SAVE 59.94: Prime members can grab a black pair of Echo Buds for 49.99 and get 6 months of free access to Amazon Music Unlimited, which saves you a total of 59.94. Life is not cheap these days, which means when we see the word "free," we're all ears. Amazon is currently offering us a deal that's quite impressive if you're interested in a new pair of earbuds (and streaming music for free). As of Jan. 15, a black pair of Echo Buds costs 49.99 and comes with 6 months of free access to Amazon Music Unlimited. Typically, the service costs 9.99 per month, which means you'll save a total of 54.94.

Google is partnering with The Associated Press to bring real-time information from the news agency to its Gemini app, the search giant announced on Wednesday. The financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed. The deal builds on an existing partnership Google had with The Associated Press to source real-time information for its search engine. "This will be particularly helpful to [Gemini app] users looking for up-to-date information," Google says of the deal. "AP and Google's longstanding relationship is based on working together to provide timely, accurate news and information to global audiences," said Kristin Heitmann, The Associated Press senior vice president and chief revenue officer.

The high volume of job applications makes it challenging for recruiters to find the talent they need and for people to get hired. LinkedIn is adding a new feature that leverages artificial intelligence (AI) to make the recruitment process more seamless, helping both parties connect efficiently. On Wednesday, LinkedIn announced Job Match, a feature that shows job seekers how their profiles, including their skills and experience, compare to an open position. This approach is meant to give job seekers a better idea of the roles worth applying to and that they could hear back from. To power this experience, LinkedIn said it uses advanced in-house language models that can generate insights within seconds.

The rise of AI NPCs has felt like a looming threat for years, as if developers couldn't wait to dump human writers and offload NPC conversations to generative AI models. At CES 2025, NVIDIA made it plainly clear the technology was right around the corner. PUBG developer Krafton, for instance, plans to use NVIDIA's ACE (Avatar Cloud Engine) to power AI companions, which will assist and banter with you during matches. Krafton isn't just stopping there -- it's also using ACE in its life simulation title InZOI to make characters smarter and generate objects. While the use of generative AI in games seems almost inevitable, as the medium has always toyed with new methods for making enemies and NPCs seem smarter and more realistic, seeing several NVIDIA ACE demos back-to-back made me genuinely sick to my stomach.

SAVE 35: As of Jan. 15, the Amazon Echo is on sale for 64.99 at Amazon. This is 35% off its list price of 99.99. If you're looking to add more smart devices into your home, why not start with an Amazon Echo? This round little device can serve as a central hub for select smart devices and as a high-quality speaker to play all of your favorite tunes, audiobooks, or podcasts. What's even better is you can pick it up right now at a discounted price on Amazon for a limited time. The Amazon Echo in twilight blue is down to 64.99 (unfortunately, the other colors of the Amazon Echo are not discounted at the moment).

Google is being investigated by the UK competition watchdog over the impact of its search and advertising practices on consumers, news publishers, businesses and rival search engines. The CMA estimates that search advertising costs the equivalent of nearly 500 for each UK household a year, which could be kept down with effective competition. The watchdog announced on Tuesday it will investigate if Google is blocking competitors from entering the market, and whether it is engaging in "potential exploitative conduct" by the mass collection of consumers' data without informed consent. It will also investigate whether Google is using its position as the pre-eminent search engine to give an unfair advantage to its own shopping and travel services. The investigation will take up to nine months and could result in Google being forced to share the mountains of data it collects with other businesses, or to give publishers greater control over how their content – books, newspaper articles and music – is used, including by Google's fast-growing artificial intelligence systems.

The UK's competition watchdog has launched an investigation into Google to probe whether it has too much power in online search. Google accounts for 90% of UK web searches - the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is looking at whether it is using that dominant position to harm competition or choice for users. It is its first investigation after gaining new powers to investigate and enforce changes at firms it determines to have "strategic market status" in digital markets. The CMA says it wants to ensure the tech giant is "delivering good outcomes for people and businesses" and that there is a "level playing field" for rivals. In a statement Google said: "We will continue to engage constructively with the CMA to ensure that new rules benefit all types of websites, and still allow people in the UK to benefit from helpful and cutting edge services." It is the latest in a series of investigations Google faces worldwide over its immense power in search and advertising technology.

When I first saw that photo of Nvidia's new Project Digits mini PC unveiled at CES 2025, I couldn't help but notice the Apple influence -- minimalist, sleek, next to a monitor that looks like Apple's Studio Display. Apple's latest Mac Mini is revolutionary in many ways, delivering the company's impressive M4 silicon in an efficient, affordable package. Windows PCs haven't yet been able to reach the same level of design beauty and overall balanced unit. Could Nvidia's new Mac Mini-like small-form-factor AI supercomputer usher in a major disruption for Windows PCs? Let's dive into Project Digits, what it is, and what it brings to the table for the future. It's a little unfair to compare the Mac Mini and Nvidia's Project Digits, mainly because they target vastly different users and markets.

Red Hat, the IBM-owned open-source software giant, has completed its acquisition of Neural Magic, a pioneering artificial intelligence (AI) optimization startup. Initially announced in November 2024, the deal closed on January 13, 2025, marking a significant step in Red Hat's strategy to enhance its AI capabilities across hybrid cloud environments. While the price was not disclosed, Neural Magic had previously raised 50 million in venture capital funding from various investors, including Andreessen Horowitz, New Enterprise Associates, Amdocs, and Comcast Ventures. We can safely assume that the deal wasn't made for peanuts. The cause probably wasn't hurt, I'm sure, by the fact that Neural Magic's CEO before the deal closed was Brian Stevens, Red Hat's former CTO and executive VP.

Drones have become a "threat to national security", the prisons watchdog has said, after a surge in the amount of weapons and drugs flown into high-security jails. Charlie Taylor, the chief inspector of prisons, called for urgent action from Whitehall and the police after inquiries found that terrorism suspects and criminal gangs could escape or attack guards because safety had been "seriously compromised". His demands follow inspections at two category A prisons holding some of England and Wales's most dangerous inmates. HMP Manchester and HMP Long Lartin in Worcestershire had thriving illicit economies selling drugs, mobile phones and weapons, and basic anti-drone security measures such as protective netting and CCTV had been allowed to fall into disrepair, inspectors found. In a report released on Tuesday, Taylor said the police and prison service had "in effect ceded the airspace above two high-security prisons to organised crime gangs" despite knowing they were holding "extremely dangerous prisoners".