Samsung has started rolling out the stable version of One UI 9, beginning with the Galaxy S26, Galaxy S26+, and Galaxy S26 Ultra in South Korea.

One UI 9 first arrived on the Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra, Galaxy Z Fold8, and Galaxy Z Flip8. This is the first step toward bringing Samsung’s Android 17-based software to its regular flagship phones, with other eligible Galaxy devices expected to follow in stages.

A few genuinely useful changes

One UI 9 is another Samsung update built around Galaxy AI, but the best additions are the ones that cut down on small bits of friction.

My FanCam can track a selected person while recording video and reframe the shot to keep them centred. It is meant for the obvious situations: a child on stage, a friend at an event, or someone moving around during a game. Samsung notes that results will vary depending on the scene, and there needs to be a subject for the feature to follow.

Now Nudge is designed to surface relevant actions without making users jump between apps. Samsung’s example is making plans over text, where the phone can offer a way to pull up reservation details or save a shared location directly from the conversation.

Samsung is also expanding Now Brief with editable and generative cards for things like health, weather, and video recommendations. That sounds more useful than receiving the same generic daily summary every morning because the phone decided it knows your life better than you do.

Support tools move into Settings

One of the more practical changes is Warranty and Care, which brings device support information into the Settings app. Galaxy owners can check warranty coverage for connected devices, run diagnostics, view repair estimates, manage Samsung Care+, and book a service appointment from one place.

Samsung is also improving a few of its existing productivity tools. Interpreter now has a Thread View for looking back through translated conversations, while Document Scan gains better support for curved pages and an improved Finger Eraser for cleaning up scans.

More privacy and scam protection

Samsung is adding Privacy Alerts, an on-device feature that looks for potential privacy risks, including unnecessary attempts to access permissions in the background. It will be supported on selected recent Galaxy S phones, Galaxy Z foldables, and Galaxy Tab S devices.

There is also a new Security Brief within Now Brief, which can flag malware, apps installed from unknown sources, and unnecessary permissions. Samsung’s Scam Detection feature is expanding to Canada, India, and Japan as well.

None of this replaces basic caution, unfortunately. But putting suspicious permissions and unknown-source apps in a place people may actually see is better than burying every warning three screens deep in Settings.

Which Galaxy phones get it first?

The stable One UI 9 rollout began in South Korea on September 16 for the Galaxy S26, Galaxy S26+, and Galaxy S26 Ultra. Samsung has confirmed that the update will gradually expand to more Galaxy devices, but availability will vary by market, carrier, and model.

Reports point to a wider rollout beginning later this month, with older Galaxy S, Galaxy Z, and Galaxy Tab models expected to follow through the coming weeks. Treat those dates as regional rollout guidance rather than a promise for every carrier or country.

To check whether your Galaxy device has received the update, go to Settings > Software update > Download and install.

Google has begun rolling out its September 2026 Pixel Drop, bringing a handful of useful quality-of-life changes to supported Pixel phones and Pixel Watches. This is not a dramatic redesign. It is the kind of update built around the little actions people repeat every day: calling an important contact, replying to a suspicious message, or trying to stop themselves from opening the same distracting app again.

The release arrives alongside Android 17 QPR1 for eligible Pixels. Google has confirmed new VIP widget actions, expanded scam protections, Pixel Watch improvements, and Audible-themed customization. Tech Advisor reports that the update is reaching Pixel phones back to the Pixel 6 series.

Call and message VIP contacts in one tap

The most immediately useful change is an update to the Pixel VIPs widget. Instead of opening a contact card before doing anything, users can now call or text a pinned contact with one tap directly from the widget.

Google has also added notification badges to the widget, making it easier to spot unread activity from an important contact without opening the notification shade. A floating navigation menu at the bottom lets users switch between pinned contacts.

It is a simple change, but it makes the widget feel closer to what it should have been in the first place: a fast route to the people you actually need to reach.

Gboard adds inline scam warnings

Google is also extending its scam protections into Gboard. When a user starts replying to a message identified as a suspected scam, Gboard can show a warning above the keyboard. Tapping it provides more information about the warning before the user continues the conversation.

The feature is launching first in the United States. Google is also expanding its Scam Detection for chat app notifications to more regions, giving users another prompt to slow down before responding to something that looks off.

Scam detection will never catch everything, but placing the warning at the exact point where someone is about to reply is a more useful approach than hiding it in a settings menu nobody visits.

Pause Point reaches more Pixel phones

Pause Point is Google’s Digital Wellbeing feature designed to put a deliberate pause between you and an app that tends to eat more of your time than intended. It can show a short breathing exercise, a personal photo, an alternative app suggestion, or a prompt asking why you are opening the app before letting you continue.

Google originally introduced Pause Point for the Pixel 11 series. Tech Advisor reports that the September Pixel Drop expands it to older supported Pixel phones, though availability may vary by device and rollout stage. Google’s current Pause Point support guidance should remain the final word on whether the feature has reached a specific phone.

Pixel Watch improvements and Harry Potter packs

Pixel Watch users are receiving improvements to Raise to Talk, additional app integrations for one-handed gestures, and other bug fixes. Google has not framed these as major new features, but better voice-command reliability is the kind of update that matters when you are trying to use a watch without stopping what you are doing.

Google is also adding Harry Potter Audiobook Packs to celebrate Audible’s Harry Potter: The Full-Cast Audio Editions. The packs can change a Pixel phone’s wallpaper, icons, and sounds. Eligible Pixel owners can also claim a two-month Audible trial.

How to check for the update

The September Pixel Drop is rolling out in stages, so it may not appear on every eligible device immediately. On a Pixel phone, head to Settings > System > Software updates to check for it manually.

What I Assumed an AI Agent Was

Before I tried any of this I assumed AI agents worked like a smarter version of chat. You type what you want, the AI goes off and does it, and the whole thing happens inside the same conversation window you're already in. That's a reasonable assumption given how these products are marketed. The email I got from Grok talked about GrokBot like it was just something Grok could do, not a separate app you had to go find and download.

So I did what felt obvious. I opened Grok on the web, connected my Outlook account through the connector, and started telling it to clean my inbox. It felt like it was working. It asked me to confirm what to keep — bills, receipts, order confirmations, bank alerts, mail from real people — and then it started filing things. I thought I had my AI agent.

The Limitations I Hit

It did not take long before the cracks showed. The connector pulls a maximum of 50 messages per search pass. That's not a setting you can change, it's a hard ceiling on what Grok can retrieve from Outlook at one time. With nearly 2,000 emails in the backlog, 50 at a time is a very slow job. The fastest it can run automatically is once per hour. So we're talking days, potentially longer, just to work through what was already there.

It also could not create native Outlook rules. So nothing was being set up inside Outlook itself to catch new mail as it arrived. The whole operation was a scheduled job running on Grok's side, which means if the connection dropped or the session timed out, new mail just kept piling up. I was manually prompting a chat session and calling it automation. That is not an AI agent. That is a chatbot with an email connector.

Then I Found the Actual GrokBot

After digging into it I found out that GrokBot is its own separate app, available on Android, Windows, and Mac. It is not hiding inside the regular Grok chat interface. Once I downloaded it on Android and opened the Inbox Triage task, the difference was immediately obvious.

It did not wait for me to prompt it. It checked my existing folder structure, told me what it found, said what it was going to do, created a routine, and scheduled a weekday morning sweep at 9:14 AM automatically. Then it said something the chat connector never could — it was going to open Outlook on the web in its own browser and create native inbox rules directly.

A few minutes later it stopped and flagged for my approval. The screen showed exactly what it had done: navigated to Microsoft's login page on a remote machine running Chrome, with my email address already filled in, and hit a step it could not pass without me. It showed me the URL, explained why it stopped, and gave me a straightforward Allow or Deny. That approval screen told me everything I needed to know about how GrokBot actually works. This was not an API call. This was a real computer, running a real browser, doing what I would do if I sat down to sort my inbox manually. Which also means no 50-message ceiling, no hourly wait, no API rate limit. It works the same way I do when I'm doing it myself.

What It Gets Right

The thing that impressed me most, across both the chat connector and GrokBot, is how it handles senders that mix promo and transactional mail. A lot of blunt tools would see a familiar brand name and file everything together. Grok correctly reads the difference between a discount offer and an order receipt from the same company. The offer goes into Marketing. The receipt stays in Inbox. I tested this across several senders and it held up every time. For a backlog this size that is the feature that actually matters, because one misfiled receipt is the reason you stop trusting the tool entirely.

The folder structure it built is clean too. Marketing at the top with Food, Retail, Social, Surveys, and Other underneath. Nothing ends up dumped into a single catch-all folder. The categories reflect what the mail actually is, which means going back in and checking it later is useful rather than just feeling like the mess got relocated.

Is SuperGrok (with GrokBot) Worth It?

SuperGrok is around $30 a month and includes Grokbot access. My inbox deal actually presented Grokbot for $20 monthly (after the three free days). If you're only considering it for inbox cleanup, that's a hard sell. You could spend 20 minutes setting up five sender rules inside Outlook itself and solve most of the same problem for free.

But if you're already thinking about SuperGrok for chat, image generation, or search, GrokBot is a genuinely capable addition that keeps working after you put your phone down. The key is making sure you're actually using GrokBot and not just chatting with a connector and wondering why it's so slow. Grok does not make that distinction obvious, and that is a real problem with how the product is presented.

The test is still running. I'll update this once GrokBot finishes what it started.

 

The Apple iPhone Duo is Apple's first foldable iPhone, combining a compact 5.4-inch outer display with a large 7.6-inch folding inner display. The device features Apple's A20 Pro chip, a titanium design, dual 48 megapixel rear cameras, Touch ID, and up to 2TB of internal storage.

The iPhone Duo also introduces a dual-battery design, a dedicated under-display FaceTime camera, Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6, USB 3 connectivity, MagSafe and Qi2 wireless charging, and a version of iOS 27 designed to take advantage of its folding display.

The full Apple iPhone Duo specifications follow:

``` ```

Apple iPhone Duo
Announced	September 9, 2026
Pre-orders	October 16, 2026
Release	October 23, 2026
Operating System	iOS 27
Design	Foldable design with Grade 5 titanium enclosure
Dimensions - Open	164.6 x 117.8 x 5.2 mm
Dimensions - Closed	84.1 x 117.8 x 11.3 mm
Weight	254 g
Protection	Ceramic Shield 2 front, Ceramic Shield back
Water Resistance	IP68 splash, water and dust resistance
Colors	Night Sky, Star White
Inner Display	7.6-inch Super Retina XDR OLED folding display
Inner Resolution	1878 x 2670 pixels, 430 ppi
Inner Display Finish	Nano-texture finish
Outer Display	5.4-inch Super Retina XDR OLED display
Outer Resolution	1398 x 2034 pixels, 460 ppi
Display Features	ProMotion, Always-On display, HDR, wide color, True Tone, up to 3000 nits peak outdoor brightness
Apple Pencil	Apple Pencil (USB-C) support coming later in 2026
Chipset	Apple A20 Pro
CPU	6-core CPU with 2 performance cores and 4 efficiency cores
GPU	7-core GPU with Neural Accelerators and hardware-accelerated ray tracing
Neural Engine	Dual 16-core Neural Engine
Cooling	Custom vapor chamber thermal management system
Storage	256GB / 512GB / 1TB / 2TB
Rear Camera System	48MP Dual Fusion camera system
Main Camera	48MP Fusion Main, 26mm, f/1.6, sensor-shift OIS
Telephoto	12MP optical-quality 2x Telephoto, 52mm
Ultra-wide Camera	48MP Fusion Ultra Wide, 13mm, f/2.2, 120-degree field of view
Optical Zoom	2x optical-quality zoom in, 2x optical zoom out, 4x optical-quality zoom range
Digital Zoom	Up to 10x
Rear Video	Up to 4K Dolby Vision at 120fps with the Fusion Main camera
Outer Front Camera	12MP Center Stage camera, f/2.2
Inner Front Camera	Under-display FaceTime camera, f/1.8
Inner Camera Video	1080p at 30 or 60fps
Biometrics	Touch ID fingerprint sensor integrated into the side button
Cellular	5G sub-6GHz and mmWave, Gigabit LTE
Cellular Modem	Apple C2
Wireless Chip	Apple N1
Wi-Fi	Wi-Fi 7 (802.11be) with 2x2 MIMO
Bluetooth	Bluetooth 6
Ultra Wideband	Apple second-generation Ultra Wideband chip
NFC	Yes, with reader mode
SIM	Dual eSIM, eSIM-only worldwide
USB	USB-C, USB 3 up to 10Gb/s, DisplayPort
Navigation	Dual-frequency GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, QZSS, BeiDou and NavIC
Sensors	Barometer, high dynamic range gyro, high-g accelerometer, proximity sensor, four ambient light sensors
Battery	Dual built-in rechargeable lithium-ion batteries
Typical Battery Life	Up to 24 hours
Video Playback	Up to 44 hours using the outer display; up to 31 hours using the inner display
Fast Charging	Up to 50% in around 20 minutes with a 60W-capable or higher power adapter
MagSafe	Up to 25W wireless charging
Qi2	Up to 25W wireless charging
Satellite Features	Emergency SOS, Roadside Assistance, Messages and Find My via satellite
Apple Intelligence	Apple Intelligence with Siri AI
Starting Price	$1,999 (U.S.)

Source: Apple

Apple had a packed launch day. The company introduced a new Pro iPhone lineup, finally entered the foldable phone market, refreshed both of its main Apple Watch ranges, and brought Active Noise Cancellation to its most affordable open-ear AirPods.

The biggest surprise was iPhone Duo, Apple’s first foldable iPhone. However, the iPhone 18 Pro lineup, Apple Watch Series 12, Apple Watch Ultra 4, and AirPods 5 all received meaningful updates of their own.

iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max

Apple’s new Pro phones are built around the A20 Pro chip, a redesigned vapor chamber for sustained performance, Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6, and Apple’s new C2 cellular modem. The headline camera change is a new 48MP Fusion Main camera with a variable aperture, giving users more control over depth of field and low-light photography.

The phones also gain upgraded Pro camera controls, a smaller Dynamic Island that can show up to three Live Activities, and Apple Reference Image, which creates a signed reference image intended to help verify what the camera captured before editing.

iPhone 18 Pro starts at $1,199, while iPhone 18 Pro Max starts at $1,299. Both begin at 256GB, come in black, silver, glacier, and burgundy, and will be available to pre-order September 12 ahead of a September 18 release. Apple has the full details in its official iPhone 18 Pro announcement.

iPhone Duo is Apple’s first foldable iPhone

Apple also revealed iPhone Duo, its first foldable iPhone. It has a 5.4-inch outer display and a 7.6-inch inner display when opened, with the larger screen supporting two apps side by side, two windows from the same app, and new foldable-specific iOS features.

The phone uses the same A20 Pro chip as the iPhone 18 Pro models and has a titanium body, IP68 water and dust resistance, a 48MP main camera, a 48MP ultra-wide camera, and Touch ID built into the side button. Apple says the phone will support Apple Pencil with USB-C later this year.

iPhone Duo starts at $1,999 with 256GB of storage. It will be available in star white and night sky, with pre-orders opening October 16 and availability beginning October 23. Apple’s iPhone Duo announcement has the full launch information.

Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4 focus on health

Apple Watch Series 12 and Apple Watch Ultra 4 both introduce Apple’s new Health Sensing System and S11 chip. The new system enables more frequent heart rate and heart rate variability measurements, which feed into a new readiness score designed to help users understand when to push through a workout or take a recovery day.

Series 12 continues to offer up to 24 hours of everyday battery life, but Apple says outdoor workout battery life rises to 10 hours. It also charges faster, with 15 minutes providing up to 12 additional hours of use. It starts at $399.

Apple Watch Ultra 4 keeps its adventure-focused design while adding the same health system, extended battery life of up to 45 hours for outdoor workouts, and improved on-device GPS. It starts at $799.

Both watches are available to pre-order today and arrive September 18. Read Apple’s announcements for Apple Watch Series 12 and Apple Watch Ultra 4 for full details.

AirPods 5 bring ANC to Apple’s cheaper earbuds

AirPods 5 bring Active Noise Cancellation to Apple’s standard open-ear AirPods. Apple says the new design removes up to 50 percent more external noise than AirPods 4 with ANC, while offering improved Transparency mode, Adaptive Audio, Conversation Awareness, Live Translation, and hands-free Siri AI access.

The regular AirPods 5 cost $129. A $149 version adds a wireless charging case, longer battery life, and on-stem volume controls. Both models are available to pre-order today and reach stores September 18.

Apple has more details on the new audio hardware in its AirPods 5 announcement.

iOS 27, watchOS 27, and Siri AI

iOS 27 and watchOS 27 will be released as free updates on September 14. Apple says its new Siri AI experience will launch in beta at the same time for supported devices set to English, with additional languages planned for October.

Apple is also introducing a redesigned Health app later this year, including a Longevity tab and Health Age feature. These changes are built around longer-term health data rather than another screen full of rings, which is probably the right direction.

I found most of these games through social ads. The opening hook was usually strong: save someone, clear a small area, survive a zombie wave, or begin rebuilding a settlement. Then the larger game appeared. I was gathering resources, improving a central building, recruiting heroes, training troops, exploring a map, and working through timers.

After trying Last War: Survival Game, Whiteout Survival, Last Asylum: Plague, Dark War: Survival, Tiles Survive, and Palmon: Survival, I stopped thinking of them as six separate first impressions. The worlds are different, and some have ideas worth keeping. But the same machinery keeps reappearing underneath them.

For this test, I am following the quests and recommendations each game gives me rather than using outside guides to find an ideal build. I am also not spending money simply to force progress through every wall. I did make one early $0.99 purchase in Last Asylum, which is disclosed in the log below. The point is to see where each game’s own route leads before money becomes the answer.

The Shared Blueprint

The pattern is not just that every game has a base. Each one links the same four systems together: a central building that controls growth, a roster that needs increasingly scarce resources, combat that determines access to the next requirement, and a set of timers or offers that become more visible once progress slows down.

Game	Main growth gate	Roster and troops	Current test result
Last War	Headquarters	Heroes, Tactical Drone, Barracks unit tiers	A Level 9 Barracks, not the quest list, solved the 30-zombie World Map wall.
Whiteout Survival	Furnace	Heroes, shards, troop camps	Combat remains manageable; research and resource allocation are the stronger limits.
Last Asylum	Sanctuary	Gold champions, survivor assignments, barracks	A stronger gold roster kept exploration moving, but the next building timer still stopped the quest path.
Dark War	Watchtower	Heroes, troop formations, faction camps	Its smaller high-rarity roster has made exploration the sharpest recurring wall.
Tiles Survive	Power Plant	Heroes, squads, survivors	Construction capacity and parallel exploration areas are becoming the defining early systems.
Palmon	Camp	Palmon, fragments, Armigo troops	Its creature theme changes the presentation, but Camp caps and supporting-building chains remain familiar.

Different Names, Same Building Chain

The most obvious connection is the central building. Last War has its Headquarters, Whiteout Survival its Furnace, Last Asylum its Sanctuary, Dark War its Watchtower, Tiles Survive its Power Plant, and Palmon its Camp. The setting gives each building a different purpose on paper, but in practice each one is the account-level gate. It decides which systems open, how far key buildings can rise, and how far a hero, champion, or Palmon can develop.

The more important connection is what happens next. The central building is rarely the thing I can upgrade immediately. Last War needed a stronger Barracks. Whiteout needed Research Center progress and completed research. Last Asylum needed the Builder Hut and Research Lab. Dark War needs the Shooter Camp before another Watchtower upgrade. Palmon needs the Hospital and Table Saw before Camp Level 8. The screen may say that the next goal is one building, but the actual task becomes a chain of supporting buildings, resources, and timers.

That chain is not automatically a problem. It gives a strategy game structure. But it is a strong reason these games begin to feel related: a different base layout is repeatedly delivering the same loop of required building, prerequisite, wait, then next requirement.

The Economy Is About Choosing What Not to Upgrade

Every game gives the impression of a growing roster. The harder question is what the player can afford to develop. Characters have rarity, levels, stars or ranks, fragments, skills, and usually a role inside a fixed formation. Troops add another layer, whether they are Last War’s unit tiers, Dark War’s hero-led troops, or Palmon’s Armigos.

Whiteout Survival and Dark War show two versions of the same problem. In Whiteout, I have nine orange heroes, but not enough resources to bring six of them to the Furnace’s Level 34 cap. The constraint is investment. In Dark War, I have been developing the purple heroes available to me, but the game has repeatedly made stronger orange heroes feel out of reach. At Exploration Level 58, its own recommendation is to get an orange hero, upgrade the Watchtower, or improve skills. My skills were already upgraded, leaving another building chain as the free route worth testing.

Last Asylum is the useful counterexample. Two gold champions being raised toward Level 50 were enough to clear the required Exploration Level 92 and Quest Path 93. The game still has the same caps and prerequisites, but its roster was generous enough at this point to let the normal path keep moving. Palmon also gave me a free UR Palmon, but that did not automatically solve its earlier power wall. A rare pull is not the same thing as having enough materials, levels, ranks, and troop strength to use it.

Exploration Is Not Just Something to Do Between Upgrades

All six games use combat as a progression lock, even when the maps look different. World Map zombies in Last War, stages in Whiteout, quest paths in Last Asylum, exploration encounters in Dark War, infected routes in Tiles Survive, and Palmon formation fights all answer the same question: is the team strong enough to open the next piece of the settlement?

Last War made this especially clear. I stalled at 21 of 30 required zombie kills, while the task list continued to direct me toward Headquarters and resource buildings. It did not tell me that the Barracks was the missing step. A three-hour upgrade to Barracks Level 9 made the existing team strong enough to resume clearing the map. That is a useful tip for anyone stuck there, but it also shows how easily a game can hide the real progression requirement behind its stated objective.

Dark War puts that relationship under more pressure. Earlier exploration was needed to unlock the Alliance Hall and Rider Camp required by the Watchtower. Radar missions, troop healing, hero abilities, and persistence eventually got me through one Horde wall. Later, even after the Watchtower raised my hero cap and I focused resources on purple heroes, another required exploration fight stopped progress. The current Level 58 recommendation for an orange hero makes the roster gate more explicit than it was at the start.

Whiteout is different in the way it delays the player. Its exploration stages were still comfortable when research and construction became the real obstacle. That difference matters. The games are not identical in the exact wall they choose. The shared part is that combat, buildings, roster growth, and research are all designed to feed one another.

Timers Are Part of the Progression System

None of these games merely asks the player to win fights. They ask the player to wait for the right building, research item, or troop improvement. Last Asylum stopped me after Quest Path 93 with a one-hour-and-twenty-seven-minute Builder Hut upgrade. Last War needed three hours for the Barracks test that eventually worked. Whiteout’s Chapter 10 route included Command Tactics II research with a 47-minute timer. Palmon’s main quest now requires two side buildings before the next Camp upgrade.

Tiles Survive makes the commercial value of time especially obvious. Its Labor Day Rosie offer included a permanent second construction slot, alongside speed-ups and other items. That is more than a character bundle. It sells a lasting way to work around a structure every game in this comparison uses: one upgrade finishing while another required building waits its turn.

The Offers Are Different, but the Timing Is Familiar

I do not think it is fair to claim that every difficult fight or timer exists solely to sell something. There are normal, free routes through several of these walls. Last War’s Barracks solution is proof of that, and Dark War’s Radar route did eventually get me past its first Horde block.

However, the offers do become hard to ignore when progress slows. Dark War has kept the $0.99 Guy offer visible alongside the Progression Battle Pass, Legend Battle Pass, and Road to Dawn. Tiles Survive put an SSR Rosie, construction speed-ups, and a second build queue in front of me during a timer-heavy stage. Palmon has been the most constant about it so far, pairing egg, character, and quick-ascension offers with a system built around fragments, rarity, and power requirements. Last Asylum also surfaced an early $0.99 Arthur offer.

The article does not need to guess at intent. The visible pattern is enough: when the free route turns into several connected requirements, the paid routes are often already on the screen.

Where the Games Do Earn Their Own Identity

This is not an argument that the six games are literally the same. Each has at least one system that fits its setting better than a simple visual replacement would.

• Last War: its military-unit progression, Tactical Drone, and World Map give its larger-scale survival setting a distinct feel.
• Whiteout Survival: survivor mood, job assignments, and a settlement built around surviving cold make the Furnace more than a generic headquarters.
• Last Asylum: wards, the Pharmacy, Café, and treating patients give the plague-doctor setting a real hospital-management layer.
• Dark War: Zombie Tide added a three-wave defense battle with troop rescues and a boss, rather than another standard map encounter.
• Tiles Survive: it has regular exploration alongside the Wilderness Map and Echo’s Wish, giving the player more than one place to progress.
• Palmon: it begins with hands-on land clearing, puts captured Palmon to work, gives them day-and-night behaviour, and provides more physical traversal than the others.

The open question is whether those ideas continue to alter the experience later, or whether they mostly make the same progression economy feel fresh during the opening stretch.

Testing Log

These notes record the meaningful changes in the test. They are organised by date so the comparison stays focused on what the games revealed at the same stage of the experiment.

First Impressions

My first impression of United Survival wasn't particularly strong. The opening battles required little more than moving my character around the screen while attacks happened automatically. Periodically, I was presented with several power-ups of different star levels and asked to choose one, but the game did very little to explain how those choices fit into the larger combat system.

There was dialogue explaining some of the mechanics, but the opening throws information at me quickly enough that I ended up skipping through some of it. That became a recurring problem outside combat as well. The Home screen quickly filled with buttons, notification markers, currencies, missions and menus, with very little indication of what actually deserved my attention.

The bright yellow, black and white presentation fits My Hero Academia, but it also makes an already crowded interface harder to read. After unlocking the Home, Team and Enlist screens, I found myself deliberately ignoring most of the available buttons because the game wasn't giving me a reason to interact with them.

Gameplay

Combat is built around movement, automatic attacks and regular power-up selections. Auto mode can move the character and choose those power-ups for you, so routine stages can become almost completely hands-off. The Assist ability still requires manual input, but for a while I was mostly watching the game clear stages for me.

That changed once the difficulty increased. I hit stages where Auto Play repeatedly got the team killed, and manual control made a real difference. I could avoid damage, keep the team alive longer and make better decisions during boss fights. I eventually cleared a boss manually after Auto had failed.

That gave the combat more purpose, but it also exposed the trade-off. Manual play is more effective, yet the battles are long enough that constantly moving, dodging and stopping for power-up selections can become tedious. Auto is the more convenient way to play, even when it isn't the smarter one.

Characters & Team Building

I started with a basic three-character team and initially relied on Auto Set to choose what the game considered strongest. As I progressed, Enlist gave me several higher-rarity pulls, including SR versions of Katsuki Bakugo and Tomura Shigaraki. Those pulls looked like the obvious answer to my progression problem because the game puts so much emphasis on rarity.

But simply having three SR characters did not suddenly solve the problem. One of my early all-SR teams was only around 47K strength, and Auto Set actually produced a mixed-rarity team around 58K. Later I built a three-SR team around 63K. Character rarity mattered, but it was only one part of the progression system.

Progression & The Grind

This is where my opinion changed the most. Early in the week, I was stuck far below a stage recommendation of roughly 67K. I kept using the upgrades I understood, still died, and assumed the game was pushing me toward stronger characters.

The breakthrough came when I stopped treating progression as one system. I started ranking up the characters I was actually using, spending coins and upgrade materials, improving equipment and Collections, and using Trust progression to unlock additional character upgrades. I had accumulated plenty of blue upgrade resources, but some of them were unavailable to Todoroki until I raised the relevant Trust level.

Once I started combining those systems, the numbers moved quickly. Hawks went from Level 11 toward Level 19, Todoroki gained access to additional upgrades, equipment and Collections increased, and the same general core team eventually reached more than 105K strength.

The important part is that I did not need to buy my way through that wall. The game had already given me many of the resources I needed. I just didn't understand where they belonged. That is both encouraging for free players and a criticism of the onboarding. A progression system this layered needs to tell a struggling player what to improve next instead of presenting six different upgrade paths and hoping one of them gets clicked.

Monetization

United Survival constantly keeps Enlist currencies, banners and store prompts within reach, and after clearing a major stage I was offered a limited "Surprise Sale" for 300 premium currency. That is standard territory for a gacha game, but the timing matters.

My concern is less that spending exists and more that the game makes it easy to think spending is the solution. When I was underpowered, recruiting stronger characters seemed like the obvious move because I did not yet understand how much unused progression material I already had. A player who hits the same wall could reasonably start buying or pulling for characters before realizing that Trust, rank-ups, levels, equipment and Collections may do more for the team they already own.

During this review I stayed free-to-play. The free tickets and resources gave me multiple SR characters and enough upgrade material to progress through two chapters. That is a better free-player outcome than my first few days suggested.

The Daily Routine

For most of the week, my routine was simple: log in, collect whatever the game had made available, spend resources on the current team, then see how far Auto Play could take me. The free daily Continue gave me another attempt when the team was underpowered, so I used that as a natural stopping point.

By the end of the week, the routine became more deliberate. Instead of automatically chasing a new character whenever I got stuck, I checked the team itself first: character level, rank-ups, equipment, Collections and Trust. That was the rhythm the game should have established from the beginning.

Seven-Day Review Log

• Monday, August 24: Initial setup, first battles, team recruitment, equipment, Auto mode, and Home/Team/Enlist exploration.
• Tuesday, August 25: Agency and Trust unlocked, first KO and free Continue tested, Training unlocked, Midoriya trained, and another KO triggered a brief recommendation to enhance character stats.
• Wednesday, August 26: Team reached roughly 30K against a stage recommendation near 67K. Auto Play and the daily revive were not enough to overcome the gap.
• Thursday, August 27: Used more Team upgrades and reached roughly 37K. Manual movement improved survival, but long battles and repeated power-up selections made manual play more tedious.
• Friday through Sunday: Used Enlist tickets, added multiple SR characters, tested Auto Set, and learned that rarity alone did not produce the strongest team. Character and equipment progression became more important.
• Monday, August 31: Combined character levels, rank-ups, Trust unlocks, equipment and Collections, pushed the team past 100K, manually cleared a boss Auto Play could not handle, and progressed beyond two chapters.

UI and Onboarding

The game has five main navigation areas: Agency, Team, Home, Trust and Enlist. Each one adds more systems, currencies and notification markers. The game often explains what an individual feature does when it unlocks, but it does not do a good job of establishing hierarchy.

That became the central frustration of the review. I knew my team was weak, but the game gave me too many ways to make it stronger at once. I could level characters, train them, rank them up, improve Trust, equip items, upgrade equipment, improve Collections, change the team or recruit new characters. What I needed was a progression recommendation based on why I had just lost.

Instead, I learned by experimentation. That works eventually, but it makes the early game feel more complicated than it actually is. Once I understood the relationship between the systems, progression became much easier.

Updates & Events

During this review, events and banners were constantly visible around the main game, but they were not the deciding factor in whether I could progress. The more important discovery was that ordinary free progression resources were already enough to strengthen my core team substantially.

How It Compares

United Survival sits in familiar mobile gacha territory: character recruitment, layered progression, daily resources, event banners and enough automation to turn routine stages into background activity. What stands out less is the structure itself and more how quickly it introduces all of those systems.

I would rather see progression arrive in clearer stages. Teach me character leveling first, make me use it, then introduce rank-ups, equipment, Trust and Collections as the difficulty demands them. United Survival instead gives me several answers before I understand the question.

Does It Hold Up?

At the four-day mark, I was close to giving up. I was badly underpowered, Auto Play kept failing, and manually playing long stages did not feel rewarding enough to justify the extra effort. The last few days changed that.

Once I found the progression rhythm, the game became easier to understand and I moved through more content without spending money. Bosses also gave manual control a reason to exist. I still don't think the core combat is strong enough to carry the game on its own, but I ended the week in a much better place than I was halfway through it.

That does not erase the onboarding problem. If a game gives me enough free resources to succeed but makes me think I need to recruit my way out of every wall, the progression design is working against the player. United Survival became more enjoyable after I figured it out. I just wish the game had been the thing that taught me.

Pros & Cons

Final Verdict

My Hero Academia: United Survival finished the week stronger than it started. I went from watching Auto Play fail against a progression wall to building a 100K-plus team, manually beating bosses and clearing more than two chapters without paying.

I can recommend giving it a try if you're a My Hero Academia fan and don't mind learning a busy mobile progression system. I would not recommend spending money just because the first major wall makes your current roster look weak. Check the progression systems you already have first. In my case, the resources were there. The instructions were not.

Best Buy is celebrating its 60th anniversary with a week-long sale running through August 23, bringing thousands of discounts across smartphones, tablets, laptops, headphones, TVs, gaming hardware, accessories, appliances and plenty more. There is a lot to dig through. Rather than turn this into a list of everything Best Buy has marked down, we've gone through the sale and curated some of our favorite deals from the catalog. These are the offers that stood out for the actual savings, the hardware you're getting, or both. Prices and availability can change throughout the sale, so some offers may disappear before the event officially ends.

Samsung Galaxy Buds3 Pro

At $139.99, Samsung's Galaxy Buds3 Pro are one of the easiest deals in the sale to recommend. Best Buy has taken $110 off the regular $249.99 price, bringing Samsung's premium wireless earbuds into considerably cheaper territory.

The Buds3 Pro offer active noise cancellation, ambient sound, 24-bit audio support with compatible Galaxy devices and deep integration with Samsung's ecosystem. If you're already using a Galaxy phone, this is a substantial discount on the earbuds designed to go with it.

Sale price: $139.99
Regular price: $249.99
You save: $110

Apple AirPods Pro 3

Apple's AirPods Pro 3 are down to $189.99 from their regular $249 price, putting one of Apple's newest pairs of premium earbuds roughly $59 below retail.

For iPhone owners, the appeal is straightforward. You get Apple's active noise cancellation, Transparency mode and tight integration with the rest of the Apple ecosystem, while the third-generation model also adds newer health and fitness features.

Sale price: $189.99
Regular price: $249
You save: $59.01

Apple AirPods Max 2

If you'd rather have over-ear headphones, Best Buy has taken $120 off the AirPods Max 2, dropping them from $549 to $429.

$429 is obviously still a lot of money for headphones, but this is one of the better discounts we've seen on Apple's second-generation AirPods Max. All five colors were included in Best Buy's anniversary pricing when the offer went live.

Sale price: $429
Regular price: $549
You save: $120

Apple iPhone Air

One of the more interesting phone deals in the sale is on the unlocked iPhone Air. The 256GB model has dropped from $999 to $840, with similar $159 discounts available on higher-capacity models.

The important word here is unlocked. This isn't one of those phone deals where the headline price depends on adding a new carrier line, keeping a specific plan for years or trading in a recent flagship. You're buying the phone outright at the discounted price.

256GB sale price: $840
Regular price: $999
You save: $159

11-inch M4 iPad Air

The current 11-inch M4 iPad Air is also getting a worthwhile discount. The 128GB model is available for $650 instead of $749, while the 256GB and 512GB configurations are seeing similar reductions.

This is probably the tablet deal we'd prioritize from the sale. You're getting current-generation Apple hardware rather than relying on clearance pricing for an older model, and roughly $100 off makes the Air noticeably easier to justify.

128GB sale price: $650
Regular price: $749
You save: $99

HP OmniBook X Flip 16

The biggest straight discount among our picks belongs to HP. Best Buy has dropped the 16-inch OmniBook X Flip from $1,199.99 to $749.99, saving $450.

This configuration includes an Intel Core Ultra 7 256V processor, 16GB of RAM, 1TB of storage and a 16-inch 2K touchscreen in a convertible 2-in-1 design. At $750, that's a much more interesting package for someone shopping for a Windows productivity laptop or back-to-school machine.

Sale price: $749.99
Regular price: $1,199.99
You save: $450

Wobbly Life has made the jump to mobile. The open-world physics sandbox is now available for Android and iOS, letting players explore Wobbly Island, take on odd jobs, collect vehicles, buy homes, and cause exactly the amount of chaos the name suggests.

Originally built around lighthearted exploration and co-op play, Wobbly Life gives players plenty to do without forcing them down one path. You can deliver pizzas, drive taxis, fly helicopters, work through missions, or simply head out with friends and see what happens.

An open world built for messing around

Wobbly Life takes place on Wobbly Island, a colourful sandbox where almost every activity is an excuse to explore. Completing jobs earns money for vehicles, clothes, pets, and homes, while mini-games and hidden secrets give players more reasons to keep moving around the map.

It is a much lighter take on the open-world formula than most mobile games. There is no need to take it too seriously. The appeal is in trying things, playing with friends, and seeing how much nonsense the game’s physics will allow.

Play across mobile and PC

Curve Games says the mobile version includes Google Play Games support, allowing players to move between mobile and PC and play together from launch. That makes it a particularly good fit for families or groups where not everyone is playing on the same device.

Wobbly Life is a premium release rather than a free-to-play game. Store pricing may vary by region.

The iQOO Z11 is a mid-range Android smartphone featuring a 6.83-inch 1.5K AMOLED display with a 144Hz refresh rate, Qualcomm's Snapdragon 7s Gen 4 chipset, a 50 megapixel Sony main camera with optical image stabilization, and a massive 9,020mAh battery with 90W fast charging.

The device runs OriginOS 6 based on Android 16 and also features 5G connectivity, an in-display fingerprint sensor, Wi-Fi 6, NFC, and IP68/IP69 dust and water resistance.

The full iQOO Z11 specifications follow:

iQOO Z11
Operating System	OriginOS 6, based on Android 16
Camera Features	OIS, Night, Portrait, Snapshot, Panorama, 50MP mode, Pro, Supermoon, slow motion, time-lapse
Front Camera	32MP
SIM	Dual Nano-SIM
Network	2G / 3G / 4G LTE / 5G
5G	Dual-SIM Dual Standby
Wi-Fi	Wi-Fi 6, MU-MIMO, Wi-Fi Display
Bluetooth	Bluetooth 5.2
NFC	Yes
USB	USB Type-C, OTG
Navigation	GPS (L1 + L5), BeiDou, GLONASS, Galileo, QZSS, NavIC
Fingerprint Sensor	Optical in-display fingerprint sensor
Sensors	Accelerometer, ambient light sensor, proximity sensor, electronic compass, gyroscope
Other Hardware	Infrared blaster
FM Radio	No
Battery	9,020mAh Li-ion battery
Charging	90W FlashCharge
In the Box	Phone, charger, USB cable, case, SIM eject tool, documentation and pre-applied protective film

Source: iQOO