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2026-03-03 00:47:06

Nintendo has scheduled an Indie World Showcase livestream for tomorrow, March 3, at 9AM ET. The company says this event will include "roughly 15 minutes of news and updates on indie games coming to Nintendo Switch 2 and Nintendo Switch." That's not a whole lot of time, but indie trailers tend to be on the shorter side.

We really don't know anything about what Nintendo and its partners could reveal tomorrow. It's entirely possible we'll see something big, like the previously announced Sea of Sorrow DLC for Silksong. More than likely, however, we'll get trailers and updates regarding a spate of unexpected indie games.

The previous Indie World Showcase took place in August and it gave us trailers and announcements for stuff like the excellent Ball x Pit and the upcoming Mina the Hollower. To that last one, Yacht Club Games said it would be launching the title for consoles this spring so we could get a release date announcement tomorrow.

Scott Pilgrim EX will be available for download tomorrow, so a launch trailer is almost certain. This is a new side-scrolling fighter with four-player co-op and music by Anamanaguchi. My personal white whale is Witchbrook, the long-gestating life-sim set in a magical school. It's being published by Chucklefish, the company that originally published Stardew Valley.

There's some stuff we absolutely shouldn't expect. This is an Indie World Showcase, and not a Nintendo Direct. There will likely be no appearances by Mario or Zelda, unless a character pops up in an indie game as DLC or something. The stream is also unlikely to spotlight Pokémon Pokopia, despite the life-sim launching on March 5.

2026-03-03 00:34:39

Paramount Skydance plans to combine Paramount+ and HBO Max into a single streaming service following the completion of its merger with Warner Bros. Discovery. CEO David Ellison confirmed the plan on an investor call Monday, saying the combined platform would serve over 200 million subscribers and position the company to compete with the biggest players in the streaming space.

“We think the combined offering, and given the amount of content and what we can do from the tech side, really will put us in a position to be able to compete with the most scaled players in DTC,” Ellison said. It’s not yet clear whether the app’s two libraries will be fully integrated, or whether one will exist as a standalone service within the other. Ellison signaled that the HBO brand will “operate with independence” during the call.

Also unclear is what the newly combined app would cost subscribers. The last year has seen nearly across-the-board increases in the cost of streaming services, including HBO Max.

The planned merger would unite Paramount’s CBS, MTV, Comedy Central and BET with Warner’s CNN, HBO, TNT and Food Network, along with franchises including Game of Thrones, Mission: Impossible, the DC Universe and SpongeBob SquarePants under one roof. The combined entity is expected to carry roughly $79 billion in net debt, according to Reuters, and could be considered the largest leveraged buyout in history. The deal is expected to close in the back half of 2026, pending regulatory approval.

2026-03-03 00:20:09

Apple’s most affordable iPhone just got an upgrade, but how does the new iPhone 17e compare to the iPhone 16e? Well, thankfully the price remains the same at $599, which is good news in our current economic climate. An immediate difference you might notice is that one of them now comes in a third color: pink. That’s at least one win for me because I am all for putting more color into tech.

There are a few differences under the hood as well, namely that the iPhone 17e is arriving with the A19 chip and double the storage. We’ve already seen what’s possible with an A19 chip in the standard iPhone 17 — it’s not a super exciting upgrade, but it is a boost nonetheless.

Pre-orders start at 9:15AM ET on March 4, and while we work on a full review, let’s take a deeper dive into what has changed on this year’s model and what that might mean in the real world.

iPhone 17e vs. iPhone 16e: Design and display

Of course, the biggest difference in the design for the iPhone 17e is the shiny new pink color. I’ve long complained about how many major tech companies stick to the safety of black, white or gray colorways. Thankfully, the iPhone 17e’s pink hue is a departure from that approach. It’s also an understated shade that’s elegant, compared to the typically brighter and louder tones reserved for cheap(er) phones.

Both the iPhone 17e and iPhone 16e measure 5.78 x 2.82 x 0.31 inches. However, the iPhone 17e did get a bit heavier at 5.96 ounces compared to the iPhone 16e’s 5.88 ounces. It’s very unlikely you’ll notice the 0.08 ounce difference, though. (And if you do, you have a gift.)

In terms of durability, the iPhone 17e is outfitted with Ceramic Shield 2, which is a glass face that Apple said is three times more scratch-resistant than the iPhone 16e’s original Ceramic Shield. Ideally, it’ll survive falls to the ground (within reason) and spare you a scratched up display from casual wear and tear.

There doesn’t seem to be any change in the display — whether that be in its brightness or color rendering capability — but that isn’t too shocking. Both the iPhone 17e and iPhone 16e feature a 6.1-inch Super Retina XDR OLED panel with a 1,200-nit peak brightness. That’s bright enough to combat the ambient glare from the sun, so you should be able to read it outside relatively easily. They’re also specced out with a 2,532 x 1,170 resolution at 460 ppi — meaning text and lines will be clean and sharp.

iPhone 17e vs. iPhone 16e: Cameras

I didn’t expect a huge bump in camera technology, especially if Apple intended to keep the price the same. We’ve got upgrades in other categories for sure, but it would’ve been nice to see an extra camera on the back. Like the iPhone 16e, the iPhone 17e is kitted out with Apple’s 48-megapixel Fusion 2-in-1 camera with a 12MP 2x Telephoto setting. You also get digital zoom up to 10x. Take a look at our iPhone 16e review to see exactly what that looks like in practice, but to sum up our experience: it’s solid.

There’s a great level of detail and vibrancy, but like I said, it’s limited. Without a potential ultrawide camera, you cannot capture as much of your surroundings because you’re not getting that 0.5x zoom option. 

One major upgrade, however, is that the iPhone 17e is now capable of recognizing dogs and cats in Portrait mode. It also saves depth information so you can turn regularly captured photos into portraits after the fact. This might be a noteworthy upgrade, considering the iPhone 16e struggled in Portrait mode, incapable of capturing non-human faces and objects.

There’s also the 12MP TrueDepth camera on the front, which we didn’t have many complaints about, and don’t expect to disappoint on the iPhone 17e.

iPhone 17e vs. iPhone 16e: Processor, battery life and charging

Apart from the color, the biggest differences between the iPhone 17e and iPhone 16e is their starting storage and overall performance. The new iPhone is packed with an A19 chip, while the latter comes with an A18 chip.

Yes, you’re getting a performance bump with the A19 chip, but casual users are unlikely to feel the difference. If you’re a power user trying to get the most out of an affordable iPhone and want to get crunchy about it, there’s roughly a 5 percent difference in CPU speed and over 10 percent in GPU performance (according to CPU Monkey).

Despite that bump, the battery life hasn’t changed. With both devices, Apple says you’re getting up to 26 hours of video playback and up to 21 hours streamed. The company doesn’t typically share specifics on battery sizes, but GSMArena is reporting that both models come with a 4,005mAh battery. What has changed, however, is being able to receive double the wattage from wireless charging. The iPhone 17e can now take up to 15W for Qi2 fast wireless charging — compared to 7.5W from the Qi support on the iPhone 16e.

iOS 26 and Apple Intelligence

At a glance, there does not seem to be any difference in what the iPhone 16e and iPhone 17e offer in terms of iOS and Apple Intelligence capability. However, it’s relevant to note that you will likely get better performance out of the iPhone 17e with regards to AI features because of its superior A19 chip.

In case you wanted to do the numbers comparison yourself, we’ve compiled a nifty table here so you can eyeball them with ease. But for a sense of how the iPhone 17e holds up in the real world and whether it’s worth the money, stay tuned for our full review.

iPhone 17e vs. iPhone 16e: Specs at a glance

2026-03-02 23:56:17

Apple has promised a “big week” for the company, which includes an in-person event for press and creators on March 4. But it didn’t exactly wait until Wednesday to get things started. The news started on Monday with the announcements of the iPhone 17e and M4-powered iPad Air.

We’ll be updating this roundup throughout the week as we learn exactly what Apple has in store for everyone (though we have a decent idea of what to expect, such as new MacBooks). For now, though, here’s our recap of everything Apple announced on Monday:

iPhone 17e

Apple

Apple has spruced up this year’s entry-level iPhone with some pretty solid upgrades, though it's keeping the starting price at $599. The iPhone 17e has double the base storage of the iPhone 16e at 256GB. It also has MagSafe support with Qi2 wireless charging speeds of up to 15W, double that of the iPhone 16e.

Design-wise, Apple hasn't exactly rocked the boat. The iPhone 17e looks pretty much identical to its predecessor. It appears that Apple is sticking with the same 48MP Fusion camera system as it used in the iPhone 16e too.

That said, the 6.1-inch Super Retina display has Ceramic Shield 2. According to Apple, this provides “3x better scratch resistance than the previous generation and reduced glare.” The company slotted its C1X cellular modem into the iPhone 17e as well. It says this is up to two times faster than the C1 that was in the iPhone 16e. The device has the same A19 chip as the iPhone 17, so it supports Apple Intelligence AI tools, and it runs iOS 26.

In addition, the iPhone 17e has an IP68 rating for water and dust resistance, as well as the promise of "all-day battery life." It also supports satellite-powered features including Emergency SOS, Roadside Assistance, Messages and Find My.

Pre-orders for the iPhone 17e open on March 4 and it will be available in black, white and soft pink. The device will hit shelves in more than 70 countries and regions on March 11.

iPad Air M4

Apple

The latest iPad Air boasts Apple’s M4 chip. That means the mid-range iPad is effectively remaining a year behind the iPad Pro. The M4 is almost two years old at this point, while the top-end model has the newer M5 chip. Still, if you only use an iPad for casual tasks like watching shows, web browsing, email and so on, the M4 will be more than powerful enough. It will be more adept at handling resource-intensive tasks like video editing than previous iPad Air models too.

Apple has also bumped up the RAM from 8GB from the last-gen model to 12GB. Given the sharp increase in RAM prices in recent months, it’s slightly surprising that Apple is sticking to the same prices for the iPad Air. The 11-inch M4 iPad Air starts at $599 while the 13-inch version starts at $799, each with 128GB of storage. There's a $50 discount for those buying it for educational use.

Apple claims the M4 delivers up to 2.3 times faster performance compared with the M1 iPad Air and "over 4x faster 3D pro rendering with ray tracing performance." Of course, the new iPad Air runs iPadOS 26.

Apple gave the iPad Air other internal upgrades by including its N1 and C1X connectivity chips. As such, this is the first iPad Air with Wi-Fi 7 support. As you might expect, 5G cellular connectivity is available as well.

The design of the M4 iPad Air doesn't seem to have changed, as it appears to have the same LCD display Apple used in the last two iterations of the tablet. The company has stuck with the same rear-facing camera and dual-speaker setup as well.

As with the iPhone 17e, pre-orders for the M4 iPad Air open on March 4. The tablet will hit retailers in 35 countries and regions on March 11. It will be available in blue, purple, starlight and space gray.

2026-03-02 23:32:01

Anthropic has made switching to its Claude AI chatbot easier than ever. The company announced a new memory import tool that can extract all of a competing AI chatbot's memories and context of you into a text prompt that can be fed into Claude.

With Anthropic's prompt, you can then copy and paste the output into Claude's memories, and the AI chatbot will pick up where you left off with another AI chatbot, whether it's ChatGPT, Gemini or Copilot. Anthropic said it'll take about 24 hours for Claude to assimilate the new context, but you'll be able to see the change by clicking on the "See what Claude learned about you" button. Claude users can even tweak what the AI chatbot remembers in the "Manage memory" section in the app's settings. Anthropic pointed out that Claude is meant to focus on "work-related topics to enhance its effectiveness as a collaborator," adding that it might not remember personal details that are unrelated to work.

Anthropic's timing doesn't seem to be just a coincidence. Claude recently jumped to the number one spot in the App Store's free apps charts, dethroning ChatGPT in the process. The rise in popularity likely stems from its recent dispute with the Department of Defense, where Anthropic refused to budge on AI guardrails related to mass domestic surveillance and fully autonomous weapons. On the other hand, OpenAI will be taking Anthropic's vacated role with the Department of Defense, leading to a trend of users boycotting ChatGPT and canceling their subscriptions.

2026-03-02 22:45:50

Apple has scheduled a product launch event, dubbed an "Apple Experience", for March 4 at 9AM ET. The company is reportedly holding this event in NYC, London and Shanghai.

Everyone loves shiny new products, so what can we expect to see at Apple's first launch event of 2026? We don't know anything for certain, but we have plenty of educated guesses that have been sourced from industry reports and speculation from analysts.

Editor's Note (on March 2 at 9:45AM ET): Apple has officially announced the iPhone 17e and iPad Air (M4). It's expected to continue to unveil new hardware in the following days, per the rest of this article.

Budget-friendly MacBook

There have been rumors swirling that Apple is preparing to launch a cheaper alternative to the MacBook Air. Bloomberg reported on this all the way back in November. Industry rumors indicate that Apple will be stuffing this laptop with an iPhone processor, the A18 Pro, to keep the price down.

It's also been suggested that this laptop will only include 8GB of RAM, which kind of flies against the company's recent stance to outfit all Macs with at least 16GB of RAM. However, that would certainly help with the cost. You might have heard about a little thing called AI that chomp chomps on all RAM it can find.

TechRadar has reported that this could be Apple's biggest laptop launch in years, with potential initial shipments hitting 8 million units. The price is likely to be somewhere in the $699 to $799 range, which is pretty nifty. However, I'd still go for an Air at $999. They are absolute workhorses.

MacBook Pro with M5 Pro and Max chips

It's likely that Apple will release more powerful MacBook Pro models this year and the timing seems to match up. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman has suggested a March launch and the event is on March 4.

The company has already released a MacBook Pro with an M5 chip, but both the M5 Pro and Max are likely on the horizon. We could be getting new laptops outfitted with these chips in various display sizes.

Devindra Hardawar for Engadget

There have also been reports that both of the higher-end M5 chips are getting a redesign to help improve heat dissipation and reduce defective chip rates. Additionally, the new chiplet design would allow the M5 Pro and Max to raise the total number of CPU and GPU cores. The Max is expected to have more cores than the Pro.

This idea is helped along by the fact that MacBook Pro M4 Max orders are currently delayed. This is typically the case with an outgoing model as stock dries up to make room for new releases. Also, the Pro and Max variants typically get announced in the Fall, so we are due. 

New iPads

Rumors have been circulating that we are about to get new iPads, including an update to the base model and the Air. The standard model, which would be the 12th-gen release, is expected to upgrade the A16 chip to an A18. This should also allow for the integration of Apple Intelligence tools, if that's your bag.

Nathan Ingraham for Engadget

As for that iPad Air, rumors suggest an upgrade to the M4 chip from the M3. An extremely light tablet with an M4 would be fairly notable in my estimation, as only the newest iPad Pro has that chip.

iPhone 17e

It was almost exactly a year ago that Apple announced the iPhone 16e, so you know what that means. It's time for a refresh. Recent reports have suggested that an announcement regarding the iPhone 17e is imminent, so this launch event seems like as good a place as any to reveal the latest "budget-friendly" smartphone.

As for specs, Mark Gurman has suggested that it'll be getting an upgrade to the A19 chip, which is nice. Also, it could be getting MagSafe support. That sounds like an iterative upgrade, but the price is expected to remain steady at $599.

Other Possibilities

The following stuff is less likely, though certainly possible. There have been rumors that Apple is currently preparing a revamped Studio Display and Mac Studio desktop. The reports suggest a release sometime in the first half of the year, and March is right in the middle of that timeframe.

It's also possible that the company will reveal an upgrade to the MacBook Air with the M5 chip. Reports indicate that this is unlikely to happen during this event, but it is worth noting that the M4 Air came out in March of last year. In other words, it's a toss up.

What's not a toss up? You shouldn't expect anything regarding the long-anticipated Siri refresh. This looks to be a hardware event, so any software updates will likely have to wait until WWDC this summer. In any event, Engadget will be on hand to report on all of Apple's new products. 

Update, March 2 2026, 9:45AM ET: This story has been updated to add an Editor's Note with the latest news from Apple this week.