The Nothing Phone 3a Lite has a big battery and triple-camera system

Posted on by

The Nothing Phone universe continues to expand. On Wednesday, the company launched the fourth model in the Phone 3 lineup: the Nothing Phone 3a Lite. The cheapest model in the series, the Phone 3a Lite pairs the brand's distinct styling with solid all-around specs for an entry-level handset. However, with the company saying its non-flagship devices will soon include pre-installed apps and lock-screen ads, there may be a trade-off.

First, Nothing told Engadget that the phone won't come to the US. So, Americans only have the previous trio of third-gen handsets to choose from. That's the Nothing Phone 3, Nothing Phone 3a, and Nothing Phone 3a Pro.

The Nothing Phone 3a Lite uses a Panda Glass casing over an aluminum internal frame. As you can see, it retains some familiar design strokes, albeit pared down to match its €249 price. As the company describes it, the handset's "asymmetric, transparent look and nano-coating creates a beautiful balance of matte and gloss." (Poetry!) The phone ships in white and black variants. Whether Nothing's design language is your cup of tea or not, you'll be hard-pressed to find a more striking and bold design language in a budget model.

The handset includes the Essential Key, a multi-purpose physical button found on all Phone 3 series models. The phone is IP54-rated for dust and water resistance.

Dramatic view of the Nothing Phone 3a Lite smartphone. Its notification LED is lit, as the black phone floats against a dark background.
Nothing

Nothing honors the brand's unique Glyph system (while keeping costs down) by using a notification LED. (Remember those on early Android phones?) This model's "Glyph Light" supports the lineup's Flip to Glyph feature, which switches to light-only alerts when the device is face down. The LED can stay on for "key contact and app notifications" and serve as a camera countdown timer. You can also customize its light sequences for calls and specific contacts.

The handset has a hearty 5,000 mAh battery. Nothing advertises 22 hours of YouTube playback or 9.5 hours of gaming. It supports 33W fast charging, reaching 50 percent in about 20 minutes.

The Phone 3a Lite has a triple-camera system. That includes a 50MP primary camera with a 1/1.57-inch Samsung sensor. Joining it are an 8MP ultra-wide and a macro lens. The rear camera system shoots 4K video at app to 30 FPS. On its front is a 16MP lens.

Product marketing image of the Nothing Phone 3a Lite. Standard view, with the back of the phone slightly obscuring the front of another one. Its display shows home screen icons and widgets.
Nothing

The Nothing Phone 3a Lite has more than respectable display specs for a budget phone. It uses a 6.77-inch flexible AMOLED panel with 1,080 x 2,392 resolution (387 PPI). It has a 120Hz adaptive refresh rate and a 1,000Hz touch sampling rate. It can reach 3,000 nits peak HDR brightness and 1,300 nits outdoor brightness.

The handset's processor is the 4nm MediaTek Dimensity 7300 Pro 5G. The 8-core CPU can reach up to 2.5 GHz. Nothing says the chip performs better than the MediaTek 7200 silicon in last year's Phone 2a. The company claims its CPU is 15 percent faster, its GPU supports 20 percent higher FPS, and its NPU delivers 100 percent better AI performance.

The phone also uses a liquid-cooling system, which may help during intensive gaming sessions. It ships with 8GB of RAM and comes in 128GB and 256GB storage tiers.

Marketing phone for the Nothing Phone 3a Lite. A suave-looking person holds the phone while on a call, looking nonchalantly over their shoulder toward the camera.
Nothing

The phone runs the Nothing OS 3.5 UI on top of Android 15. The company says Nothing OS 4.0 will arrive in the first half of 2026.

And that brings us back to those trade-offs. Earlier this week, Nothing confirmed to 9to5Google that its strategy moving forward will include "Lock Glimpse." This rotating lock-screen wallpaper feature includes text with links to external content hosted by a Chinese advertising company. (That firm, Boyuan, says it offers a "rich mixture of content" to help its partners "commercialize the mobile traffic.") Think of it as a slightly less obnoxious version of lock-screen ads.

Fortunately, Lock Glimpse is off by default in the current Nothing OS 4.0 beta. Nothing pledges it will give users "full control over features like Lock Glimpse." However, that promise doesn't explicitly say the feature will remain off by default.

Another cost-subsidizing move is Nothing's (also confirmed) embrace of pre-installed apps. The company said its "carefully considered" third-party apps are those "most people install on day one, like Instagram." In fairness, that's a common practice among Android phone manufacturers. And Nothing says it will make third-party apps removable.

But again, the concessions here arguably run counter to one aspect of the brand's stated ethos: clean, bloat-free software. And if business considerations forced compromises in this area, it makes you question how long Lock Glimpse will stay off by default.

The Nothing Phone 3a Lite is available now in Europe on the company website. The 128GB model costs €249 (EU) / £249 (UK). Meanwhile, the 256GB model will set you back €279 (EU) / £279 (UK).

Update, October 29, 2025, 11:20 AM ET: This story has been updated to add information from Nothing about the lack of US availability and additional detail from Nothing's community post.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/the-nothing-phone-3a-lite-has-a-big-battery-and-triple-camera-system-130016149.html?src=rss

Nintendo is releasing a massive Breath of the Wild vinyl soundtrack collection on eight LPs

Posted on by

Nintendo is teaming up with Laced Records on a couple of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild vinyl soundtrack releases, which is pretty darned cool. There's even a massive 8-LP box set that ships with some franchise-friendly bells and whistles.

Let's start with that box set. It's available in limited-edition colored vinyl or standard black vinyl. At eight vinyl records, it probably includes just about every piano twinkle and wind rustle found throughout the game. All told, there are 130 newly remastered tracks.

The records here are split into themes, mirroring a player's progression through Hyrule. These themes "revolve around exploring the Kingdom of Hyrule, freeing the Divine Beasts from Calamity Ganon's hold and discovering the mysteries of the Shrines."

It ships with a nifty-looking collector's case and comes with 16 art prints depicting various scenes from the game. The 8-LP collection costs $195, which is high but not the worst deal in the world. That breaks down to around $24 per record.

Two vinyl collections.
Nintendo/Laced Records

The double-LP collection is a more standard affair, with 34 tracks pulled from throughout the game. These include musical cues from visiting the Great Fairy Fountain, Hyrule Castle and other locations. This one costs $50 and is also available in both black and colored vinyl.

Both collections are available to pre-order right now via Laced Records and My Nintendo Store. They won't be shipped until June 19, 2026.

This is one of the first major Nintendo game soundtracks available in a physical format outside of Japan. Breath of the Wild is an interesting choice here for an initial vinyl release, given that the game's soundtrack is known for mood-setting vibes but not really known for bops.

Composers Manaka Kataoka, Yasuaki Iwata, Hajime Wakai and Soshi Abe filled the game with gentle piano riffs, nature sounds and rhythmic pieces to accompany battles. However, it does have a few absolute bangers.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/nintendo/nintendo-is-releasing-a-massive-breath-of-the-wild-vinyl-soundtrack-collection-on-eight-lps-151531479.html?src=rss

Grammarly has rebranded to Superhuman

Posted on by

Grammarly is no more, at least with regards to its name. The AI-powered writing assistance tool founded in 2009 has been absorbed into a new software platform called Superhuman. It follows Grammarly’s acquisition of Superhuman Mail earlier this year, with the former taking the somewhat unusual step of adopting its newly obtained company’s name, rather than the other way around.

Superhuman unites Grammarly, Superhuman Mail and the AI work assistant Coda (also acquired by Grammarly in 2025) in one productivity suite, allowing users to access all three tools as part of a single plan. The company has also launched a new AI assistant called Superhuman Go that is included in every Superhuman plan tier and is baked into the Grammarly browser extension for Chrome and Edge.

Superhuman Go’s capabilities include assisting with professional-sounding email responses, fetching information and scheduling meetings. At launch it can connect to your Google Workspace apps and Microsoft Outlook, with the idea being that the AI is always there making suggestions in the background, rather than you needing to ask it for assistance.

Superhuman plans to add additional functionality to Coda and Superhuman Mail, such as turning ideas from meetings into drafts and more effectively organizing your inbox according to your schedule. Its vision for the rebrand is that instead of thinking of Grammarly as a writing agent alone, you utilize all of its different agents and platforms to work more productively.

Anyone previously using Grammarly can now use Superhuman Go, and the Superhuman suite is being bundled into a number of different plans. The $12 per month (billed annually) Pro plan offers unlimited paragraph rewrites and translations in 19 languages — a feature Grammarly added earlier this year — while the Business plan costs $33 per month (billed annually) and includes Superhuman’s mail client.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/grammarly-has-rebranded-to-superhuman-151001417.html?src=rss

Amazon is winding down its still-popular New World MMO amid mass layoffs

Posted on by

Amazon Games is winding down support for New World: Aeternum amid layoffs in the division and even deeper job cuts across its parent company. The game debuted on PC in 2021 and it landed on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S just over a year ago.

"After four years of steady content updates and a major new console release, we've reached a point where it is no longer sustainable to continue supporting the game with new content updates," Amazon Games wrote in a blog post. "The recently launched Season 10 and Nighthaven update will serve as the final content release for New World on PC and consoles. It is only after much consideration that we've reached this decision."

Players will still be able to buy New World for now, and it will remain available to PlayStation Plus subscribers on the Extra and Premium tiers "until further notice." Amazon is making this month’s Nighthaven expansion available to everyone for free too.

The company said it will keep the game's servers up and running through 2026, "allowing our community time to continue their adventures in Aeternum." In terms of how long fans will be able to keep playing the game, Amazon said it will provide more details about "what to expect in the coming months.” It pledged to "provide a minimum of six months’ notice before making any changes that impact your ability to play New World: Aeternum."

According to Bloomberg, Amazon told staff in a memo this week that, as part of widespread layoffs, it would dial back work on big-budget games, especially MMOs — a category that New World falls under. Updates for Throne and Liberty and Lost Ark — MMOS that Amazon publishes but are developed externally — will continue, the company confirmed to MassivelyOP.

Amazon did not comment on the status of a Lord of the Rings MMO that’s been in the works for a while. However, according to Eurogamer, a former Amazon senior gameplay engineer wrote in a since-deleted LinkedIn post that they were laid off “alongside my incredibly talented peers on New World and our fledgling Lord of the Rings game (y'all would have loved it).”

Amazon Games vice president Christoph Hartmann told me last year that Amazon started its big push into games with MMOs because it saw an opportunity. At the time, there weren't too many titles in that genre popping up. However, he noted that "we're evolving out of the MMOs" into other genres, hinting then that the division was changing focus. (Amazon's first AAA game, the free-to-play shooter Crucible, didn't last long after its debut in 2020.)

New World is still a popular game. It got off to a blistering start, with a peak concurrent player count of 914,000 on Steam. This past weekend, it at one point had nearly 50,000 concurrent players on that platform. It was also one of the highest grossing games on Steam in 2021.

And yet it seems that Amazon's games division will now focus more on Luna, the cloud service for which it rolled out an overhaul just last week. It reportedly plans to keep releasing “casual and AI-focused games" for Luna, such as Courtroom Chaos: Starring Snoop Dogg, which puts an AI-generated version of the rapper in a Judge Judy-type role for court case-style debates between players. Amazon's most recent game for PC and consoles is King of Meat, a co-op dungeon-building platformer that has so far reached a peak Steam concurrent player count of just 253.

Update, October 30 11:02AM ET: Updated with details about the Lord of the Rings game’s possible cancellation.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/amazon-is-winding-down-its-still-popular-new-world-mmo-amid-mass-layoffs-150500426.html?src=rss

Get 50 percent off one of our favorite budgeting apps before Black Friday

Posted on by

Those looking for a better way to keep track of their finances should consider a budgeting app. There are dozens of them on the market now, and one of our favorites is running a discount for new subscribers. Monarch Money is offering 50 percent off annual plans right now when you use the code MONARCHVIP at checkout. With the typical yearly price being $100, this will save you $50.

As mentioned before, the discount is only for new users and it can't be combined with other offers. The code only works when you sign up through the web as well. You can't redeem it through the Monarch mobile app.

We feel that Monarch has a steeper learning curve than some other budget trackers and that certain aspects of the app are slightly more complex than they probably need to be. But it offers a great deal of customization and granularity, which outweighs our misgivings.

On the main dashboard, you'll see your net worth along with your latest transactions, spending versus the previous month, your income so far for the month and details about upcoming bills, your investments and goals you've set. There's also a link to a month-in-review page, which offers an in-depth overview of what's been happening with your money that month. You'll also be able to take a peek at how your net worth has changed over time.

Monarch can connect to your bank and track Apple Card, Apple Cash and Savings accounts. It can pull in your transactions and balance history automatically and detect your recurring expenses and income. The app can even keep your car valuation up to date. While it might take a little work to set up Monarch (and you might have to tweak things here and there), it's a detailed budgeting app that can help you keep better track of your income, expenditure and net worth.

If you're a former Mint user (RIP), Monarch Money is a great alternative if you haven't yet found a Mint replacement. But it's worth mentioning that our favorite Mint replacement service, Quicken Simplifi, also has a sale going on right now. It's offering 50 percent off when you sign up for an annual subscription, billed at $3 per month with the discount. That comes out to $36 for the first year.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/get-50-percent-off-one-of-our-favorite-budgeting-apps-before-black-friday-174011805.html?src=rss

Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra: Snapdragon Elite, 200MP Refinements, and Design Leak!

Posted on by
Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra: Snapdragon Elite, 200MP Refinements, and Design Leak!

The Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra has been officially confirmed, and it is poised to redefine expectations in the smartphone market. However, its journey to launch has been marked by delays and significant changes to Samsung’s product lineup. With production timelines adjusted and new design updates revealed, the S26 Ultra aims to set new benchmarks in […]

The post Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra: Snapdragon Elite, 200MP Refinements, and Design Leak! appeared first on Geeky Gadgets.

Posted in Uncategorized

New Ubiquiti Security Dome Cameras : G6 Pro Dome, G6 Pro Turret & AI Multi Sensor 4

Posted on by
New Ubiquiti Security Dome Cameras : G6 Pro Dome, G6 Pro Turret & AI Multi Sensor 4

What if your surveillance system could do more than just watch? Imagine cameras so advanced they not only capture every detail in stunning 4K resolution but also intelligently analyze their surroundings in real-time, tracking objects, recognizing faces, and adapting to low-light conditions. The new generation of dome cameras—G6 Pro Dome, G6 Pro Turret, and AI […]

The post New Ubiquiti Security Dome Cameras : G6 Pro Dome, G6 Pro Turret & AI Multi Sensor 4 appeared first on Geeky Gadgets.

Posted in Uncategorized

How to cancel your Paramount+ subscription

Posted on by

Do you have one streaming service too many? While you're far from alone in that, sometimes it's worth saying goodbye to one and saving some cash. Take Paramount+, which starts at $8 per month for its ad-supported Essential plan. Then there's its ad-free Premium plan, coming in at $13 a month. 

If you're not really using it, or just can't justify the cost, canceling your Paramount+ subscription is pretty easy. Plus, Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales are right around the corner if you change your mind. Paramount+ has run significant deals for both in recent years. 

In the meantime, here's everything you need to know about canceling your subscription through Paramount+ or third-party providers like Apple or Google.

If your subscription is directly through Paramount+ then canceling it takes only a few clicks. 

  1. Sign in to your Paramount+ account on your browser. 

  2. Go to the Paramount+ Account page. 

  3. Tap on Cancel Subscription. 

It's still relatively simple to cancel your Paramount+ subscription even if you bought it through a third-party. Here's what you need to know based on where you purchased it. 

  1. Go to Settings in your iPhone or iPad.

  2. Choose your name.

  3. Tap Subscriptions.

  4. Click Paramount+ and then select Cancel Subscription.

  5. Tap Confirm. 

  1. Go to Settings in your Apple TV.

  2. Tap Users & Accounts.

  3. Select your Apple TV account.

  4. Choose Subscriptions.

  5. Click Paramount+ and select Cancel Subscription.

Cancel via Google Play Store on a web browser

  1. Go to the Google Play Store through a web browser.

  2. Sign in to your Google Play Store account. 

  3. Click Bills & Accounts on the left side of the screen.

  4. Choose Paramount+ and tap Cancel Subscription.

  1. Go to the Google Play Store app.

  2. Click on your profile icon. 

  3. Choose Payment & Subscriptions.

  4. Tap on Subscriptions.

  5. Click Paramount+ and then select Cancel Subscription.

  6. Follow the prompts to confirm your cancelation. 

Cancel via your Android TV

  1. Open the Google Play Store app.

  2. Go to Menu.

  3. Choose My Apps.

  4. Tap on Subscription.

  5. Click Paramount+ and then select Cancel.

  6. Choose Yes to confirm your cancelation. 

  1. Go to Amazon App Store Subscriptions.

  2. Sign in to your Amazon account.

  3. Find your Paramount+ subscription and choose Actions. 

  4. Tap Turn Off Auto-Renewal.

  5. Click Turn Off Auto-Renewal again to confirm your cancelation. 

No, there's no option as of yet to pause your Paramount+ subscription. If you want to cancel it then just do so and rejoin when the time is right — or a better deal is available. 

The good news is that your subscription won't end immediately. If you're in a free trial then your access to Paramount+ will remain until the trial period ends. Similarly, paid subscribers will lose the ability to use Paramount+ at the end of the current billing period. Notably, if you've used a multi-month promotion, your subscription will still stop at the end of your current billing period. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/how-to-cancel-your-paramount-subscription-140053714.html?src=rss

The BIG LEAK: Everything You Need to Know About the Galaxy Watch 9 Ultra 5G

Posted on by
The BIG LEAK: Everything You Need to Know About the Galaxy Watch 9 Ultra 5G

Samsung is spearheading a significant advancement in wearable technology with its development of solid-state battery technology. This innovation has the potential to reshape the landscape of smartwatches by offering extended battery life, enhanced energy efficiency, and more compact designs without compromising functionality. With mass production anticipated by 2026, the Galaxy Watch 9 Ultra is poised […]

The post The BIG LEAK: Everything You Need to Know About the Galaxy Watch 9 Ultra 5G appeared first on Geeky Gadgets.

Posted in Uncategorized