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If you've been patiently waiting for the right moment to pull the trigger on the best Nintendo Switch 2 bundle deal like I have, this is the part where your patience gets rewarded. Woot is selling a refurbished Nintendo Switch 2 Mario Kart World Bundle for $419. That's $80 less than the retail price for a new bundle and arguably better than the deal they had in June, as long as you don't mind a refurbished unit.
This bundle deal is a great opportunity when you consider the console by itself (without the bundle) will increase to $499.99 come Sept. 1. Since we're about a month away from that date, this could very well be the last great opportunity to buy the console for its lowest price.
The new console is an upgrade in every way, as you can read in our full review of the Nintendo Switch 2. The ergonomics and design have improved, making it much better to hold and look at. The battery life has also improved, now with about 180 minutes of handheld playtime before the juice runs out.
A big plus is that the Switch 2 is backwards-compatible: You can play your old Switch games on it. Some Switch games have the ability to upgrade to the Switch 2 Edition by buying that game's upgrade pack. This is especially worth it for games like The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, which will look better on the Switch 2.
What do you think so far?
There aren't many Switch 2 games out at the moment, but there are some classic Nintendo games to keep you busy until the library expands, like Donkey Kong Bananza, Kirby Air Riders, and Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment. If you already own a Switch 2, check out our Top 10 Hacks to get the most out of your device.
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It's time to sell your car. Back in the day, your options were limited. You could take pictures of your vehicle, write up a description, and post a classified ad in your local newspaper. Or you could drive around with a "for sale" sign in your window and hope that the right buyer spots your ride. Today, however, things are a little different for the DIY car salesperson. Thanks to the internet and social media, sellers can post their vehicles on platforms like Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, eBay Motors, and CarGurus. And with some options, the seller doesn't have to pay a thing (or very little) to offload their vehicle.
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Sounds like the Camelot of car sales, right? A utopia of get-this-friggen-car-outta-my-driveway? Not quite. When selling a car with online classifieds, you accept a certain amount of risk beyond having to scan your face for Facebook Marketplace. On the one hand, crafty users may use internet sales platforms and online classifieds to scam people out of money or their vehicles. On the other, more sinister hand, bad actors may attempt to harm or carjack a seller. Or worse. That's why it's so important to sell smart when navigating online vehicle classifieds.
Sad to say, you're going to have to put up with some pretty annoying stuff. You're going to get more useless, infuriating "Is this still available" messages than anything else. But to stay safe when selling your ride on Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace, you'll need to plan and follow some basic safety guidelines. From meeting in a public spot to avoiding shady payment practices, your best bet is to make yourself difficult to target.
Be safe selling your car on Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace
Here Now/Shutterstock
Let's get one thing straight: Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace aren't the boogeyman. You can, however, make yourself a more difficult target when selling your car. For starters, don't give away too much personal information in your Facebook Marketplace profile. Also, while it's good practice to take many clear pictures of your car, consider blurring your license plate in photos. Protecting your personally identifiable information lessens your chances of falling prey to scammers.
Ever heard of strength in numbers? That applies to selling your vehicle on Marketplace or Craigslist, too. It's a smart move to have a buddy or two with you to a meeting. Just leave your resident instigator at home. Here comes a "duh," but it's a duh that far too many online sellers and buyers overlook. Always meet your prospective buyer in a safe, public spot. Better yet, find a monitored "safe exchange" or "e-commerce zone." While a camera or a police station can't stop every bad egg, it does act as a deterrent. As for test drives, verify and photograph the buyer's license before letting them drive. It's also best practice to accompany them on the drive.
Then there's payment. It's best practice to accept cash, a verified wire transfer, or a cashier's check in exchange for your vehicle. Checks bounce, and releasing your vehicle or title to a buyer without verified funds could leave you broke and vehicle-less. And, speaking of your title, make sure your odometer reading is correct when signing over ownership; a buyer could wreck the vehicle immediately and claim they weren't responsible. Cue the sad slide whistle. Finally, never be afraid to walk away from a deal. If it sounds too good to be true, it just might be.
Marketplace before you list with Craig
dennizn/Shutterstock
Here's the good news: you can sell your car on either Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist without making the list of the worst experiences our readers have had selling a car. Either platform will do. That said, Facebook Marketplace bakes in a safety benefit over Craigslist. Specifically, Craigslist doesn't require sellers to establish a user account or viewable profile. As such, users (and scammers) can message sellers and set up appointments with near-complete anonymity. Good for privacy, but it opens up sellers to scams and other dangerous possibilities.
Facebook Marketplace, on the other hand, requires a profile. Sellers can then vet potential buyers based on their profiles, considering attributes such as location, posts, and Marketplace history, and ratings. Marketplace also features a built-in messenger function with mobile accessibility. That makes it easier to track your conversations and report scams. Most traffic on Craigslist, however, uses email or CL Chat, an account-linked means of communication. Craigslist isn't all bad, though. If you get lucky, you might even find something crazy like a basically new 22-year-old Dodge Viper. Still, regardless of which sales platform you use, you can make sure your next online car sale is as safe as possible by keeping your wits about you. %!s()
Avengers: Doomsday is going to be quite the experiment, assembling a brand new crew of Avengers that have to band together to take on Doctor Doom, possibly the most powerful foe they’ve faced, depending on what level of “God Emperor” he’s at.
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This set of Avengers is just a bit…underpowered. But now Marvel (and uh, Hasbro) have picked a character that they say “may be the only hero powerful enough to stop the threat the Avengers face,” according to a new press release promoting Doomsday action figures. I mean, yes, it’s a toy-based press release, but it is also an official one from Marvel.
The hero is Shang-Chi and his Ten Rings, ones he learned how to master in his own movie before the MCU made him disappear for far too long. I think he’s lucky he made it into this movie with the way they’ve treated him.
Are the Ten Rings really that powerful? Well, that’s probably a debate for both CBM movie and comic experts, but out of everyone it does seem like Shang-Chi will be one of the most powerful.
Ant-Man: I mean, I guess he defeated Kang, but come on.
Super-Soldiers: Bucky, Red Guardian, John Walker, Steve Rogers. Not good enough.
Normal Humans: Yelena Belova, Ghost, Falcon, Captain America. No shot.
Fantastic Four: Invisible Woman pushed Galactus through a portal, and I guess Reed is brilliant, but in terms of sheer power, probably not (though in the comics they defeat Doom as a team a lot, of course).
Namor/Thor – Gods, in effect, but we see Thor’s Stormbreaker stopped by Doom with ease.
X-Men – Maybe as a team, but it’s hard to see anyone short of Professor X or Magneto really making a dent in Doom. No Jean Grey/Phoenix to help out.
M’Baku, Shuri – Strong and fast, but I don’t think Doom cares about that.
Shang-Chi – Defeated the Dweller-in-Darkness, an ancient soul-stealing cosmic dragon.
Well, if we’re going with individual heroes, I know who I would pick. Maybe Sentry, provided he can control himself, though that seems unlikely. Given that this movie is missing heroes with enormous power, Captain Marvel, Doctor Strange and Scarlet Witch, Shang-Chi may actually be the best bet after all, which is certainly an interesting position for him to be in. After all this neglect, he probably deserves it.
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This, of course, will be a huge team effort, but if we’re doing what we did with Infinity War and Endgame, it seems like the team will probably lose before finding redemption in Secret Wars. We’ll find out in December.
BEIJING, CHINA - MARCH 06: A journalist tries on China-made AR smart glasses at press center for China's annual sessions of its top legislature and political advisory body, known as the "two sessions," on March 6, 2025 in Beijing, China. The third session of the 14th National People's Congress (NPC) and the third session of the 14th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) kicked off on March 5 and March 4, respectively. (Photo by VCG/VCG via Getty Images)
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VCG via Getty Images
In the summer of 2006, Shakira was in all our ears, Europe was dealing with a devastating heat wave, and the hottest corporate accessory was the Blackberry. Twenty years later, Shakira is playing the World Cup halftime show, Europe is once again struggling with the heat, and a select group of corporate executives are adopting a new technology – Even Realities glasses. Just as Blackberry adoption in the workforce led to mass adoption of smartphones, early adopters of smartglasses in offices could pave the way for larger acceptance of the devices – if the manufacturers play their cards right.
Even Realities, which just raised a $150M funding round led by Meituan and Tencent and is currently valued at $1 billion, has been a leader in the corporate space. “Most of our customers are male professionals between 30 and 50 years old. We ran a survey and found that about a third of our users are company executives,” CEO Will Wang told TechCrunch.
In a conversation with Forbes, he added “We are also trying to summarize the main use cases for them. I think it landed on just one word, communication. They use it to better communicate or they use it for really important conversations. It could be you getting on stage to give a speech. It could be you taking an interview with a reporter. It could be you chatting or even negotiating with your partners. In all those high stake conversation scenarios, a lot of the executives love the glasses.”
While Even Realities has leaned into the executive market, other players in the space have largely ignored it. Meta seems to be going for a broad consumer play, recruiting celebrities for advertisements but dealing with backlash around privacy concerns. Snap hired a head of enterprise to work on Specs and has been staffing up that department, but is also leading with glossy ads featuring models and influencers. Google and Xreal’s forthcoming Aura glasses are being pitched in part as a way to turn a computer screen into a “private spatial workplace,” which is a reasonable use case if not an extremely common one.
Often when smartglasses are discussed in a work context, the focus is on industrial and manufacturing use cases. This made sense for the previous generation of devices, which were bulkier and not meant for all-day, every-day wear. There are still plenty of great use cases for the new generation of glasses in this environment as well, but if companies only focus on this space, they risk missing out a huge new audience that can normalize using the glasses and ease the transition to consumer use.
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While giving keynotes to big audiences is generally something that only top executives do, almost all white collar workers need to quickly access information and present it to colleagues, something that connected glasses enable seamlessly. Being able to see information about other folks in the office, from their calendar to their tasks to their place in the org chart, is much easier with the glasses and will prevent any number of awkward moments where you forget someone’s name or role.
The use of glasses in the office are also beneficial from an accessibility perspective. Employees with hearing loss could use them for real-time transcription and those with visual impairments could use them to be guided through tasks. The real-time translation features mean that talented folks who don’t speak the local language well can still use their skills and participate in the economy.
The camera question remains a big issue, but the office could be the place where norms are set. In the case of Even Realities, they have eliminated the camera altogether, which probably helped speed adoption in some environments. But even glasses with the camera can succeed in the office – most offices have strict policies about recording, so using them in a controlled environment could help reinforce norms about when it’s ok to record.
Hardware companies would do well to start focusing on the office environment in order to start reaching a mass scale. To do this, they need to enlist experts to help explain why these glasses should be used and how to build and scale apps that make them even more useful. Other devices, from computers to smartphones, have followed this exact path to great success. Rather than focusing on models and actors, smartglasses companies need to start getting on the faces of Barbara from accounting and Jim from IT. %!s()
Postdoctoral researcher Aaron Yip prepares samples for the automated robotic research system to handle. Credit: Duke University
Biomedical engineers at Duke University have demonstrated a method for systematically developing novel, complex combinations of probiotics and prebiotics to more effectively maintain gut health and treat various gastrointestinal diseases.
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By strategically designing experiments and robotically automating thousands of parallel trials to fill knowledge gaps and make the model more accurate, the approach can reveal complex interactions among many microbial species, nutritional sources and the surrounding environment.
One challenge in designing probiotics and prebiotics that improve gut health is the substantial variability in diet, organisms present in the gut, medications and other host factors. In a proof-of-concept study, researchers used this method to identify specific bacterial combinations and dietary fibers that together consistently promote the health and function of the human gut regardless of variability in the organisms present. The approach could be a boon for a rapidly growing prebiotic and probiotic industry that has long struggled to demonstrate consistent and predictable results for customers.
"If you take a seed and plant it in soil that is depleted of nutrients and minerals, it might not grow very well," said Ophelia Venturelli, associate professor of biomedical engineering at Duke. "The same thing applies to putting microbes into a person's gut microbiome. This work aims to engineer both the environment and the bacteria to improve human health."
Automated laboratory robotics at work in the laboratory of Ophelia Venturelli. Along with AI, this research approach is allowing her laboratory to build a large database of microbe-fiber interactions to improve human gut health. Credit: Duke University
A crowded and variable ecosystem
The human gut is a highly complicated environment that hosts thousands of different species of microorganisms. The number of microbial cells in the human gut is roughly equal to the number of human cells, and they weigh up to nearly half a pound (225 grams).
To further complicate matters, the makeup of species and their relative ratios vary greatly from region to region and even from person to person, depending on a wide range of factors like diet, lifestyle and environmental exposures. Although bacterial groups in the human gut microbiome have much in common, different people harbor different bacterial species, creating substantial variability that can make treating disruptions in their functions difficult.
And disruptions can be serious. Microbes in the gut prevent unwanted pathogens from taking hold while breaking down food like dietary fiber and complex carbohydrates that the stomach can't. This process provides nutrients essential for the health of gastrointestinal cells. Bacteria also produce other molecules that shape immune system development, energy balance, cardiometabolic health and even brain and neurological activities.
A closer look at the automated robotics in the laboratory of Ophelia Venturelli. Credit: Duke University
Searching trillions of combinations
To address these issues, introducing healthy microbial communities and making sure they have the nutrients they need to thrive has become a major industry, currently valued at about $130 billion worldwide. Demonstrating consistent results, however, has remained a challenge.
"Probiotics alone might not be able to colonize a person's gut long enough to do anything helpful because there's so much living there already," Venturelli said. "There is substantial uncertainty about whether these current methods for restoring gut microbiome health are effective at all, since outcomes are still largely unpredictable."
Venturelli's new approach is meant to bring more predictability to the whole enterprise.
In the new paper, Venturelli and her colleagues demonstrate a method for intelligently and systematically exploring this large design space by closing the loop between experiments and computational models. In benchtop experiments, her team forced various combinations of 15 different species of gut microbes to live and eat together. Their menu consisted of six types of dietary fibers known to affect the production of butyrate, a short-chain fatty acid critical to gut health.
Even with just 21 different variables on the table, the potential combinations of microbes and their diets easily numbered well into the trillions. Faced with such an intractable problem, the researchers turned to machine learning, computer models, automated experiments and active learning—also known as Bayesian optimization.
Bayesian optimization is an approach that designs experiments to simultaneously fill gaps in the computer model and achieve specific goals. Armed with autonomous robotic experimental systems, the team was able to plow through five batches of high-throughput experiments—up to 390 conditions at the same time—to build their knowledge of interactions and outcomes.
"We found a lot of unexpected effects from interactions between the microbes and the fibers," Venturelli said. "These effects are very complicated and couldn't have been predicted before we ran the experiments."
A butyrate-producing trio emerges
The results revealed that the dietary fiber inulin, along with two inulin-hungry microbial species (Bacteroides uniformis and Anaerostipes caccae), interacted with a third bacterial species (Prevotella copri) to reliably produce the desired butyrate. What's more, this combination remained effective regardless of what other species and factors were introduced.
The researchers are now working to see whether this combination can effectively treat a mouse model of inflammatory bowel disease, with promising early results. Beyond this specific combination, the researchers believe their approach could be used to discover many more promising combinations for a wide range of gastrointestinal disorders.
"There are companies combining bacteria and dietary fibers in their gut health products already, but they are not yet trying to identify and match the right synergies to the right problem," Venturelli said. "I believe using this process would help create more tailored—and more effective—solutions to a wide range of gastrointestinal issues."
Publication details
Designing fiber–gut microbiome interactions with active learning, Nature Chemical Biology (2026). DOI: 10.1038/s41589-026-02272-4
Swati Mestri holds a bachelor's degree in Electronics Engineering and has worked as a content editor since 2019. She has experience editing research documents across technology, health care, and materials science, and has a particular interest in technology and space.
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AI and robotics accelerate search for better gut microbiome therapies (2026, July 27)
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