Honor has revealed the design of its upcoming Magic 8 Pro flagship in a selection of images shared exclusively with The Verge, confirming that the phone will include a dedicated AI button. When the Magic 8 series launches in China next month, the phones will be among the first powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset, which was announced today by Qualcomm.

The Magic phones are Honor’s flagships, and the Pro models tend to launch first in China and then later in Europe, where they typically cost upwards of €1,000 (around $1,200) and lean on flagship chips, big batteries, and powerful cameras. From what we know so far, the Magic 8 Pro will be no exception.

In broad strokes, the Magic 8 Pro looks much like the Magic 7 Pro. The phone’s back is flat, rather than having subtle curvature like the previous model, but otherwise things seem familiar. Even the light blue color looks a lot like one of last year’s hues.

The biggest difference is on the phone’s side, where we can see an extra button in addition to the fingerprint sensor …read more

“The Supreme Court is Google’s last hope to avoid an Epic reckoning in October,” I wrote last week. Google apparently agrees. Today, it’s finally elevated its Epic v. Google case, the one that might fracture its control over the entire Android app ecosystem, to the Supreme Court level. Google has now confirmed it will appeal its case to the Supreme Court, and in the meanwhile, it’s asking the Court to press pause one more time on the permanent injunction that would start taking away its control.

On September 12th, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed that permanent injunction and gave Google until October to stop forcing app developers to use its Google Play Billing for payments, allow them to link to other ways to pay and other places to download apps, set their own prices, and more.

But the Supreme Court might see it differently. It might agree with Google’s argument that the lower courts overstepped, or that Apple’s win in Epic v. Apple is relevant to the Google case, or any number of other arguments that you can read in the full document below.

Google says it will fully appeal to the …read more

Nintendo is releasing a new Fire Emblem mobile game, Fire Emblem Shadows. The company says the game is a spinoff of the series and “introduces a new style of battles featuring role-playing and social deduction.”

The company’s description of the game indicates that Shadows will have Among Us-like elements of treachery: 

One of the three allies participating in each battle is secretly a treacherous disciple of shadow. Players choose to take on the role of either a disciple of light, aiming to find their way through the labyrinth, or a disciple of shadow.

After the initial battle, players vote to determine who they believe is the treacherous disciple of shadow. The outcome of the vote affects whether the next battle is more favorable or more challenging. Whether the disciples of light can correctly discover the traitor—or the disciple of shadow can successfully deceive the others—holds the key to how the next battle unfolds.

Nintendo says Fire Emblem Shadows is available for iOS and Android, and while it’s a free-to-play app, it will have optional in-app purchases.

The company’s other mobile take on Fire Emblem, the gacha-style Fire Emblem Heroes, quickly turned …read more

If the past is any indication, Prime Big Deal Days — Amazon’s upcoming fall Prime Day event — should deliver a wave of deals on Apple devices, letting you save on everything from AirPods and AirTags to the latest iPad. But if you can’t wait until the sale kicks off on October 7th to land a bargain, you don’t have to. A few Apple products are already receiving sizable discounts at Amazon and other retailers, giving you the chance to save ahead of Amazon’s two-day sales event next month.

Admittedly, the current discounts aren’t as steep as what we’ve seen during previous Prime Day events — and possibly this year’s October Prime Day — but they’re still a solid way to save on a lot of older Apple devices if you can’t wait. The last-gen Apple Watch Ultra 2 has returned to its all-time low, for instance, while the M1-powered MacBook Air is available at its best price to date. We’ve rounded up a handful of other Apple deals worth taking a look at below, so let’s dive …read more

Have you updated your iPhone to the new iOS 26 yet or are you holding off? It’s been available to download since September 15 — here’s how to install it if you haven’t yet. The new OS was released alongside iPadOS 26 and Apple’s other operating system updates. Since then, the first beta of iOS 26.1 has already been released with some newer features.

If your phone is compatible with the latest OS, you’ll notice substantial changes when you install the new update. You may have already heard about “Liquid Glass,” which (intentional or not) is sort of like Apple’s take on the old Windows Vista design language. That’s the most notable change, but we spent two weeks test-driving many of the other features included in the update — you can check out our hands-on iOS 26 preview for more impressions.

Not sure if you have an eligible smartphone or tablet but also don’t want to upgrade? No worries, we’ll help you find out if your devices will be able to run iOS 26.

While Apple didn’t nix any iPhones from its eligibility list last year, that’s not the case for 2025, …read more