Back at CES, Samsung teased some of its upcoming high-end appliances for 2025. But more recently, I got a chance to check out the entire lineup all in one place. It seemed like a perfect time to do a quick rundown of some of the most interesting new products and features coming to Samsungs Bespoke portfolio later this year.
The centerpiece of the Bespoke line remains Samsungs 4-door French-Door refrigerator, which is now available with two different-sized screens. Theres a model with a smaller 9-inch screen that starts at $3,999 or one with a massive 32-inch panel called the Family Hub+ for $4,699. The former is ostensibly designed for people who want something a bit more discreet but still want access to Samsungs smart features, which includes widgets for your calendar, music, weather, various cooking apps and more. Meanwhile, the larger model is for families who arent afraid of having a small TV in their face every time they open their fridge. You can even play videos from TikTok on it, if thats what youre into.
Samsung's massive 32-inch Family Hub+ display supports a number of widgets for stuff like weather, music and even TikTok.Sam Rutherford for Engadget
That said, Samsung is hoping to entice people to take advantage of those displays with even more AI-powered tools, most notably its improved AI Vision Inside object recognition. By using sensors mounted within the appliance, Samsung says its latest Bespoke fridge can detect 37 different types of fresh ingredients (e.g. produce and dairy) and up to 50 processed foods. This allows the device to keep an up-to-date list of items you may (or may not) have on hand, which you can view on the fridges display or from your phone while youre grocery shopping.
Samsung's smaller 9-inch display blends in much better for anyone averse to big screens in their kitchen. Sam Rutherford for Engadget
Now, I will fully admit that AI has become a somewhat empty buzzword recently, and in this situation, Im not entirely sure what the difference between AI-based and traditional object recognition really is. But being able to have your fridge generate a list of whats inside when youre at the store is the kind of convenience Id like to see more of. Other features on Samsungs Bespoke French-Door fridges include built-in Wi-Fi and SmartThings connectivity, a Dual Auto Ice maker that can create both regular and smaller Ice Bite cubes and the always useful Beverage Center with its built-in cold water pitcher.
Sam Rutherford for Engadget
If all this isnt techy enough, Samsung also has a Hybrid version of its 4-door fridge (starting at $3,999) that chills its contents using both a standard compressor and a solid-state Peltier module. The idea is that in normal use, the compressor provides consistent baseline cooling while the Peltier module (through the power of AI) turns on to address big changes in temperature. For example, the module would kick on when you're loading groceries or simply have the doors open for too long. Not only does this help bring temperatures back to normal faster, it also reduces overall energy consumption. For people looking to cram a new fridge in a tight spot, Samsung also made the Bespoke 4-Door Flex Kitchen Fit Refrigerator (price is still TBD). While it doesnt have a Peltier module, the advantage of this model is that it has different doors and hinges that dont protrude nearly as much when open. This means the fridge only needs a gap of just 4mm (0.15 inches) on each side instead of multiple inches like a normal fridge.
Samsung's Bespoke Auto Open Door Dishwasher has a dedicated pan holder and sprayers on its third-rack for glasses. Sam Rutherford for Engadget
For cooking, Samsungs matte glass induction cooktops are mostly the same, but its Bespoke 30-inch single ($3,759) and double ($4,649) wall ovens haveyou guessed it, more AI. In addition to a 7-inch display, there are also cameras and sensors inside the oven that can recognize up to 80 different recipes to provide optimal cooking times. But if you prefer to go off-script and create something original, Samsung says the oven will give you the option to save the recipe and temperature settings after cooking the same dish five times. And for a more fun application of its tech, the ovens cameras can record videos and create time-lapses of your baked goods for sharing on social media.
When its time to clean up, Samsungs $1,399 Bespoke Auto Open Door Dishwasher has a few tricks of its own. In this case, the washer uses AI (yet again) and sensors to more accurately detect food residue and optimize cleaning cycles. Theres also a third rack with dedicated sprayers for glasses. But the best part is that while in use, the washer tops out at just 38 decibels, which Samsung says makes it one of the quietest models in its class.
Samsung claims its all-in-one vented combo can do a full wash and dry cycle in as little as 68 minutes.Sam Rutherford for Engadget
Moving on to laundry, Samsung says its $3,099 Bespoke AI Laundry Vented Combo is the first of its kind, as most combined washer/dryers are typically meant for ventless installations like smallapartments (of course, there is a non-vented model as well). But to me, the more impressive thing is that Samsung claims its combo laundry machine can perform a full wash and dry cycle in as little as 68 minutes, which is faster than many paired units can achieve.
Finally, theres the $1,099 Bespoke AI Jet Ultra Cordless Stick Vacuum, which seems like Samsungs attempt to one-up Dyson. Thanks to its new HexaJet motor, the Jet boasts up to 400AW of suction while battery life is rated at up to 100 minutes. The company says that combo makes this stick vac the most powerful and long-lasting model available today. It also uses AI to better detect what surface its on to more effectively hoover up dirt and debris. The main downside is that the vacuums shaft and housing are significantly thicker than what you get on many of its rivals, so it may not be quite as maneuverable.
Sam Rutherford for Engadget
Finally, theres the $1,099 Bespoke AI Jet Ultra Cordless Stick Vacuum, which seems like Samsungs attempt to one-up Dyson. Thanks to its new HexaJet motor, the Jet boasts up to 400AW of suction while battery life is rated at up to 100 minutes. The company says that combo makes this stick vac the most powerful and long-lasting model available today. It also uses AI to better detect what surface its on to more effectively hoover up dirt and debris. The main downside is that the vacuums shaft and housing are significantly thicker than what you get on many of its rivals, so it may not be quite as maneuverable.
Pre-orders for Samsungs 2025 Bespoke appliances begin today and include discounts of up to $1,000, along with an additional year of warranty.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/home/kitchen-tech/samsungs-2025-bespoke-appliances-are-going-all-in-on-ai-020018377.html?src=rss
Were coming up on the 10-year anniversary of Undertales release, and to mark the occasion, a 25-piece orchestra will perform the games soundtrack for a one-night-only concert at London's Eventim Apollo this summer. The event, dubbed The Determination Symphony, will be held on June 22, and tickets are on sale now.
The Determination Symphony is described as a musical journey from your initial fall at Mount Ebott, leading you through Froggit Village, the Snowdin Forest, Temmie Village and so much more. Attendees (who Im deeply envious of) will be able to watch all of that on screen while the orchestra makes its way through arrangements of the soundtrack. Its hard to believe that Toby Foxs Undertale is already 10 years old, but its enduring popularity just speaks to the impact its had on so many who have played it. We may not all get to experience the orchestral rendition, but at least we'll always have the original soundtrack.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/a-live-orchestra-will-perform-undertales-soundtrack-in-london-to-celebrate-its-10th-anniversary-214830716.html?src=rss
The Nintendo Direct livestream on Thursday brought some unexpected news for Tamagotchi fans: the Tamagotchi Connection: Corner Shop game series of the early 2000s is being resurrected with a new entry, Tamagotchi Plaza. But it seems the announcement trailer left out the best part. As spotted by Tama-Palace, Bandai Namco says on the games official website that Tamagotchi Plaza will be compatible with the Tamagotchi Uni. Players will be able to link their Uni devices to the game to access special perks kind of like how the beloved, defunct TamaTown worked. Tamagotchi Plaza comes out on June 27.
In Tamagotchi Plaza, players will act as shopkeepers and help get the town ready for the big Tamagotchi festival. Some shops will include the option for local two-player. As for connecting your Uni, Bandai says:
Tamagotchi Plaza features a linkage function with the Tamagotchi Uni. For the first time, players can connect with the latest toy model, the Tamagotchi Uni. By linking the Tamagotchi Uni, they will gain access to exclusive items, special events, and unique conversations not available in the base game, while supplies last.
Considering the Tamagotchi Uni is nearing two years old now, anything that will inject some newness into the experience is welcome. For anyone who grew bored of the Uni and has been neglecting it, Tamagotchi Plaza seems like a pretty compelling reason to dust it off and get playing again. Of course, you don't need a Uni device to play; it has enough appeal on its own as a super cozy game that'll tug at franchise fans' nostalgia. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/nintendo/the-new-tamagotchi-game-for-nintendo-switch-will-connect-with-tamagotchi-uni-160639100.html?src=rss
Back in 2022, Sony hired Garrett Fredley to join its then newly formed Preservation team, which has been working to find and save documentation of PlayStation's 30-year history since then. Now, Fredley spoke at Game Developers Conference to give an update about his team's efforts. In his Game File newsletter, Stephen Totilo has shared the details about Fredley's talk. Apparently, the team formed what it's calling the PlayStation Studios Vault to store everything it could find about Sony's game-making history.
The Vault now houses game builds, source code and source art, but it has all kinds of other files, as well. Fredley explained that it was created to preserve "everything that is ever related to a project you can possibly find: from documentation to audio assets, to prototype information, anything under the sun, even cultural artifacts." If it's adjacent to a PlayStation studio game, the team will store it in the Vault even photos of developer teams that made the game. Currently, the oldest item in the team's collection has a 1994 timestamp and was from the tactical RPG Arc the Lad. The latest files include every customer-facing PS5 build of every PlayStation Studios game, as well as every debug, testing, alpha, beta and milestone releases. It has over 1,000 builds saved.
At the moment, the Vault has two main servers located in Las Vegas, Nevada and Liverpool, England, which store 650 terabytes of data, or around 200 million files. That's almost double the 350 terabytes of data Fredley said the team gathered during another one of his talks last year. He expects to quickly go over the 1 petabyte of cloud server storage data the team's current setup can handle, especially since more and more games are being developed.
The preservation team uses tools to help its work, including a robot called Vaultron that can read thousands of discs to find files. But it still hasn't been easy, since most studios don't exactly store their files in a way that makes them understandable and accessible decades from now. Going forward, Fredley and his team will have to solve a few problems that they're expecting to pop up. They'll need to have good indexing tools, for instance, and figure out a way to maintain the ability to use the files they collect.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/playstation/sony-has-been-backing-up-its-ps5-game-builds-as-part-of-a-preservation-effort-150025423.html?src=rss
The reviews train rolls on at Engadget. We've had another busy couple of weeks, and more new devices are arriving for testing every day. For now, catch up on our in-depth analysis of the new base-model iPad, Nothing Phone 3a duo, some incredible sounding headphones and more.
iPad (2025) with A16
Apple has been busy updating several devices over the past few weeks, including the "regular" iPad. The company's entry-level tablet now has an A16 chip that offers plenty of power for most people. The iPad Air is still a better option if you can afford to spend more, according to buying advice senior reporter Jeff Dunn. "But for $250 less than the latest Air, the iPad (A16) does well to meet most iPad users where they live," he writes. "Its not the most delightful iPad, but its good enough for the masses."
Nothing Phone 3a and 3a Pro
The Nothing Phone 3a is much more than an update to the 2a when you consider the company opted to debut a new Pro model alongside it. There are concerns about a limited warranty in the US, but the 3a is a great budget device and the Pro has better-than-midrange cameras. "It's really hard to criticize Nothing for any of the component choices, and if you're willing to take a risk on the company's limited US warranty and want something unique, these are the phones to buy," senior reporter Igor Bonifacic explains.
Noble Audio FoKus Apollo
$649 is a lot to pay for a pair of wireless headphones. But if you're searching for the absolute best available sound quality, perhaps money is no object. Noble Audio's FoKus Apollo has a unique driver setup that offers a more expansive and detailed soundstage than the competition and long battery life, but that's about it. "For me, to pay $649 I expect more in terms of features," I argue. "The first item would be better ANC performance, but I dont feel like spatial audio support and wear detection are too much to ask."
Assassin's Creed Shadows and a cheap tablet battle
Contributing reporter Kris Holt spent some time with the new Assassin's Creed title and came away with some mixed feelings on the game. "Assassin's Creed Shadows has impressive technical work, great performances and an expansive, well-drawn story but it's unfortunately weighed down by some frustrating decisions and antiquated gameplay systems," he writes. "Still, I'm eager to keep exploring."
In addition to reviewing the latest iPad, Jeff also pit the Amazon Fire HD 8 against Walmart Onn 8 in a battle of the sub-$100 tablets. After a few weeks with the matchup, his biggest takeaway is you should probably just try to spend a little more on a new tablet. "Get an iPad, buy an older refurbished one if you have to, pay even a little bit extra for a more powerful tablet from Samsung, Lenovo or another name brand it shouldnt really matter," he says. "Itll run better, both today and into the future."
Upcoming reviews
The busy reviews season continues for the team at Engadget. Coming up next, we've got the Pixel 9a, ASUS ROG Flow Z13 and AMD Ryzen 9950X3D. I'll also be taking a look at the Weber Smoque smart grill and Audio-Technica's ATH-CKS50TW2 earbuds. Spring is also the time we typically see a lot of the devices that were announced at CES go on sale, especially home theater gear, so look for some of those items to appear soon as well. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/engadget-review-recap-ipad-nothing-phone-3a-assassins-creed-shadows-and-more-130057384.html?src=rss
Elon Musk's AI company, xAI, has purchased X, according to a post shared by Musk. Besides their similar names and owner, the companies are already connected through xAI's chatbot Grok, which is integrated into X.
X was acquired by xAI through an all-stock transaction. "The combination values xAI at $80 billion and X at $33 billion ($45B less $12B debt)," Musk writes. "xAI and Xs futures are intertwined." The companies plan on combining "data, models, compute, distribution and talent," using X's reach as a social platform to spread "xAIs advanced AI capability." The post offers little detail beyond that, but the motivations could be as financial as they are practical.
@xAI has acquired @X in an all-stock transaction. The combination values xAI at $80 billion and X at $33 billion ($45B less $12B debt). Since its founding two years ago, xAI has rapidly become one of the leading AI labs in the world, building models and data centers at Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 28, 2025
X, then Twitter, was acquired by Musk in 2022 for $43 billion. xAI, like many leading AI companies, has been raising money as often and as quickly as possible. Combining the two companies, besides the fuzzy potential benefits social media posts could have for training AI, helps ease some of the debt that Musk took on taking Twitter private. The billionaire pulled a similar stunt in 2016 with Tesla, when the car maker merged with SolarCity for $2.6 billion. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/xai-elon-musks-ai-company-just-purchased-x-elon-musks-social-media-company-221503759.html?src=rss
Lenovo has the honor of releasing the first SteamOS handhelds not made by Valve, and it looks like you won't have to wait long to get them. Legion Go S handhelds with SteamOS ship May 25, according to a new Best Buy listing spotted by The Verge, but go for at least $50 more than the original $499.99 price Lenovo promised.
The Legion Go S powered by SteamOS now starts at $549.99, which gets you an 8-inch, 120Hz OLED display, comfortable controls, a fingerprint reader / touchpad, 16GB of RAM and the AMD Ryzen Z2 Go chip. If you're willing to pay $749.99, you can get the same package, but with the AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme, which originally appeared on the Legion Go, and 32GB of RAM.
PC-class gaming, now in your hands. Pre-order the new Lenovo Legion Go S with Steam OS at https://t.co/3jqjW1logY pic.twitter.com/5qb5nyzcTn Lenovo Legion (@LenovoLegion) March 28, 2025
Perhaps more important than the specs, both handhelds come pre-loaded with SteamOS, which means they should be as easy to setup and use as the Steam Deck, and be able to play the vast majority of games thanks to Valve's Proton compatibility software.
Lenovo already released its first Windows 11 version of the Legion Go S back in February for $730. We found it expensive and a bit hampered by Windows in our review, but otherwise solid. At the time, a SteamOS version for $500 seemed like a promising alternative. But for $50 extra, some of that shine has come off, particularly when you can get the already excellent Steam Deck OLED for the same price.
It'll take a full review to suss out how different SteamOS makes the Legion Go S, whether paired with the Ryzen Z2 Go or the more powerful Ryzen Z1 Extreme. At the very least, it's nice to have more SteamOS devices in the wild.
The Legion Go S powered by SteamOS is available to pre-order now for $549.99, and will ship on May 25. The Ryzen Z1 Extreme model ships on the same date for $749.99. Lenovo is also offering a version of the Ryzen Z1 Extreme Legion Go S with Windows 11 for $829.99, too.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/pc/lenovo-legion-go-s-with-steamos-will-land-may-25-for-50-more-than-expected-213820420.html?src=rss
YouTube is testing turning off notifications from channels viewers don't engage with in attempt to tame the number of notifications they receive. The video platform says the test will specifically impact viewers who've chosen to receive "All" notifications from a channel.
During the experiment, notifications will still appear in the notification inbox, but "viewers who havent recently engaged with a channel despite having been sent recent push notifications will not receive push notifications," YouTube says. The goal is to get viewers to not disable notifications entirely just because they've received too many.
Many YouTube creators specifically ask people to subscribe and enable notifications so they know when a new video has been uploaded. The problem is, when you agree to receive "All" notifications, you'll also get pestered about things that aren't new uploads. There are ways to manage your notifications, but YouTube claims it's common for people to disable them at the app-level once they get annoyed (impacting every channel they're subscribed to), rather than try and tweak things. For a creator who wants to maximize the number of people that watch their videos, not being able to rely on push notifications to grab subscribers' attention is a problem.
YouTube deciding that some viewers shouldn't receive notifications from a given channel seems like an extreme solution, though. The company describes this test as "small," but it certainly feels like there could be a more nuanced way to weed out the push notifications people don't need.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/youtube-may-mute-notifications-from-channels-you-dont-watch-202802028.html?src=rss
The latest image from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, pictured above, also happens to be a stunning illustration of Einstein's theory of general relativity. So much so that the cosmic phenomenon is called an "Einstein ring."
Einstein rings happen when light from one distant object is bent around the mass of another, slightly closer and even larger object. The effect is normally too subtle to observe up close on a local level, "but it sometimes becomes clearly observable when dealing with curvatures of light on enormous, astronomical scales," NASA writes. In the case of this image, when the light from one distant galaxy is warped around the mass of another.
This "gravitational lensing," as it's technically called, is Einstein's general relativity in practice. Spacetime (the fusion of space and time that makes up the fabric of the universe) curving around an object's mass, with the curve itself being gravity. Objects like the ones pictured in the image an elliptical galaxy wrapped in a spiral galaxy are "the ideal laboratory in which to research galaxies too faint and distant to otherwise see."
This Einstein ring was captured by the "Strong Lensing and Cluster Evolution (SLICE) survey" conducted at the University of Lige in Belgium. The survey is led by a team of astronomers looking "to trace eight billion years of galaxy cluster evolution," according to NASA.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/science/space/latest-webb-telescope-image-shows-a-cosmic-phenomenon-called-an-einstein-ring-185911553.html?src=rss
Score another one for regulatory scrutiny. Following a 2022 Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) investigation, Google said on Friday that it's adding the UK to the list of countries where it supports user choice billing. This lets Android developers in the nation allow users to pay for in-app purchases using alternative billing systems.
Google says the UK will get user choice billing beginning on March 29. It will start with non-gaming apps, which aligns with how Google has handled these rollouts in other regions. Areas where alternate billing is already available include the US, Japan, Brazil, Australia, Indonesia, South Africa and European Economic Area (EEA) markets.
Developers who enroll in the program can only offer alternative payments in addition to not in place of Google Play billing. They'll receive a four percent discount from Google's service fees.
The move is closely tied to the nation's regulations. In 2023, the company floated user choice billing as a concession to help settle a UK CMA antitrust investigation that began the previous year.
Although Google acknowledged the CMA's influence on its decision in its announcement, the company framed the move in a blog post as giving the people (in this case, developers) may want. "While over 90% of our developers are 'satisfied' or 'very satisfied' with Google Play's billing, which provides a secure way for people to buy subscriptions and digital goods in apps, we recognise that some developers may want more choice in how they process payments," Google Competition Counsel Myrto Tagara wrote.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/google-play-will-offer-user-choice-billing-in-the-uk-180145121.html?src=rss
