor that would still, apparently, deliver better performance than the M1.
Everything you need to know about the Chinese company’s future in America.
DJI drones still face a potential US ban, due to national security concerns. It’s a combination of the company’s Chinese origins and laws compelling cooperation with state intelligence services. It’s also a very visible, notable drone maker — and flying robots understandably make folks nervous. After losing a recent lawsuit and an appeal, DJI is nearing a key December 23, 2025, deadline under the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which could trigger an automatic ban. A recent FCC vote and pending legislation could also block sales and even theoretically prevent people from using already-purchased drones by cutting off radio access.
DJI might have to hope a ban will create enough customer outcry to stimulate a political response in its favor.
Honda revealed its new hybrid car tech, and it’s lighter, faster and… actually fun. That’s accomplished by massive weight savings and a surprising S+ Shift mode, which simulates an eight-speed transmission for manual driving fans. We got a first look at the platform that will transform the next-gen Civic and Prelude, officially, hopefully marking the end of the slow, droning hybrid car.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/general/the-morning-after-gta-6-is-delayed-until-november-2026-121525547.html?src=rss
Elon Musk told Joe Rogan on his podcast he hopes to unveil a flying car “before the end of the year.” It was an interesting announcement to make, as Rogan also asked Musk about the long-delayed second-gen Tesla Roadster. Tesla unveiled a new Roadster in 2017 and had plans to start deliveries in 2020, but production was delayed several times.
Avoiding that conversation, the Tesla CEO suddenly started talking about wanting the vehicle to fly. After vague answers and musing, he eventually said: “My friend Peter Thiel once reflected that the future was supposed to have flying cars, but we don’t have flying cars.”
He claimed the vehicle Tesla is supposedly working on contains “crazy, crazy technology.” Musk said he wasn’t sure it’s technically a car but that “it looks like a car.”
Musk has been talking about flying cars since 2014. Given his optimistic take on development timelines, that’s a good 10 years of talk so far. Give it perhaps another 10?
Creator Mel Bouzad is suing Meta for over $115,000 on his and other creators’ behalf. He alleges that Meta’s broken AI and vague “monetization policy violations” led to the wrongful demonetization of high-earning pages and the withholding of tens of thousands of dollars in payments. Can multiple small claims court fights force Meta to provide human support and fix its system? Read the full story on the volatile world of viral content.
SpaceX could build up to 600 satellites for a new defense system.
SpaceX will reportedly receive a $2 billion contract to develop satellites for the US government, according to sources talking to The Wall Street Journal. SpaceX will reportedly be tasked with developing up to 600 satellites that can track missiles and aircraft and will be used for President Trump’s proposed Golden Dome project.
The president introduced the project earlier this year as an anti-missile defense system, designed to intercept missile attacks before they reach their target.
Apple surprised many by announcing an upgraded Vision Pro with its latest M5 chip. It’s still largely the same device. The revamped Apple Vision Pro is faster and more comfortable than the original, but its limited ecosystem still makes it better suited to developers than consumers.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/general/the-morning-after-musk-talks-flying-teslas-on-joe-rogans-show-120438841.html?src=rss
Microsoft’s latest earnings report for the quarter ending on September 30 revealed that revenue from the Xbox hardware fell 30 percent year over year.
Worse, in a way, this revenue decline doesn’t reflect any dip in sales caused by the console’s $20 to $70 price hike, since that took effect on October 3 — after this earnings report. (Oh, and Microsoft raised the price for its Game Pass Ultimate subscription from $20 to $30 in October.)
Fortunately, revenue from Xbox content and services, specifically, remained relatively unchanged from the same period last year. That’s the Game Pass component of Microsoft’s gaming business.
When Microsoft started cutting down its global workforce earlier this year, Xbox was hit hard, with the company canceling games, like a modern reimagining of Perfect Dark, and even shutting the Xbox studio working on it.
More broadly, Microsoft’s revenue is up, with CEO Satya Nadella posting a few highlights about the company’s earnings call on X, which mostly focused on AI. He said the company will increase its AI capacity by 80 percent this year.
Just in time for your Halloween nightmares, here comes Neo. From California-based AI and robotics company 1X, it’s designed to deal with everyday chores and tasks.
But not out of the box. At launch, it’ll be able to open doors, fetch items and turn lights on and off. More complicated tasks will require a human teleoperator to control the robot remotely, training the Neo to repeat the task. Horror movie premise? Tick.
1X CEO Bernt Børnich explained that the AI neural network inside the Neo has to learn from more real-world experiences. To do so, buyers will have to agree to a human operator seeing their houses through the robot’s camera, judging their cleanliness levels and interior decor decisions. (Probably.)
Three and a half years since season four of Stranger Things premiered, we get a true trailer for the fifth and final season. As Lawrence Bonk notes, it appears that the conclusion of the series will be an action-packed affair, heavy on emotion and light on the type of ’80s humor the show became known for. Poor Will, he’s getting some of the worst of it, again.
The highest-rated devices we reviewed this year in a variety of categories.
Halloween is almost over, so it’s time to assess the entire year, buy holiday presents and generally pretend there aren’t two whole months before the end of 2025. So we have compiled a list of the best gear we reviewed this year based on the highest review scores in each category. From Pixel to iPad and Switch 2 to Sony WH-1000XM6, our reviews team has spent thousands of hours testing new products this year to discover the best of the best. These are those! I ended up buying five of them — is that enough to keep my job?
If you’re a former Mint user (RIP), Monarch Money is a great alternative. Monarch has a steeper learning curve than some other budget trackers, but it offers a great deal of customization and granularity, which outweighs the complexity. If you use the code MONARCHVIP at checkout, you can get an annual plan for 50 percent off. Some caveats, though: The discount is only for new users, and you can’t combine it with other offers. The code only works when you sign up through the web.
