Author: News Room

There are 8278 pieces in the Lego Icons The Lord of the Rings: Minas Tirith set. I know this because I have now touched, sorted, and clicked together a significant proportion of them, and my fingertips have the tiny cuts to prove it. The plan was simple, or at least it sounded simple when I came up with it. Watch the Lord of the Rings trilogy (Extended Edition, of course) back to back, roughly 11 hours and 23 minutes all in, and build the White City of Gondor alongside it, bag by bag, finishing the final brick as Frodo, Bilbo…

Right now, my dining table looks like a battlefield. Pelennor Fields, to be precise, because I’m somewhere in the middle of building the Lego Minas Tirith set – 8200-odd pieces of a citadel that seems determined to spread across every flat surface in my house. Grey bricks here, white bricks there, a small mountain of 1×1 plates that easily get lost in the rug. It is, genuinely, one of the best builds I’ve ever attempted. But it is also a little chaotic. So when I stumbled across Brickle – a company that makes what can only be described as furniture-grade…

The AI-powered “Ask Maps” tool in Google Maps can now perform a broader range of personalized and conversational requests, including ordering food, finding hotels, and providing suggestions that factor in your existing plans. These are among several new features announced for Ask Maps today, which aim to “make it easier than ever to get more done” without having to close the Google Maps app, according to Google Maps head, Miriam Daniel.New agentic capabilities include asking Maps to order you food while considering contextual information like specific dietary needs, location, and places you’ve saved. For example, Google says you can ask…

Google is set to host its next live Made by Google hardware launch event on August 12th, and the company says in a new video that comedian Trevor Noah will be hosting the show.The video indicates that the event will feature other celebrities and influencers as well, including Call Her Daddy host Alex Cooper (who was at the 2025 event), Indian cricketer Shubman Gill (who has starred in Pixel ads), Japanese actress Ayami Nakajo (who has also starred in Pixel ads), and NBA star / Google Performance Advisor Stephen Curry. (Cooper and Noah are also bringing shows to YouTube.)Jimmy Fallon…

Apple has increased the trade-in value for its existing crop of iPhone models; perhaps in anticipation of the expected price hikes for the forthcoming iPhone 18 range. In newly updated US trade-in values spotted by 9to5Mac, Apple is also offering consumers more for iPad, Mac and Apple Watch models. The big news is the iPhone trade-ins with the majority of models, from the iPhone 16 Pro Max to the iPhone 8, now more valuable when you’re buying a new device. The 2024 iPhone 16 Pro Max is now worth up to $720 against a new phone, where as before the…

Best Buy kicked off a sale on Apple products with discounts on its latest smartwatches to phones. Another deal that caught our eye is on the latest AirPods Pro, Apple’s flagship wireless earbuds, which are down to $189.99 ($60 off), with retailers like Amazon and Walmart matching the price. That’s their lowest price since Prime Day in late June, and just $20 shy of their all-time low.The AirPods Pro are our favorite wireless earbuds to recommend for iPhone owners because they offer better sound quality than Apple’s entry-level AirPods. Our A/V reviewer John Higgins uses them more often than other…

What a week it’s been for High Dynamic Range enthusiasts! Just days after Samsung announced the roll out of the new HDR10+ Advanced standard, Hisense has revealed the rival Dolby Vision 2 standard is coming to some of its best TVs via an over-the-air update. While Dolby announced TVs from TCL and Philips will also be in line for Dolby Vision 2 since the announcement a year ago, Hisense has beaten both to the punch. To experience the new format, you’ll need the newest Hisense UX Series, UR9 and UR8 RGB Mini LED TVs, or the U7 Pro Mini LED…

After being announced last September, Dolby Vision 2 is rolling out to TVs, starting with the 2026 Hisense UX, UR9, UR8, and U7. TCL and Philips will be adding Dolby Vision 2 support to select TVs later this year.Dolby Vision 2 is a new dynamic HDR format with a more powerful image engine and expanded metadata compared to its predecessor, Dolby Vision, which came out over a decade ago. It has two tiers: Dolby Vision 2 Max, which will be on this first group of Hisense TVs, and a standard-level Dolby Vision 2.The Max level includes a motion smoothing feature…

Here’s a new one! Streaming platform Netflix has teamed up with Rockstar games to offer “an extended look” at arguably the most anticipated video game of all time, Grand Theft Auto 6. And it’ll only be available to Netflix members. The entertainment giants have announced the stream will become available on Thursday August 27 at 3:00pm ET (that’s 8:00pm UK time). That’s still seven weeks prior to the release of the game itself, which becomes available on November 19. In a blog post, Netflix points out that, when the last version of GTA arrived in 2013, the company began dipping…

Bose announced a second-generation version of its entry-level QuietComfort noise-canceling headphones that were originally introduced in late 2023. The new headphones feature a refreshed design with a more comfortable headband that’s easier to adjust and ANC that better adapts to changing noise environments. The second-gen QuietComfort are also getting Bose’s TrueSpatial immersive audio technology that was previously only available on the company’s pricier QuietComfort Ultra.While the original version of the QuietComfort headphones debuted at $349 nearly three years ago, Bose’s second-gen version is carrying forward a small price bump to $359. They’ll be available for preorder starting on August 8th…

Back in 2021, before I reviewed the Bike+, I was a Peloton sceptic. It all seemed entirely unnecessary, from the huge screen and expensive monthly subscription to the over-the-top instructors and pricey hardware. Why not just buy a cheap exercise bike and use an app on your phone? But then I tried it, and like everyone else, I got hooked.  Every week, I chased a higher output score, took part in the leaderboard nonsense, and very quickly learned to appreciate the quality of the instructors (even if some are still a bit much for me). Five years later, my Bike+…

TikTok says a “moderator error” delayed the removal of a livestream that appeared to show blogger Perez Hilton harming himself, as reported earlier by Wired. Jamie Favazza, a spokesperson for TikTok US, tells The Verge that the platform notified law enforcement about the situation and banned Hilton’s account for violating its community guidelines.Hilton, or Mario Armando Lavandeira Jr., is known for the celebrity gossip blog he started in 2004, where he often posted photos of stars featuring his own often obscene or cruel drawings layered on top.Though some users claimed Perez’s livestream aired for more than 30 minutes, Favazza disputes…