🎧 Sonos headphones review, 🎮 New Xbox controller, 🪦 Game Informer shut down, 🤖 This AI wants to be your 'friend'

10 tech stories in the quickest format possible

Sunday night’s 10-story newsletter with discount codes is below ⤵️
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🎧 1. Sonos Ace review: speakers for your ears – Sono’s first headphones

🏆 Review score: 4.5 out of 5

🏅Editor’s Choice

Pros:

• ✅ 🧐 Fabulously designed and luxurious to wear

• ✅ 🎧 Warm, full soundstage with terrific bass accuracy

• ✅ 📺 TV Audio Swap gives you private surround sound

• ✅ 🎮 Delivers atmospheric and directional sound for gaming

Cons:

• ❌ 🤑 TV Audio Swap only works with $800 Sonos Arc for now

• ❌ 📱 TV Audio Swap only works with iOS devices currently

• ❌ 🤖 Android users will find fewer features in the Sonos app

I was on the podcast hosted by The Shortcut subscriber Steve Clair called Self Starter (episode coming soon), and afterward, he asked me about the best over-the-ear headphones – something in between the JBL and Sony XM5’s and the $1,000 B&Os, but not weighty during workouts like Apple’s AirPods Max.

The Sonos Ace headphones are my new answer – they have a premium fit and sound, but won’t break the bank or strain your neck. Read Kevin’s review and buy it from Walmart for the cheapest price by a few dollars.

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🫥 🎮 2. New Xbox Sky Cipher controller is making transparent tech cool again

Amazon currently has the transparent blue controller up for pre-order

• 🆕 Microsoft has revealed a new Xbox Series X controller called Sky Cipher

• 🎮 It features a transparent plastic shell on the front of the controller

• ♻️ The controller will also ship in new environmentally-conscious packaging

• 🎉 It’s the 30th custom controller design Microsoft has announced

Remember the fad of clear tech, like this 90s throwback from the N64 era Atomic Purple controller? Well, it’s making a comeback 25 years later. We reviewed the Nothing Phone (2a) recently, and now it’s Xbox’s turn for a throwback.

The new Xbox Sky Cipher controller lets you see all the inner workings of Microsoft’s pad, like the rumble motors whirring, and it’s a design that the company has experimented with previously. The Forza Horizon 5 Limited Edition and 20th Anniversary Special Edition feature a transparent shell, and they’re two of the best Xbox Series X controller colors for that reason.

🐦 Ask Matt Swider on Twitter or Instagram for hand-picked deals from Walmart / Best Buy / Amazon / B&H / Samsung / Google / GameStop / Xbox / Microsoft Office (PC) / MS Office (Mac)

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🪦 3. Game Informer Magazine shut down by GameStop after 33 years

My collection of video game magazines, including Game Informer (Image credit: Matt Swider / The Shortcut)

• 📰 Game Informer magazine shut down and its staff was laid off

• 🛑 GameStop, its owner, gave no official reason for the closure

• 🦔 Started in 1991, its first issue featured a Sega Genesis-era Sonic

• 👴 The 33-year-old magazine was among the last out of the US

• 👀 You can still read Edge, PC Gamer, and Nintendo Force in print

I still have a lot of old video game magazines in my possession and until Friday, I could say most but not all of them have ceased publication. Now… all of them have closed. Game Informer, the 33-year-old video game magazine, has been shut down by its owner, GameStop.

On X, we got insight into how close Game Informer was to having a final issue from now-former Content Director Kyle Hilliard: “We were about 70% done with the next issue and it was going to have a GREAT cover.”

Here’s the first issue of FuncoLand produced Game Informer Magazine

Throwback: Kyle wrote for my first video game publication, Gaming Target, back in 2010. Kyle, like the rest of the Game Informer team, is now looking for new work after a decade of writing for the last major video game out of the US.

Gone are the days when you could expect major video game reveals as cover stories from a monthly magazine. Companies now premier trailers at The Game Awards or publish blog posts on their own sites – especially Sony. Its PS5 Pro this fall and rumored PSP 2 handheld in 2025 may get this treatment, which allows for a tightly controlled message with no editorial input. That, along with the layoffs, is the biggest gut punch of Game Informer’s closure for gaming consumers.

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🤖 4. This AI wants to be your ‘Friend.’ We paid the $99 so you don’t have to

• 🙋‍♂️ ‘Friend’ is an AI companion that lives in a pendant you wear around your neck

• 🤖 This AI is NOT supposed to help you answer questions, play music, or offer functionality like Rabbit R1 or Humane AI Pin

• 🤗 Instead, it’s supposed to mimic having a best friend with you at all times

• 🎙️ The device has a built-in mic and communicates via text on your phone

• 🤔 Consider us skeptical, but willing to review it with an open mind

• 📆 It’s due to ship next January and won’t include a subscription fee

Friend is a new AI companion device that’s designed to be always listening, according to the start-up. A nearly two-minute video depicts it as a wearable pendant that you can tap to talk to. It’ll share chatty messages with you throughout your day – sometimes encouraging, and sometimes sarcastic. That’s it.

💰 $1.8m on the Friend.com?! Friend founder Avi Schiffmann spent $1.8 million (72% of the start-up’s cash) on the premium domain, reports 404Media.

🙅‍♂️ I bought this so you don’t have to. Like my critical Rabbit R1 review, I spent the $99 on Friend so I can tell you not to buy this thing when it launches. There’s no use in both of us wasting money. That’s my job.

Check back in January for my honest review, my human friends/subscribers.

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🗺️ 5. Google Maps adopts one of Waze’s best features

• 🤝 Google Maps is borrowing some of Waze’s best features

• 👀 It’ll be easier to see incident reports and users can share information

• 🚗 Nearby parking spaces for buildings will be shown

• 👮‍♂️ Speed cameras or police presence will also appear

• 🔐 Waze will also receive new features, such as being able to use the app when your phone is locked

• 🤔 Google owns Waze, but the apps remain separate – for now

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🤡 6. ‘NO FAKES Act’ aims to outlaw unauthorized deepfakes

• 🧑‍⚖️ A bipartisan group of senators introduced the No Fakes Act bill

• ✋ It’ll be illegal to create an AI replica of someone without consent

• 🎭 It has support of SAG-AFTRA, Disney & the Motion Picture Association

• 🎶 Major music labels and talent agencies are also backing the bill

• 👮 If it becomes law, it’ll apply to everyone, celebrity or not

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🛬 7. Delta Airlines says CrowdStrike IT outage cost it $500M

• 💰 $500 million is Delta’s bill for the massive CrowdStrike IT outage

• 😫 It had to cancel 5,000+ flights as Microsoft systems were inoperable

• 🧑‍⚖️ Delta CEO: we’ll seek damages for the disruptions. “We have no choice.”

• 💀 Flashback: The CrowdStrike outage a global The Blue Screen of Death

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🦑 8. Squid Game returns this December, and Season 3 is already being teased

• 📆 Squid Game returns to Netflix on December 26, 2024

• 😮 It’s been 3 years since the hit Korean show first aired

• 👊 Netflix made a spin-off reality gameshow called Squid Game: The Challenge

• 🔜 Season 3 has already been teased for 2025, which means fans won’t have to wait long for the finale

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🆓 9. New PS+ free games for August are now available

• 🆕 Sony has announced the three PlayStation Plus games for August

• ⭐️ Free games (if you’re a PlayStation Plus subscriber)

  • 🧱👾 LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga (normally $60)

  • 😱 Five Nights at Freddy's: Security Breach (normally $40)

  • ⚔️ Ender Lilies: Quietus of the Knights (normally $25)

• 💰 Save money on PS+ with our discount code at the bottom

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📱 10. Nothing Phone 2a Plus is bigger, better, and coming soon

• 👏 Nothing Phone 2a Plus improves upon the excellent Nothing Phone 2a

• 🤳 New 50MP front camera added, a 56% improvement over Phone 2a

• 💨 10% faster vs Phone 2a with a MediaTek Dimensity 7350 Pro 5G chip

• 🔋 Its 5,000mAh promises two days or 22 hours of YouTube

• 💰 Price: $399, $50 more than the Nothing Phone 2a we reviewed

• 📆 US pre-order date: August 7 via the Nothing beta program

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🤔 EXTRA! Why you can’t see Reddit on Bing – and how you can help us

• 🚫 Microsoft’s Bing has been blocked from searching Reddit

• ✋ Reddit prohibits Bing (and other non-Google engines) from crawling its site

• 🙄 You’ll find Reddit to be the 1st search result offered in Google these days

• 🤝 Reddit + Google have a licensing deal to train Gemini AI on Reddit

• 😡 It seems to give Reddit preferential (unfair) treatment in Google rankings

• 🤖 This deal has negatively impacted Google’s AI Overview, recommending dangerous results

⬇️ Help us overcome that unfair Reddit advantage (which has outranked our own exclusive stories) by Following The Shortcut as a source on Google News (it’ll bump us up among publishers). Tap the “🌟 Following” button on this page ⬇️

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🔒 Bonus: $100 PlayStation & Xbox gift card deals, 50% off Xbox Game Pass

• 🟦 $100 PlayStation giftcard for $83

• 🟩 $50 Xbox Gift Card for $42

• ❎ 50% off Xbox Game Pass $27 (Microsoft’s MSRP is $51 and soon to be $60 for 3 months)

• ❎ Full year of Xbox Game Pass Core for $39.49

We’re expanding our discount codes for paid subscribers as a pack-in. It’s sort of like CD-ROM pack-ins for subscribers of 90s magazines.

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