Technology

This week, Marvel re-released Avengers: Endgame in theaters as Avengers: Endgame Encore, complete with four new scenes to get audiences ready for Avengers: Doomsday.

If you don't have the time to catch Avengers: Endgame Encore but want to make sure you're all caught up before Marvel's next massive crossover event, we've got you covered. From Loki's (Tom Hiddleston) return to more teases of Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom, here's what you need to know about Avengers: Endgame Encore's extra scenes, including the IMAX and Infinity Vision exclusive.

SEE ALSO: PSA: 'Avengers: Endgame Encore' features one less 'Doomsday' tease in non-IMAX theaters Loki crashes Steve and Peggy's romantic dance.

Avengers: Endgame Encore is basically the same as the original Avengers: Endgame, with all the new scenes tacked on at the end. That starts with Endgame's original, well, endgame, which saw Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) and Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) sharing a sweet dance in the past.

In Avengers: Endgame Encore, the scene continues with a knock on the door. The unexpected guest turns out to be none other than Loki, spiffy as always in his Time Variance Authority (TVA) uniform. He offers Steve and Peggy his help, although the movie cuts to the credits before we can find out what that help entails — or why the pair even needs help in the first place. (Perhaps it has something to do with their child, revealed in an early Doomsday teaser.)

By the end of Loki Season 2, the trickster god wound up sitting on the multiversal throne, holding the entire multiverse together. Avengers: Endgame Encore is unclear about whether his visit to Steve and Peggy is him leaving his throne or an earlier mission from Loki's first two seasons.

Bruce Banner meets Doctor Doom.

From there, Avengers: Endgame Encore rolls into a series of new scenes that play during the credits. It wouldn't be a Marvel movie without them, right?

First up is a sequence involving Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo), last seen in this summer's Spider-Man: Brand New Day. In that film, Jean Grey's (Sadie Sink) mind control prompted Bruce to Hulk out in a major way. Since then, he's been isolated in a facility two miles underground. According to a video diary he records, he's working on a new suppression serum. However, the video diary begins glitching when Doctor Doom breaks in. Runes begin popping up onscreen, the same ones that can be spotted on Doctor Doom's armor in other trailers.

Doctor Doom tells Bruce he's "here to collect you," and the last thing we hear from Bruce is the roar of the Hulk. Between that and some ominous green runes on the floor, it's not looking good for Bruce. Ruffalo was not on the main cast list for Doomsday, so this scene might explain his absence, or hint at him being under Doctor Doom's control down the line.

The TVA learns the multiverse is collapsing.

The next end-credits scene is exclusive to IMAX and Infinity Vision-certified screenings. It zips over to TVA headquarters, where characters like Mobius (Owen Wilson), Ouroboros (Ke Huy Quan), and Casey (Eugene Cordero) monitor some frightening incursions. What at first appears to be the collision of two alternate Earths soon devolves into the collision of thousands of universes.

"The multiverse is collapsing," Ouroboros says.

Isn't it always? Yet this sequence could explain why the Fantastic Four's universe, Fox's X-Men's universe, and the MCU's main universe all collide in Doomsday.

Doctor Doom forges his mask.

At the very, very end of Avengers: Endgame Encore's credits, you'll find one last teaser for Doomsday. This one starts in a familiar way: with the sound of a hammer striking metal. It's the same sound that closed out Avengers: Endgame's original release, a nod to Tony Stark (Downey Jr) forging his first suit of armor. In Avengers: Endgame Encore, the sound gets a whole new context. In quick flashes, we see Doctor Doom forge his mask and put it on.

The scene is a clever nod to Downey Jr.'s dual casting, suggesting that Victor Von Doom may have had a trajectory parallel to Tony Stark's. Did he, like Tony, make that mask in a cave? With a box of scraps? We'll have to wait until December to find out, but until then, these scenes have given us quite a bit to puzzle over.

Avengers: Endgame Encore is now in theaters. Avengers: Doomsday hits theaters Dec. 18.

UPDATE: Sep. 28, 2026, 5:28 p.m. EDT This article has been updated with information about one scene's IMAX and Infinity Vision exclusivity.

Tasker has been around for more than a decade, and the project is still going strong with an active developer and an ever-growing community. No other app matches its flexibility or power. And ten years later, it remains the gold standard for automation on Android.

An old, slow laptop might seem essentially useless. I know I have a drawer that's essentially a laptop graveyard: old laptops that I no longer use or which have been gifted to me ages ago. But some of my old laptops have come in handy over the years.

In my home, Roku is the main streaming platform. I have several Roku televisions and a couple of streaming sticks. Needless to say, I spend a lot of time in the Roku interface. One of the reasons I chose Roku was because it seemed easy to use. The remote is the same on every TV, and even the least tech-savvy people in my home have no problem using it. However, recent changes have started to make my Roku Home screen feel too busy.

Internet Explorer's last foothold on modern Windows now has an expiration date.

Microsoft is reminding IT administrators that Internet Explorer mode in its Edge browser, the only remaining way to run IE's rendering engine on current versions of Windows, will be supported through at least the end of 2029, according to gHacks Tech News. The notice, posted in the Microsoft 365 admin center under message ID MC1473151, tells organizations that still depend on IE-only applications to start planning their migrations now.

SEE ALSO: Microsoft's new Surface laptops get rid of Copilot+ PC branding

According to gHacks, the company has committed to announcing an end-of-support date at least a year before it takes effect. The early warning is to give admins time to rebuild or replace internal software, which can take years.

For context, IE mode is a compatibility feature inside Edge. Edge is built on Google's open-source Chromium engine, but IE mode lets it load pages with Trident, the older engine that powered Internet Explorer 11. Microsoft first flagged the mode's eventual retirement in 2021, according to gHacks.

Organizations with no IE dependencies don't need to take any action. For companies that still depend on it, Microsoft's guidance is to identify what depends on IE mode and update or replace it.

The notice is the latest step in a long wind-down. Microsoft officially retired the standalone Internet Explorer 11 browser in June 2022, 26 years after the browser shipped with early versions of Windows. At that point, Microsoft began steering anyone who tried to open IE toward Edge. Most users had already left. By the time of its retirement, IE held less than 1 percent of the browser market, according to StatCounter data at the time.

Do you envy the Apple ecosystem and wish you had something similar between your Windows PC and Android phone? Or maybe you’ve wanted your phone to show up as a window on your desktop, so you can poke at it with your mouse and type on it with your keyboard instead of picking it up every two minutes? If so, boy, do I have the perfect app for you — and yes, it’s completely free and open source.

Many ESP32 boards come with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, a microphone, and Thread or Zigbee support and are very affordable. That makes them great candidates for an experimental DIY smart home device—at worst, you have a board and a failed project that can be used later.

Linux might not be for everyone, but it could be exactly what you’re looking for. If your computing habits align with Linux’s unique strengths, it might be the perfect operating system for you—without you even realizing it. Here are the signs!

Smartphones obviously have tons of sensors underneath the shiny surface. Most of them are extremely common, but one particular sensor is very rare. It's super useful for people who do 3D printing, but it can't be found in modern Android phones anymore.

MacBooks are renowned for their slimline designs and unrivaled power and efficiency. They're among the best laptops you can get, but they have one flaw that can make them frustrating to use. Their slim and lightweight design comes at the cost of connectivity ports. For example, a MacBook Air has a pair of USB-C ports that might be fine for everyday tasks, but they aren't ideal for power users who want to connect memory cards or HDMI monitors.

Bambu Lab represents both ends of the 3D printing spectrum. On the one hand, it’s an incredibly successful company that took the world by storm by making 3D printing easy, accessible, and relatively cheap. On the other hand, it’s a brand that’s taken pages from the Apple and Nintendo corporate playbooks, locking down its ecosystem and throwing its legal weight around.

An average Ubuntu or Fedora installation can easily reach 15GB before you even start doing anything. Alpine Linux, which is famously tiny, usually weighs in at a few hundred megabytes.

Offers like 20TB of cloud storage for a few hundred dollars keep circulating on Reddit, paid once and kept for life. They aren't scams, strictly speaking, but "for life" means the company's life, not yours. Here's why the deals exist and what to do instead.

The browser wars ended a while ago. Most of us have picked a side and settled in, with the choice largely coming down to either Chrome or Firefox. However, just because we’ve settled in doesn’t mean innovation in the browser space has stopped. New browsers are still coming out with cool new features.

De-Googling an Android phone generally means removing annoying things from your device's overall experience. You accept that you'll lose certain functionality, but the main upside is a more private, secure experience. However, a handful of features become more useful once you remove Google from the equation. Stop treating Google like the default, and you'll find that certain things on your Android device have a little extra functionality.

Ryobi makes tons of excellent tools for inside and outside the home, for outdoor activities, and more. And if you're sick of yard work tools loud enough to double as a soundtrack, Ryobi has plenty of solutions. Surely you've wandered Home Depot aisles looking at mowers, blowers, or trimmers and seen the "Whisper Series," but is it any good?

You might first come across Clavicular in a clip about his jawline or his first, second, or eleventh plastic surgery. Stay a little longer, and you may find yourself watching him assess women's appearances, discuss their sexual availability, or reduce them (along with men) to categories in an online hierarchy of attractiveness.

For viewers, it all arrives in the same feed, packaged as entertainment. For the women involved, appearing in that content can carry consequences that extend long after the livestream ends.

Clavicular, whose real name is Braden Peters, is a 20-year-old influencer known for "looksmaxxing" content, an online trend centered on making yourself more physically attractive. On his livestreams, primarily on Kick, he compares his appearance with other men's and rates women's looks. YouTube banned his original channel in November 2025 and later removed two replacement channels. He has become one of the most recognizable figures in a corner of the internet where physical appearance is treated as a measure of status and worth.

SEE ALSO: Who is Clavicular, and why is he everywhere right now?

Peters now faces criminal charges in Massachusetts stemming from an alleged May 2025 assault involving a 17-year-old girl. The charges include rape, administering a substance for sexual intercourse, and procuring alcohol for someone under 21. His arraignment is scheduled for Oct. 14. His lawyer, Jeff Neiman, says Peters is innocent.

The case will be decided in court. But the way Peters talks about women is already on display for anyone to see. And he is part of a much larger online culture in which putting women down can help build an audience.

"Misogyny is finding new audiences online"

Before the criminal charges made headlines, Peters was already drawing criticism for how he talked about women to his almost 3 million followers across platforms. He often calls women "foids" — short for "femoid," or "female android" — and promotes the idea that women choose men based on their looks, a belief associated with "blackpill" ideology. In his online academy, he refers to women as "targets" and "slayables," turning dating into a game of conquest, with women cast as something to win rather than people with preferences and boundaries of their own.

Much of Peters’s streaming takes place at parties and clubs, where his interactions with women become part of the entertainment. He often takes young women's faces into his hands and analyzes them. In one clip, as a girl tries to turn away, he tells her, "I'm not done looking at you!" During Peters's summer trip to Israel, another clip drew controversy after he refused to speak to a girl unless she wanted to have sex. "Just tell the girls I'm looking to have sex in a bathroom," he said.

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His habit of judging women's looks, known as "face rating," also carries over into appearances on other creators' shows. During one livestream with Adin Ross, Peters rated Adam22's wife a 5.5 on his attractiveness scale. When she asked about celebrities, including Sydney Sweeney and Margot Robbie, Peters said Sweeney was "ugly" and dismissed her facial features, arguing that she was attractive primarily because of her breasts. Asked who would qualify as a "10," Peters said even a 9.5 was difficult to achieve and described Victoria's Secret models as the "highest echelon of women."

Peters has defended the way he talks about women. In a February interview with Piers Morgan, when Morgan questioned whether his comments were misogynistic, Peters pushed back, arguing that women often refuse to see men under six feet tall as fully human. "They are the most fucking brutal gender," he said.

"Clavicular and many other streamers have built an audience by demeaning and humiliating women, including using dehumanizing language to talk about them,” Liz Roberts, CEO of victim services organization Safe Horizon, tells Mashable.

"Misogyny is finding new audiences online, where old ideas about women, gender, and power are being repackaged as entertainment for a new generation," she added.

Peters is not the only creator whose content has prompted concerns about misogyny and the treatment of women online. Fresh & Fit co-host Myron Gaines has promoted the idea that men should be "dictators" in relationships and women their "subordinates." Andrew Tate, who faces rape and human trafficking charges in the UK, has said that a woman and the intimate parts of her body "belong" to her male partner. And after the 2024 election, far-right livestreamer Nick Fuentes posted, "Your body, my choice. Forever."

Concerns also extend to less prominent streamers in Peters’s own circle. This week, footage circulated that appeared to show Drago, a Kick streamer reportedly friends with Clavicular, grabbing and punching fellow streamer MiaMaxxed at the SeeEx event while others reportedly poured milk on her. Drago has claimed self-defense, alleging that she attacked him first and damaged his property.

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Women who stream have also described viewers crossing boundaries when they meet in person. In October 2025, a TwitchCon attendee grabbed streamer Emiru and tried to kiss her during a meet-and-greet. "I'm obviously shaken up by what happened, and it’s not the first time I’ve dealt with something like this," she wrote afterward. She also criticized Twitch's response, saying the attendee was allowed to walk away after her security guard intervened. Twitch CEO Dan Clancy later apologized and acknowledged failures in both preventing the incident and responding to it.

What happens when streamers become role models?

For young viewers still figuring out what relationships should look like, these streams can become an informal education, and streamers can become de facto mentors. They may arrive looking for dating advice, a workout routine, or reassurance about their appearance. Along the way, they may also hear that women are shallow, that humiliation is acceptable, or that dominance is a normal part of relationships.

"Young people are still forming their understanding of what is healthy, what is acceptable, and how people should treat one another," Roberts told Mashable. "What they consume online shapes how they understand violence, power, and control. That’s why it’s so important to help young people recognize violent control for what it is, rather than allowing it to become just another piece of content they scroll past every day."

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It’s easy to dismiss content like this as entertainment — and many participants in Ofcom's 2025 research described watching manosphere content that way. But those who were more deeply invested in closed-off online groups appeared less likely to challenge what others said or did. When fitting in means going along with the group, questioning misogyny can come at a social cost.

The attention surrounding Peters's case has also brought renewed scrutiny to the culture around him, like how degrading women can become entertainment and how repeated exposure can make harmful behavior seem ordinary. Roberts points to something more concrete than simply telling young people to stay away from that content: helping them recognize harmful behavior before they come to accept it as normal.

"Parents should talk with their kids about the early warning signs of power and control, because harm doesn’t typically begin with physical violence," she said. "Telling someone what to wear or who they can spend time with, humiliating someone to make them feel small, or talking about women as if they are objects rather than people are all early red flags."

"Helping young people recognize those behaviors early can give them the tools to build healthier relationships," she added, "and challenge harmful patterns when they see them."

Next week, Google will be living out Elon Musk's dream of putting AI data centers in space — and they'll be doing it with help from Musk's space exploration company.

On Thursday, October 1, 2026, Google will load an experimental satellite on SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket and launch it in space. The satellite is part of Google's Project Suncatcher initiative, which seeks to set up AI data centers in space. The experimental satellite will be able answer simple A.I. prompts from space, according to the New York Times.

In a blog post about Project Suncatcher, Google explained the potential benefits of sending data centers into orbit:

Cooling orbital data centers is a crucial research challenge. TPUs generate a large amount of heat in a small area, which needs to be diffused safely or the chips are at risk of overheating. But in space, there’s no airflow. In a vacuum, you can only diffuse heat via radiators, which requires a totally different approach to cooling electronics.

As the New York Times reported, Google isn't sending a full-on orbital data center this time; it's sending the potential precursor to one. The satellite, named MVP, contains four “tensor processing units,” which are specialized chips with the computing power of one server in a data center here on Earth. 

The computer chips will be powered by the satellite's solar panels, which will provide one kilowatt of power to the chips. Google says that this is all it needs for this particular experiment, which will test how the hardware fares in outer space.

The satellite is expected to operate in space for a period of one year. 

While in orbit, the computer chips will be able to process short queries for up to 15 minutes while Google's Gemini AI responds. After a 15-minute period, the chips will need to shut down to cool with a special cooling system, as fans typically used in computer systems don't work in space. 

After that one-year period, the satellite will stop operating but will continue to orbit the Earth for a total of six years before the planet's gravitational pull brings the satellite down, burning it as it falls through the atmosphere.

When Musk's SpaceX acquired Musk's AI company xAI earlier this year, Musk explained that one of the main reasons for the companies to combine was so that they could work on putting AI data centers in space.

"Current advances in AI are dependent on large terrestrial data centers, which require immense amounts of power and cooling," Musk said in a statement at the time of the acquisition. "Global electricity demand for AI simply cannot be met with terrestrial solutions, even in the near term, without imposing hardship on communities and the environment." 

In the long term, space-based AI is obviously the only way to scale," Musk continued.

Google seems to agree with Musk. Shortly after Musk shared his orbital AI data center goals, Google announced Project Suncatcher, which the company greenlit in May 2025.

It's important to note, however, that these are very early days for the orbital data center ambition. If these experiments prove that the project is at all feasible, it would likely be years, if not decades, before Google and Musk's vision comes to fruition. But Thursday's launch is certainly a first step in potentially building out AI data centers in space.

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Xteink e-readers are making a whole lot of noise online. I tried them out myself, and while I love the concept of these pocket-sized e-readers, they're not the most practical. However, if you're someone who loves reading e-books that are free EPUB and PDF files, then maybe this is exactly the right e-reader for you.

So if you've purchased an Xteink e-reader, now is the time to make the most of it. A lot of users find they don't love the firmware that comes preloaded on Xteink e-readers. Most e-readers like Kobo or Kindle are locked down, so you can't make any software changes, but that's not the case with Xteink e-readers. In fact, Xteink e-readers have become a favorite among programmers who want to customize their pocket-sized e-reader by flashing new firmware onto it.

Lifehacker's Joel Cunningham put me onto CrossPoint Reader's firmware in his review of the Xteink X4 (Mashable and Lifehacker are both owned by Ziff Davis). I wanted to try it out for myself, and it's unbelievably easy to do. It provides a cleaner interface that's easier to navigate, reminiscent of the Kindle experience. After downloading the CrossPoint Reader firmware, I loved my Xteink X4 a little bit more.

So if you want a new interface on your Xteink e-reader, here's how to download CrossPoint Reader's firmware.

How to download CrossPoint Reader's firmware to your Xteink The CrossPoint Reader's firmware gives the Xteink X4 a cleaner, simpler interface. Credit: Samantha Mangino / Mashable Total Time

• 5 min

What You Need

• Computer
• USB-C cord
• Xteink e-reader

Step 1: Go to CrossPoint Reader and navigate to 'Flash Firmware'

On CrossPoint Reader's site, you'll navigate to the 'Get CrossPoint' option, which has a dropdown menu. From that menu, select 'Flash Firmware.'

Credit: Screenshot: CrossPoint Reader

Step 2: Select your device

On the next page, select your Xteink e-reader model from the options.

Credit: Screenshot: CrossPoint Reader

Step 3: Choose firmware

Next, you'll select the firmware option you want to flash onto the device. Choose the CrossPoint 1.6.0 option.

Credit: Screenshot: CrossPoint Reader

Step 4: Connect your device via USB-C and flash firmware onto device.

Connect your Xteink e-reader to your device via USB-C. Then choose the 'Flash CrossPoint' option on your browser. A menu will pop up, where you'll select your connected device. Flash the firmware onto the device and enjoy!

Credit: Screenshot: CrossPoint Reader Xteink X4 $69 at Amazon
  Shop Now at Amazon Shop Now at Xteink Xteink X4 Pro $99 at Amazon
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Your kids caught World Cup fever and now you'll be spending your weekends every fall and spring at the soccer field. Take it from a longtime soccer dad — you're going to love it.

In fact, you're going to get so wrapped up in this beautiful game that you're going to want to record those games for posterity. Here's another lesson this veteran soccer parent learned the hard way: You're not going to want to hold your arm up for an hour to record the match. Your arm will get tired, and you may find yourself paying more attention to your smartphone than to the moment itself.

That's where a sports tracking camera comes in. You set the camera up on a tripod on the sidelines of the pitch, hit record, and sit back and enjoy watching the game. The sports-tracking camera follows all the action, with an assist from AI.

For most parents, there's been one AI sports tracking camera that has risen above the rest: The XbotGo Falcon. And Mashable spent the last soccer season testing the camera out.

The problem with most sports tracking cameras

You may have heard of some of the big players in the space like Veo and Trace. Why not just go with those?

There's no doubt that Veo and Trace sports cameras have really good output. But, go take a look at their price pages. You'll find that you're spending hundreds of dollars on a camera that you can't even use without a subscription service, which often costs hundreds more per year. Before you know it, you're spending thousands of dollars annually. These services are more in line for soccer clubs, schools, leagues, or other situations where you're recording multiple teams and players on a regular basis.

You're just one parent. You have one (or at most a handful) of kids who play. You don't or can't spend that much on the camera, nor do you need anything fancy with player analytics and other bells and whistles. You just want to capture your kid making a great play or scoring a goal to share with the family.

XbotGo Falcon: No subscription required

I have long been searching for the perfect sports tracking camera. One where I can set it up and trust that it will reliably record the game, follow the action, and not require a subscription.

The XbotGo Falcon Credit: Matt Binder / Mashable

This is where the XbotGo Falcon sets itself apart from other AI sports tracking cameras

So, why doesn't the XbotGo Falcon require a subscription? Sports cameras like Veo and Trace basically record the entire length of the field, upload the footage to the company's servers, and then track the action within the footage after the game. XbotGo Falcon avoids those post-processing costs, as the device actually physically moves left and right, up and down, and zooms in and out during the game.

XbotGo is a fairly new company that strictly makes AI auto-tracking sports cameras and related products. The company found success in 2024 with the XbotGo Chameleon, a tracking device that required a user's smartphone to record. In March 2026, XbotGo released its next-generation AI tracking camera, the XbotGo Falcon.

XbotGo Falcon inside of its case Credit: Matt Binder./ Mashable XbotGo Falcon price

The XbotGo Falcon currently retails for $799.

There will no doubt be some initial sticker shock at the retail price. But, again, you need to look at its competitors. 

The Veo camera, for example, costs $1,299 just for the device, followed by a minimum of $84 per month for their Starter base plan. Paying $799 once is certainly a lot less than $2,298 upfront, followed by $999 every year after that.

You will also need to factor in the price for a tripod of at least 13 feet or more. XbotGo sells one for $189.99, but you don't necessarily need theirs. However, it's a must-have accessory, which I'll get to in a little bit.

XbotGo Falcon: By the numbers

Here are the key specifications to know:

• 4K video at 30fps or 1080p video at 60fps

• 1/1.8-inch Sony CMOS sensor

• 9,600 mAh battery that can last for approximately 4 hours

• 360-degree rotation

• 160-degree tilt

• Records to a MicroSD card of up to 1,024GB (sold separately)

• Weighs 1.8 pounds

• 134.2 × 116 × 71.7 mm

• Fully compatible with iOS and Android

XbotGo Falcon vs. XbotGo Chameleon

Technically, both the XbotGo Chameleon and XbotGo Falcon have a camera built into the device. But that camera is for the tracking technology that follows the action on the field. The XbotGo Falcon has a second camera built in that actually records the game instead of using a smartphone to do that, as required by the XbotGo Chameleon.

XbotGo Chameleon's one camera vs. XbotGo Falcon's two cameras Credit: Matt Binder / Mashable

XbotGo still sells the XbotGo Chameleon at around $300 for people who prefer that more affordable option. Also, some users prefer the XbotGo Chameleon, as you technically upgrade the camera quality as you upgrade your iPhone, by attaching the smartphone to the device to record.

However, having also spent multiple seasons using the XbotGo Chameleon, the XbotGo Falcon would be my go-to for a few reasons

First of all, having my smartphone available while using the XbotGo Falcon is huge. I can use my smartphone as a remote to monitor the XbotGo Falcon in case I need to pan or zoom the camera if it gets lost in the action. The XbotGo Chameleon requires that you attach your iPhone to the device. And while the Chameleon also offers remote usage with a second smartphone, how often do you have two smartphones on you? I know I don't.

In addition, the XbotGo Falcon footage is a crisp, clear 4K from a 1/1.8-inch Sony CMOS sensor. I can't imagine getting much more out of a smartphone camera anytime soon. The quality also means the files are fairly big. My 128GB iPhone is already nearly full from everything else. I would be unable to store much on it, and I'd have to spend time managing and moving files around after every other game. Having the ability to swap MicroSD cards is a huge draw to the XbotGo Falcon.

Using the XBotGo Falcon

The first thing you'll notice when getting the XbotGo Falcon is, well, its size. It's big, and it comes in a nice big carrying case as well. Its size is especially standout if you're upgrading from the much more compact XbotGo Chameleon.

The size difference between the XbotGo Chameleon vs. XbotGo Falcon Credit: Matt Binder / Mashable

To set up the device, you do need to sync the XbotGo Falcon hardware with the XbotGo app on your smartphone. The app is used to set up the recording, monitor the camera during the game, manually control the camera's movements, and update the device itself when XbotGo pushes out a firmware update. During your initial setup, there will most definitely be a firmware update so be sure to give yourself some time before you need to use the device.

From there, you pick your sport.

XbotGo says the Falcon is compatible with recording nine different sports, which include soccer, basketball, ice hockey, handball, tennis, pickleball, lacrosse, badminton, and volleyball. There are also three additional sports in beta — American football, rugby, and flag football.

For my XbotGo Falcon review, I focused on capturing soccer. Due to the larger field, this really pushes the tracking capabilities to the limit.

Once you've selected all the necessary settings, the camera will start to spin as it calibrates. Place the XbotGo Falcon on your tripod, which should be set up a few feet from the sideline near the midfield. Then, extend the tripod to at least around 12 feet in the air. The higher the better.

Users can add a scoreboard, set up a livestream of the event, record pan, tilt, and zoom manually during the game, and monitor what the camera is capturing, all from the XbotGo app.

And that's pretty much it. The XbotGo Falcon features physical buttons on the device for quick record options, but I prefer to use the smartphone to record, as the camera is already many feet in the air at kickoff.

Controlling the camera remotely is as simple as tapping on a sidebar menu option to call up an on-screen joystick, which allows the user to move the device around.

XbotGo Falcon performance

I tested the XbotGo Falcon to record at least a half dozen youth soccer games from full-field 11 versus 11 matches to smaller pitches for 9 versus 9 games. 

So, how did it do? Most importantly, how was the tracking? 

XbotGo Falcon in action, following the action Credit: Matt Binder / Mashable

I was able to trust the AI tracking capabilities for the vast majority of each game. When referring to my iPhone to monitor the XbotGo Falcon, it properly tracked the game at least nine out of 10 times. In fact, I would say I only had to remotely control the device with my phone once or twice per game. Sometimes, I didn't have to touch the manual controls at all.

The camera produced very high-quality footage, too. In fact, recording in 4K allowed me to manually zoom even further using my editing software to get closer to the action when clipping highlights and still have clear HQ quality when exporting the punched-in clip.

Due to connectivity issues on my end at the fields, I was not able to test out the livestream capabilities in the proper setting. Personally, I prefer to record the games as the footage quality really matters when recording at a distance. Any sort of lower video quality due to livestream connectivity issues from your cellular or internet service provider will drastically reduce the watchability of the game. In addition, you'll most likely be clipping highlights from the full video rather than regularly watching the entire match, so again, the focus on the local recording is key for me.

XbotGo Falcon tracking from right to left Credit: Matt Binder / Mashable XbotGo Falcon issues

Now, as great as my time with it was, there are some negatives with the XbotGo Falcon.

First, for those looking to buy a sports-tracking camera that's completely hands-off, the XbotGo Falcon will disappoint. Yes, it is mostly hands off in my experience, but it's also not "set it and forget it." While you don't need to monitor the recording like you would if you were holding a camera, there are clear points in a soccer match where you'll have to check if the XbotGo Falcon is keeping up.

For example, the XbotGo Falcon seems to struggle with goal kicks, corner kicks, and penalty kicks. There's something about the lack of typical back-and-forth movement on the pitch that causes the device to seemingly try to find it sometimes. I've unfortunately experienced missed penalties to the point where I would just use my iPhone to record the penalty and leave everything else to the XbotGo Falcon.

There is another limitation to the XbotGo Falcon, which really isn't the device's fault. At a youth soccer game, there are going to be kids off to the sidelines practicing while they wait for their game. There may also be more than one field at a location with multiple games going on. If any of this is in the view of the XbotGo Falcon, the camera will often get confused.

I will say XbotGo devices are now much better at dealing with distractions thanks to recent firmware updates, which added the ability to draw field boundaries so your Falcon doesn't stray. However, I had an issue where the Falcon was focused on one side of the field as a free kick was set up, a ball being used on the sideline rolled onto the field with a kid in tow on the opposite side of the field, and the Falcon spun around to catch that while missing the goal scored off the free kick.

With that said, the XbotGo Falcon does catch the action most of the time. In fact, remember when I mentioned the necessity of a big tripod? Most of the complaints I've seen online regarding its performance mainly revolve around the fact that many users just don't seem to raise the tripod high enough. The XbotGo Falcon needs to basically hover high over the pitch at almost a bird's eye view to get the best performance from it. It needs to see everything in order to track and capture it. If you put it too low, it will not track to the best of its abilities.

You want to get the XbotGo Falcon up high on a tripod for the best performance. Credit: Matt Binder / Mashable

I also faced one weird issue with the XbotGo Falcon that appears to be a one-off, but I have to mention it.

During the very first game with the camera, it inexplicably stopped recording with 20 minutes left to go in a 60-minute game. There was no battery life issue or lack of SD card space. The device just stopped recording. At first, I thought it had something to do with moving out of range of the device with my synced iPhone monitor, but XbotGo told me that wasn't the case. Their logs oddly showed that a second smartphone synced with the device, and that device stopped the recording. It seems unlikely that another individual knew I was using an XbotGo device, downloaded the XbotGo app, and synced it with my device to stop it. While I never figured out exactly what happened, the device never stopped recording again.

Finally, aside from tracking issues, there is one persistent complaint among users: the watermark on the videos. There is a decent-sized XbotGo Falcon logo embedded on the lower right-hand side of all videos taken with the camera. There is no way to remove it. That's right. There's not even an option to pay extra. For me personally, I didn't find it intrusive. You can always put your own logo over the XbotGo Falcon watermark, and I never found it in the way of any of my videos. However, it is odd that it is there no matter what.

The bottom line: Is the XbotGo Falcon worth it?

This soccer dad was happy with his experience.

I can see why the XbotGo Falcon is hands down the most popular sports tracking camera on the market without a subscription. While it is pricey, it's nowhere near as costly as the ongoing fees its competitors charge.

Credit: Matt Binder / Mashable

However, there are tradeoffs, too. The fact that the XbotGo Falcon has to physically follow the action means that it will sometimes miss a moment. At the same time, the ability to monitor the camera from your smartphone is extremely useful and means you can manually guide it along, too.

One thing I will say: The company is very proactive when it comes to releasing firmware updates, which often add brand new features and fix ongoing performance issues. It's a huge plus in my opinion, which should make you feel secure in knowing that there's significant support behind the product.

Is it the perfect sports tracking camera I've been searching for? No. But it's getting there.

All in all, if you're tired of holding up a smartphone camera for an hour at a time, I suggest you give the XbotGo Falcon a try.

Opens in a new window Credit: XbotGo XbotGo Falcon AI Sports Tracking Camera $799 at Amazon
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