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The Foldable iPhone is Here: Our First Impressions of the iPhone Duo
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Smartphones, Features, Videos,
Apple has finally made an iPhone that folds. I just spent a lot of time getting hands-on with the iPhone Duo at the Apple launch, and the excitement start right when you open it up. It introduces a completely new way to use iOS.
Let's dive into what this $1,999 device actually does!
Click to continue reading The Foldable iPhone is Here: Our First Impressions of the iPhone Duo
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The iPhone 18 Pro’s Secret Weapon: How a Variable Aperture Camera Will Change Your Photos
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Smartphones, Features, Product Reviews,
Apple just changed how the iPhone Pro thinks. On the surface, the iPhone 18 Pro might look like a standard, iterative update. But underneath the familiar exterior lies a completely rebuilt architecture. We are talking about a new chip, a massive cooling upgrade, and a camera system that finally does something no other iPhone has ever done. Let's dig into what makes this device a quiet powerhouse.
A familiar design with a few smart tweaks
The body uses a high-heat force aluminum unibody, keeping it lightweight but incredibly tough. Apple introduced four colors this year: Black, Silver, Glacier, and Burgundy. The Burgundy finish is deep, sophisticated, and catches the light beautifully without screaming for attention.
Durability is highly impressive. Both the front and back feature Ceramic Shield 2. You can comfortably run this display without a screen protector and not see a single scratch after heavy daily use.
Up top, the Dynamic Island is about 25% smaller but now shows up to three live activities at once. Apple achieved this by hiding the FaceID IR camera directly behind the display pixels, giving you more screen real estate without losing functionality.
iPhone 18 Pro & Pro Max Review: THIS is What We’ve Been Waiting For! (Video)
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Smartphones, Features, Product Reviews, Videos,
Better battery life. When I polled my YouTube community on the one upgrade they wanted most from a new phone, that answer beat everything else by a mile, and the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max are the first iPhones where I think Apple has delivered it. After a week with the 18 Pro Max, on days when I didn't top it up, I was ending the night in the high 20s to low 30s. That's while hammering it nonstop to prepare this review.
2027 Mercedes-Benz CLA 250+ Review: The Luxury of Going Farther
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Features, Product Reviews, Transportation,
The electric Mercedes-Benz CLA makes an unusually persuasive case for leaving an option box unchecked. Its two EPA range ratings are 57 miles apart, with the smaller-wheel configuration delivering the longer distance. That trade-off matters more to me than the size of its screens or the number of illuminated stars on its nose.
The 2027 Mercedes-Benz CLA 250+ Electric starts at a base MSRP of $47,950, before destination and options. That makes it a relatively accessible Mercedes, rather than an inexpensive car. The price buys serious electric-car engineering, but several conveniences I expect in a luxury sedan still cost extra.
Even for someone who rarely takes a road trip, extra range has value. It leaves more margin for cold weather, an unplanned errand, or a skipped charging session. I care about that flexibility far more than winning the EV acceleration contest.
Click to continue reading 2027 Mercedes-Benz CLA 250+ Review: The Luxury of Going Farther
Valve Leaked Its Own Left 4 Dead 2 Trailer To Get Around The ESRB
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Features, Video Games,
In October 2009, a few weeks before Left 4 Dead 2 shipped, a cinematic trailer for the game turned up online with nobody's name attached. Kotaku covered it on October 22 under the headline "Leaked Left 4 Dead 2 Trailer Full Of Joy, Gore." It was not much of a leak.
Chet Faliszek, a writer on both Left 4 Dead games, says Valve put it there on purpose because the ESRB would not clear it for release. "We leaked our trailer ahead of time, because they wouldn't let us release the trailer," he says in a YouTube video titled "Cutting Left 4 Dead Lines." "I'll just admit that. I think we can't get in trouble for that now. It's like 20 years ago."
Click to continue reading Valve Leaked Its Own Left 4 Dead 2 Trailer To Get Around The ESRB
CD Revenue Jumped 58.6% in Six Months, and K-Pop Fans Get Most of the Credit
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Features, Misc. Tech, Music,
Nobody was supposed to be buying CDs in 2026. US CD revenue hit $171.1 million in the first half of the year, up 58.6% from $107.9 million in the same six months of 2025, according to the RIAA's mid-year report. Shipments rose 45.7% to 17.5 million discs. Labels moved $312.4 million worth of CDs in all of 2025, so the format cleared more than half of last year's entire haul before July.
That is a real number and a small one. Physical formats account for 12% of US recorded music revenue. CDs on their own are under 3%. Streaming took 82% of the money, and streaming's six-month increase of $219 million was bigger than the entire CD business. Keep the scale in mind. What changed is who is buying, and that has a specific answer.
Stealing a car in Grand Theft Auto has taken about as much effort as opening a door for two decades now. Walk up, hold a button, drive away. In Grand Theft Auto VI, that stops working on a lot of cars.
Rob Nelson, co-studio head at Rockstar North, told IGN the studio has "put some layers of stratification into the vehicles." Before, "you could just press triangle to automatically hotwire and steal any vehicle." Now certain parked cars stay shut to you "until you get a bit further along with the story and you acquire certain tools to get into them." Carjacking is untouched. In Nelson's words, "You can always carjack any driver you see."
Click to continue reading GTA 6 Is Making You Work for Stolen Cars
The Galaxy S26 FE Costs $50 More, and Only the Chip Really Changed
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Smartphones, Features,
The Fan Edition pitch has never been complicated. Samsung takes a flagship, shaves off the parts most people won't miss, and sells it for a few hundred dollars less. The Galaxy S26 FE, official as of August 27, keeps that pitch intact. It also raises the entry fee to $699.99, up $50 from where the S25 FE started last year.
For that you get a 6.7-inch FHD+ Dynamic AMOLED 2X running at 120Hz and rated for 1,900 nits, a 4,900mAh battery, 8GB of RAM, and 128GB or 256GB of storage. It arrives September 3 at select carriers and September 4 at Samsung.com and everywhere else, in Pistachio, Blueberry, and Graphite. Nearly all of that carried over from the S25 FE unchanged.
Click to continue reading The Galaxy S26 FE Costs $50 More, and Only the Chip Really Changed
2026 Dodge Charger R/T Plus Review: The Case for a 420-HP Hatchback
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Features, Product Reviews, Transportation,
The Case for Four Doors
The hatch is what makes the 2026 Dodge Charger R/T Plus four-door interesting to me. Dodge has kept the long hood, broad stance, and considerably more horsepower than the school pickup line requires, then given you a credible reason to bring all of it home. Rear doors, folding back seats, and all-wheel drive make this easier to justify as your only car. At more than 17 feet long, it also demands a generous definition of practical.
The four-door Charger R/T starts at a base MSRP of $51,995 in the U.S., before destination, taxes, and options, with the better-equipped Plus sitting above that base model. I'm interested in the Plus for what it adds to ordinary driving, particularly its seating and head-up display. The underlying R/T already has the engine and useful body style; the upgrade needs to earn its premium inside the cabin.
This is the gasoline-powered SIXPACK Charger, with a twin-turbo inline-six rather than a V8. The electric Charger wears the Daytona name. The R/T gets the standard-output version of the six, below the more powerful Scat Pack. Calling 420 horsepower the starting point gives you some idea of Dodge's priorities.
Click to continue reading 2026 Dodge Charger R/T Plus Review: The Case for a 420-HP Hatchback
Expensive Gas Just Did What EV Subsidies Couldn’t
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Features, Transportation,
Fifty countries just posted record quarterly EV sales at the same time, and it happened in a year when the overall car market shrank. The thing that finally moved people wasn't a tax credit or a better charging network. It was the price at the pump.
That's the read from a new International Energy Agency report on the second quarter of 2026. Sales of EVs and plug-in hybrids rose 4 percent year over year and jumped 35 percent from the previous quarter, and electrified vehicles are now on track to make up 29 percent of global car sales this year. Meanwhile, total car sales fell 5 percent in the first half.
Click to continue reading Expensive Gas Just Did What EV Subsidies Couldn’t