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Netflix announced Tuesday that it’s putting out a new simulation game based on the hit Love Is Blind reality series — a dating show where contestants court each other by speaking through a wall, never meeting face to face and staying “blind” until there’s been a marriage proposal.

The mobile game will be the first in Netflix’s Stories series — an “interactive, narrative” game, according to a company blog post — that virtually plops users into the world of one of the streaming giant’s hit series. A game trailer posted to the blog walks you through how you’d create your character’s look, choose how to engage with some the dating drama and make decisions on propositions from a virtual suitor.

The Love Is Blind game is available as an app and it launches Sept. 19. It ties in with season 5 of Love Is Blind, which comes out Sept. 22. The game will carry no extra cost as long as you’re a Netflix subscriber — it’s included with all Netflix memberships, according to the blog post. Other shows by Netflix, including Money Heist and Virgin River, will also eventually be added to the Stories app, along with more titles.

Netflix has been expanding into the gaming world, announcing earlier this year that it would be adding 40 new games in 2023, and it’s been building up a catalog of new titles.

You can pre-register for the mobile app on both Apple’s App Store for iPhones and the Google Play Store for Android phones, so that the app will automatically install when it is released.

Read more: Netflix Tests New TV Game Feature

When it comes to choosing a soundbar for your living room entertainment setup you can do much worse than consider the Bose Smart Soundbar 900. We’d say that at the normal $899 asking price, but at this deal price of just $699? It’s a steal that cannot be ignored.

This particular brand of almost-thievery doesn’t even require that you do any work. With no discount codes or coupons needed, the only thing that you need to keep in mind is timescale — Amazon’s product page stops short of saying when this deal will come to a close, but with stocks seemingly limited, it might happen at any moment.

Price aside, the Bose Smart Soundbar 900 has a lot going for it when you look at the specs sheet (we haven’t reviewed this particular model). Things start well when you look at the thing — as far as long black slabs go, it’s a rather pretty affair. Then you take a look at the features that include Alexa and Google Assistant support and continue into Apple AirPlay 2 and Spotify Connect. And we’re just getting started.

Setting up the Bose Smart Soundbar 900 is nice and easy thanks to a single connection to any TV in the land. Use HDMI eARC or an optical audio connection and you’re off to the races — once you plug the thing into power, of course.

Need more? OK, the Bose Smart Soundbar 900 can pair with other Bose products so that audio follows you as you move from one room to another, and you can even use good old-fashioned Bluetooth to stream music to this thing if you absolutely must. And all of that while saving $200 on the price everyone else paid as well.

Most have us have dealt with unexpected drive errors and computer crashes at one time or another. And when you store all of your important documents, photos and other files on your computer’s storage drive, events like these could result in you losing everything.

If you want real security for your most important data, you can get some peace of mind by backing up all of your most important files on a cloud storage service. Right now you can snag a lifetime Degoo Premium subscription with a whopping 10TB of storage space for $100 at StackSocial, which saves you hundreds compared with the usual price. We don’t know how long this offer will last, so we recommend making your purchase sooner rather than later if you don’t want to miss out on these savings.

Clearing space on your drive after every big project can be a hassle, and getting to the office only to find you’ve left your external storage or USB drive at home can be a nightmare if you have an important meeting or presentation. That’s why investing in a cloud storage service is so convenient. Degoo lets you upload everything from images, videos and music to software, files and other data, keeping your information safe and secure with 256-bit AES encryption.

With Degoo, you can access your data via your phone, tablet or web browser. And secure file sharing with friends or colleagues is easy, too. Now, one thing to note is that this base plan does have a 1GB file size limit, but there are additional features available through in-app purchases, including a 50GB file size limit upgrade — which might be worth it if you have large files to keep up. Just keep in mind that those add-ons are at additional cost. Still, whether you’re working from home, the office or on the go, you won’t have to worry about losing files just because your hardware fails, and that peace of mind is well worth the investment.

Read more: Best Home Office Essentials for 2023

Meta on Tuesday introduced a new “all-in-one” AI translation model that it framed as a major step forward in the “quest to create a universal translator.”

The model, dubbed SeamlessM4T, is able to handle multiple kinds of translations — including text to speech, speech to text, speech to speech and text to text — across nearly 100 languages. Unlike other language translators that use multiple models, SeamlessM4T is a single system, which Meta says “reduces errors and delays” and increases the “efficiency and quality of the translation process.”

SeamlessM4T builds on Meta’s previous AI work. In July 2022, the company launched its No Language Left Behind project, which uses AI to do text-to-text translations for 200 languages with an emphasis on improving translations for rarer or less commonly used languages.

The company has also released models that let you chat with AI bots with personalities, along with more information about how it uses AI to organize your Facebook and Instagram feeds.

Like many major tech companies, Meta has put increased focus this year on developing and launching AI-powered tools and services. Microsoft released its new AI-infused Bing search in February, which uses the same technology that powers OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Amazon recently said it will use generative AI to analyze and summarize customer reviews, and Google is testing a Search Generative Experience that “reimagines online search.”

AI is poised to disrupt nearly every industry sector, and has found its way into everything from fitness to hiring. When it comes to translation, AI is also used in tools like the Google Translate app to help add context to results. The rapid rise of generative AI has also raised concerns about the technology’s risks and the potential effects on society.

Like many of Meta’s previous AI models, SeamlessM4T is being released under a research license to allow researchers and developers to build on top of the technology. Meta is also releasing the metadata for the project in a dataset named SeamlessAlign. Meta says that it’s the biggest open-source multimodal dataset, containing 270,000 hours’ worth of mined speech and text alignment on which its AI was trained.

For more technical information on SeamlessM4T, check out Meta’s post on its AI blog or the company’s research Github page.

Editors’ note: CNET is using an AI engine to help create some stories. For more, see this post.

Running out of phone battery is no fun, but it’s also something that no iPhone owner should have to worry about again, thanks to this Apple MagSafe Battery Pack deal. It’s easily one of the best MagSafe accessories around and now it can be yours for just $84.

That price is a 15% saving on the original $99 asking price and it also happens to be the lowest price that Amazon has sold it at for some time now, too. With no discount codes and no on-screen coupons, this deal won’t even make you work for your savings so, really, what are you waiting for?

The Apple MagSafe Battery Pack is a magnetic charger that connects to the back of any iPhone 12 or newer device and wirelessly charges it on the go. It can power a MagSafe-compatible iPhone at 15 watts, which is as fast as any iPhone can charge without plugging in a cable first. It’ll work with the latest and greatest iPhones, almost certainly including the upcoming iPhone 15. And you can even charge the battery pack and the iPhone at the same time by plugging the former into a 20-watt (or greater) charger.

We do wish that the MagSafe Charger came in more colors than just white, but it isn’t the end of the world when you consider how handy this little battery pack can prove to be. And because it magnetically sticks to your iPhone, you don’t need to remember to take it with you, either.

Yes, there are plenty of other magnetic iPhone chargers that can be had for almost half as much. But they lack niceties like the on-screen battery level. If you’re tired of running out of juice or just want to be able to top your iPhone off on the go without extra cables and whatnot, this could be the answer you’ve been looking for — grab it now, while the going’s good.

Just about every major smartphone company has released a foldable phone, or has announced plans to do so.

Except Apple.

Samsung is well aware of that fact, and it’s using the iPhone maker’s absence in an attempt to win over Apple loyalists. The South Korean tech giant just released an update for its Try Galaxy app that lets users simulate the experience of using Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold device by placing two iPhones side by side. The feature is available on Android phones too, but Samsung just expanded the Try Galaxy app to work on iPhones.

The update comes after Samsung launched its latest foldable phones, the Galaxy Z Flip 5 and Galaxy Z Fold 5, at a high-profile event in Seoul last month with appearances from celebrities such as BTS’ Suga and Euphoria star Sydney Sweeney. Samsung’s app may be a marketing ploy, but it’s also another sign that it sees foldables as being a key part of its strategy in competing with Apple, its biggest rival in the global smartphone market.

Using the app on your iPhone involves scanning a QR code from Samsung, which is available in the company’s press release. Doing so will allow you to add a shortcut to Samsung’s Try Galaxy app to an iPhone’s home screen. Launching the shortcut pulls up a simulation of Samsung’s One UI Android software. But those who have two iPhones handy can use them together to imitate how the software would look on Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold.

There are a couple of short demos available to try in this mode, such as an air hockey game and an animated video of an ocean scene showing a whale and other aquatic creatures swimming across screens. These demos aren’t very reflective of what it’s like to actually use the Galaxy Z Fold, but Samsung is clearly trying to illustrate what apps can look like when spread across two displays.

Still, using the Galaxy Z Fold feels notably different. I’ve tried several generations of the Galaxy Z Fold, and its biggest advantage is the way regular apps, like Netflix, Chrome and YouTube, are displayed on a much larger screen. Putting two phones together doesn’t accurately re-create that experience.

But Samsung’s demo does show how apps work in split-screen mode, which can be helpful for those considering switching to a foldable device. In this demo, you are prompted to open the messages app on one iPhone and the photo gallery app on the other. From there, a prompt instructs the user to drag and drop photos from one iPhone into the messages app displayed on its companion iPhone. It provides a relatively realistic representation of what it’s like to use Samsung’s multitasking features. However, it’s worth remembering that the Z Fold’s shape is different from that of a regular phone, so apps in split-screen mode won’t look exactly like using two phones side by side.

Since the Try Galaxy app is a limited demo, I couldn’t re-create the exact experience on my Galaxy Z Fold 4. But the image below shows how three split-screen apps look on the Galaxy Z Fold 4 compared to Samsung’s app.

Samsung certainly has incentive to promote its foldable devices. It’s facing more competition than ever from new entrants like Google and OnePlus and existing rivals like Motorola and Oppo, all of which have released or are planning to launch new foldable phones this year.

Worldwide shipments of foldable phones are also expected to grow more than 50% in 2023, according to market research firm International Data Corporation, giving Samsung and others more motivation to invest in the space. IDC’s report also refers to foldables as the “one positive talking point” in the smartphone industry, considering the market declined more than 11% last year.

Apple hasn’t mentioned any plans to release a foldable iPhone. But the company is rumored to be working on a foldable device that could arrive in 2025, according to TF International Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who is known for his Apple product predictions. He believes Apple could release a “foldable iPad” or an iPhone-iPad hybrid, as he posted on Twitter (now called X) in April 2022.

Still, it’s unclear if or when Apple will ever launch a foldable device. And Samsung is sure to keep reminding users of that until we hear from Apple.

Threads, Meta’s newest social networking app, made a splash when it launched in July, only to see its rapid growth taper off. But now, Threads is back in the news as the company rolls it out on the web.

It should be widely available in the coming days, but not every Threads user can see the new web version just yet. You may still see the mostly black homepage encouraging you to download the mobile apps.

To announce the update, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg shared a photo on Threads captioned, “Actual footage of me building Threads for web. Rolling out over the next few days.” The company also wrote about the news in a blog post shared Tuesday.

“The new logged-in experience for web lets you post a Thread, view your feed, and interact with other people’s Threads,” the post reads. “We’re working hard to bring this experience to parity with mobile and will add more functions to the web version in the coming weeks.”

This isn’t the only update Threads has received recently. Reposts have been added to the Following feed, and a Reposts tab has been added to user profiles, showing in one place all the threads they’ve reposted. And the platform earlier introduced a Your Likes tab, showing which posts users have liked. The changes help make the platform similar to Twitter, which has been rebranded X.

As we pointed out earlier, there’s an interesting reason why users may not want to sign up for Threads. If you one day decide you want to permanently delete your Threads account, you must delete the Instagram account you used to sign up for Threads. Threads and Instagram are both Meta platforms, and Threads was built by the Instagram team.

You can also check out the CNET guide to Threads, plus information on how to filter your feed to only show posts from people you follow.

Logitech’s update to its most performance-focused wireless gaming headset, the Logitech Pro G X 2 LightSpeed, wins at almost everything that matters from precise sound to all-day comfort to terrific battery life. It’s slightly more expensive than before at $250 ( 250, AU$450) — not cheap, but while the feature set is a bit narrow compared to other headsets in the same price range, some of the tradeoffs make a lot of sense in light of the intended audience of serious gamers.

Its popular predecessor is still around if you want something a little cheaper, currently at $160.

One of the biggest, most novel changes from the G Pro X is the driver construction. Logitech switched the diaphragm material from Mylar to Ora’s GrapheneQ, a more rigid membrane — graphene is an atom-thick sheet of carbon atoms bonded into hexagons — and a matching, more rigid suspension mechanism. The combination theoretically provides more precise control over the vibrations; since the vibrations create the sound waves, in theory more precision means better accuracy and less distortion.

While it’s possible that the power of suggestion colors my experience, I do think I heard a different, sharper attack (not in the shooting sense, in the “hits peak volume fast” sense) than other headsets. That seems to deliver extra clarity for noises which is really the point for this headset.

But it also seemed like there was longer decay — again, not in the zombie sense, in the “sounds persist longer than usual” sense — almost like a leadfoot on a piano’s damper pedal. It is especially effective for horror, though, and makes the soundstage seem larger (or at least I do, because persistence can help convey distance).

Logitech says it also delivers a bigger soundstage (how big the audio bubble around you sounds), and in that respect it didn’t seem a whole lot larger than any other headset with 50mm drivers and decent construction. But it does sound really good, and I couldn’t hear any distortion on either the lows or highs.

The headset supports DTS Headphone:X for surround, though like its predecessor, it can’t work with the DTS Sound Unbound app. Instead, you control it via Logitech’s G Hub software. The best thing about the controls is the ability to adjust the volume of each of the 7.1 channels separately, which effectively can let you make noises sound nearer or farther away. Overall, the directionality is pretty effective, though I do wish I could adjust the HRTF for location as well as volume to distinguish position of sounds coming from the rear. (As with all things related to sound, YMMV.)

The mic hasn’t changed, but you can make adjustments and process the sound with Logitech’s extensive Blue Voice built into G Hub. It only has a three-band equalizer, but you can create your own ranges for the bands, which is nice. Its noise reduction is less than stellar, though. It’s good at blocking noise entirely — unless you’re talking. Then it doesn’t seem to be able to filter out noise while keeping voice in, or it just doesn’t try. The mic sounds really good, though; crisp and precise, exactly what you want for chat.

Though you can’t cycle through different headset profiles in hardware, it does remember the last settings that were activated in the software, including surround.

Design

The Pro X 2 is also lighter than before, with rotating earcups, better battery life and Bluetooth 5.3. At 12.2 ounces (345g) the headset doesn’t fall on the feather-light end of the scale, but thanks to its very HyperX-like ear cushions and rotating cups, it feels similarly comfortable for all-day wear. And speaking of all day, the battery life is one of the best I’ve encountered: After at least 24 hours of use, it still hasn’t dropped below 75%.

There are some tradeoffs for weight and battery life. For instance, it doesn’t support simultaneous Bluetooth and PC wireless; you have to toggle devices via an on-ear button. That’s not unusual, at least at lower prices, and is similar to the approach Razer takes with its competing BlackShark line. But I still miss at least hearing notifications and reminders on my phone, and prefer Turtle Beach’s method for its (significantly more expensive) Stealth Pro wireless — the ability to mute notifications while gaming.

It connects almost instantaneously to the receiver, though — it doesn’t try to automatically reconnect to Bluetooth unless that was the active connection when you turned the power off — which is a benefit of the toggle-only Bluetooth. There’s no built in mic for using on calls, but that’s common in this class of headsets.

Switching between the two connections is fast as well. Logitech rates the wireless range up to 98 feet (30m). Through pretty solid walls I got about 30 feet before the signal started to break up, though it never fully disconnected.

There are a set of fabric-covered ear cushions in the box if the leatherette gives you the ear sweats. The leatherette isn’t very sound isolating; you don’t really give anything up if you switch. But because I didn’t expect them, I didn’t look and now there’s probably a recycling machine picking them out of its teeth. If you need to re-pair the headset with the receiver, though, you have to remove the earcup and apply the paperclip-pinhole method.

There’s also basic analog input through a 3.5mm jack, but there’s no splitter in the box. You can also mix in another audio source via a 3.5mm jack on the dongle. You can charge the headset while in use, but you can’t listen via the USB connection.

My only quibble with the design is that there are no tones or voice prompts; all the connection and battery indicators are LEDs on the left earcup. Since I tend to put the headset on before powering up, which is when you would see that the power is low (the LED glows red for 5 seconds when it’s down to 10%), it’s annoying. Then again, see exceptional battery life. Or connect to your phone if you’re not in front of your PC.

There’s very little I don’t like about this headset; I don’t even have a lot of nitpicks. I wish it had a flip-up mic instead of removable, but that’s a personal preference and can even be a point of failure. Everything in the Logitech G Pro X 2 seems to focus on comfort, reliability (both physical and audio) and battery life for its esports and enthusiast gamer target demographic, and it succeeds — at least as far as I can tell without another year of use.

AT&T is finally expanding its use of 5G for home internet. On Tuesday, the wireless carrier announced that it is expanding its fixed wireless offering to 16 new markets, offering home broadband over 5G for $55 per month.

Called “Internet Air,” the new markets include “areas of Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, Harrisburg-Lancaster-Lebanon, Pennsylvania; Pittsburgh, Las Vegas, Phoenix (Prescott), Chicago, Detroit, Flint-Saginaw-Bay City, Michigan; Hartford-New Haven, Connecticut; Minneapolis-St. Paul, Portland, Oregon; Salt Lake City, Seattle-Tacoma and Tampa-St. Petersburg (Sarasota), Florida.”

In a blog post, Erin Scarborough, president of AT&T’s broadband and connectivity initiatives, said the carrier determined its 5G home broadband locations by looking for areas in its network that had “enough wireless coverage and capacity to deliver not only a great in-home experience, but also maintain a top-notch wireless service for our existing mobile users.”

Those who also have AT&T wireless service and sign up for automatic payments will be able to lower the bill to $35 per month. Similar to offerings from T-Mobile or Verizon, AT&T’s 5G home internet does not have overage fees, equipment charges or annual contracts. AT&T also says that it won’t increase the price “at 12 months.”

The carrier previously was experimenting with the Internet Air product in parts of Los Angeles and Philadelphia, pitching the product in some locations as an upgrade to its older, DSL home broadband service, particularly in areas where its fiber-based internet isn’t available. The carrier tells CNET that it expects download speeds over 5G to be between 40Mbps and 140Mbps and that upload speeds will be between 5Mbps and 25Mbps. While not as fast as fiber or cable, this would mark a noticeable speed boost from the “generally 6Mbps or lower” speeds it says its DSL users experience.

AT&T says it currently has around 6 million nonfiber broadband customers.

Read more: What is 5G Home Internet?

For reference, Netflix says it needs speeds of at least 15Mbps for 4K streaming, while Zoom says it requires download speeds of 3.8Mbps and upload speeds of 3Mbps for HD group video calls. It was not immediately clear what kind of upload speeds or latency AT&T’s Internet Air product might offer.

Setting up AT&T’s Internet Air also appears to be similar to how its rivals’ deliver their respective home internet offerings, with the carrier shipping users a modem/Wi-Fi router combo device and guiding setup, installation and management through an accompanying app. If you decide to cancel the service, you will simply need to return the device to AT&T.

Those with larger homes can get Wi-Fi extenders that connect to the router for an additional $10 per month, per extender (with a max of five extenders). Users can also connect their existing Wi-Fi routers to the AT&T device’s ethernet port if they would prefer to use their own setups. AT&T says its app can also guide users on ideal extender placement and that it will be able to send notifications to let users know that moving the router or extender could be useful to optimize the network.

While 5G hasn’t lived up to its significant hype in a number of areas, it has delivered some much-needed competition for consumers in home broadband as wireless carriers looked to compete with big cable companies such as Comcast, Charter and Optimum (plus in the case of T-Mobile, even wired offerings from Verizon and AT&T).

AT&T’s home internet news comes only a few days after the carrier confirmed that it was giving its 5G network an earlier-than-expected speed boost. Scarborough told CNET that the earlier clearance of C-band spectrum “did not play into our decision” to expand into these markets and that it has been planning this move for “several months.”

“We’ve been very thoughtful in how we’ve modeled this and where we believe we can provide the best in class customer experience.”