Blogroll

Apple's product lineup typically consists of a "regular" product and a pricier, Pro variant that comes with a number of extra features, at least a few of them so good that most people will always go for the Pro version if they can afford it.

Apple's latest AirPods 5 are so good that they flip this dynamic on its head. They're an improved, yet significantly cheaper version of the AirPods 4 released in 2024. In many ways, they're as good as the AirPods Pro 3. In some ways, they're actually better. And that's saying a lot given that the AirPods Pro 3 are my favorite earbuds ever.

AirPods 5: Compact yet versatile ANC earbuds

A couple of years ago, Apple made a big leap by introducing two versions of the AirPods 4, one with ANC (active noise cancellation) and one without. I remember the company's briefings on those products, in which they put extra emphasis on how hard their engineers had to work to create proper active noise cancellation on earbuds that don't have an acoustic seal. That design choice was on purpose: Not everyone likes to have earbuds with foamy seals stuck in their ear canal (that's what the best noise-cancelling earbuds do to get additional passive noise cancellation).

Apple's AirPods 5 are a big upgrade over last year's model, and the price is even better. Credit: Stan Schroeder/Mashable

But the AirPods 4 with ANC cost $179, a significant price hike from the basic version that cost $129 (and often go on sale for only $99).

This year, Apple decided to completely forego that price premium by adding an improved version of ANC to the basic AirPods 5, which still start at $129. Even better, the premium AirPods 5 with a wireless charging case are actually cheaper than their predecessor at $149, even as Apple raises prices on the rest of its product line.

What's the difference between the two AirPods 5 models?

The biggest difference between the $129 and $149 Airpods 5 is the wireless charging case, but Apple also added another "Pro" feature to the AirPods 5 — a special area on the neck of the earbuds that you can swipe on to adjust volume. It's a nifty feature that I use all the time, though it does take some time to get used to.

So, are the more expensive AirPods 5 worth the investment? If it were just the case, I would say no, as wireless charging isn't essential for me; plugging a nearby USB-C cable into the case was almost always a more convenient option.

But you lose out on other features if you buy the cheaper variant. Battery life is shorter (four hours vs. five hours), and you don't get that volume swipe sensor.

So, I think you should definitely dish out those extra 20 bucks for the wireless charging variant, if you can.

Great sound has never been cheaper A lot of features packed into a small case. Credit: Stan Schroeder/Mashable

The common wisdom about headphones and earbuds is that those with an "open" design will have a brighter, more airy sound, and that's pretty much the case here. The AirPods 5 have a clear sound with punchy drums and plenty of bass, but not so much to make it overwhelming. You won't get crazy levels of detail here, but for earbuds at this price range, they sound pretty great.

I was particularly interested in how they'll handle live performances, as that's where open-design earbuds should shine. One of my favorite tracks for this is Cage the Elephant's cover of The Stranglers' 'Golden Brown,' and it sounds excellent, with every instrument perfectly balanced in the mix. Arne Domnérus' legendary 'Jazz at the Pawnshop' album is another live favorite of mine. The AirPods 5 handled it well; I got a decent sense of the stage width (not so much the depth, though) and heard the clapping and the chatter of the people at that concert.

The AirPods 5 will struggle with very complex stuff such as large classical ensembles. Dense, heavy songs, like Meshuggah's 'Clockworks' can sound slightly muddled. But that's true of pretty much every pair of earbuds I've ever tested. On the flip side, intimate performances such as Portishead's 'Roseland NYC Live' sound wonderful.

You can swipe on the side of the earbuds to adjust volume; another feature inherited from the Pro model. Credit: Stan Schroeder/Mashable

Comparing them to other Apple earbuds, they sound pretty much the same as the AirPods 4 to me, which isn't a bad thing. The AirPods Pro 3 do sound quite a bit better, with more details across the entire range, but again, some may prefer the slightly more open sound of the AirPods 5.

No tip, no problem

When it comes to noise cancellation, there's no comparison. The AirPods Pro 3 do it better. In fact, that particular model has such a strong passive/active noise cancellation combo that it beats Apple's own AirPods Max 2 headphones, and has basically reduced my need to carry larger headphones around to zero.

However, what Apple has done with the AirPods 5 in terms of ANC is impressive. During a briefing at Apple, I heard the AirPods 5 reduce (simulated) airplane engine noise, and it was just OK, probably because the room was dead quiet otherwise. But later, on an actual plane, I realized they did a pretty good job of reducing both the engines' drone and the passengers' chatter.

It's far from perfect. The AirPods 5 are pretty great at reducing the lower portion of the audio spectrum, but a higher-pitched hiss always remains audible. But for buds that just sit freely in your ear without a snug fit, turning on ANC and hearing it do its thing feels almost like magic.

Note to future users: The actual position of the buds in your ear matters a lot; if you feel the ANC isn't working as good as it should be, try adjusting the AirPods 5 in your ears a little and see if you can hear an improvement.

Battery life isn't great, but who cares The AirPods 5 come in two flavors: With or without a charging case. You can recognize the ones with the charging case by the tiny speaker grille on the bottom. Credit: Stan Schroeder/Mashable

Battery life on the AirPods in general has never been a big issue for me. I don't think about it much, and both the buds and the case charge quickly enough that I just plug them in whenever it's convenient, and I almost never run out of battery.

That said, if you're a heavy user, have in mind that the AirPods 5 have four to five hours of battery life on their own (with ANC on), and up to 20 to 22 hours of battery life if you count the extra juice you get from the case (depending on the variant). The AirPods Pro 3, on the other hand, last eight hours on one change, and get up to 24 hours of battery life with the case.

Despite this drawback, the AirPods 5 have a big advantage over the AirPods Pro 3: Their case is a lot smaller and more likely to fit even in the tightest of pockets.

A few "pro" extras

The new AirPods 5 also inherit a few software features from the Pro model, including Conversation Awareness, Adaptive Audio, and Transparency. You also get Live Translation and Siri AI.

I use all of Apple's headphones and pretty much skip Adaptive Audio and Conversation Awareness completely. I'm just too used of switching noise cancellation on and off myself, as well as physically removing my earbuds/headphones when talking to someone. Transparency, however, is pretty great for those moments when you don't want to stop the music, but still need to hear what's happening around you.

Finally, thanks to iOS 27, you can now find a custom EQ equalizer for your AirPods, Pro or otherwise.

Credit: Screenshot by Stan Schroeder Credit: Apple

If you're counting, the list of features that the AirPods 5 get from the AirPods Pro 3 is long enough that it almost feels like Apple is undercutting its own pricier model. Somewhat unusual for Apple, but I'm not complaining.

As for the software features that remain exclusive for the Pro, this includes some health-related features such as Hearing Test and Hearing Protection, as well as a heart rate sensor for workouts. They're nice features to have, but not essential for music listening.

AirPods 5: Should you buy them?

The AirPods Pro 3 are still my favorite earbuds. They have better noise cancellation and better sound than the AirPods 5. But I don't mind the tight seal of their foamy tips in my ear.

If you want earbuds without such tips, or if you want earbuds under $150, then the AirPods 5 are actually a better option. They're smaller, have comparably great sound, a similar set of features, and decent noise cancellation despite the lack of a proper seal of your ear canal. Yes, the battery life is a little shorter, but they also come at half the price. At $129 (or $149 if you opt for the wireless charging case), the AirPods 5 are a no-brainer.

Now, fingers crossed, we'll see these buds go on sale during the upcoming October Prime Day or Black Friday events.

Apple AirPods 5 earbuds $129 at Amazon
  Shop Now at Amazon Shop Now at Apple.com Shop Now at Walmart Apple AirPods 5 (wireless charging) $149 at Amazon
  Shop Now at Amazon Shop Now at Walmart Shop Now at Target

Want to learn more about getting the best out of your tech? Sign up for Mashable's Top Stories and Deals newsletters today.

If you've spent any time using the Linux terminal, you've probably used the grep command. It's what you use to quickly find a search term in a file or find all the files containing that term. It's useful, reliable, and fundamental to most terminal workflows. That said, grep is old — more than 50 years old. A lot has changed since then — our computing habits have evolved, and new technologies have emerged.

We are just a month away from the official launch of Apple's first foldable device, the iPhone Duo. If you're already an iPhone user, only looking to purchase a foldable iPhone, there's likely nothing that will sway you towards any other foldable smartphone.

However, Android users may be wondering just how the iPhone Duo will stack up to the other foldable devices that exist for Android. While we will still have to wait for iPhone Duo benchmarks, the company behind SpeedTest.net, Ookla, has just released comprehensive benchmarks for Android foldable devices, which should definitely come in handy when deciding which foldable you'll go with in a few weeks.

Ookla's report focuses on six popular foldable devices in the U.S. market: Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold6, Fold7, Fold8, Fold8 Ultra, Flip6, and Google’s Pixel 10 Pro Fold.

The company tested these foldable smartphones on a number of metrics and used their respective generation's "slab" model with the same chipset, such as the Galaxy S26 Ultra, as the "control" for comparison.

It's important to note that there are some differences between the foldable device and its comparable slab model, such as antenna placement and specific device firmware, that will affect these metrics. But this seems like a generally good methodology for deriving these benchmarks.

When it comes to speed, the Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra appears to be the big winner. It excelled in download speed, upload speed, and packet-loss reduction. The base Galaxy Z Fold8 model was not far behind. In fact, in median download speed it actually performed slightly better than the Ultra, although the Ultra model bested it in the other metrics.

While the Fold8 and Fold8 Ultra performed best in the speed test trials, they didn't fare as well when it came to the signal quality measurement tests. As Ookla points out, even though the two foldables are powered by the same Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset and Snapdragon X85 modem as the Galaxy S26 Ultra, the latter outperformed the Fold8 and Fold8 Ultra here.

Overall, the Galaxy Z Fold6 appears to have had the best scores in both signal quality measurement tests, in both good and bad conditions. Interestingly, the Galaxy Z Flip6 had the worst performance in signal quality measurement tests under good conditions, but the best under bad conditions when compared to its control device.

The temperature benchmark found that the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold7 ran the coolest when compared to its control device, whereas the Flip6 was the hottest.

Ookla also mapped out how Samsung's foldable devices have fared with each subsequent generation on each metric. It found that Samsung has improved the upload speeds, download speeds, and signal strength measurements with each new model foldable smartphone. However, there were two benchmarks where Samsung has been regressing.

When it comes to signal strength in bad conditions, the Fold6 actually outperformed the Fold7 and Fold8. While the Fold8 Ultra performed better than the Fold7 and Fold8 in this area, it was still outperformed by the Fold6.

The Fold8 and Fold8 Ultra also saw a big decline in performance on the overheating-related throttling benchmark when compared to the Fold7. The Fold7 had a big boost in this metric when compared to the Fold6, but its successors have seemingly regressed when it comes to the operating system slowing down due to the device's temperature.

While not benchmark-related, Ookla also shared some market share statistics. Based on Speedtest's foldable sample share, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold7 far and away is the most popular foldable smartphone in the world. 

And while companies like Motorola, Google, and Honor have been chipping away at Samsung's foldable market share, Samsung still holds more than 77 percent of the foldable market.

We'll see how that changes on October 23 with the release of the iPhone Duo.

Are you always throwing out old USB cables? You’re not alone; cables and the ports into which they fit can be frustratingly delicate.

Apple's iPhone Duo doesn't officially launch until October, but its wallpapers are already out in the wild.

As spotted by 9to5Mac, the artwork didn't make it into the release candidate for iOS 27, alongside the new iPhone 18 Pro wallpapers. It did, however, turn up in the iPhone Simulator bundled with this week's Xcode 27.1 beta, Apple's developer toolkit released to coincide with the start of iPhone Duo app development.

SEE ALSO: iPhone 18 Pro teardown lifts the lid on Apple's latest

The set includes four wallpapers total: two light-mode and two dark-mode variants, all built around the same desert scene of rolling sand dunes set against a distant mountain range, shifting from a soft daytime palette to a starlit night sky in the dark versions.

Since the artwork lives inside Xcode's simulator files rather than a public download page, getting it requires either running the Xcode 27.1 beta yourself or waiting for the images to circulate more widely online. A quick Google search will immediately reveal sites where you can download high-definition wallpapers.

For anyone who'd rather skip the wait entirely, the easiest path is simply holding out a few more weeks. Apple's iPhone Duo is set for pre-order on Oct. 16 and ships Oct. 23, at which point the wallpapers should be built directly into the software.

Sure, we just got the iPhone 18 Pro, but that doesn't mean we can't talk about what's next for Apple's flagship smartphone.

Fresh off the launch of the iPhone 18 line, there are new rumors swirling around the internet about the iPhone 20. Despite the name, that's actually the expected moniker of the next iPhone model, meaning there would be no iPhone 19. That's because 2027 would be the 20th anniversary of the iPhone, after all. Anyway, prolific leaker Digital Chat Station posted some display specs for the iPhone 20 Pro devices that caught the internet's eye.

SEE ALSO: iPhone 18 Pro teardown lifts the lid on Apple's latest This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

According to Digital Chat Station, here are the display sizes and resolutions of the iPhone 20 Pro and Pro Max:

• iPhone 20 Pro: 6.41-inch display with 2,686 × 1,236 resolution

• iPhone 20 Pro Max: 6.96-inch display with 2,912 × 1,340 resolution

By comparison, the iPhone 18 Pro's display is 6.27 inches with a 2,622 x 1,206 resolution, while the iPhone 18 Pro Max measures in at 6.86 inches with a 2,868 x 1,320 resolution. In simpler terms, next year's iPhone 20 Pro models will have larger displays with higher resolutions, despite Apple sticking with the same display sizes since 2024 until now.

That change in display size isn't massive in a numerical sense, but it may not be the only change Apple has in store.

According to leaker Ice Universe, "Apple is reportedly testing a bezel-less quad-curved display design, along with a smaller display cutout that could further shrink the Dynamic Island." That lines up with lots of previous reporting, which has suggested that the iPhone 20 will have borderless all-screen glass displays. So, rather than having a hard bezel around the screen, it will curve on all four sides.

In addition, Apple could incorporate the under-display selfie camera seen in the new iPhone Duo for the iPhone 20, which would allow for a smaller dynamic island.

Controlling humidity levels in your home is extremely important. Its presence can contribute to wellness challenges, as well as affect the integrity of your home and possessions.

At a glance

• We report on the recent publication of our retrosynthesis model RetroChimera in the journal Nature (opens in new tab).
• The paper describes the model’s architecture as well as extensive validation studies, including the model’s ability to recall rare reaction types, and successful zero-shot transfer and fine-tuning on proprietary datasets.
• We open-source RetroChimera’s implementation and weights in the hope that it will enable researchers to accelerate development of new medicinally relevant molecules and advanced materials. 

Developing new medicines and materials requires making new molecules but planning how to make them is still largely manual, time-consuming, and costly. RetroChimera automatically proposes high-quality synthesis routes. The model combines two strong models with complementary strengths, learning how to rank their proposals to produce better predictions than either alone. In blind tests, PhD-level chemists prefer RetroChimera’s individual reaction predictions over preceding models and recorded literature reactions. 

Custom-made molecules are unlocking advances in modern medicine, smart materials, and sustainable agriculture. Yet, progress is slowed by chemical synthesis—the time-consuming process of making new molecules from simpler building blocks in the lab. In addition, synthesis is a significant driver of drug development costs. So even as computational methods make it possible to explore large numbers of novel molecules, finding practical ways to synthesize them remains a critical challenge. 

Figure 1: Planning a synthesis by working backward. Retrosynthesis starts with a target molecule and proposes successive disconnections into simpler precursors until purchasable building blocks are reached. The highlighted path shows a complete synthesis route; pale branches illustrate alternatives explored along the way. Circles represent molecules and squares represent reactions. For clarity, only a few branches are illustrated, with chemical structures shown for the target, one intermediate, and selected building blocks. 

Retrosynthesis approaches this problem by working backwards from a target molecule, breaking it down step by step into simpler precursors (Figure 1). This process is comparable to playing strategic board games like chess and Go. It involves contemplating a wide range of possible immediate moves, or individual disconnections, while also requiring high-level strategic thinking to reach the end-to-end synthesis plan. However, the number of possible moves in retrosynthesis is much larger than in board games, and it is not obvious which moves would be available for a given molecule. Existing systems face major challenges, including recalling rare but strategically important reactions, robustness beyond the training distribution, and aligning with chemists’ expectations. As a result, retrosynthesis often requires highly specialized expertise, which hinders scaling and automation of scientific discovery.

Figure 2: Our framework for ensemble-based retrosynthesis with learned re-ranking which underpins RetroChimera. The ensemble receives a target molecule as the input, which is then processed by the sub-models. The model outputs are aggregated using a learning-to-rank strategy. While in this work we only investigate deep learning models as prediction sources (solid boxes), it is possible to add additional sources, for example calls to reaction databases or human-in-the-loop queries (dashed box). 

In a paper recently published in the journal Nature (opens in new tab), we present RetroChimera (opens in new tab), a new framework for retrosynthesis prediction. It is built around two models (Figure 2). R-SMILES 2, a Transformer-based de-novo model, predicts precursor molecules directly from the input molecule. This gives it the flexibility to learn reaction patterns directly from data. However, its unconstrained generation can also make it prone to hallucination.

NeuralLoc, in contrast, is a graph neural network- (GNN) based model that encodes both the target molecule and reaction templates as graphs. It selects reaction templates and predicts where they should be applied to the target molecule. Its predictions are grounded in reaction patterns extracted from the training data, so it tends to produce more accurate and reliable outputs. But it’s more constrained when encountering reactions not covered by the template library. 

These differences actually turn out to be a strength. Rather than making the same kinds of predictions, the two models capture complementary patterns in chemistry and specialize in different reaction types. R-SMILES 2 performs particularly well on reactions that involve large changes over the course of the reaction, while NeuralLoc excels in reactions of low precedence and those involving more localized changes.

RetroChimera combines the ranked predictions of both sub-models using a learned ensembling strategy. Each model assigns a learned, rank-dependent vote to each predicted reactant set, and votes are added when both models propose the same reaction. By learning how much to trust each model at different ranks, RetroChimera can leverage their complementary strengths, approximately matching the better-performing sub-model across reaction classes.

Figure 3: Expert assessment of multistep synthesis routes. Left: Ratings of individual reaction steps. Right: Complete routes accepted or rejected for ten challenging targets. RetroChimera succeeded on nine targets, versus five for the de novo model, four for the editing model, and two for NeuralSym, a strong baseline model. 

As a result, RetroChimera performs strongly across both common and rare reaction classes and produces retrosynthesis predictions that better align with chemists’ judgment (Figure 3). In blind tests, expert chemists preferred disconnections of complex molecules suggested by RetroChimera over those obtained from its constituent sub-models, as well as those from more established approaches, and even from the test set itself.

We believe RetroChimera could help researchers identify promising synthesis route more efficiently, supporting faster design-make-test cycle across molecular science applications, including drug discovery and design of smart materials. RetroChimera could enable chemists to assess more—and more complex—candidate molecules at large scale. Paired with increasing levels of laboratory automation, we expect further acceleration toward closed-loop, self-improving systems for synthesis planning and execution.  

RetroChimera is available on GitHub (opens in new tab) (MIT license) and accessible via Microsoft Foundry (opens in new tab). For instructions on how to access the checkpoint, we refer to the GitHub repository.

We invite the broader chemistry community to experiment with RetroChimera, helping us identify its strengths and shortcomings so we can enhance it in the future. We are looking forward to hearing how it performs on various targets you care about!

For a deeper look at the findings, including evaluation experiments with our external research collaborators, see the full Nature publication (opens in new tab) and the accompanying Microsoft Source article (opens in new tab). 

Publication OSS repository Microsoft Foundry Opens in a new tab

The post Improving synthesis prediction of small molecules at scale with RetroChimera appeared first on Microsoft Research.

When you hear Kubuntu, you might think of the Linux-based operating system by the same name. But have you heard of Kubuntu Focus? It's a separate hardware-focused brand that sells machines with Kubuntu pre-installed and pre-configured. I've spent the last few weeks with the Kubuntu Focus Ar Gen 1 laptop and I have to say, I'm not all that impressed with the hardware.

The streamers are going all out for the last full week of September with a terrific lineup of new movies. First up is a music biopic about a landmark folk singer before he went electric. If you like rom-coms, you'll appreciate Prime Video's selection this week.

Google's new laptop initiative is built to run as a true extension of your Android phone. Here's what Googlebooks are, why Google made them, and how all five launch models held up when we went hands-on.

Read more about Googlebooks and where to buy them: The first 5 Googlebook laptops are here, with an OS that blends Android and Gemini
The first Googlebooks are available for preorder: Where to buy new HP, Dell, Lenovo, Acer, and Asus models

Timecode chapters
0:00 Introduction
0:25 Android, Windows and MacOS integration
1:10 Instant setup and ecosystem features
2:03 Why GoogleBook? (tech experts weigh in)
3:18 GoogleBook vs. Chromebook
4:55 Hands-on experience and build quality
6:03 Desktop apps and developer potential
6:44 Who is GoogleBook for?

Video credits
Host: Iyaz Akhtar
Scripted by: Iyaz Akhtar
Producer: Carly Marsh
Camera: Carly Marsh
Video editor: JD Christison
Thumbnail designer: Tharon Green

VS Code is one of the most popular editors out there—it is relatively lightweight, has an extension for everything, and has a core that is open-source. However, the actual download you get from Microsoft isn't; that version comes with telemetry, a proprietary license, and a marketplace that is limited to Microsoft's own builds.

Google is launching a brand-new lineup of flagship laptops designed around seamless Android integration and the all-new Googlebook OS. Get a hands-on preview of the latest flagship devices from Acer, Asus, Dell, HP and Lenovo, starting at $899.

Read more about the Googlebook launch and availability: The first 5 Googlebook laptops are here, with an OS that blends Android and Gemini
The first Googlebooks are available for preorder: Where to buy new HP, Dell, Lenovo, Acer, and Asus models

Timecode chapters
0:00 Introduction
0:18 What is Googlebook OS?
1:43 Core features and specs
2:34 Acer Googlebook 14
2:48 Asus Googlebook 14
3:04 Dell XPS Googlebook
3:27 HP Googlebook 14
3:39 Lenovo Googlebook 15
3:54 Availability and final thoughts

Video credits
Host: Matthew Buzzi
Scripted by: Matthew Buzzi
Producer: Paul Encinas
Camera: Paul Encinas
Video Editor: Paul Encinas
Thumbnail Designer: Cole Kan

TL;DR: The Motorola Razr is available for free with T-Mobile when you activate a new line on an Experience More plan. The new Motorola Razr+ is also free when you activate a new line on an Experience Beyond plan.

Opens in a new window Credit: Motorola T-Mobile: Motorola Razr and Motorola Razr+ for free   Shop Now

Samsung was the center of the tech world in the wake of its new product announcements, Google had its own moment in the spotlight with Made By Google, and now Apple is dominating the news cycle after dropping a new range of iPhones, Apple Watches, and AirPods.

Where does that leave Motorola? Fear not, because Motorola's popular line of foldables is quietly impressing. And better yet, you have the opportunity to pick up these handsets for free with T-Mobile:

• Motorola Razr — free when you activate a new line on an Experience More plan (no trade-in required).

• Motorola Razr+ — free when you activate a new line on an Experience Beyond plan (no trade-in required).

The total cost is covered via up to 36 monthly bill credits. If you cancel or switch carriers before the three-year mark, you’ll owe the remaining balance on the phone’s full retail price. You will also need to pay taxes and a one-time connection charge with this "free" deal, but that's a small price to pay for the latest Motorola tech.

The Motorola Razr offers a 3.6-inch external display that's big enough to reply to Slack messages, check Google Maps, and sort through emails without flipping the phone open. Under the hood, the 4,800mAh battery outlasts most compact foldables on the market, and the 50MP main camera sensor handles quick WFH video calls and casual shots with ease.

Score the new Motorola Razr and Motorola Razr+ for free with T-Mobile.

Alexa and Google's Gemini are convenient, but they have trade-offs. You pay for convenience with your privacy, subscriptions, and sometimes even ads. Beyond the obvious privacy concerns, there is also a practical performance issue: most of the processing done by those types of devices takes place on cloud servers, which can introduce noticeable latency.

TL;DR: McDonald’s has launched a SpongeBob x One Piece Happy Meal, available from Sept. 15. The toys feature SpongeBob as Gear 5 Luffy, Patrick as Zoro, and Squidward as Sanji.

If you thought the Burger King x Dragon Ball collab was the peak for anime fans, McDonald's just dropped the ultimate anime mash-up.

Combining Bikini Bottom’s finest with One Piece is truly tough to beat, and you know for sure that collectors are already buying up cases to hunt down rare pieces before secondary market scalpers clear everything out. That's the game you need to play with this kind of collab.

The 15-toy collection isn't just a surface-level collaboration that gets churned out to capture the interest of dedicated fans who'd buy absolutely anything. Instead, the character pairings are shockingly accurate to lore. You get SpongeBob pulling off Gear 5 Luffy, Patrick sporting Zoro's three-sword style, and even deep-cut references like Smitty Werbenjagermanjensen cosplaying as Brooke.

If you're trying to complete the full 15-piece set, here is every character combo hitting McDonald’s locations right now:

• SpongeBob: Dressed as Monkey D. Luffy

• SpongeBob (Variant): Dressed as Gear 5 Luffy

• Patrick: Dressed as Roronoa Zoro

• Sandy: Dressed as Nami

• Plankton: Dressed as Usopp

• Squidward: Dressed as Sanji

• Gary: Dressed as Chopper

• Pearl: Dressed as Robin

• Larry the Lobster: Dressed as Franky

• Smitty Werbenjagermanjensen: Dressed as Brooke

• Mr. Krabs: Dressed as Jinbe

• Mermaid Man: Dressed as Monkey D. Garp

• Barnacle Boy: Dressed as Koby

• Mrs. Puff: Dressed as Charlotte LinLin (Big Mom)

• The Flying Dutchman: Dressed as Marshall D. Teach (Blackbeard)

Credit: McDonald's

To maximize your chances of securing specific figures without buying 15 meals in one afternoon, use the My McDonald’s App to place mobile orders. This is a sneaky hack, but many locations specify which toy number series is currently being distributed before you pay. We can't make promises here, but it shortens your odds.

Where to preorder every Googlebook laptop: Acer Googlebook 14 Starting at $899 Pre-Order Here Dell XPS Googlebook Starting at $999 Pre-Order Here HP Googlebook 14 Starting at $1,299 Pre-Order Here Lenovo Googlebook 15 Starting at $1,099 Pre-Order Here Asus Googlebook 14 Starting at $1,299 Pre-Order Here

If you’ve been waiting for a true third option to break up the endless "Mac vs. PC" debate, your time has finally arrived.

Announced earlier this year at Google I/O, Googlebooks are a brand-new class of premium AI laptops built to take on MacBooks head-to-head. Unlike budget Chromebooks, these sleek machines run on a brand-new, desktop-class operating system called Googlebook OS — combining the best features of Android, ChromeOS, and native Gemini AI into a single powerhouse.

Preorders officially open from Sept. 21 at 9 a.m. ET, with units shipping out on Oct. 4 in the U.S. Every Googlebook comes packed with a minimum of 16GB of RAM, at least 14 hours of battery life, dedicated NPU chips for local AI tasks, and a free 12-month offer for Google AI Pro.

Acer Googlebook 14 Opens in a new window Credit: Acer Acer Googlebook 14 $899 at Best Buy
  Pre-order Here Why we like it

Acer’s Googlebook 14 is the most affordable model of the bunch and the only true 2-in-1 convertible in the initial lineup. At $899, you get 360-degree versatility to flip between laptop, tent, and tablet modes — making it ideal for taking notes or using Android apps on a desktop. Despite the lower price tag, Acer didn't cheap out on specs: it packs a razor-sharp 2.8K OLED touch display, Intel's brand-new Core Ultra 3 Panther Lake processor, and a premium aluminum-and-magnesium chassis weighing just 2.7 pounds.

The one convertible of the bunch. Credit: Joseph Maldonado / Mashable Dell XPS Googlebook Opens in a new window Credit: Dell Dell XPS Googlebook $999 at Best Buy
  Pre-order Here Why we like it

Dell took its famous XPS design and put Googlebook OS on it. The Dell XPS Googlebook is made for taking on the go — it weighs only 2.5 pounds and is super thin. It runs on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite chip for fast performance, gives you a generous 512GB of starter storage, and features a sharp 2.5K touch screen. You also get both face login and a fingerprint scanner built right into its sturdy metal body.

Dell's Googlebook in action. Credit: Joseph Maldonado / Mashable HP Googlebook 14 Opens in a new window Credit: HP HP Googlebook 14 $1,299 at Best Buy
  Pre-order Here Why we like it

HP’s Googlebook 14 is an all-metal workhorse that strikes a sweet spot between screen space and portability. At 2.7 pounds and 14mm thin, it packs a vivid 2.8K OLED touch screen that makes colors pop and handles bright light with ease. Powered by Qualcomm’s fast Snapdragon X1 Elite chip, it keeps multitasking smooth across your daily tasks and Android apps. You also get a responsive haptic touchpad, a fingerprint reader for instant logins, and battery life built to clear a full workday.

HP's Googlebook in full force. Credit: Joseph Maldonado / Mashable Lenovo Googlebook 15 Opens in a new window Credit: Lenovo Lenovo Googlebook 15 $1,099 at Best Buy
  Pre-order Here Why we like it

Lenovo’s Googlebook 15 is built for anyone who wants a bigger workspace without carrying around a heavy brick. It features a roomy 15.3-inch 2.8K OLED touch screen and rich Dolby Atmos audio, making it awesome for side-by-side multitasking, streaming, and creative work. Despite the extra screen space, its high-tech carbon-fiber and magnesium frame keep it under 2.7 pounds. Intel’s new Panther Lake chip handles heavy daily workloads smoothly, while double biometric security — both face unlock and a fingerprint reader — keeps your data locked down tight.

Asus Googlebook 14 Opens in a new window Credit: Asus Asus Googlebook 14 $1,299 at Best Buy
  Pre-order Here Why we like it

The Asus Googlebook 14 is the lightest option in the entire lineup, weighing just 2.2 pounds. Wrapped in a sturdy metal chassis, it features the highest-resolution display in the group — a crisp 3K OLED touch screen that makes text razor-sharp and video colors pop. Intel's new Panther Lake processor keeps everything running fast, while a smooth haptic touchpad and a built-in fingerprint scanner make everyday navigation and security effortless.

If you're ready to ditch Windows and macOS for deep Gemini AI, secure your pre-order today.

First we got Burger King teaming up with Dragon Ball. Then McDonald's went ahead with a SpongeBob collab. And don't forget the Owala and Pokémon bottles that sold out almost immediately. This is a golden age of viral brand mashups, and there's more to come.

Just when you thought these viral collabs might have peaked, two New England powerhouses have joined forces to claim fall. The L.L.Bean Boat and Tote is already a staple for prep-meets-streetwear enthusiasts, but adding Dunkin’s iconic hot pink and orange colorway guarantees these will be all over TikTok and secondary resale sites before lunch on launch day.

Credit: Dunkin'

The collab is anchored by two legitimate heritage staples: L.L.Bean's classic Birdseye Crewneck Sweater (reimagined with a subtle Dunkin' pattern twist) and their indestructible Canvas Boat and Tote. Plus, if you can't wait until Sept. 29 for the full merch drop, Dunkin' stores are handing out incredibly cute knit Birdseye Sweater Cup Sleeves with any coffee order on Tuesday, Sept. 22 (the first day of fall).

Credit: Dunkin' What to shop in the Dunkin’ x L.L.Bean lineup

Mark your calendars for Sept. 29 at 10 a.m. ET for this limited-edition drop. Here's exactly what's dropping online and in select stores:

• L.L.Bean x Dunkin’ Birdseye Sweater ($79.95): L.L.Bean's classic wool-blend Norwegian pattern re-worked with Dunkin's signature color accents.

• L.L.Bean x Dunkin’ Boat and Tote ($59.95): The heavy-duty canvas tote features vibrant Dunkin' pink and orange handles, dual embroidered logos, and contrast stitching.

• L.L.Bean Coffee Tote ($24.95): An ultra-miniature version of the Boat and Tote scaled specifically to hold a single iced coffee cup or travel tumbler.

If you miss out on the official drop on Sept. 29, Dunkin’ Rewards members can still score a free medium hot or iced coffee with any purchase via the Dunkin’ app all day on National Coffee Day.

Sound matters. Among the many labels you’ll encounter when setting up a soundbar or home theater, “ARC” and “eARC” are sure to pop up. But what do they actually mean, and why should you care?

When you get a new phone or device, the first thing people think about is what to do with their current one. More often than not, they trade it in to get money back or lower monthly payments on their new device.