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Google Gemini has launched real-time, continuous translation using your phone and a pair of connected earbuds, in what looks like a powerful transformative change to the way in which we interact with speakers from other countries. Google buried its announcement in an update to Gemini voice model updates on Friday, but the additional translation features look like they could change the way in which people interact with foreign speakers. Google is launching a beta of Google Translate to accommodate both real-time translation and two-way conversations, powered by Gemini. Wander through the markets in Bangkok, and the update promises that you’ll hear the ambient conversations of vendors around you translated into English, via a pair of connected earbuds. In a two-way conversation, you’ll have the same experience, but you’ll have a chance to speak, and then your phone will play back what you’ve said via your phone’s speaker. Google is promising that Translate will auto-detect over 70 languages and 2,000 language pairs, or a direct back-and-forth translation between English, for example, and Italian. The company is also promising that the phone will filter out extraneous noise as well as preserve the nuance of the conversation using AI. Translate will even accommodate multiple languages in a single session. Those are all issues that I’ve wrestled with while traveling overseas, using various translation devices. In Taiwan, for example, I naively thought that Mandarin would be the primary spoken language, and it seems to be. But locals use others, including Hakka or Hokkien, and switched back and forth at will. I also can speak some French, but like others who lack immersion training I can speak French far better than I understand it — and probably not all that well at that. Put simply, in my experience translation apps have almost reached a level of utility where I could depend upon them. If Google’s services works as advertised, however, this could really put translation services over that critical threshold. Google published a video showing off what the new service could do, and it’s amazing in its simplicity. One of the things that I personally have loved about technology is watching its impact on culture. ReplayTV and TiVo introduced the ability to pause live TV, which was revolutionary to a generation of consumers, even those who owned VCRs. Remember GPS devices? When Google released its free Google Maps app for Android phones with GPS and directions, companies like Magellan faded from public view almost overnight. Many, many people own smartphones and headphones or earbuds, and travel overseas without fluency in the local language. A few years ago, you’d be at the mercy of a local who understood English. Google’s updated Translator app really looks like we’ve moved past that, where translators will always be available in our ear. Read...

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Who hasn’t thought to themselves, I’d really like to play something new again, but unfortunately my wallet looks so empty. These days, a full-price game costs at least $70–sometimes even more. There is still one option: taking a look at the free-to-play market for a change. There are plenty of titles out there that are genuinely worthwhile–free games that offer much more than a few hours of distraction or the usual pay-to-win traps. Here, I present the most exciting free games available right now. Marvel Rivals NetEase When Marvel Rivals was announced, many people likely thought “Oh no, not another hero shooter.” The game looked very much like another Overwatch clone that would disappear into oblivion after a short time. Instead, everything turned out differently and Marvel Rivals became a real hit at the beginning of the year. This is probably due to the familiar game formula, in which teams of six compete against each other on various maps, but also to the popular Marvel characters. Not only do they have unique abilities that fit in very well with their background from the comics, but their designs are so cool that this alone has ensured a lot of success on social media, even with lesser-known characters such as little shark Jeff, who took hearts by storm. The Battle Pass model is also quite fair, as you pay about $10 to unlock all content like new costumes. And if you miss something, you can still unlock it later by playing. The developers regularly add new characters and skins, which helps the gameplay stay fresh and exciting. All of this makes Marvel Rivals still worth a look almost a year after its release. Fortnite Epic Games When it comes to free-to-play games, Fortnite is a must. Not only does it have a huge fan base, but it’s also one of the most successful games of all time with sales in the billions. The game principle of exploring, shooting, building bases, and the ever-shrinking map has now been copied so often that it feels like a genre in its own right. However, Fortnite is still the best at attracting players of all ages. Added to this are regular collaborations with well-known brands such as One Piece or the Simpsons, viral dances on social media, and much more. This has given Fortnite a firm place in pop culture. The title is so much more than a video game. It now sees itself as a social hub for all kinds of activities, including live virtual concerts. The developers also offer the opportunity to create totally new games with the creative tools. Battlefield Redsec Electronic Arts Battlefield Redsec is brand new and very exciting, as it was only released in October 2025. This is not another standard game mode for Battlefield 6, but a free-to-play spin-off that aims to compete with Call of Duty: Warzone and follows the battle royale principle. So you don’t need the main game to play Redsec, and you get a completely different gaming experience to the standard Battlefield. Similar to Fortnite, the map gets smaller and smaller, threatening to eliminate anyone who doesn’t leave in time. Up to 100 players can compete against each other in teams, with the goal of being the last one alive. To do this, you can use weapons, equipment, and vehicles you have found, and also destroy parts of the map in classic Battlefield style. Criticism was leveled almost exclusively at the battle pass system, as Redsec shares this with the main game. So you are somewhat encouraged to play Redsec even if you don’t feel like it. Leveling up is also slowed down a little if you don’t play often enough, but you can still level up without the Battle Pass. The Sims 4 Electronic Arts The Sims series is still the best known of all life simulation games, and for good reason. The iconic characters and worlds from The Sims have shaped generations, and the fourth installment is still hugely popular. In October 2022, Electronic Arts decided to offer The Sims 4 for free, giving even more players access to the title. Although you still have to pay for the numerous expansion packs, you can still get your money’s worth, especially thanks to the active modding community. Unlike its predecessors, EA also wants to stick with the fourth installment for as long as possible, even though work is already underway on the next entry in the series. It’s still being updated with new content, even if not every change is so well-received by fans. Destiny 2 Activision Another game that once cost money and was then turned into a free-to-play title is Destiny 2. The multiplayer shooter from Bungie has been available for free since 2019 and combines a huge sci-fi world with classic looter shooter gameplay. Although the entire game is not free, new players can play through the main game’s campaign, visit all the planets, take part in some raids and dungeons, and also participate in PVP battles, although not in all endgame activities. If you have already enjoyed a lot of free game time and want more, you can try out the paid expansions afterwards, which add new story campaigns. The motivating gameplay and the sci-fi world are still worthwhile today, which is why Destiny 2 has a very active community. Overwatch 2 Activision Blizzard Before games like Marvel Rivals could run, Overwatch learnt to walk… that’s roughly how you could describe the influence of Blizzard’s hero shooter. The direct successor Overwatch 2, was launched with a few difficulties and the developers never delivered the promised single-player story mode. But that doesn’t detract from the fun of the game. Unlike its predecessor, you compete against other teams in 5v5 matches instead of six and can choose from various heroes, all of whom are beautifully designed and have their own background story. You can get to know them in great animated videos on YouTube (admittedly, playing them yourself would be even better, but you can’t have everything). Overwatch 2 is one of those games that’s easy to learn but hard to master. Depending on how much time you invest, the learning curve can be quite steep. But as soon as you get your first characters and play styles down, it’s really fun, and you’re motivated to win more matches and unlock new outfits. Unfortunately, these are almost exclusively available via loot boxes with randomized content. So if you don’t fancy this, you should look at other games with a similar principle. Guild Wars 2 NCsoft We are only presenting one MMORPG at this point, but it’s representative of the many very good online games available on the market. Guild Wars 2 may be one of the older titles, as it was first released in 2012, but it still holds a special place in the hearts of many players today. Right from the start, the game gives us an interesting fantasy world that we have rarely experienced in this way (the only comparable game would be World of Warcraft). The gameplay still feels dynamic, we can choose any class and still learn any weapon, explore the game world freely, learn professions, and decide for ourselves which stories we want to experience. The developers also release a major expansion every year that makes Guild Wars 2 even bigger and better. The last one, Visions of Eternity, was released in October 2025 and brought new content to the game, including a new story and environments. So it’s still worth diving into Guild Wars 2 today, and you don’t have to pay a single cent to do so. You have the option of buying cosmetic items or simple boosts in the shop, but it’s not necessary. Tip: If you want to get even more games for free without paying the full price, you should regularly visit the Epic Games Store. There is at least one free game every week. Read...

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Battlefield 6 was officially released on October 10th yet the game is already being offered for free. Well, not totally free. Interested players who still haven’t bought it for whatever reason—maybe because you’re unsure of how it plays—can now play for free until December 2nd. The free week is available on all supported platforms (that includes PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S) but only applies to multiplayer. Even so, that should be enough play time to get a proper impression of the gameplay, graphics, and multiplayer elements. How to play Battlefield 6 for free To take part in the Battlefield 6 free period, you need to go to the Battlefield 6 page in the EA app, on Steam, in the PlayStation Store, or Xbox Store after November 25th at 7 AM EST. There you should see a button for the free promotion, which you simply click to download the game. You may have to select it from a drop-down menu. According to EA, the free promotion also runs under the name Battlefield REDSEC, the new game mode that’s always free and has a battle royale spin akin to Fortnite. However, you can play both multiplayer modes. You will need an account to start the game and at least 55GB of storage space on your PC. (If you want to play on higher settings, you will need even more space for the corresponding graphics packs.) What’s included for free? New players can try out the complete multiplayer portion of Battlefield 6 during the free week. This includes five game modes, three different maps, and four classes. You can unlock as much content in the game as you want, and all the progress you’ve made will save and carry over if you buy the game after the free period ends. Who should play Battlefield 6? Anyone who’s a Battlefield fan but still hasn’t gotten started can use the free period to familiarize themselves with the new game. For anyone else who has perhaps never played Battlefield before, this is the ideal opportunity to get a taste of this popular franchise. In contrast to this year’s Call of Duty, the multiplayer and story campaign of Battlefield 6 received consistently positive reviews. However, you can only play the campaign if you buy the game. Read...

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Welcome to The Full Nerd newsletter—your weekly dose of hardware talk from the enthusiasts at PCWorld. Missed the controversial topics on our YouTube show or hot news from across the web? You’re in the right place. Want this newsletter to come directly to your inbox? Sign up on our website!  I like owning things. The recent AMD driver kerfuffle has me wondering what that really means these days. I’m old enough to remember when buying a physical item meant you had it for life. It would run as advertised until it could no longer—perhaps a part would break, a motor would burn out. Even then, things were mechanical enough that you could open them up and tinker, in an effort to fix them. Now with so much software required to make hardware perform intended function, that line has become blurry. We depend on companies to keep products functional. We are expected to trust that a company will support a product for a reasonable amount of time. AMD’s confused messaging around driver support for RDNA 1 and RDNA 2 graphics cards shook that trust. At first, it seemed that GPUs just three years old were already getting the axe—Team Red would no longer provide updated drivers for new game optimizations. Then, after this stance was seemingly confirmed by AMD statements to the press (causing more furor), AMD finally issued a clarification via a blog post. The drivers would branch, but baseline support for first- and second-generation RDNA wouldn’t end yet. The Full Nerd crew and I discuss the whole episode in more depth in the show, including the nuances of the situation. The reputation of AMD Radeon’s division obviously plays a role in all this, as does the current environment of GPU prices and availability. But even with the resolution of this PR hiccup, the fundamental issue remains. Chromebook lifespans have improved, but that’s only for newer models. Own an older one and it’s likely EOL now. That sucks.IDG / Matthew Smith Companies can now kill their products at any time—even when you have them in your hands. Once software support gets dropped, it’s over. I have a drawer full of phones that Google and Apple no longer provide security patches for. Older Chromebooks got a similarly raw deal. You can argue that you can still technically use these products, and sure, that’s true. But in today’s environment, a lack of security patches is asking for a headache. No driver support for new games means you won’t get to play them. Etc. I’m grateful that people donate their time to alternative software, like LineageOS and Linux, to help keep perfectly usable hardware still chugging along. (I’m about to try this to breathe new life into a beloved, now-unsupported Chromebook.) But that doesn’t change the fact that we’re at the mercy of companies’ willingness to maintain a product or even whole product line. And I hate that. I’m willing to sign up for software-as-service. I think of it as renting tools. But my hardware? I bought it for its known properties. I bought it for its specific features. I bought it so it would keep doing what I needed it for. If it stops working because the software is gone, what did I actually own, then? In this episode of The Full Nerd  In this episode of The Full Nerd, Adam Patrick Murray, Brad Chacos, Alaina Yee, and Will Smith hash out their feelings about the weekend’s RDNA 1 and 2 driver support debacle and how many Windows PC games run Linux now. On the AMD front, Brad pulls out what he thinks AMD meant to say, but can’t. Meanwhile, I get fussy about chart interpretations and headlines. Not hatin’ on Linux, just the implied takeaway in the coverage. Oh, and I get to show everyone my latest fashion acquisition. Is it fashionable? No. Am I pleased that I had a good reason to own AMD-branded socks? Kind of yes. (Very yes.)(Full disclosure: The socks were a gift from one Adam Patrick Murray. I have a whole collection of various tech-branded ones from him, possibly because I’ve talked about buying socks during Black Friday so often over the years.) Willis Lai / Foundry Missed our live show? Subscribe now to The Full Nerd Network YouTube channel, and activate notifications. We also answer viewer questions in real-time! Don’t miss out on our NEW shows too—you can catch episodes of Dual Boot Diaries and The Full Nerd: Extra Edition now! And if you need more hardware talk during the rest of the week, come join our Discord community—it’s full of cool, laid-back nerds.  This week’s stirring nerd news Might have to start handling memory with this much care, given how expensive it is to replace any that goes bad or dies.IDG Thanks to the AMD Radeon hullabaloo, everything else feels relatively quiet—despite being noteworthy. AMD CPUs helped the company hit new records, for starters. And I got pretty invested in not one, but two different robot vacuum stories. Also, I realized I’ve failed to adequately sound the alarm when giving buying advice in the last week or so. Some component prices already hurt, and it got bad so fast. (Hopefully you don’t need more memory any time soon.) Proving a point: In stark contrast to the Radeon side of things, AMD’s Ryzen CPUs remain steady, propelling Team Red to loftier and loftier heights—desktop CPU share has climbed almost 10 percentage points since 2024, according to CEO Dr. Lisa Su. This is some bull$*(%: Not the engineering to bring the robot vacuum back online, but the manufacturer’s decision to remotely brick the device. (Also, this is why we use guest networks for IoT devices.) Filed under “Asked if they could, not if they should”: Look, I’m just as guilty of doing things just to see if it’s possible. I still snort-laughed about squeezing an operating system so small, it becomes unusable. Science + efficiency = I click: Humans creating better ways to deal (and reuse) the materials they create? Sounds good to me. How far the Internet’s come: From data dropouts that cause typos to memes that load in bare seconds. (Can’t say we’ve used the improvements for best impact, but that’s a thought for another day.) Venus’s mysteries will remain so to us for a while longer.Planet Volumes / Unsplash Enjoy your privacy, fair Venus: The loss of the last remaining satellite is sad for us. I’m telling myself a planet named for the goddess of love probably needs a break from prying eyes for a bit, though. I really want to know about the 5% of humans who failed: Were they distracted during Butter Bench? Was their native language different than how the benchmark was administered? Did they just not care? And yes, I did feel kind of bad about this robo vacuum’s internal meltdown. We’ve all been there, buddy. I needed this 15 years ago: A black & white mode for Google Maps to eke out that much more battery life from a dying phone? Better late than never, I guess. (Though it’s not officially real yet.) Ouch, that hurt faster than expected: Memory prices have shot up abruptly—and it’s not just DDR4 affected. If you need more RAM right now, gird yourself for as much as 100 percent (or more) price increases. I don’t think Black Friday will save us from this. I have a secret—I’m apparently one of the lone people who likes the “fall back” to Standard Time in the U.S. The early dark evenings make stew and soups feel perfect. (Definitely come share your favorite recipes with me in The Full Nerd Discord’s #food-chat channel.) Catch you all next week! ~Alaina This newsletter is dedicated to the memory of Gordon Mah Ung, founder and host of The Full Nerd, and executive editor of hardware at PCWorld. Read...