Healthcare workers in anti-virus masks from Seattle startup Singletto. (Single photo)
Virus-fighting startup Singlet closed a $10 million Series A investment round and is now selling its pathogen-killing face masks in Amazon.
The Seattle company was also selected by the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to join its Embedded Entrepreneur Initiative. The program provides startups with DARPA support to advance technologies that can help U.S. national security.
Singletto has developed what it calls Oxafence Active Protection, a technology that uses methylene blue, a chemical known for its ability to kill viruses, bacteria and fungi. It is also relatively safe for humans, as methylene blue is used to treat several health problems.
Oxafence tests showed that 99.9% of specific viral strains were inactivated within five minutes of contact with a face mask treated with the product. The technology has potential for use in a wide variety of healthcare items.
Singletto received FDA approval for Oxafence last year.
As part of the Embedded Entrepreneur Initiative program, infectious disease expert Kelli Blaize-Wise will partner closely with Singletto to consider these other uses.
“It is exciting to work with Singletto to advance the company’s first commercial product, which is currently the only FDA-approved mask in the U.S. that inactivates tested viruses,” Blaize-Wise said in a statement. declaration.
“We are also actively exploring applications in warfighter protection, wound care and other areas where this platform could offer real value,” she added.
The launch of Singletto masks on Amazon comes at a fortuitous time, as flu and COVID infections rise in the winter.
“Moving to Amazon is an important step for us,” said the CEO John Bjornson. “Our intention is to be able to reach nurses who do not have access to these options through their employers, as well as other people and families who have that extra concern and are looking for something that gives them more confidence.”
A box of 50 American-made Oxafence masks is currently offered on Amazon for $38. Prices for competing products vary widely—the same amount of US-made BNX N95 masks cost almost $40, while similar masks from China are available for less than $20.
Singletto launched in 2020 and its co-founders have deep roots in healthcare and entrepreneurship in the Pacific Northwest. Dr. Tom Lendvaychief physician, is a pediatric urologist at Seattle Children’s Hospital and a professor at the University of Washington. Dr.scientific director, is a former neurosurgeon who previously launched an oncology research company.
RELATED: Startup led by Seattle doctors wins FDA approval for virus-killing surgical mask technology
Recent reports suggest that there are now no redesigned Apple Vision headphones in active development, with the company’s focus turning decisively to smart glasses.
When Apple announced the Vision Pro in mid-2023, it described the device as the dawn of “spatial computing,” a new paradigm that would eventually rival the iPhone in importance. With a starting price of $3,499, a complex design and all-new operating system, and a clear focus on premium early adopters, the headset was never expected to reach the mass market from day one. However, even by Apple standards, enthusiasm cooled much faster than anticipated, and the company’s once-ambitious multi-year roadmap nearly collapsed, according to rumors.
Apple Original Plan
Shortly after the launch of the Vision Pro, Apple is believed to have shifted focus to the “Vision Air”, designed to bring spatial computing to a wider audience thanks to a lighter, thinner and dramatically cheaper headset.
The goal was to reduce the weight by more than 40% and the price by around 50%, finally making mixed reality viable for mainstream buyers. The Vision Air would use low-cost display panels and simplified optics, while eliminating some non-essential aspects and improving ergonomics.
At the high end, Apple reportedly envisioned a redesigned Vision Pro 2 to launch sometime after the Vision Air’s debut, and that deadline ended up slipping to 2028. This second-generation flagship would have featured a lighter, more comfortable design, more advanced screens, longer battery life, and a lower price. The Air and Pro models together would establish a two-tier product structure, mirroring the iPhone, iPad, MacBook, and AirPods product lines.
Changes to the script
By mid-2024, momentum around the Vision Pro appeared to be shifting, with plans for future products being rearranged.
An essential report from The Information stated that Apple has suspended development of the Vision Pro 2, redirecting its engineering resources to the cheaper Vision Air in hopes of speeding up its launch. The company ostensibly acknowledged that the Pro’s combination of high cost, bulk, discomfort, and limited use cases had reduced its appeal even among early adopters.
At the time Apple started working on the device, it was aiming to release it in late 2024, but it still didn’t have a firm prototype until mid-year. The company is said to have struggled to find ways to reduce the model’s costs without sacrificing too many features, with the expected launch date slipping to late 2025.
Meanwhile, in October, supply chain leaks suggested that Apple was ending production of the original Vision Pro, citing weak demand and excess component inventories. The first generation Vision Pro is believed to have ceased production at the end of the year.
Pausing headset development entirely
This month, a bombshell report from Bloomberg said Apple has also halted work on the low-cost “Vision Air” headset. Apparently, Apple wants to accelerate the development of an eyewear product to better compete with the Meta.
If the reports of Bloomberg and The Information are true, development of the Vision Air and redesigned Vision Pro is on pause, with no headphone-class hardware in active development. While the company is unlikely to abandon spatial computing entirely, its next steps will almost certainly be very different from the headsets launching in 2024.
The M5 Vision Pro
Apple is about to launch its M5 family of chips, but today’s Vision Pro still uses a 2022 M2 chip.
Apple is believed to have made the decision to simply update existing hardware with the M5 chip, potentially a second-generation “R2” coprocessor chip, and a new “Dual Knit” headband. This would allow you to keep the existing device up to date for a few more years, while also using the stock of components left over from the first generation model. This device is expected to be released in the coming weeks, even though it has been leaked by FCC filings.
What’s next?
The M5 Vision Pro should offer a reasonable upgrade for users who like the device or potential customers who haven’t tried it yet, but it’s still unlikely to enjoy mass appeal or a radically different experience. The device is likely to support the headphone lineup for a period of time, but will eventually become an outdated model if Apple doesn’t offer successors.
Apple is expected to launch its first smart glasses product as early as next year, and it’s possible the company will resume work on the Vision Air and Vision Pro 2 once the glasses initiative is established. However, Apple’s headset will likely enter a peculiar position around 2027 to 2028, with aging hardware on sale and no sign of an upgrade or replacement model.
For now, visionOS 26 and the upcoming M5 update show that Apple is still committed to mixed reality headsets, but it’s anyone’s guess where the product lineup will go further in the future amid a sudden shift to smart glasses and artificial intelligence.
Marvel Studios arrived at New York Comic Con without any movies, but made up for it with some information about its upcoming TV lineup for Disney+.
During its panel focused on TV and animation, the company revealed some release windows for its 2026 programs. Wonder Man arrives on January 27th, and after that it’s Daredevil: Born Again. Season two will air in March and will see Matt Murdock reunite with Krysten Ritter’s tough detective Jessica Jones to save New York from the clutches of Mayor Fisk. The trailer for the season hasn’t been released yet, but those in attendance said it features the two heroes in action, along with glimpses of Fisk, Bullseye and Karen.
In summer, X-Men ’97 will return for its second season. The panel presented a look at Apocalypse, who will play a major role in the events of the season, as the heroes will fight against him in the present day and encounter him as En Sabah Nur in Ancient Egypt. But the fun doesn’t stop there: X-Men’s already renewed for the third season, which will arrive later.
Your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man will be Marvel’s big fall show, and its next season will bring Venom into the fray. (Not surprising, since he was teased in the first season.) Daredevil will also return, this time wearing his classic red costume, and Gwen Stacy will appear in some sort of capacity.
Last but not least, Vision Mission, which Marvel called the closest to the trilogy composed by WandaVision and Agatha all the time. In addition to the show’s logo, the panel brought out star Paul Bettany to reveal some story details, namely that White Vision is struggling to understand what his Red counterpart did to him in WandaVision. As a result, he’s seeing digital or robotic characters like Ultron (James Spader), FRIDAY (Orla Brady), and even Dum-E (Henry Lewis) in human forms. Vision and Wanda’s son Tommy, aka Speedball, will also appear, played by Ruaridh Mollica (The franchise). This program has a vacant window for 2026, so it could be the last program of the year.
So to recap: Wonder Man on January 27th, Daredevil: Born Again in March, X-Men ’97 in summer, Your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man for autumn and Vision Mission probably catches the winter. It will be a busy year.
Want more news about io9? Check out when to expect the latest releases from Marvel, Star Wars and Star Trek, what’s next in the DC Universe in film and TV and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
The friction of having to open a separate chat window to notify an agent can be a hassle for many companies. And AI companies are seeing an opportunity to bring more and more AI services in one platformeven integrating into the place where employees carry out their work.
OpenAIChatGPT’s, although still a separate window, is gradually introducing more integrations on your platform. Rivals like Google and Amazon Web Services believe they can compete with new platforms aimed squarely at business users who want a more streamlined AI experience. And these two new platforms are the latest foray in the race to bring enterprise AI users to one central place to meet their AI needs.
Google and AWS are separately introducing new platforms designed for full-stack agent workflow, hoping to usher in a world where users don’t need to open other windows to access agents.
Google unveiled Gemini Enterprise, a platform that Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian said “brings the best of Google AI to every employee.” Meanwhile, AWS announced Quick Suite, a series of services intended to exist as a browser extension for companies to call agents.
Both platforms aim to keep company employees working within an ecosystem, maintaining necessary context in more local storage.
Quick Suite
AWS, through Bedrock, has enabled companies to build applications and agents, test them, and then deploy them in a single space. However, Bedrock remains a backend tool. AWS is betting that organizations want a better way to access these agents without leaving their workspace.
Quick Suite will be AWS’s front-end agent application for enterprises. It will also be a browser extension for Chrome and Firefox and accessible in Microsoft Outlook, Word and Slack.
AWS Vice President of Agentic AI Swami Sivasubramanian said the Quick Suite is the company’s way to “enter a new era of work” as it gives employees access to the AI applications they love, with considerations for privacy and context of their corporate data.
Quick Suite connects with Adobe Analytics, SharePoint, Snowflake, Google Drive, OneDrive, Outlook, Salesforce, ServiceNow, Slack, Databricks, Amazon Redshift, and Amazon S3. Through MCP servers, users can also access information from Atlassian, Asana, Box, Canva, PagerDuty, Workato or Zapier.
The platform consists of several services that users can switch to:
A builder agent accessible through a chat assistant
Quick Sight to analyze and visualize data
Quick Search, which can find information and create search reports. Users can choose to limit the search to only internal or uploaded documents or to access the internet
Quick flows to let people create routine tasks through simple instructions
Quick Automate for more complicated workflows, where the model can begin coordinating agents and sharing data to complete tasks
AWS said it orchestrates several core models to power Quick Suite services.
Gemini Company
Google had already begun offering enterprise AI solutions, often in piecemeal products. Its newest offering, Gemini Enterprise, brings together the company’s AI offerings in one place. Products like CLI Gemini and Google Videos will be integrated and accessible through Gemini Enterprise.
“By bringing all of these components together through a single interface, Gemini Enterprise transforms the way teams work,” Kurian said in a blog post.
It is powered by Gemini models and connects to a company’s data sources. Gemini has always connected to Google Workspace services like Docs and Drive, but Gemini Enterprise can now pull information from Microsoft 365 or other platforms like Salesforce.
The idea behind Gemini Enterprise is to offer “a no-code workbench” for any user to extract information and orchestrate agents for automation. The platform includes pre-built agents for deep research and insights, but customers can also bring their own agents or third-party agents.
Administrators can manage these agents and workflows through a visual governance framework in Gemini Enterprise.
Google said some customers have already started using Gemini Enterprise, including Macquarie Bank, legal AI provider Harvey and BV Bank.
Google told VentureBeat that other platforms, like Vertex AI, remain separate products. Pricing for Gemini Enterprise, both the standard and pulse edition, starts at $30 per seat per month. A new pricing tier, Gemini Business, costs $21/seat per month for a year.
Uninterrupted work in one place
In many ways, enterprise AI was always going to move towards this more end-to-end full-stack environment where people access all AI tools in one place. After all, fragmented offerings and lost context discourage many employees who already have a lot on their plate.
Removing the friction of moving windows and possibly losing context of what you’re working on can save people a lot more time and make the idea of using an AI agent or chatbot more appealing. This was the reasoning behind OpenAI’s decision to create a desktop app for ChatGPT and why we see so many product announcements related to integrations.
But now, competitors have to offer more differentiated platforms or risk being labeled as copycats of products that most people already use. I felt the same way during a Quick Suite demo, thinking it looked like ChatGPT.
The battle to be the only full-stack platform for enterprises is just beginning. And as more AI tools and agents become more useful to employees, there will be more demand for calling these services to be as simple as a tap on your preferred workspace.
As it gets colder outside and the Hocus Pocus marathons begin, October is definitely a time when you want reliable internet. At this time, if you bundle a phone line with T-Mobile 5G Home Internetyou’ll save $20 a month — and if you’re a new customer, you can also get a $100 Mastercard gift card.
It seems like every time I see a commercial, it’s from a rival internet or phone provider, trying to prove why their rates, coverage, or reception are the best. With all the conflicting information, color-coded maps, and endless fine print next to asterisks, it can be nearly impossible to figure out whether an Internet and phone package is right for your needs and budget. I spent nearly half an hour on the phone with a T-Mobile rep to get all the details on their $20 discounted 5G home internet and phone line package so you can get as much information as possible about this deal. Here’s what you should know and how to sign up.
Also: What is 5G home internet?
How to take advantage of this T-Mobile deal
First, go to the T-Mobile website and enter your address to see if you’re eligible for 5G home internet service (note that savings will appear at checkout, not on the home page). If your address is eligible, you’ll be taken to a screen with several home Internet plans ranging from $55 to $75 per month. This is where the economy begins.
T-Mobile/ZDNET
Although the website says it costs $55 per month for Rely 5G Home Internet, T-Mobile will actually save you $5 per month for all of its plans (both phone and Internet) when you sign up for autopay, which brings the new upfront cost to $50. If you sign up for the Rely plan, you’ll also be eligible for a $100 discount via a prepaid Mastercard gift card after 14 weeks.
Also: Are you paying more for cable and internet? It’s all bad
Once you add a phone line to your Rely 5G Home Internet, you’ll get a $15 per month Internet discount, bringing the cost from $55 to $35 when combined with the autopay deduction. However, your bill won’t be as low as $35 since the promotion depends on adding at least one phone line. T-Mobile has three phone plans to choose from: the Essentials plan, the Experience More plan, and the Experience Beyond plan.
Also: T-Mobile’s Starlink Just Added WhatsApp, Google Maps and More
T-Mobile/ZDNET
The Essentials plan costs $65 per month per phone line ($60 with autopay) and offers unlimited calling and texting with 50GB of data per month. The Experience More plan costs $90/month per phone line ($85 with autopay) and offers unlimited high-speed data and 60GB of mobile hotspot data (including 15GB in Canada and Mexico), phone upgrades every two years, and included bills for Netflix and Apple TV+. The Experience Beyond plan costs $105/month per phone line ($100 with autopay) and offers unlimited mobile hotspot use, 30GB of high-speed data in Canada and Mexico, updates every year, the ability to add a watch or tablet line for $5/month, T-Satellite, and accounts for Netflix, Apple TV+, and Hulu. It’s worth noting that all streaming service bills would be at the lowest tier (i.e. with ads), but you’ll only need to pay the difference if you choose to upgrade to a more expensive plan.
Also: The best live TV streaming services available
ZDNET
T-Mobile 5G Rely Home Internet It has a typical download speed of 133-415 Mbps, a typical upload speed of 12-55 Mbps, and a typical latency of 16-28 ms according to its website, which isn’t too bad, especially for $30/month. Of course, this deal seems a little gimmicky, because you can’t get $20 off your monthly Internet price without paying at least an additional $60 per phone line (bringing the lowest possible monthly total to $90), but it’s still a considerable discount.
Two more pieces in fine print:
There’s a one-time device connection fee of $35 for home Internet service (even when you install it yourself), although installation is apparently super easy and can usually be completed within 15 minutes.
All of their internet packages come with a 5-year price guarantee, meaning the price won’t increase for at least five years.
Looking for the next best product? Get expert analysis and editors’ favorites with ZDNET recommends.
How I evaluated this offer
While it’s a little more complicated than saying T-Mobile is offering 5G home internet for $30/month, a $20 discount is still a considerable discount. I didn’t rate this deal as exceptionally interesting, mainly due to the fact that you’ll have to spend at least 3x the supposed discounted price to take advantage of the discount.
We’re not sure how long this promotion will last, although the T-Mobile rep I spoke to suggested you’ll probably have some time to consider whether this offer is right for you and your budget. Offers are subject to running out or expiring at any time, although ZDNET remains committed to finding, sharing and updating the best product deals so you get the best savings. Our team of experts regularly checks the offers we share to ensure they are still active and available. We’re sorry if you missed this deal, but don’t worry – we’re constantly finding new savings opportunities and sharing them with you at ZDNET.com.
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Our goal is to provide more accurate advice to help you shop smarter. ZDNET offers 33 years of experience, 30 hands-on product reviewers, and 10,000 square feet of lab space to ensure we bring you the best in technology.
In 2025, we refined our approach to trading, developing a measurable system for sharing savings with readers like you. Our editor’s business rating badges are affixed to most of our business content, making it easy to interpret our expertise to help you make the best purchasing decision.
At the heart of this approach is a percentage-based system for rating the savings offered on high-tech products, combined with a sliding scale system based on the experience of our team members and various factors such as frequency, brand or product recognition, and more. The result? Handcrafted offers, chosen specifically for ZDNET readers like you, fully backed by our experts.
Practical demonstration of a humanoid made for battle
At the Foundation’s headquarters in San Francisco, we met the Phantom MK1 humanoid robot and controlled it using a VR headset. Hear the CEO discuss his aspirations to deploy the robot in factories, battlefields and, someday, Mars.
While Netflix is busy pumping out more series than any one person could watch (probably), some of the best shows are on Amazon Prime Video. Trouble is, navigating the service’s labyrinthine menus can make finding the right series a pain. We’re here to help. Below are our favorite Amazon series—all included with your Prime subscription.
For more viewing picks, read WIRED’s guide to the best movies on Amazon Prime, the best movies on HBO’s Max, and the best movies on Netflix.
If you buy something using links in our stories, we may earn a commission. This helps support our journalism.Learn more.
The Girlfriend
When working class Cherry Laine (Olivia Cooke) meets wealthy Danny Sanderson (Laurie Davidson), sparks fly—until she meets his mother Laura (Robin Wright). Overbearing and with an unhealthy level of control over her son’s life, Laura is set on destroying anyone who comes between them. Or maybe … Laura is a caring mother, alert to Cherry’s suspicious behavior, and desperate to save her son from a con artist—or worse. In this twisty psychological thriller, based on a novel by Michelle Frances, you can never quite tell who to trust, which is almost the best part, second only to the sensational chemistry between Wright and Cooke as they alternately try to charm, outwit, or destroy each other. Exploring themes of class, power, and control, The Girlfriend is six episodes of brilliantly tense drama.
Butterfly
Years ago, David Jung (Daniel Dae Kim) and Juno Lund (Piper Perabo) formed the private intelligence organization Caddis, reshaping global security from the shadows. Then, Lund ripped the operation out from under Jung—and took his daughter Rebecca (Reina Hardesty) with it, raising her to become an unstoppable assassin. Reunited in the aftermath of a hit on a Russian ambassador in Seoul, David and Rebecca find themselves on the run across South Korea, unsure if they can even trust each other, and with Caddis hot on their heels. A blend of next-level action choreography and family drama exploring themes of abandonment, Butterfly is an explosive twist on bring-your-kid-to-work day.
Ballard
A spin-off from Bosch, one of Prime’s biggest hits, Ballard is another creation of crime author Michael Connelly, seeing detective Renée Ballard (Maggie Q, Designated Survivor) stepping up as head of a newly formed cold-case unit. Left with no budget and no official support, Ballard hastily assembles a team of volunteers that includes her retired former partner Thomas Laffont (John Carroll Lynch) and disillusioned former cop Zamira Parker (Courtney Taylor). They soon find that diving into forgotten cases can mean unearthing secrets powerful people want to keep buried. A blend of crime-of-the-week cases and season-long mysteries make Ballard both a cozy procedural and a riveting longer-form drama, buoyed by a fantastic cast—including Titus Welliver reprising his role as Connellyverse staple Harry Bosch.
The Second Best Hospital in the Galaxy
If about 300 seasons of Grey’s Anatomy hasn’t scratched your medical drama itch, then a visit to The Second Best Hospital in the Galaxy might be just the treatment you need. Riffing on the hospital procedural genre and giving it a sci-fi twist, the show follows alien medics Dr. Sleech (Stephanie Hsu) and Dr. Klak (Keke Palmer) as they tackle the wildest diseases and injuries the universe can throw at them—from an anxiety-eating brain worm to a shape-shifting STI—all while navigating messy relationships and personal drama. See, just like Grey’s. Created by Russian Doll writer Cirocco Dunlap—bringing that show’s Natasha Lyonne along as the voice of occasionally invisible Nurse Tup—this Saharan-dry adult animated comedy will cure what ails you.
Overcompensating
Benny is so deep in the closet, he’s found Narnia. And rather than using his freshman year of college as a chance to find himself, he’s maintaining the illusion of heterosexuality by throwing himself into a campus life of partying, drinking, and chasing girls. The consequences, for Benny and his new best friend Carmen (Wally Beram), will be severe … but hilarious. Created by comedian Benito Skinner, who also stars as Benny, Overcompensating is a foul-mouthed and ferociously funny college comedy that’s almost painfully authentic in its depiction of the fine line between self-exploration and weapons-grade cringe.
Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX
Prime Video doesn’t tend to pick up as much anime as rival Netflix does, but when it does, it’s often something big. Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX (it’s pronounced “gee-kwux,” before you ask), takes things back to the very beginning of the iconic mecha franchise and asks a simple question: What if the bad guys, the “space Nazis” of the Principality of Zeon, won a crucial war? Don’t worry if you can’t tell a beam saber from a core fighter though—this alternate reality focuses on brand new character Amate Yuzuriha, a high school student thrust into a world of mounting military tensions after an experimental Gundam crashes into the space colony where she lives. GQuuuuuux also marks a creative high for Gundam, with Evangelion studio Khara bringing its dynamic style of animation to the series, but beyond the phenomenally flashy visuals, this has some real emotional depth, using a science fiction lens to explore how people can find hope and fight for freedom, even in the darkest of timelines. Weekly episodes drop on Tuesdays.
The Wheel of Time
The Wheel of Time has been a bit of a slow burn, but now this fantasy series is a raging fire. The first season introduced magic weaver Moiraine (Rosamund Pike) and her quest to uncover which of five unassuming young people is destined to save or destroy the world, then the second upped the stakes—returning ancient evils while scattering the only people able to stop them. The newly dropped third season pays it off in spades, though, opening with a ferocious battle between brutal woman warriors—a genre rarity—while setting the stage for Rand al’Thor (Josha Stradowski) to seize that dangerous destiny, one way or the other. Based on Robert Jordan’s sprawling novel series—one so vast it makes Game of Thrones look concise—this visually stunning series has cemented itself as the finest fantasy show around.
Reacher
Amazon has a way with action thrillers focused on military tough guys who answer to “Jack R.” First there was Jack Ryan, who also makes an appearance in this guide. Then there was Reacher, the sharp adaptation of Lee Child’s Jack Reacher novels, now in its third season. Alan Ritchson (Titans, Fast X) stars as the physically imposing Reacher, a former military policeman now drifting from town to town, trying to live a quiet life but unable to avoid conflict. Season one found him accused of a murder he didn’t commit, before season two drew him into a vast conspiracy. The newly arrived third—based on the seventh novel, Persuader—sees him up against his biggest threat yet: Paulie, an even bigger hulk of muscle (played by 7′2″ Olivier Richters). Sure, Reacher is also working undercover for the DEA and tracking down an old enemy, but three seasons in, the show is confident enough to play to its pulpy strengths, with top-tier fight choreography and surprisingly sharp dialog helping it punch above its weight.
Invincible
Mark Grayson inherited the incredible powers and abilities of his father, Omni-Man—only to learn dear old dad wasn’t a paragon of justice but the vanguard for an alien invasion. The newly dropped third season of Invincible finds Mark not only still struggling to escape his father’s shadow, guiding his younger brother to use his own burgeoning powers responsibly, but also drowning in a world of murky politics, pushed toward darker, tougher choices to keep Earth safe. A brilliantly animated adaptation of the hit Image comic book by writer Robert Kirkman and artists Cory Walker and Ryan Ottley, Invincible’s more mature take on superheroes allows it to do something Marvel and DC characters rarely do: grow up.
The Man in the High Castle
This adaptation of sci-fi master Philip K. Dick’s novel about a world in which the Nazis won the Second World War was one of Amazon’s first forays into original content. The world-building is stunningly done—a divided, alternate-reality 1960s America never seemed so plausible—but be warned: There might be just a touch too much present-day resonance for some viewers.
The Rig
Back for its second season, sci-fi thriller The Rig finds the surviving crew of isolated North Sea oil rig Kinloch Bravo forcibly relocated to The Stac, an even more remote facility in the Arctic. While most are desperate for answers and a way home, the team’s loyalties are tested as the sinister Pictor corporation seeks to use them to unearth something ancient and powerful from the sea floor. While The Rig doesn’t even aspire to subtlety when it comes to its ecological metaphors (one character even says, “If you keep punching holes in the Earth, eventually the Earth’s going to punch back”), it’s all brilliantly shot to make use of both the claustrophobic settings and the terrifying expanses and underwater pressures of the ocean. With the material elevated by a phenomenal cast of Game of Thrones and Line of Duty veterans, including Iain Glen and Rochenda Sandall—and bolstered further by the addition of the always-watchable Alice Krige in season 2—The Rig is far more than the guilty pleasure it might otherwise be.
Cross
Aldis Hodge steps into the shoes of Washington, DC homicide detective Alex Cross in Prime’s new series based on James Patterson’s long-running series of crime novels. However, unlike the streamer’s other thrillers Bosch and Reacher, Cross doesn’t directly adapt any of Patterson’s books—a risky move, but one that largely pays off, allowing this eight-episode first season to chart an unpredictable journey as Cross faces off against a twisted murderer who models each of his kills on another serial killer. Already renewed for a second season, Cross is a strong addition to Prime’s roster of crime dramas.
Citadel: Diana
Amazon tried to make a splash with its $300 million spy thriller Citadel in 2023, but only half-succeeded. The Richard Madden- and Priyanka Chopra-starring action series was entertaining enough—and rode high on Prime Video’s most-watched lists—but didn’t exactly set the world alight. However, it did establish a sprawling shared universe, with rival organizations Citadel and Manticore engaged in a globe-spanning cold war setting the stage for international spin-offs. Citadel: Diana is the first, an Italian outing focusing on Diana (Matilda De Angelis), a woman out for revenge after her parents are killed, and drawn into the spy-fi underworld with violent results. Gorgeous location shoots, bone-crunching fight choreography, and, most importantly, a tighter focus help Diana improve on its parent series.
The Legend of Vox Machina
Bawdy, gory, and absolutely not for kids, The Legend of Vox Machina follows the eponymous adventurers’ guild—consisting of gunslingers, druids, and the requisite horny bard—as they grow from a motley crew of usually-drunk mercenaries into unexpected heroes for the realm of Exandria. The newly arrived third season continues the team’s battle against the Chroma Conclave, a horrifyingly powerful collective of dragons. It’s a quest that sends them on a small diversion to Hell itself. Adapting the hit Critical Role—the livestreamed Dungeons & Dragons sessions of some of the biggest voice actors in animation and gaming—this exquisitely animated fantasy takes things in unexpected directions that keep things fresh for new or returning viewers alike. A love letter to D&D that’s also unafraid to poke fun at the classic RPG, it’s one of the most original adult animated shows on Prime.
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power
Tapping into The Lord of the Rings creator J. R. R. Tolkien’s sprawling history of Middle-earth, TheRings of Power is set millennia before the events of the core books (or films, which is really where the visual language of this adaptation comes from), detailing the major events of Tolkien’s Second Age. While the first season was a slow burn, dwelling on the fractious politics of the era, the second ratchets up the pace considerably. From Galadriel (Morfydd Clark) trying to prevent the ascension of Dark Lord Sauron (Charlie Vickers) to the long-awaited introduction of fan-favorite character Tom Bombadil (Rory Kinnear), the new season feels far richer and deeper than before. It remains a feast for the eyes too, with the stratospheric budget apparent in every frame, from quiet moments in luxuriant shires to cinematic battles between armies of Orcs and Elves. For sheer high fantasy spectacle, there’s little else to rival this streaming right now.
Batman: Caped Crusader
The first new solo Batman animated series in a decade, Caped Crusader harkens back to Batman: The Animated Series from the 1990s, with showrunner Bruce Timm returning to the Dark Knight and Hamish Linklater voicing Bruce Wayne/Batman in an ode to the late, great Kevin Conroy. Unlike rival ‘90s revival X-Men ’97, though, this isn’t a continuation but rather a wholly distinct take allowing for fresh interpretations of the iconic hero’s rogues’ gallery and allies—look out for drastically different takes on the Penguin and Harley Quinn in particular. Leaning heavily into a 1930s aesthetic that evokes Batman’s earliest comic book origins, this manages to be nostalgic and provocative at once—a fantastic outing that takes DC’s original urban vigilante back to his gritty pulp noir roots.
The Boys
Superheroes are meant to represent hope and optimism—the best of us, given outsize form. In The Boys, adapted from the darkly satirical comic by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson, they’re a reflection of humanity’s worst—greed and unrestrained power, marketed to a gullible public by vested corporate interests, operating without restraint and leaving a trail of bodies in their wake. Enter Billy Butcher (Karl Urban) and his associates The Boys, gleefully dispatching “Supes” who’ve gone too far, often in extraordinarily violent ways. Unfortunately, the newly dropped fourth season finds the team in disarray, fractured by Butcher’s own lies, right as the world needs them most. Arch-manipulator Victoria Neuman (Claudia Doumit) is close to the Oval Office, while the sadistic, psychotic Homelander (Antony Starr) is planning a superhuman uprising. Probably Amazon’s goriest show, The Boys stands as a pertinent examination of the abuses of power, all wrapped in superhero drag.
Fallout
Maybe the end of the world is the secret sauce to making a great video game adaptation—between The Last of Us and now this spectacular interpretation of Bethesda’s postapocalyptic RPG series, we’re living in an unexpected golden era for the form. Yet unlike HBO’s bleak but beautiful world, Fallout taps into the source material to craft an apocalypse with a very different feel, one dripping in cracked Americana, black comedy, razor-sharp social satire, and just a little bit of camp. Its greatest strength, though, lies in how it doesn’t directly adapt any one of the core Fallout games. Instead, it perfectly channels their tone and feel, focusing on a core trio—naive Lucy (Ella Purnell), born and raised in a subterranean vault; driven Maximus (Aaron Moten), a recruit in an army seeking technology from the old world; and the Ghoul (Walton Goggins), a centuries-old bounty hunter mutated into a nigh-immortal zombie when the bombs fell—to showcase just how brilliantly twisted this nuclear wasteland really is.
Three-Body
No, you’re not on the Netflix list—Prime Video has its own distinct adaptation of Cixin Liu’s The Three-Body Problem. This take, originally released for Chinese audiences back in 2023, faithfully adapts Liu’s award-winning novel of humanity’s first contact with an almost unknowable alien species and the impact that their impending arrival on Earth has on humanity. Hopping between time periods, a galactic mystery unfurls after nanotech specialist Wang Miao (Luyi Zhang) is called in by detective Shi Qiang (Hewei Yu) to investigate a global spate of suicides among scientists, with the ominous phrase “Physics doesn’t exist” being the only link between the deaths. Although Three-Body is a bit softer than Netflix’s 3 Body Problem when dealing with some aspects of the story—notably anything related to China’s Cultural Revolution—a hearty 30-episode run allows for far more space to explore Liu’s complex themes and vast roster of characters. The pacing may take some getting used to for viewers more accustomed to western TV, and it’s subtitled-only, but this C-drama is out of this world.
Mr. and Mrs. Smith
You likely know the concept from the name alone—a married couple operate as undercover agents, blurring the lines between their personal and professional relationship. Unlike the 2005 Brad Pitt/Angelina Jolie movie, though, 2024’s Mr. and Mrs. Smith does far more with the concept. Donald Glover (who cocreated this reboot) and Maya Erskine offer much more developed takes on the mysterious characters of “John” and “Jane” Smith over the course of this eight-episode series, exploring their true identities, why they signed up for their dangerous careers, and whether their growing feelings for each other are just part of the roles they’re playing. It’s all backed up with plenty of Mission: Impossible–style action, of course, but it’s the sparkling chemistry between the show’s leads that will leave you thinking, “Brangelina who?”
Gen V
Spinning out of Amazon’s hit The Boys, Gen V follows the next generation of supes, training their abilities at the Godolkin University School of Crimefighting. In keeping with its twisted parent show, this educational establishment is less Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters and more The Hunger Games with superpowers, as students battle for glory and a chance to join premier super-team The Seven. Lead Jaz Sinclair (Chilling Adventures of Sabrina) impresses as freshman Marie Moreau, a haemokinetic with lofty ambitions who uncovers dark secrets at the college that challenge her entire world view. Factor in all the poor life choices college students are famed for and some extremely creative (if often disgusting) superpowers, then allow for The Boys’ trademark ultraviolence, and one thing’s for sure—the kids of Gen V are most definitely not alright.
Jack Ryan
There’s no shortage of screen adaptations of Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan books, but John Krasinski’s turn as the CIA desk jockey turned field agent gets far more room to breathe than its predecessors. The prestige political thriller charts Ryan’s rise from analyst to operative—and beyond—over four perfectly crafted seasons. The final season caps Ryan’s career with his biggest challenge yet, investigating the convergence of a drug cartel and a terrorist organization set to create an unstoppable criminal enterprise, all while juggling the CIA’s possible involvement in a political assassination in Nigeria. While the show hasn’t been without controversies—season two attracted condemnation from Venezuela’s government for supposedly condoning a US invasion of the country; big yikes there—its sharp writing, incredible performances, and cinematic action make it compelling viewing.
I’m a Virgo
A surrealist comedy with the sharp political and social edge viewers have come to expect from creator and director Boots Riley (Sorry to Bother You), I’m a Virgo follows Cootie (Jharrel Jerome), a regular 19-year-old who just happens to be 13 feet tall. Raised in secrecy by Aunt Lafrancine (Carmen Ejogo) and Uncle Martisse (Mike Epps), Cootie is thrust into the limelight when his larger-than-life existence is inevitably discovered. Experiencing friendships and the outside world for the first time, gentle giant Cootie has to navigate everything from romance to the public’s reaction to a giant Black man wandering around Oakland. Oh, and did we mention Cootie’s idol, The Hero, a real-life superhero with an authoritarian streak that would put some of the worst offenders on The Boys to shame? Told you this was surreal. Do yourself a favor and watch the behind-the-scenes episodes too, tucked under Prime Video’s “Explore” tab, for Riley’s insight into each episode.
Tales From the Loop
Despite being a couple of years old, Tales From the Loop remains one of the most mesmerizing shows on Prime Video. Loosely based on the work of Swedish artist Simon Stålenhag, the series blurs the line between ongoing narrative and anthology as it follows the residents of Mercer, Ohio, exploring how their intersecting lives are impacted by “the Loop,” an underground facility exploring experimental physics and making the impossible possible. Expect tales of frozen time, traded lives, and parallel worlds, all brought to life by a fantastic cast and directors—including Andrew Stanton and Jodie Foster. But it’s the visuals that really elevate this show, which captures the sublime aesthetic of Stålenhag’s work and juxtaposes neofuturism and rural communities for a world that looks and feels like almost nothing else. At only eight episodes, a visit to Mercer is brief but unforgettable.
The Underground Railroad
Based on the Pulitzer Prize–winning novel by Colson Whitehead, this limited series from Moonlight director Barry Jenkins sticks pretty closely to the premise of the book. It’s a work of historical fiction that takes the idea of the Underground Railroad—the network of smugglers who helped escaped slaves flee the South—and reimagines it as an actual subway system with trains and secretive station agents.
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
What is a New York lady to do when she finds out her husband is having an affair with his dim-witted secretary? If Mrs. Maisel is anything to go by, the answer is to head to a dingy watering hole in your nightgown, do a little standup comedy, and get hauled away by the police after flashing the entire audience. Set in the 1950s, this fast-talking fashionista hides her new life as a comedian from her family and ex while battling sexism, bad crowds, and big competition. Rachel Brosnahan stars as Midge Maisel in this subtle nod to Joan Rivers’ career. With four seasons and a host of awards and nominations to its name, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is one of Amazon’s sharpest comedies.
Happy Friday and welcome to your guide to Pips, the latest game in New York Times catalog.
Launching in August 2025, Pips puts a unique spin on dominoes, creating a fun single-player experience that could become your next daily gaming habit.
Currently, if you’re stuck, the game only offers to reveal the entire puzzle, forcing you to move to the next difficulty level and start over. However, we have you covered! Below are fragmented answers that will serve as tips so you can find your way through each difficulty level.
How to play Pips
If you’ve ever played dominoes, you already know how Seeds is played. As we shared in our previous tip stories for Pips, tiles, like dominoes, are placed vertically or horizontally and connect with each other. The main difference between a traditional game of dominoes and Pips is the color-coded conditions you must meet. The touching pieces do not necessarily have to be the same.
SEE ALSO:Wordle Today: Answer, Tips for October 11, 2025
The conditions you must meet are specific to color-coded spaces. For example, if you provide a single number, each side of a tile in that space must add up to the given number. It is possible – and common – for only half of a tile to be within a color-coded space.
Here are common examples you’ll find across difficulty levels:
Number: All pips in this space must add up to the number.
Equal: Each half of the dominoes in this space must have the same number of pips.
Different: Each half of the dominoes in this space must have a completely different number of seeds.
Less than: Each half of the dominoes in this space must add up to less than the number.
Greater than: Each half of the dominoes in this space must add up to more than the number.
If an area is not color-coded at all, it means there are no conditions on the domino portions within those spaces.
SEE ALSO:NYT Strands Tips and Answers for October 11, 2025
Easy Difficulty Hints Answers for October 12 Pips
Greater than (2): Everything in this space must be greater than 2. The answer is 3-2, placed horizontally.
Equal (2): Everything in this space must equal 2. The answer is 3-2, placed horizontally; 2-2, placed vertically; 2-0, placed horizontally; 2-1, placed vertically.
Number (0): Everything in this space must add up to 0. The answer is 2-0, placed horizontally.
Number (1): Everything in this space must add up to 1. The answer is 2-1, placed vertically.
Medium Difficulty Tips Answers for October 12 Pips
Greater than (5): Everything in this space must be greater than 5. The answer is 6-2, placed horizontally.
Mashable Top Stories
Number (10): Everything in this space must add up to 10. The answer is 0-5, placed vertically; 3-5, placed horizontally.
Equal (3): Everything in this space must equal 3. The answer is 0-3, placed horizontally; 3-5, placed horizontally; 1-3, placed horizontally; 3-2, placed vertically.
Equal (0): Everything in this space must equal 0. The answer is 0-0, placed horizontally.
Number (2): Everything in this space must add up to 2. The answer is 1-5, placed horizontally; 1-3, placed horizontally.
Number (7): Everything in this space must add up to 7. The answer is 1-5, placed horizontally; 3-2, placed vertically.
Hard Difficulty Tips Answers for October 11 Pips
Number (4): Everything in this space must add up to 4. The answer is 4-0, placed horizontally.
Number (1): Everything in this space must add up to 1. The answer is 5-1, placed horizontally.
Equal (4): Everything in this space must equal 4. The answer is 4-4, placed vertically; 4-5, placed vertically.
It’s not the same: Everything in this space must be different. The answer is 5-1, placed horizontally; 4-0, placed vertically; 6-0, placed vertically; 4-2, placed vertically.
Number (2): Everything in this dark blue space must add up to 2. The answer is 2-6, placed vertically.
Number (0): Everything in this space must add up to 0. The answer is 6-0, placed vertically.
Number (2): Everything in this purple space must add up to 2. The answer is 4-2, placed vertically.
Number (5): Everything in this space must add up to 5. The answer is 4-5, placed vertically.
It’s not the same: Everything in this space must be different. The answer is 2-6, placed vertically; 4-6, placed vertically; 5-3, placed horizontally.
Number (3): Everything in this space must add up to 3. The answer is 5-3, placed horizontally.
If you’re looking for more puzzles, Mashable now has games! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crosswords and more.
Me wearing the hat with the cable connected to a power bank.
Richard Baguely/Zooey Liao/CNET
Like many middle-aged men, I have a large solar-powered area on the top of my head: it’s called a bald spot. If I work in the yard for a long time, it turns very red and glows at night. So I wear a hat, but all that beautiful solar energy bouncing off my dome goes to waste — or it did until I tried the $129 hat EcoFlow Power Hat (currently $99 on sale)a new sun hat/solar power source combination.
It has eight solar panels that power two USB ports (one USB-A and one USB-C) in a small box with a small LED under the back edge. While it adequately protected my bald spot, it failed to charge my phone to any significant extent. Plus, it’s just an ugly hat.
Pros
Covers my head, adequately doing the job of a hat
Technically it can charge a phone slowly, so I guess it works
Cons
Very low charging rate with just 5 watts of power
Need a cable running across your back
The design will only appeal to Wicked cosplayers (it’s ugly)
Don’t miss any of our unbiased technical content and lab-based analysis. To add CNET as Google’s preferred font in Chrome.
Design: The least attractive hat I’ve ever worn
There are eight small solar panels on the edge, but unless the sun hits them correctly, you won’t get much power from them.
Richard Baguely/Zooey Liao/CNET
Let me be clear: this is a really ugly hat. Sunhats aren’t usually elegant, but this thing looks like a melted flower pot or a giant version of one of those horrible flower pot holders made out of vinyl records. I’m not a fashionista, but the Oasis reunion made bucket hats cool again and hats with wider brims like the Tilley TS1 Protect yourself from the sun without looking like you’ve been hit, Wile E. Coyote style, by a falling satellite dish. I’m a big fan of practicality over style, but there are limits, especially since it’s not very practical.
Not easy to clean or use
All the electronics in the hat mean you can’t wash it. When my baseball cap gets dirty, sweaty, and covered in dirt from hard work, I can throw it in the washing machine. Try that with the EcoFlow Power Hat and you’ll destroy it. You also need a cable connecting the hat to the phone, which isn’t very practical when you’re trying to pull weeds. I ended up running a cable through the back of my shirt, which just made the whole thing look even sillier.
Charging: Can’t charge anything worth using
A six-hour gardening session barely moved the needle on charging my devices.
Richard Baguely/Zooey Liao/CNET
The problem is how solar energy works. Sunlight hits a solar panel, which converts it into electrical energy. This is called the photoelectric effect, first explained by Albert Einstein, who won the Nobel Prize for discovering it in 1921. The amount of energy depends on the size of the panel and the amount of light that hits it. This, in turn, depends on how the panel is positioned in relation to the sun.
That’s why your roof’s solar panels are angled south to face the sun. The EcoFlow Power hat features eight small solar panels positioned around its large brim. This means that most do not receive much or any direct light unless the sun is directly overhead. The sun has an annoying habit of rising and falling, so most of the time you won’t get a consistent amount of direct sunlight.
What does all this mean in practical terms? That means this sun hat doesn’t work very well. I tested the hat in full midday sun in my backyard near Boston and found that, at best, it generated about 5 watts of power; that’s not much. It generated 5 volts at the USB port, but the current flow never exceeded 1 amp, meaning it still only generated about 5 watts of power. In the morning or afternoon, when the sun was at a certain angle, the current generated dropped to less than 0.3 amps, approximately 2 watts. EcoFlow claims it can generate up to 12 watts, but I’ve never gotten anything close to that.
100 hours to charge an iPhone 17 Pro
To test this further, I conducted an arduous gardening session. Well, okay, I put it on a pole, connected it to a rugged portable power bank and watched from the deck to make sure my local groundhog (we call him Wilbur the Pig Whistle) did not steal it. After six hours of this hard work, the charge level increased by 9%, representing around 225 mAh of stored charge. This is about 5% of the capacity of a so this hat would take about 100 hours to charge the phone. That’s assuming the phone isn’t currently working.
The Power Hat needs 100 hours to charge an iPhone 17 Pro if the phone is turned off.
Richard Baguely/Zooey Liao/CNET
Specifications
Two sizes: Medium-Large (56-58 centimeters) and Large-XL (59-61 centimeters)
Dual USB-A and USB-C ports to charge two devices simultaneously.
It has eight small solar panels on the edge.
SPF 50+, sun and UV protection
Claims 24% thermal to electricity conversion and up to 12 watts of power; tested to only 5 watts
IP65 waterproof and dustproof rating
Buying Advice: Skip, there are better hats and better solar charging options out there
Many of the products I test end up being a case of a great idea but poor execution. The practicalities of manufacturing products and real-world engineering compromises often detract from the product’s intended purpose. However, for the full price of $129 or $99 on sale if you buy direct from EcoFlowEcoFlow Power Hat is one of the rare exceptions that is a bad idea with poor execution.
It’s ugly and has solar panels that are too small to be effective for, well, anything. Maybe it would be better if they went with a flat lid designor a Sahara or hiking hat design with the solar panels on the top or neck flap. It is also an inferior solution to simply getting a fast and compact portable chargerlike the InfinityLab InstaGo 5000 or Anker 523 PowerCore Slim 10K PD. Another alternative is to use a larger portable solar panelwith which you can pair a power station or clip to your backpack while walking to charge your devices, like the Bluetti 2 speakerphone.
All of these options will provide more power than the EcoFlow Solar Hat and will do it better and faster. Therefore, keep solar panels away from your head and stick them on your roof.
AI companies are making their long-awaited business moves, but the results are wildly inconsistent. Just this week, Deloitte announced it is rolling out Anthropic’s Claude to all 500,000 employees. On the same day, the Australian government forced Deloitte to reimburse a contract because its AI-generated report was full of fake quotes. It’s a perfect portrait of where we are: companies rushing to adopt AI tools before figuring out how to use them responsibly.
In this episode of Equity, Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha and Sean O’Kane delve into the messy reality of AI in the workplace, plus finance news and regulatory drama in technology and transportation.
Listen to the full episode for more of the week’s news, including:
Zendesk’s claim that its new AI agents can handle 80% of customer service tickets autonomously and what happens to the other 20%
Equity is TechCrunch’s flagship podcast, produced by Theresa Loconsolo, and published every Wednesday and Friday.
