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Early Black Friday deals include up to $425 off Roomba robot vacuums

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If you want your home cleaned by a robot that leaves you as little work as possible, Wellbots has a deal for you. The iRobot Roomba Combo 10 Max Robot + AutoWash Dock has an unwieldy name but a robust feature set. The do-it-all cleaning machine vacuums, mops, self-empties dirt, refills its mopping solution and washes and dries its mopping pad. You can take $425 off the robovac with coupon code ENGBF425.

Unveiled this summer, the (deep breath) Roomba Combo 10 Max Robot + AutoWash Dock is iRobot’s most advanced (and expensive) robot vacuum to date. Although its $1,399 MSRP prices it out of most homes, this deal makes it more reasonable for folks who don’t mind splurging for a cutting-edge cleaner that lets you spend your time doing something fun.

Its dock can hold dirt and debris for up to 60 days, and its mopping pad and self-cleaning tank store water for up to seven. It seamlessly transitions from vacuuming to mopping, automatically retreating its mopping system and turbo-charging its suction on carpets.

On hard floors, it can vacuum and mop simultaneously. In addition to its other sensors, the Roomba has a camera to locate dirt — and it can spot the dirtiest areas up to eight times more frequently than other models.

The robot can map your home (like many of today’s models), but iRobot says it does so seven times faster while automatically labeling room types. Its software uses past cleaning data to predict each room’s cleanliness, adjusting its suction accordingly.

Use Engadget’s exclusive code ENGBF425 to lower that price to a more manageable $974.

A robot vacuum on a rug with a dog on its belly in the background. Overlaid is a smartphone outline, showing the home map.
iRobot

You can also save at Wellbots on the Roomba J9+. The vacuum-only model has a three-stage cleaning system, multi-surface rubber brushes and high-end suction power. (And it looks pretty dang stylish!) Usually $899, our code ENGBF325 brings it down to $574.

For a more affordable vacuum / mop system, the Roomba Combo j7+ gives you a rock-solid wet-dry cleaner without all the cutting-edge bells and whistles in the highest-end model. This model has a 96.4 percent debris removal rating, obstacle avoidance and a four-stage cleaning system. Included are an edge-sweeping brush, dual multi-surface rubber brushes and power-lifting suction. It can empty its contents without intervention for up to 60 days. Usually retailing for a daunting $999, this model is on sale for $675 with coupon code ENGBF325.

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/early-black-friday-deals-include-up-to-425-off-roomba-robot-vacuums-140100100.html?src=rss

Early Black Friday deals include up to $425 off Roomba robot vacuums

Posted on by

If you want your home cleaned by a robot that leaves you as little work as possible, Wellbots has a deal for you. The iRobot Roomba Combo 10 Max Robot + AutoWash Dock has an unwieldy name but a robust feature set. The do-it-all cleaning machine vacuums, mops, self-empties dirt, refills its mopping solution and washes and dries its mopping pad. You can take $425 off the robovac with coupon code ENGBF425.

Unveiled this summer, the (deep breath) Roomba Combo 10 Max Robot + AutoWash Dock is iRobot’s most advanced (and expensive) robot vacuum to date. Although its $1,399 MSRP prices it out of most homes, this deal makes it more reasonable for folks who don’t mind splurging for a cutting-edge cleaner that lets you spend your time doing something fun.

Its dock can hold dirt and debris for up to 60 days, and its mopping pad and self-cleaning tank store water for up to seven. It seamlessly transitions from vacuuming to mopping, automatically retreating its mopping system and turbo-charging its suction on carpets.

On hard floors, it can vacuum and mop simultaneously. In addition to its other sensors, the Roomba has a camera to locate dirt — and it can spot the dirtiest areas up to eight times more frequently than other models.

The robot can map your home (like many of today’s models), but iRobot says it does so seven times faster while automatically labeling room types. Its software uses past cleaning data to predict each room’s cleanliness, adjusting its suction accordingly.

Use Engadget’s exclusive code ENGBF425 to lower that price to a more manageable $974.

A robot vacuum on a rug with a dog on its belly in the background. Overlaid is a smartphone outline, showing the home map.
iRobot

You can also save at Wellbots on the Roomba J9+. The vacuum-only model has a three-stage cleaning system, multi-surface rubber brushes and high-end suction power. (And it looks pretty dang stylish!) Usually $899, our code ENGBF325 brings it down to $574.

For a more affordable vacuum / mop system, the Roomba Combo j7+ gives you a rock-solid wet-dry cleaner without all the cutting-edge bells and whistles in the highest-end model. This model has a 96.4 percent debris removal rating, obstacle avoidance and a four-stage cleaning system. Included are an edge-sweeping brush, dual multi-surface rubber brushes and power-lifting suction. It can empty its contents without intervention for up to 60 days. Usually retailing for a daunting $999, this model is on sale for $675 with coupon code ENGBF325.

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/early-black-friday-deals-include-up-to-425-off-roomba-robot-vacuums-140100100.html?src=rss

Sony has sold 65 million PS5s

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Just after launching the PlayStation 5 Pro, Sony revealed that it has sold 65.5 million PlayStation 5s as of the end of Q2 2024. While sales of the console dropped 1.1 million units from the same period last year (and are down 2 million units total in 2024), this was more than offset by game sales of 77.7 million units, up 14.9 percent from Q2 2023. Sony's monthly active PlayStation Network users remained at 116 million despite a big price bump late last year.

The net result? Revenue climbed by 9 percent and operating profit rose by a stellar 73 percent to 445.1 billion yen ($2.91 billion). Given those profits and the fact that the company has a new, more expensive (and probably more profitable) console ready for Christmas, Sony was bullish on the rest of its year, boosting its revenue forecast slightly.

A big part of Sony's game sales story is the success of the action RPG Black Myth: Wukong, which reportedly sold 20 million units in Q2 (including the PC version). Another high performer was the first party Astro Bot title, showing the power of hit games to sway sales. 

Sony still has two quarters left in its fiscal year, which ends March 31. Upcoming first party titles expected prior to that include Assassin's Creed Shadow and Monster Hunter Wilds, both set for February 2025. However, Sony's fiscal 2025 starting in April could be a blockbuster with highly anticipated games like Ghost of Yotei, Death Stranding 2, DOOM: The Dark Ages and Grand Theft Auto VI arriving later next year. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/playstation/sony-has-sold-65-million-ps5s-140019860.html?src=rss

Sony has sold 65 million PS5s

Posted on by

Just after launching the PlayStation 5 Pro, Sony revealed that it has sold 65.5 million PlayStation 5s as of the end of Q2 2024. While sales of the console dropped 1.1 million units from the same period last year (and are down 2 million units total in 2024), this was more than offset by game sales of 77.7 million units, up 14.9 percent from Q2 2023. Sony's monthly active PlayStation Network users remained at 116 million despite a big price bump late last year.

The net result? Revenue climbed by 9 percent and operating profit rose by a stellar 73 percent to 445.1 billion yen ($2.91 billion). Given those profits and the fact that the company has a new, more expensive (and probably more profitable) console ready for Christmas, Sony was bullish on the rest of its year, boosting its revenue forecast slightly.

A big part of Sony's game sales story is the success of the action RPG Black Myth: Wukong, which reportedly sold 20 million units in Q2 (including the PC version). Another high performer was the first party Astro Bot title, showing the power of hit games to sway sales. 

Sony still has two quarters left in its fiscal year, which ends March 31. Upcoming first party titles expected prior to that include Assassin's Creed Shadow and Monster Hunter Wilds, both set for February 2025. However, Sony's fiscal 2025 starting in April could be a blockbuster with highly anticipated games like Ghost of Yotei, Death Stranding 2, DOOM: The Dark Ages and Grand Theft Auto VI arriving later next year. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/playstation/sony-has-sold-65-million-ps5s-140019860.html?src=rss

Researcher’s ‘unfollow everything’ lawsuit against Meta gets dismissed

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A lawsuit from a researcher who tried to develop a browser extension for Facebook called “Unfollow Everything 2.0" has been dismissed for now, The New York Times reported. Ethan Zuckerman from the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University attempted to use the Section 230 tech shield law in a novel way to force Meta to allow him to develop the tool that would wipe a Facebook user's feed clean. 

For background, Zuckerman was inspired by a 2021 project called "Unfollow Everything" that would have allowed people to use Facebook without the News Feed, or curate it to only show posts from specific people. However, Facebook sued the UK man who created that extension and permanently disabled his account. 

To avoid a similar fate, Zuckerman turned to Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act. While that's mostly designed as a shield to protect tech platforms from illegal user activity, there's a separate clause protecting developers of third-party tools "that allow people to... block content they consider objectionable." He asked the court to recognize that clause and allow him to create the Unfollow Everything 2.0 browser extension without repercussions from Meta.

However, the court granted Meta's filing to dismiss the lawsuit, adding that the researcher could file it at a later date. "We’re disappointed the court believes Professor Zuckerman needs to code the tool before the court resolves the case," Zuckerman's lawyer said. "We continue to believe that Section 230 protects user-empowering tools, and look forward to the court considering that argument at a later time." A Meta spokesperson said the lawsuit was "baseless." 

Meta has shut down researchers before, disabling the Facebook accounts of an NYU team trying to study political ad targeting in 2021. Conversely, in 2022 Meta helped itself to 48 million science papers to train an AI system called Galactica, which was shut down after just two days for spewing misinformation. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/researchers-unfollow-everything-lawsuit-against-meta-gets-dismissed-133051131.html?src=rss

Researcher’s ‘unfollow everything’ lawsuit against Meta gets dismissed

Posted on by

A lawsuit from a researcher who tried to develop a browser extension for Facebook called “Unfollow Everything 2.0" has been dismissed for now, The New York Times reported. Ethan Zuckerman from the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University attempted to use the Section 230 tech shield law in a novel way to force Meta to allow him to develop the tool that would wipe a Facebook user's feed clean. 

For background, Zuckerman was inspired by a 2021 project called "Unfollow Everything" that would have allowed people to use Facebook without the News Feed, or curate it to only show posts from specific people. However, Facebook sued the UK man who created that extension and permanently disabled his account. 

To avoid a similar fate, Zuckerman turned to Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act. While that's mostly designed as a shield to protect tech platforms from illegal user activity, there's a separate clause protecting developers of third-party tools "that allow people to... block content they consider objectionable." He asked the court to recognize that clause and allow him to create the Unfollow Everything 2.0 browser extension without repercussions from Meta.

However, the court granted Meta's filing to dismiss the lawsuit, adding that the researcher could file it at a later date. "We’re disappointed the court believes Professor Zuckerman needs to code the tool before the court resolves the case," Zuckerman's lawyer said. "We continue to believe that Section 230 protects user-empowering tools, and look forward to the court considering that argument at a later time." A Meta spokesperson said the lawsuit was "baseless." 

Meta has shut down researchers before, disabling the Facebook accounts of an NYU team trying to study political ad targeting in 2021. Conversely, in 2022 Meta helped itself to 48 million science papers to train an AI system called Galactica, which was shut down after just two days for spewing misinformation. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/researchers-unfollow-everything-lawsuit-against-meta-gets-dismissed-133051131.html?src=rss

OpenAI wins first round against Raw Story and AlterNet copyright case

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OpenAI is facing multiple lawsuits over its use of several publications' and books' content to train its large language models without explicit permission or proper compensation. A judge has just dismissed one of them. New York federal judge Colleen McMahon has dismissed the lawsuit filed by Raw Story and AlterNet, which accused the company of using their materials for AI training without consent. As VentureBeat notes, though, their complaint didn't argue that OpenAI infringed on their copyright like other publications' lawsuits do. Instead, it focused on the DMCA provision that protects "copyright management information."

The publications argued that OpenAI removed the author names, titles and other metadata identifying their copyright from the articles it used to train its LLMs. McMahon explained that the plaintiffs failed to show that they suffered "a cognizable injury" from those actions and that the harm they had cited was "not the type of harm that has been elevated" to warrant a lawsuit. The judge also said that "the likelihood that ChatGPT would output plagiarized content from one of [their] articles seems remote." She added that the plaintiffs are truly seeking redress for the use of their articles "to develop ChatGPT without compensation" and not for the removal of their copyright management information. 

Raw Story and AlterNet don't intend to back down, based on what their lawyer told Reuters. Matt Topic, their attorney, said they're "certain [they] can address the concerns the court identified through an amended complaint."

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/openai-wins-first-round-against-raw-story-and-alternet-copyright-case-130027681.html?src=rss

OpenAI wins first round against Raw Story and AlterNet copyright case

Posted on by

OpenAI is facing multiple lawsuits over its use of several publications' and books' content to train its large language models without explicit permission or proper compensation. A judge has just dismissed one of them. New York federal judge Colleen McMahon has dismissed the lawsuit filed by Raw Story and AlterNet, which accused the company of using their materials for AI training without consent. As VentureBeat notes, though, their complaint didn't argue that OpenAI infringed on their copyright like other publications' lawsuits do. Instead, it focused on the DMCA provision that protects "copyright management information."

The publications argued that OpenAI removed the author names, titles and other metadata identifying their copyright from the articles it used to train its LLMs. McMahon explained that the plaintiffs failed to show that they suffered "a cognizable injury" from those actions and that the harm they had cited was "not the type of harm that has been elevated" to warrant a lawsuit. The judge also said that "the likelihood that ChatGPT would output plagiarized content from one of [their] articles seems remote." She added that the plaintiffs are truly seeking redress for the use of their articles "to develop ChatGPT without compensation" and not for the removal of their copyright management information. 

Raw Story and AlterNet don't intend to back down, based on what their lawyer told Reuters. Matt Topic, their attorney, said they're "certain [they] can address the concerns the court identified through an amended complaint."

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/openai-wins-first-round-against-raw-story-and-alternet-copyright-case-130027681.html?src=rss

The Morning After: Our verdict on Apple’s M4 Mac mini

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Apple’s even tinier Mac mini is here — with M4 power. It’s also more affordable than ever and better value. It won’t shock you to hear the M4 Pro is very fast, but the Mac mini comes with 16 gigs of RAM as standard too.

TMA
Engadget

The base Mac mini has an M4 chip sports a 10-core CPU (four high-performance cores and six high efficiency), a 10-core GPU and a 16-core Neural Engine. For $1,399, you can bump up to the dramatically more powerful M4 Pro chip (like our review unit), featuring a 14-core CPU (10 high-performance and four high efficiency) and 20-core GPU. (But that’s a pricey upgrade.)

Its Geekbench 6 and Cinebench scores still beat most of the computers we’ve tested this year, and its GPU is fast enough for solid 1080p 60 fps gameplay. And it’s that small!

— Mat Smith

The biggest tech stories you missed

Get this delivered daily direct to your inbox. Subscribe right here!

Google Vids runs on Google’s AI model, Gemini, to create workplace and marketing videos from Google Drive files and descriptions. You can either start a video from scratch or use a pre-made template to get a first draft going. There’s even a Help me create option.

Google Vids doesn’t make videos from the ground up, like the mostly creepy creations of Runway’s Gen-2 or OpenAI’s Sora. Google uses different media and compiles them based on your suggestions and the content of the source documents.

Continue reading.

Variety reports that Amazon MGM Studios is developing a TV series based on the sci-fi universe of Mass Effect. Daniel Casey will be the series writer and executive producer. He has action credits on the screenplay for F9: The Fast Saga and made contributions to sci-fi films Kin and 10 Cloverfield Lane. The Mass Effect series includes a critically acclaimed trilogy of titles and a critically panned sequel, Andromeda. There’s also another game in the works, which I assume would dovetail into this show somehow. Corporate synergy, baby.

Continue reading.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/general/the-morning-after-engadget-newsletter-124103618.html?src=rss

The Morning After: Our verdict on Apple’s M4 Mac mini

Posted on by

Apple’s even tinier Mac mini is here — with M4 power. It’s also more affordable than ever and better value. It won’t shock you to hear the M4 Pro is very fast, but the Mac mini comes with 16 gigs of RAM as standard too.

TMA
Engadget

The base Mac mini has an M4 chip sports a 10-core CPU (four high-performance cores and six high efficiency), a 10-core GPU and a 16-core Neural Engine. For $1,399, you can bump up to the dramatically more powerful M4 Pro chip (like our review unit), featuring a 14-core CPU (10 high-performance and four high efficiency) and 20-core GPU. (But that’s a pricey upgrade.)

Its Geekbench 6 and Cinebench scores still beat most of the computers we’ve tested this year, and its GPU is fast enough for solid 1080p 60 fps gameplay. And it’s that small!

— Mat Smith

The biggest tech stories you missed

Get this delivered daily direct to your inbox. Subscribe right here!

Google Vids runs on Google’s AI model, Gemini, to create workplace and marketing videos from Google Drive files and descriptions. You can either start a video from scratch or use a pre-made template to get a first draft going. There’s even a Help me create option.

Google Vids doesn’t make videos from the ground up, like the mostly creepy creations of Runway’s Gen-2 or OpenAI’s Sora. Google uses different media and compiles them based on your suggestions and the content of the source documents.

Continue reading.

Variety reports that Amazon MGM Studios is developing a TV series based on the sci-fi universe of Mass Effect. Daniel Casey will be the series writer and executive producer. He has action credits on the screenplay for F9: The Fast Saga and made contributions to sci-fi films Kin and 10 Cloverfield Lane. The Mass Effect series includes a critically acclaimed trilogy of titles and a critically panned sequel, Andromeda. There’s also another game in the works, which I assume would dovetail into this show somehow. Corporate synergy, baby.

Continue reading.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/general/the-morning-after-engadget-newsletter-124103618.html?src=rss