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Elegoo's Centauri Carbon 2 Combo, a beginner-friendly 3D printer, is currently discounted to $369 from its usual $449. The printer supports four filament rolls simultaneously and includes a fully enclosed print chamber, an auto-leveling bed, and a large touchscreen interface for managing print jobs.
A longtime curved-monitor owner outlines the format's appeal, highlighting how ultrawide and super ultrawide curved displays like the 49-inch Samsung Odyssey G9 OLED enhance cinematic gaming and productivity by offering extra screen real estate comparable to dual 27-inch monitors. The writer also notes downsides, such as many story-driven games still rendering cutscenes in 16:9, leaving black bars on wider curved screens.
Analyst Mark Gurman reports Apple's roadmap through early 2027 includes three new iPhones—the iPhone 18, iPhone Air 2, and budget iPhone 18e—all built around an A20 chip, with the Air 2 gaining a second ultra-wide camera. The plans also cover refreshed iPads, including an OLED iPad Air and a budget model for students, new Apple Pencils, updated MacBook Air laptops, and a MacBook Neo successor.
Optimization developer OptiProjects has built OptiCraft Heritage Edition, a native C++ recreation of Minecraft Java 1.2.5 that runs on the PlayStation 2 and Nintendo Wii. The PS2 version manages 15-30 fps within just 32MB of RAM by limiting draw distance to two chunks, while the Wii version reaches up to 60 fps with four-chunk rendering and even supports online play on Java servers.
Fujifilm has unveiled the Instax Pal 2, a successor to its palm-sized Instax Pal camera, adding an optical viewfinder and a 1.3-inch LCD screen missing from the original. The camera uses a small sensor paired with an f/2.2 28mm lens to shoot up to 10-megapixel images and will launch in the US later this month for $169.95.
Emily St. John Mandel, author of Station Eleven, has published a new novel called Exit Party, which follows characters living through two divergent near-future American scenarios: one marked by post-civil-war chaos and another by an oppressive surveillance state. She began writing it in 2022, before recent political developments like intensified ICE enforcement and expanded tech surveillance, yet the book's themes resonate strongly with current events.
Apple confirmed that its foldable iPhone Duo won't support the Apple Pencil at launch with iOS 27.1, with compatibility instead arriving via a software update expected around November. Only the Apple Pencil USB-C model will work with the device, meaning owners of the Apple Pencil 2 or Pencil Pro will need to buy a new $79 stylus. Unlike iPads, the iPhone Duo lacks magnets for wireless charging, so the Pencil must be paired and charged via a USB-C cable.
Apple Music lets users set separate audio quality levels for cellular, Wi-Fi, and downloads within iPhone Settings under Apps > Music > Audio Quality. This allows listeners to save mobile data by keeping cellular playback at High Quality while reserving Lossless streaming for Wi-Fi or downloaded files. Bluetooth headphones don't support true lossless playback, and Hi-Res Lossless requires an external DAC for sample rates above 48kHz.
Ahead of Friday's iPhone 18 Pro delivery day, 9to5Mac editors shared personal accessory picks including Apple's 40W Dynamic Power Adapter, the TechWoven case, Apple's FineWoven Wallet with MagSafe, a MagSafe car mount, and Anker's Prime 25W foldable 3-in-1 MagSafe charger currently discounted on Amazon. The recommendations span fast charging, wireless charging setups, cases, and wallets designed specifically for the new iPhone 18 Pro lineup.
Volvo is giving the XC40 crossover a second midlife update, arriving as the 2028 model year, following an earlier refresh in 2023. The changes center on redesigned front and rear LED light clusters, including a more minimalist take on the 'Thor's Hammer' daytime running lights, plus subtly reshaped, less boxy corners that shrink the vehicle's overall footprint.
Most major phone makers, including Apple, Google and Samsung, have phased out the 3.5mm headphone jack in favor of USB-C for wired audio, charging and data transfer. Apple made the switch starting with the iPhone 7 in 2016, followed by Google in 2017 and Samsung in 2019, with Apple finally adopting USB-C for the iPhone 15 due to EU regulation. Sony remains an exception, still including a 3.5mm jack on its upcoming Xperia 1 VIII.
Google has released XLS, an Apache 2.0-licensed toolchain that converts high-level functional descriptions into synthesizable Verilog and SystemVerilog hardware designs. The tool lets engineers write logic once and run it both as native host software and as generated hardware, with correctness guarantees ensuring the two versions behave identically.