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Ahead of its Made by Google hardware event on Wednesday, Google has unveiled an Apple AirTag competitor. The all-new Pixel Tag is the company's first-ever Bluetooth tracker.

Just like the AirTag, the Pixel Tag will be sold individually for $29.99 and as a four-pack for $99.99. Google wasn't taking preorders for it at the time of writing, but it already has an official release date of Wednesday, Nov. 11, and a Google Store product page where shoppers can sign up for in-stock alerts. We'll update this story if and when Pixel Tag preorders go live.

Opens in a new window Credit: Google Google Pixel Tag $29.99 at the Google Store
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The Pixel Tag is a thin, two-inch-long elliptical disc made from stainless steel. It's rated IP67 for protection against water and dust, and it comes in one "Fog" colorway with a silvery face and a light blueish back panel. (It perfectly matches the new fog Pixel 11, Pixel 11 Pro, and Pixel Watch 5, which Google also announced today.)

Credit: René Ramos / Mashable

The Pixel Tag has a built-in speaker that plays a sound when you ping its location from your phone. You can view its location on Google's Find Hub app. You can also use the Pixel Tag to find a lost Android phone: Pressing the button on its back panel will make a paired device ring.

The Pixel Tag works with smartphones running Android 9 or newer and can be shared with up to 10 different users. You can also ring it from other Google devices, such as Pixel Watches and Pixel Buds.

Credit: René Ramos / Mashable

The Pixel Tag supports precision finding with distance and directional pointers and a "Left Behind alerts" feature that notifies you if you're about to leave a tagged item behind. You'll also get pinged if an unknown tag is with you.

FREE GIFT CARD WITH PURCHASE: As of August 12, get a Google Pixel 11 smartphone at Best Buy and get a free Best Buy gift card with purchase, up to $350.

Opens in a new window Credit: Best Buy Google Pixel 11 + Free Best Buy Gift Card   Get Deal

The Google Pixel 11 smartphone line is coming, and there are multiple choices to pick up if you're ready to lock one in. If you're going to preorder one of the devices anyway, however, you may as well save some extra money while you're at it. Though the phones won't be here officially until next week, you've got some time to lock one in for yourself right now if you're ready. Head to Best Buy and you'll even get a gift card with purchase to sweeten the deal.

As of August 12, get a Google Pixel 11 smartphone at Best Buy and get a free Best Buy gift card with purchase, up to $350. Choose the Pixel 11 Pro Fold and you'll get a $350 gift card with your purchase, while the Pixel 11 Pro and Pro XL will net you a $200 gift card. The Pixel 11 will get a $100 gift card with purchase. You can't lose, no matter which phone you go with, as this extra cash to spend at Best Buy can go toward accessories or just another shopping trip when you go back.

SEE ALSO: Where to preorder the Google Pixel 11 Pro Fold

The gift card will be delivered digitally via email after you pick up your new phone in-store or have it delivered to your home. You'll need to make sure you confirm your email address to receive it, so be on the lookout for that as you must respond within 60 days to receive the promotional item.

It's a great time to go ahead and choose your new Pixel phone at Best Buy and get a little something back for your time. Several retailers are doing something similar with other Pixel phones and products, so you can choose your own adventure here. All colors and styles are eligible. All you need to do is pick which phone you want to go with and you're good to go. Just be sure to do so before the phones release.

Back-to-school season sometimes means re-evaluating whether your current family hauler can handle drop-off lines, an avalanche of football gear, and a packed carpool of your kids and all their friends without falling apart.

GET A FREE $200 AMAZON GIFT CARD: Preorder the new Google Pixel 11 Pro (256GB) for $1,099 and get a free $200 Amazon gift card. The new Pixels are set for release on Aug. 20.

Opens in a new window Credit: Google / Amazon Google Pixel 11 Pro (256GB) + $200 Amazon gift card $1,099 at Amazon
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It's a big day for Google Pixel fans. The brand has new Pixel phones, a watch, earbuds, and a Bluetooth tracker. Like most major phone and tech announcements, preorders come with great perks. If you're considering making the upgrade to the Google Pixel 11 Pro, check out this Amazon deal.

Preorder the new Google Pixel 11 Pro (256GB) for $1,099 at Amazon and you'll get a free $200 Amazon gift card. The deal also applies to the the larger 512GB and 1TB models of the phone. Amazon notes this deal is valid until Aug. 27.

Starting with 256GB for $1,099, the Google Pixel 11 Pro is slated for launch on Aug. 20. Google has a fresh new feature this year with the Pixel HiLight. When the phone is facing down, an indicator light will gently glow to notify you of a message or call from an important contact. The feature lets you keep the phone down, free from distractions, and only notifies you of contact from a select group of people.

SEE ALSO: Where to preorder the Google Pixel 11 Pro Fold

In terms of upgrades from the previous Pixel model, the new 11 Pro comes in new colorways, has a higher brightness level, and a new Tensor G6 processor for better overall performance.

If you're preordering the new Pixel 11 Pro and you tend to shop at Amazon, it's a win-win to place your order at Amazon and get a free $200 gift card.

Back in July 2021, Microsoft announced Windows 365, a service that would let you use Windows on any device you like, including your iPad.

TL;DR: The Google Store is offering up to $1,000 back on the Pixel 11 series via trade-in, plus bundled discounts on the Pixel Watch 5, Pixel Buds, and Nest devices.

If you're a Google fan (honestly, even if you're not, these phones are gorg and you should def take a look), Google is offering special offers across its entire lineup right now. You can score bundle deals, trade-in offers, store credits, carrier discounts, free subscription perks, and more directly through the Google Store.

There are a ton of promos going on right now, so I broke it down into digestible chunks based on what you need.

Pixel 11 phone deals

• Pixel 11 Pro Fold: Get up to $1,000 back with an eligible trade-in. Plus, get a free Google Pixel Watch 5 (41mm WiFi) or $350 in Google Store credit.

• Pixel 11 Pro / Pro XL: Get up to $600 back with an eligible trade-in. Plus, choose between $250 off the new Pixel Watch 5 or a $200 Google Store credit for your next purchase.

• Pixel 11 (standard): Get up to $500 back with an eligible trade-in, plus $130 off the Pixel Watch 5 or a $100 Google Store credit.

• Carrier savings (Google Fi Wireless): Switch or join Google Fi to get the Pixel 11 Pro or standard Pixel 11 "on us" (via bill credits), plus $10/month off your phone plan for two years.

Pixel Watch and wearables deals

• Pixel Watch 5: Get up to $400 back with an eligible watch trade-in.

• Free LTE data: Buy any Pixel Watch 5 (LTE) and get two years of smartwatch data included via Google Fi Wireless without changing your current phone carrier.

• Fitbit discounts: Save $50 on the Fitbit Sense 2 ($199.95), $40 on the Fitbit Charge 6 ($119.95), $40 on the Versa 4 ($159.95), or $20 on the Inspire 3 ($79.95).

Pixel Buds and audio savings

• Pixel Buds Pro 2: On sale for $189 (down from $229).

• Pixel Buds 2a: On sale for $99 (down from $129).

Smart home and streaming perks

• Google TV Streamer (4K): Get three months of YouTube Premium on us or save up to $120 over your first six months of YouTube TV.

• Nest Wifi Pro (1-pack): On sale for $149.99 (down from $199.99).

• Nest Cams and doorbells: Get one month of Google Home Premium on us when you purchase a 2nd Gen Outdoor Nest Cam, 3rd Gen Indoor Nest Cam, or 3rd Gen Wired Nest Doorbell.

Preorder the new Google Pixel Watch 5: The google store Google Pixel Watch 5 (41mm, Bluetooth/WiFi) $399.99 Pre-Order Here Best Buy Google Pixel Watch 5 (41mm, Bluetooth/WiFi) $399.99 Pre-Order Here Amazon Google Pixel Watch 5 (41mm, Bluetooth/WiFi) $399.99 Pre-Order Here Amazon Google Pixel 11 Pro Fold (256GB) + free Pixel Watch 5 $1,899 Pre-Order Here

Following some extensive leaks (plus a brief dip in the ocean?), Google's new smartwatch is here. The Pixel Watch 5 was formally announced ahead of the tech giant's annual Made by Google hardware event on Wednesday, alongside some fresh Pixel 11 phones and the new Pixel Tag.

The Pixel Watch 5 starts at $399.99 and is set for release on Aug. 20. It's now up for preorder at the Google Store, Amazon, and Best Buy. (Pro tip: You can get a free Pixel Watch 5 by purchasing the new Pixel 11 Pro Fold through select retailers.)

The Pixel Watch 5 comes in 41mm and 45mm sizes, per usual. Credit: René Ramos / Mashable

The Pixel Watch 5 is $50 more expensive than last year's stellar Pixel Watch 4 and features several upgrades helping to justify its price bump. That includes twice as much storage, an extra gigabyte of RAM, a faster Qualcomm Snapdragon W5 Gen 2 Accelerated chip, and more advanced health and wellness features. To name two, the watch can now track blood pressure patterns and assess the quality of your breathing while you sleep.

The Pixel Watch 5 also lets you create custom watch faces using generative AI, making it super customizable.

The Google Pixel Watch 5, as seen through the camera of the new Pixel 11 Pro Fold. Credit: René Ramos / Mashable

The Pixel Watch 5 comes in 41mm and 45mm sizes with recycled aluminum housing and a bright, always-on 3D Corning Gorilla Glass 5 display. The 45mm one costs $30 extra. Each size is available with optional LTE connectivity for $100 more. They both come in three standard colorways:

• Matte Black Aluminum Case / Obsidian Active Band

• Polished Silver Aluminum Case / Fog Active Band

• Satin Pyrite Aluminum Case / Olive Active Band

The 41mm Pixel Watch 5 is also available in an exclusive Champagne Gold variant with a "Canyon" Active (rubber) Band, while the 45mm size has an additional Special Edition LTE variant designed in partnership with NBA star Stephen Curry. It features a Satin Pyrite case, a Rye Performance Loop (polyester) Band, and an exclusive watch face. It's priced at $579.99.

Curry previously teamed up with Google to tease the new screenless Fitbit Air, which nabbed a Mashable Choice Award earlier this summer.

Opens in a new window Credit: Google Google Pixel Watch 5 (45mm, 4G LTE + Bluetooth/WiFI, Stephen Curry Special Edition) $579.99 at Amazon
  Pre-order Here

Every month, Netflix always has something new in store for every type of viewer. Whether you're a romantic, horror buff, or suspense lover, the streaming platform has a diverse pool of titles to pick from. And if you love documentaries, the collection of new titles is always solid.

Best Boox deals at a glance Best overall deal Boox Palma2 Pro Tappy Bundle with case $404.97 at Amazon (save $50.05) Get Deal Best mid-sized tablet deal Boox Go 7 Tappy Bundle with case $279.59 at Amazon (save $61.38) Get Deal Best large tablet deal Boox Go 10.3 Gen II Lumi Tappy Bundle with case $461.94 at Amazon (save $69.03) Get Deal

It's time to get ready for cozy season. Crisp fall air will be here in just a few weeks. If you have plans to spend the fall and winter catching up on books, sketching, or working on other creative projects, the Boox back-to-school sale could be a savior.

SEE ALSO: A new small but mighty Boox e-reader is on the way

The brand makes some of the most versatile e-ink tablets and e-readers. The sale extends to the brand's own website as well as their Amazon storefront. Plenty of models are included in the sale and most bundle the brand's Tappy Wireless Page Turner. Unlike Kindle, Boox has its very own page-turner device, leaving you without the need to readjust with every page turn.

Keep in mind Boox says these deals will disappear on Aug. 23, so it's best to shop soon to get the best selection.

Best overall deal Opens in a new window Credit: Boox Boox Palma2 Pro Tappy Bundle with case $404.92 at Amazon
$454.97 Save $50.05   Get Deal Why we like it

The Boox Palma2 Pro is a palm-sized e-reader that gives you great portability. The 6-inch display is perfect for travel, evening reading, or for taking back and forth to campus. The Boox Palma2 Pro uses the brand's Kaleido three-color display which doesn't emit blue light. The 128GB storage makes for plenty of room for books, magazines, and other downloaded content. There's also a built-in speaker.

The bundle includes a magnetic case as well as the new Boox Tappy Remote Wireless Page Turner.

Most people shopping for a used family SUV aren't looking for something that can move like a sports car. That's what makes this particular plug-in hybrid so easy to overlook.

Following in the footsteps of Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar and Romy and Michele's High School Reunion, writer/director Dylan Meyer's The Wrong Girls is a sublimely stupid buddy comedy. And thank the movie gods!

When it comes to male-fronted buddy comedies, there's no shortage of cinema celebrating loyalty alongside the giddy pleasure of acting really, truly idiotic with your friends. Beyond movies like the Cornetto Trilogy, practically every Kevin Smith movie, or any Will Ferrell comedy, there are also several franchises in this vein, sparked by Dumb and Dumber, Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, and Wayne's World.

Female-fronted buddy comedies are fewer and farther between in general, and even more so when it comes to movies that allow the actresses at their center to truly embrace their inner bozo. Sure, in Clueless and Bridesmaids, the heroines make silly mistakes. But they're ultimately relatable and even enviable figures, thanks to their coveted wardrobes, flawless beauty, and dream-guy-secured happy endings.

Cheers then to Meyer, who, for her directorial debut, looked at celebrated actresses Alia Shawkat and Kristen Stewart (Meyer's real-life wife), and saw what terrific dum-dums they could be.

The Wrong Girls embraces dirtbag girlhood. Kristen Stewart and Alia Shawkat co-star in "The Wrong Girls." Credit: NEON

Stewart and Shawkat star as Frankie and Molly, two best friends who share a home, two cats, a bong, and an utter lack of ambition. Frankie (Stewart) is a Stanford dropout with an engineering background and a survival job with a DoorDash-like delivery company. Molly (Shawkat) does data entry, while her successful boyfriend Josh (Zack Fox) rubs her feet — and urges her to move in with him. But Molly's real passion is for concocting unexpected food combinations, like weed brownies with blue cheese baked in.

Living in an apartment decked out with cat-themed art, these besties are pretty blissful, despite the occasional pressure to scramble for rent money or a student loan payment. That is, until a case of mistaken identities lands these roomies with a mysterious suitcase, the contents of which have them stalked by dangerous goons. (See also: Drive-Away Dolls.) Frankie and Molly decide the strange glowing liquid inside must be party drugs — perfect for selling for some quick cash. But of course, it'd be irresponsible not to try it first.

Turns out, this hotly sought psychedelic gives them the power to communicate telepathically with each other — and their cats Dio (voiced by an irate Seth Rogen) and GG (voiced by a skittish Kumail Nanjiani). So, high out of their minds and chaotically superpowered, they have to evade the Danish thugs who want the drugs, and team up with a hot but huffy mercenary (LaKeith Stanfield).

Over the course of their adventure, these two will curse, bicker, get dangerously stoned, crash parties while wearing dresses made of black garbage bags, squat in the street to piss, and generally reek of a party gone very foul. They frequently have food caked to their faces or large sticks stuck in their hair, with scratcher tattoos littering their limbs. They casually favor tacky fashion, like an oversized t-shirt illustrated with big fake boobs bursting out of an Elvira-like deep-V neckline.

While their look is very different from the middle-age core of Barb and Star's culottes or Romy and Michele's girl-pop verve, there's nonetheless a gleeful defiance in this dirtbag aesthetic. Like these foremothers of kooky comedy, they don't dress for the male gaze or even to appease the mean girls of the world. They dress in whatever jumble of fabric and trash makes them happy.

With The Wrong Girls, Meyer takes two inarguably beautiful women who can pull off a high-fashion look as a red carpet might demand, and gives them the gender parity of being goofy and gross in ways often denied to women onscreen.

Kristen Stewart is hilarious as a fried fuck-up. LaKeith Stanfield and Kate McKinnon co-star in "The Wrong Girls." Credit: NEON

Though most often revered for her dramatic roles like Princess Diana in Spencer, Stewart has done comedy in Charlie's Angels and Happiest Season, and on Saturday Night Live. Here, however, Meyer offers a sandbox to get weird and explore a sense of humor that itches at the uncomfortable.

In its The Man Who Knew Too Little setup, The Wrong Girls allows Stewart to play a "weirdo bimbo," as a smug Stanford alum (Tony Hale) dubs her. Then, Stewart also plays Frances, a young woman who looks shockingly like Frankie — if she wore cat-eye glasses and had a clean girl aesthetic and her shit together.

This running bit of doppelgänger rivalry allows Stewart to showcase her range, simply and silly. Where Frances is sharp and poised, Frankie is a storm of flung limbs, shocked sneers, and emotional outbursts. Under Meyer's direction, Stewart is able to embrace the buffoonery that she didn't seem to settle into in her Day Drinking With Seth segment. There she seemed to bristle at the doofiest bits, as if she feared being the butt of the joke. Here, she is loose, funny, and even unhinged.

Props to Shawkat, a storied actor in the offbeat comedy space since Arrested Development. With a dazed smile and wide eyes, she makes Molly the perfect partner to absorb Frankie's frantic energy. Where Stewart scores laughs in her intensity, Shawkat's silliness is softer, stretching out in clownish physical comedy and bewildered reactions. She's the Lloyd to Stewart's Harry, in terms of Dumb and Dumber dynamics.

Danish thugs use hand sanitizer in "The Wrong Girls." Credit: NEON

Together, they click terrifically, creating a comedy duo as challenging as it is hilarious. Admittedly, this movie is a little slow to start, as Meyer lingers on some backstory that is more laborious than strictly necessary. But once these "professional bozos" are rolling into Act 2 with their moronic master plan, they're bolstered by sensational supporting turns from not only Rogen, Nanjiani, Hale, and Stanfield, but also Kate McKinnon and Geena Davis.

All of this grooves into a climax that is equal parts, exciting, subversive, and — I cannot stress enough — stupid. Meyer strategically sets up familiar mistaken-identity markers, including a showdown wherein the average joe (or jane) faces a sneering, evil minion in a sharp-pressed suit. These familiar beats actually make the mayhem between them all the funnier, as if The Wrong Girls is trying to be a traditional action-comedy, but its heroines will not be contained! And that gremlin energy culminates in a climactic dance number, which is not as fantastical as those in Barb and Star or as magically choreographed as the one in Romy and Michele. But that wouldn't make sense for these two friends. This is the dance they deserve.

As a Céline Dion track plays unabashedly, theirs is a dance that laughs in the face of cringe. They are free, but not graceful. They are united, not in sync. They are the wrong girls. And if loving them is wrong, then being right is really stupid.

The Wrong Girls opens in theaters on Aug. 14.

At a glance

• MindTopo is a new benchmark for testing topological reasoning in AI, evaluating whether multimodal models can understand concepts such as connectivity, enclosure, order, separation, and knots.
• The benchmark measures both reasoning and planning, testing not only whether models can recognize topological relationships in static images but also whether they can preserve and manipulate those relationships through a sequence of actions.
• Current multimodal models perform much better on static recognition than interactive tasks, suggesting they struggle to maintain a consistent understanding of topology over time.
• Failures often emerge during planning rather than perception, with models losing track of structural relationships as scenes change or proposing actions that violate physical constraints.
• The findings highlight an important opportunity to advance AI systems for robotics and interactive environments, where understanding what stays connected, enclosed, ordered, or knotted is essential for reliable decision-making.

Can AI determine whether two rooms remain connected after a wall is added? Can it recognize whether an animal is inside a fence, distinguish a true knot from a tangled loop, or rearrange several ropes without allowing them to pass through one another?

These questions concern 3D topology, a form of spatial understanding based not on exact distances, angles, or shapes, but on structural relationships that persist as objects bend, stretch, or deform. Connectivity, enclosure, ordering, and knottedness are examples of topological properties. These properties are a foundational layer of human spatial understanding in Cognitive Science, yet they remain largely absent from how multimodal AI systems are evaluated.

In a new research study, we introduce MindTopo (opens in new tab), a benchmark designed to evaluate whether multimodal large language models possess this kind of topological intuition. Our findings reveal a substantial gap between recognizing topology in a static image and maintaining an innate understanding of that topology while planning and acting. Current models can sometimes identify a connected path, enclosed region, or knot in a single scene, but that understanding often breaks down once the model must manipulate the scene through a sequence of actions.

How MindTopo defines topological space

Most spatial evaluations for multimodal models focus on Euclidean properties such as distance, direction, size, and relative position. Inspired by Piaget and other cognitive literature’s classification of topological ability, MindTopo organizes its tasks around the following five categories:

• Continuity asks whether a path or object remains unbroken.
• Separation asks whether nearby elements form one structure or distinct parts.
• Order tracks how elements are arranged along a path or through a transformation.
• Enclosure tests whether a boundary creates an inside and an outside.
• Knots tests whether ropes are truly knotted or linked rather than merely tangled in appearance.

Each category is evaluated at two cognitive levels. In reasoning tasks, a model examines one or more rendered scenes and answers a question about their topological structure: whether two points in a maze are connected, whether the sheep are inside the fence, whether a rope is truly knotted. In planning tasks, the model interacts with a simulated environment and selects actions that must create, preserve, or remove a particular relation, such as rotating pipe segments, drawing a separating path, rearranging blocks, trapping a moving agent, or untangling ropes. The environments enforce legal actions, so a model cannot solve a rope puzzle by passing one strand through another.

Figure 1. MindTopo pairs questions about static scenes with interactive tasks that require models to preserve or change the same topological relations. 

All scenes are generated from controlled simulators, which provide exact ground truth and adjustable difficulty. That control makes it possible to separate two failure modes that otherwise look alike: a model that fails because a scene is visually complex, and a model that fails because it cannot maintain the underlying relationship as objects move.

Figure 2. MindTopo maps reasoning and planning tasks to continuity, separation, order, enclosure, and knots.  Seeing topology is not the same as acting on it

Across a broad set of proprietary and open-weight models, performance was consistently stronger on static reasoning than on interactive planning, and both remained well below human performance. The contrast was especially clear when success depended on preserving a relationship across many actions.

The error patterns help locate the problem. Static mistakes usually began with perception, such as missing a wall, opening, or crossing. Planning mistakes appeared after the scene had been understood. Models followed a locally plausible move without tracking its later consequences, lost the task over multiple turns, or proposed an action that violated the environment’s dynamics.

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Watch on-demand Opens in a new tab What generative tools reveal

We also tested whether image and video generation could help models maintain an understanding of topological relationships. Image generation sometimes helped when the relevant relation was visible in a single frame, but it remained unreliable across a sequence of crossings or moves. Video rollouts frequently altered topology or violated task dynamics. Visual simulation appeared useful only to the extent that it preserved structural constraints over time.

Building agents that preserve structure

MindTopo is intended as a controlled diagnostic for this gap. Robots, accessibility tools, and interactive assistants must understand not only where objects are, but also what remains connected, enclosed, ordered, or knotted as actions unfold. Closing that gap may require models that carry an explicit topological state, or world models whose predictions preserve topology by construction.

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The post MindTopo reveals VLMs’ spatial reasoning abilities appeared first on Microsoft Research.

TL;DR: Starting Aug. 12, the new Tonies x Pokémon collection is open for pre-order at Walmart and tonies.com.

Opens in a new window Credit: Tonies Pre-order the Tonies x Pokémon collection at Walmart   Pre-order Here

I'm not a parent, but I am an aunt (the cool aunt, ofc), and I'm a big believer in screen-free playtime. The only problem is that it's hard to find a toy that'll hold a kid's attention long enough. (Though Lego is still holding strong in my nephew's toy chest.) The Toniebox, however, is an outlier, and all of the parents at Mashable are impressed.

SEE ALSO: The 10 best Lego sets of 2026 so far, from F1 to Monet and Pokémon

If you're unfamiliar, Toniebox is basically a "cuddly speaker" that your little ones can interact with by switching out the little figurines on top. It'll sing to them or read to them, and there are no ads (!!!). You also don't have to worry about them wandering off into PG-13 territory, because all of the content is curated based on the little figurine.

Now, one of the biggest franchises in the world is joining the platform. Starting Aug. 12, the new Tonies x Pokémon collection is open for pre-order at Walmart and tonies.com. The line goes on general sale at Walmart and the Tonies website on Aug. 22, before rolling out to Target and Amazon on Aug. 30.

he Pokémon Toniebox 2 Bundle includes the updated Toniebox 2 audio player, a Pikachu Tonie, plus Bulbasaur, Charmander, and Squirtle Tonies. Credit: Tonies

If you're buying your first Toniebox, you can pre-order the Pikachu Toniebox 2 Starter Set in Lightning Yellow for $149.99. It includes the updated Toniebox 2 audio player and a Pikachu Tonie (which is honestly the cutest one, IMO). Want more figurines? The Pokémon Toniebox 2 Bundle includes the updated Toniebox 2 audio player, a Pikachu Tonie, plus Bulbasaur, Charmander, and Squirtle Tonies.

For those of you who already own a Toniebox, the individual Pokémon characters are available for $19.99 apiece.

In an era of software innovations, Google has one neat hardware trick in the Pixel 11 lineup. It's a shame it's not part of the whole lineup, though.

Google lifted the veil off the Pixel 11 series on Wednesday morning as part of its Made by Google event. Between anxiety around price increases and intrigue surrounding new AI features, one new hardware addition stood out: the HiLight feature. Available on the Pixel 11 Pro and Pro Fold devices, this is a new notification system that communicates things to the user when the phone is turned on its face.

I got to briefly try out HiLight at a press event before the announcement, and came away thinking it had potential. Unfortunately, some of that potential is being squandered by device exclusivity, for now.

Google Pixel 11 Pro HiLight hands-on: A cool feature that should be in every Pixel 11 phone It's on the Fold, too. Credit: Rene Ramos / Mashable

I feel a primer is in order, given that HiLight is a brand-new Pixel 11 feature. In short, it's a small circular light module that sits in the rear camera bar of the Pixel 11 Pro and Pixel 11 Pro Fold. At first, it doesn't look like anything fancy, but it's hiding a neat secret.

SEE ALSO: Where to preorder the Google Pixel 11 and Pixel 11 Pro

Put simply, HiLight will light up in different colors to notify the phone's owner that something is happening on the phone while the device lies face down. If you're locked in at work and don't want to be distracted, but you still want to know if you're getting an important phone call, HiLight will do the trick.

HiLight is, in fact, mostly used for phone calls at this time, as far as I can tell. You can go into your contacts and assign custom light colors to individual people. I don't have a full list of colors in front of me at this time, but there were no more than six or seven options. However, as someone who is mildly color deficient, I very much appreciated it when an on-site Google rep informed me that the colors were chosen to avoid confusion for people like me. The ones I saw all looked pretty distinct, though every color-deficient person's eyes work differently.

If only every Pixel 11 had this. Credit: Rene Ramos / Mashable

Strangely, HiLight does not seem to work with text messages at this point. I was told that new functionality will come in the future, though. The only other use case I was shown for HiLight was that it will light up in a rainbow pattern when Gemini is in use.

Smartphone enthusiasts will immediately recognize this as being inspired by Nothing's hardware design over the years. That company has been making phones with light patterns on the rear side for years, for this same purpose. However, those tend to be bigger, more gaudy, and more feature-rich than HiLight is so far. I appreciate how visually modest HiLight is, though the functionality seems a bit thin at launch.

SEE ALSO: How to watch Made By Google 2026

All of that is fine and good, but one thing I don't understand at this juncture is why HiLight isn't available on the base Pixel 11 phone. The same circular object is still present in the camera bar (presumably a camera flash module), but it doesn't light up for notifications as it does on Pro devices. I think HiLight is cool, but it would make a much bigger impression if every Pixel 11 owner could use it.

Considering the base Pixel 11 is closer than ever to a Pro experience thanks to the recent addition of a telephoto lens, maybe Google felt the need to distinguish the two models a little bit more this year. That said, I hope the Pixel 12 rectifies this.

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The GPU market is a hellscape right now, and Nvidia's RTX 50 Super isn't coming to save us all (not that it would even if it did arrive). If you want a new GPU, my advice is not to get one. But what if you're desperate? Please, don't default to Nvidia.

The best Google Pixel 11 Pro Fold preorder deals: the google store Google Pixel 11 Pro Fold (256GB) + free Pixel Watch 5 $899 (save up to $1,000 with a trade-in) Pre-Order Here amazon Google Pixel 11 Pro Fold (256GB) + free Pixel Watch 5 or $350 gift card $1,899 Pre-Order Here best buy Google Pixel 11 Pro Fold (256GB) + free $350 gift card $1,899 Pre-Order Here T-Mobile Google Pixel 11 Pro Fold (256GB) $1,399 (save up to $500 with a trade-in on eligible plans) Pre-Order Here

The first foldable iPhone is due later this year, but while we all wait for that, Google just announced its latest foldable Android on Wednesday ahead of its annual Made by Google hardware event.

Meet the Pixel 11 Pro Fold, starting at $1,899 and now available for preorder ahead of its Aug. 20 launch. Buying it directly through the Google Store nets you up to $1,000 in trade-in savings and a free 41mm Pixel Watch 5 (through Aug. 27). Preorders placed through Amazon come with your choice of a free Pixel Watch 5 or a free $350 gift card. At Best Buy, it just comes with a free $350 gift card.

Among major carriers, T-Mobile is offering the best Pixel 11 Pro Fold deal with up to $500 off (via monthly bill credits) if you trade in an older device on select plans.

The Pixel 11 Pro Fold marks a small price increase from its predecessor. It's $100 more expensive than last year's Pixel 10 Pro Fold, which started at $1,799.

The Pixel 11 Pro Fold is just one of several Pixel devices announced today, with a lineup including the Pixel 11, Pixel 11 Pro, and 11 Pro XL, Pixel Watch 5, and Pixel Tag.

SEE ALSO: Made By Google: Live updates as new Pixel 11 phones launch

A render of the Pixel 11 Pro Fold leaked in early July, showcasing a possible new colorway (that we can now confirm as olive) and a downsized camera bar. Google's also officially teased out the foldable itself, though we didn't get much info beyond a peek at the design.

With the phone's release, we now know that the Pixel 11 Pro Fold comes with a Google Tensor G6 chip, a more powerful processor than the previous generation, enabling a more seamless AI experience.

Credit: René Ramos / Mashable

As for the build itself, Google claims this phone is 10 percent lighter than the Pixel 10 Fold, which is a welcome change — Mashable's Alex Perry found the older foldable to be on the bulkier side in his review. The phone also features a more durable design, with an IP68 water and dust resistance rating, a new hinge, and scratch-resistant glass.

Like the Pixel 11 Pro, it'll feature a new multi-colored light on the camera bar called HiLight, designed to offer visual cues for notifications while the phone is placed face down. Unlike the Pixel 11 Pro, it features a rear 10.5 MP ultrawide (compared to the Pro's better 13MP ultrawide camera). A full list of specs can be found below:

• Display: 6.1-inch by 3-inch display

• Interior display: 6.1 inches by 5.9 inches

• Processor: Google Tensor G6 processor

• Storage: 256/512GB/1TB

• Memory: 16GB RAM

• Battery: 4806 mAh

• Rear cameras: 48MP wide, 10.5MP ultrawide, 10.8MP telephoto with 5x optical zoom

• Front camera: 10MP

• Inner camera: 10 MP

Grab the Pixel 11 Pro Fold in obsidian or olive.

Opens in a new window Credit: Google / Amazon Google Pixel 11 Pro Fold (256GB) + free Pixel Watch 5 or $350 gift card $1,899 at Amazon
  Pre-order Here

SAVE $35: As of August 12, get the Google Pixelsnap Charger with Stand for $34.99 at Amazon, down from its usual price of $69.99. That's a discount of 50%.

Opens in a new window Credit: Amazon Google Pixelsnap Charger with Stand $34.99 at Amazon
$69.99 Save $35.00   Get Deal

Whether you're planning to buy or you already have a Google Pixel phone, you need a charger to go with it. And while you could feasibly use any USB-C charger to get the job done, having a bespoke accessory from Google to handle the same thing is a good idea as well. This deal can help you get ready for your new phone or soup up the charging experience for the one you're already using.

As of August 12, get the Google Pixelsnap Charger with Stand for $34.99 at Amazon, down from its usual price of $69.99. That's $35 off and a discount of 50%.

SEE ALSO: T-Mobile is giving away the new Google Pixel 11 for free — how to claim

This wireless charger is a sleek docking option for your phone. It supports Qi2 wireless charging, and you can set your phone down on it upright to juice it back up, or detach the charger from the stand to take it wherever you go.

You can use it to get your phone back up to 100% charge easily and quickly, and you don't have to worry about your device falling off or slipping away and not powering up. The device is magnetic, so your phone will just snap into place as it charges, with speeds up to 25W.

You can use your phone while it's sitting on the charging stand as well, so you don't have to necessarily wait for it to be finished charging. That's especially handy if you have business to take care of, but your phone is dead. This is a great charger to have on hand, whether you leave it home or take it with you, so grab it while it's still on sale at such a significant price cut.

SAVE $220: As of Aug. 12, the HP Omnibook 3 16-by0199nr laptop with an AMD Ryzen 3 processor, 8GB RAM, and 256GB SSD is on sale for $449.99 at Amazon. That's a savings of 33% and this model's lowest price ever.

Opens in a new window Credit: HP HP Omnibook 3 16-by0199nr (AMD Ryzen 3, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD) $449.99 at Amazon
$669.99 Save $220   Get Deal

Need a new laptop to kick off the college semester? Or perhaps a daily driver laptop to keep up with emails and streaming the latest shows? The HP Omnibook 3 16 is a solid pick that won't break the bank, especially now that it's on sale for 33% off.

As of Aug. 12, you can grab the HP Omnibook 3 16-by0199nr laptop at Amazon with an AMD Ryzen 3 processor, 8GB RAM, and 256GB of storage for only $449.99. That's over $200 off its list price and its lowest price to date.

It may not be the most powerful or most stunning laptop on the market, but it'll get the job done. And at just 3.6 pounds, it's perfectly portable for lugging between classes or to and from an office. Yet, its 16-inch 2K touchscreen display gives you a ton of screen real estate to work with. Its battery life is perfectly sufficient at over 14 hours. It also features a fast-charge setting that can restore your battery from zero to half charged in just 45 minutes.

With only 8GB RAM and 256GB storage, I don't recommend any heavy gaming or demanding workloads on this laptop. It's more suited for casual streaming, web-browsing, note-taking, and other daily tasks. There are two USB-A ports, two USB-C ports, and an HDMI port on board, giving you plenty of options for extending your RAM or storage if you need to.

If you're in the market for a basic laptop that won't break the bank, at only $449.99, the 2026 HP Omnibook 3 16 is a great value.

SAVE 12%: As of Aug. 12, you can get the 15.3-inch Lenovo Legion 5a (Ryzen 7, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD) for $1,998.99, down from $2,273.29, at Amazon. That's a 12% discount or $274 in savings.

15.3-inch Lenovo Legion 5a (Ryzen 7, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD) $1,998.99 at Amazon
$2,273.29 Save $274.30   Get Deal at Amazon

If you're looking for a gaming laptop that's just as good for classwork as it is for gaming, you should definitely check out the Lenovo Legion 5a.

As of Aug. 12, you can get the 15.3-inch Lenovo Legion 5a (Ryzen 7, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD) for $1,998.99, down from $2,273.29, at Amazon. That's a 12% discount or $274 in savings.

SEE ALSO: The best laptops of 2026: Out of the 80+ models we've tried, these are our 9 favorites

While Lenovo is famous for its ThinkPad, the Legion lineup is designed for gamers who also need a serious WFH station. This laptop has a 15.3-inch OLED WQXGA display with a 165Hz refresh rate, so your contrast is deep, and your visuals are crisp and smooth. It's also equipped with an AMD Ryzen 7 250 processor and an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 GPU. Plus, it comes with 32GB of RAM right out of the box, so you'll have plenty of headroom for multitasking, streaming, or whatever else, in addition to a 1TB SSD for your game library.

Astronomers have found the earliest example of a black hole rapidly bulking up in the universe — and it may finally resolve a long‑running cosmic dilemma.

The object appears just 660 million years after the Big Bang. Using NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, researchers found that almost all of its light comes from a central black hole wrapped in a tight shell of stormy hydrogen gas, rather than from stars in a surrounding galaxy.

SEE ALSO: Solar Eclipse 2026 livestreams: How to watch safely today without glasses

That alone is striking. But what really matters is the clarity of the signal. After using computers to simulate different possibilities, the team was able to rule out stars and dust as the main sources of its incredible light.

That makes this object, dubbed MoM-BH*‑1, the strongest evidence yet of a newly proposed type of space object — a so-called black hole star — giving scientists a firm blueprint for a whole population of puzzling objects Webb has spotted near the beginning of time.

"You have something that looks a bit like a star but is 100 billion times brighter," said Rohan Naidu, lead author of the study and an MIT fellow at the time, in a statement. "That means you can't be powering this by nuclear fusion, which is the energy source that sits at the heart of all the stars we have."

The object is mind‑boggling: a black hole that is about 100,000 times more massive than the sun, sitting at the center of an enormous ball of gas. Through Webb's eye, it looks like a star the size of our entire solar system.

To put it bluntly: "It's huge," said Naidu, whose team's findings were published in the journal Nature. 

Since Webb opened for business in 2022, the observatory has spotted hundreds of "little red dots" like MoM-BH*-1 scattered through its deepest images. They've been labeled "little" because they show up as tiny sources of light too compact to tease apart into clear galaxies. They're "red" because they shine much more strongly in Webb's red‑sensitive views, a sign that we're seeing extremely distant objects whose light has stretched on its long journey across the universe.

The puzzle is that many of these dots look even redder and more dense than expected, suggesting something in or around them is changing their appearance in an extreme way. The debate has divided astronomers: Are they freakishly fast‑growing galaxies, or something stranger?

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Early on, many teams thought the intense color of the dots was due to dust. In most space images, dust makes things look redder by blocking blue light. If little red dots were just young galaxies buried in dust, that could explain their color and brightness — though it still wouldn't jibe well with how fast galaxies are known to grow.

Others argued that a black hole powered the dots. In that scenario, hot material falling into a black hole releases energy, but a surrounding orb of gas and dust mangles the light before it can escape, turning the system into a concentrated, reddish beacon. This is where the term "black hole star" comes in: It's not an actual star, per se, but a stage where a black hole sits at the center of a star‑size ball of gas, feeding rapidly on material.

A James Webb Space Telescope image of MoM-BH*-1, a so-called 'black hole star' in the early universe, which looks like a little red dot. Credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / STScI / DAWN JWST Archive / PRIMER Survey / Rohan Naidu

Earlier Webb studies, including detailed work on an object called GLIMPSE‑17775 and another known as The Cliff, made the black hole idea look increasingly plausible. They revealed dense gas, odd colors, and signs a hidden black hole was doing much of the work. But those studies still couldn't fully rule out more conservative explanations, where stars, dust, and a black hole all share the credit. 

They also featured objects that weren't nearly as ancient, existing around "cosmic noon" time versus MoM-BH*1's "cosmic dawn." 

When scientists split MoM‑BH*‑1's light into a spectrum — a measurement of brightness at each wavelength — they found a dramatic drop between redder and bluer light. In ordinary galaxies, that feature can come from the surfaces of certain types of stars. Here, though, the drop was more than twice as strong as any realistic combination of stars could produce.

Light from the material falling in toward the black hole tries to escape, but gets processed over and over again within the gas shell, which reshapes the spectrum and pushes energy toward redder wavelengths.

"We started to ask: Could you make something that red using just hydrogen, without any dust?" said Robert Simcoe, an MIT co-author, in a statement. "To our surprise, it turns out you can."

Since 2022, the James Webb Space Telescope has has spotted hundreds of 'little red dots' scattered through its deepest images of the early universe. Credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / STScI / Dale Kocevski

If dense gas — not dust — is doing most of the work in objects like MoM-BH*‑1, then some of those black holes could weigh much less than earlier estimates, simply growing at extraordinary rates while wrapped in gas. That would ease a major tension in cosmology, where some suspected early black holes seemed way too massive for how little time had passed since the Big Bang. 

The black hole star also seems to live in a tiny, dim galaxy, parked next to a much bigger one. In this arrangement, strong radiation from the larger galaxy could disrupt normal star‑forming processes in the smaller one.

That could eventually leave behind a huge cloud of gas that collapses more directly into a heavyweight black hole, the authors say, a shortcut some scientists think helped build the first supermassive black holes in the universe.

"We argue that Black Hole Stars may be powering all of JWST's Little Red Dots that are found almost everywhere in the early Universe," Naidu told Mashable in an email. "Which is to say, this channel of making massive black holes must be very common, to the point where every massive black hole (like the Milky Way's) may have gone through this phase." 

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