The estimated Powerball jackpot is $126 million. The lump sum payment before taxes would be about $57.8 million.
The Double Play is a feature that gives players in select locations another chance to match their Powerball numbers in a separate drawing. The Double Play drawing is held following the regular drawing and has a top cash prize of $10 million.
Powerball is held in 45 states, the District of Columbia, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. The Double Play add-on feature is available for purchase in 13 lottery jurisdictions, including Pennsylvania and Michigan.
A $2 ticket gives you a one in 292.2 million chance at joining the hall of Powerball jackpot champions.
The drawings are held at 10:59 p.m. Eastern, Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays. The deadline to purchase tickets is 9:45 p.m.
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Actor James Van Der Beek arriving at the Emmy Awards in 2019.
Valerie Macon/AFP via Getty Images
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James Van Der Beek — best known for his role as Dawson Leery in the hit late 1990s and early aughts show Dawson’s Creek — has died. He was 48. Van Der Beek announced his diagnosis of Stage 3 colon cancer in November 2024.
His family wrote on Instagram on Wednesday, “Our beloved James David Van Der Beek passed peacefully this morning. He met his final days with courage, faith, and grace. There is much to share regarding his wishes, love for humanity and the sacredness of time. Those days will come. For now we ask for peaceful privacy as we grieve our loving husband, father, son, brother, and friend.”
Van Der Beek started acting when he was 13 in Cheshire, Conn., after a football injury kept him off the field. He played the lead in a school production of Grease, got involved with local theater, and fell in love with performing. A few years later, he and his mother went to New York City to sign the then-16 year old actor with an agent.
But Van Der Beek didn’t break out as a star until he was 21, when he landed the lead role of 15-year-old Dawson Leery, an aspiring filmmaker, in Dawson’s Creek.
Van Der Beek’s life changed forever with this role. The teen coming-of-age show was a huge hit, with millions of weekly viewers over 6 seasons. It helped both establish the fledgling WB network and the boom of teen-centered dramas, says Lori Bindig Yousman, a media professor at Sacred Heart University and the author of Dawson’s Creek: A Critical Understanding.
“Dawson’s really came on the scene and felt different, looked different,” Bindig Yousman says.
It was different, she points out, from other popular teen shows at the time such as Beverly Hills, 90210. “It wasn’t these rich kids. It was supposed to be normal kids, but they were a little bit more intelligent and aware of the world around them … It was attainable in some way. It was reflective.”
The Dawson’s drama centered around love, hardships, relationships, school and sex — sometimes pushing the boundaries when it came to teens discussing sex. Van Der Beek’s character Dawson was a moody, earnest dreamer, sometimes so earnest he came across as a “sad sack,” says Bindig Yousman. He had a seasons long on-again off-again on-screen relationship with his best friend Joey, played by Katie Holmes. Bindig Yousman says Van Der Beek quickly became seen as a heartthrob.
“I think he was very safe for a lot of tweens, and that’s when we started to get the tween marketing,” she says, referring to the attention paid to him by magazines like Teen People and Teen Celebrity. “And so because he wasn’t a bad guy, he was conventionally attractive … He definitely appealed to the masses.”
Dawson’s Creek launched the careers of not just of James Van Der Beek, but his costars Katie Holmes, Joshua Jackson and Michelle Williams. All went on to have successful careers in the entertainment industry.
Despite his success, Van Der Beek didn’t land many roles that rose to that same level of fame he enjoyed in Dawson’s Creek. Perhaps because audiences associated him so much with Dawson Leery, it was difficult to separate him from that character.
Still, he starred in the 1999 coming of age film Varsity Blues, as a high school football player who wants to be more than just a jock. In 2002’s Rules of Attraction, he played a toxic college drug dealer.
And he actually parodied himself in the sitcom Don’t Trust the B—- in Apartment 23. In it, he’s a self-obsessed actor unsuccessfully trying to get people to see him as someone other than the celebrity from Dawson’s Creek. In an episode where he decides to teach an acting class, the students ignore the lesson and instead pester him to perform a monologue from the show.
In real life as well, the floppy blond-haired Dawson Leery is the one that stole fans’ hearts, but Bindig Yousman says Van Der Beek still enjoyed a strong fanbase that followed him to other shows, even when they were only smaller cameos.
In the 2024 Instagram post about his cancer, Van Der Beek said “Each year, approximately 2 billion people around the world receive this diagnosis … I am one of them.” (There were about 18.5 million new cases of cancer around the world in 2023, a number that researchers say is projected to rise.)Van Der Beek leaves behind six children.
The cast of Dawson’s Creek reunited to raise money for the nonprofit F Cancer, which focuses on prevention, detection and support for people affected by cancer. They read the pilot episode at a Broadway theater in New York City in September 2025. His former co-star Michelle Williams organized the reunion. James Van Der Beek was unable to perform, due to his illness, but contributed an emotional video that was shown onstage. In it, he thanked his crew and castmates, and the Dawson’s Creek fans for being “the best fans in the world.”
Uber Eats announced a new AI feature, “Cart Assistant,” on Wednesday designed to fill customers’ grocery carts faster and easier. The beta version is now available in the app.
To use the new chatbot, users search for a grocery store in the Uber Eats app and tap the purple Cart Assistant icon on the store’s page to begin shopping.
Customers can enter a list or upload an image of one, and Cart Assistant will automatically add the necessary items to their basket. This includes photos of handwritten lists or screenshots of recipes and their ingredients. Users can then customize the basket by swapping items for preferred brands or adding more products from the store.
Image Credits:Uber Eats
Uber Eats notes that Cart Assistant uses previous orders to prioritize familiar items — like your usual milk or favorite oatmeal — to make the experience more personalized.
“Users were telling us they wanted a quicker way to shop, and we know how precious your time is,” Uber CTO Praveen Neppalli Naga said in a statement. “Cart Assistant helps you get from idea to checkout in seconds.”
Cart Assistant could help Uber Eats better compete with other food delivery and grocery apps that are already integrating or developing AI chatbots. For example, Instacart launched an AI search tool powered by OpenAI’s ChatGPT in 2023 to help customers save time and receive personalized shopping recommendations. DoorDash was also reportedly testing an AI chatbot called DashAI that same year.
Last year, both Uber Eats and rival DoorDash integrated with ChatGPT to streamline food ordering. With Uber Eats, U.S. users can browse local restaurants and menus in ChatGPT, then complete their purchase in the Uber Eats app. DoorDash’s integration allows users to request meal plans and automatically add all necessary ingredients to their DoorDash cart.
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Notably, Bloomberg reported in 2023 that Uber Eats was developing an AI-powered chatbot that would supposedly ask users about their budget and food preferences, and help them place an order.
Overall, Uber Eats is rapidly investing in AI, including tools for merchants like AI-generated menu descriptions, enhanced food photos, and customer review summaries.
Threads users have been complaining about its recommendation algorithm pretty much since the beginning of the platform. At some point, this turned into a meme, with users writing posts jokingly addressed to the algorithm in which they requested to see more posts about the topics they’re actually interested in.
Now, Meta is turning those “Dear algorithm” posts into an official feature that it says will allow Threads users to tune their recommendations in real time. With the change, users can write a post that begins with “dear algo” to adjust their preferences. For example, you could write “dear algo, show me more posts about cute cats.” You can also ask to see fewer posts about topics you don’t want to see, like “dear algo, stop showing me posts about sick pets.”
You can track your requests to the algorithm in the app’s settings in order to revisit them or remove them. You can also retweet other users’ “dear algo” posts to have those topics reflected in your feed. Importantly, “dear algo” requests are temporary and only last for three days at a time, which Meta says is meant to keep the algorithm feel fresher and more flexible.
The rollout of the feature follows a limited test late last year. Now, “dear algo” posts will work for Threads users in the US, UK, Australia and New Zealand with more countries coming “soon.”
Given the continuous Android Canary channel, the next major version of Google’s mobile OS is debuting as a Beta release. Android 17 Beta 1 is rolling out today to Pixel devices.
Android Canary was introduced in June as a way for Google to test “cutting-edge builds” with “pre-release Android APIs and potential upcoming behavior changes.” Replacing Developer Previews, Google touts three benefits to this approach:
Faster Access: Features and APIs land in Canary as soon as they pass internal testing, rather than waiting for a quarterly release.
Better Stability: Early “battle-testing” in Canary results in a more polished Beta experience with new APIs and behavior changes that are closer to being final.
Easier Testing: Canary supports OTA updates (no more manual flashing) and, as a separate update channel, more easily integrates with CI workflows and gives you the earliest window to give immediate feedback on upcoming potential changes.
Android 17 continues Google’s work on adaptive apps that do not feature a letterbox and span the full width of large screen devices. The developer opt-out from last year has been removed for applications targeting API level 37. This does not apply to games.
Users expect their apps to work everywhere—whether multitasking on a tablet, unfolding a device, or using a desktop windowing environment—and they expect the UI to fill the space and respect their device posture.
Performance is another Android 17 tentpole, with various improvements to reduce missed frames, lower garbage collection CPU costs, implement more aggressive optimizations, and reduce notification memory usage.
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On the media and camera front, Android 17 touts professional-grade tools like more “seamless transitions between camera use cases and modes” to help “avoid user-visible glitches or freezes during operation.” Google is also introducing a loudness management API to “provide a more consistent listening experience across applications and hardware.”
You can find all the app developer changes, including across privacy, security, connectivity, telecom, and developer tools, here.
Android 17 Beta 1 system images are available for the Pixel 6, Pixel 6 Pro, Pixel 6a, Pixel 7, Pixel 7 Pro, Pixel 7a, Pixel Tablet, Pixel Fold, Pixel 8, Pixel 8 Pro, Pixel 8a, Pixel 9, Pixel 9 Pro, Pixel 9 Pro XL, Pixel 9 Pro Fold, Pixel 9a, Pixel 10, Pixel 10 Pro, Pixel 10 Pro XL, and Pixel 10 Pro Fold, as well as the Android Emulator.
You can easily join via the Android Beta Program to get an on-device OTA. Those currently enrolled on 16 QPR3 Beta 2.1 have to leave the program before installing 17 Beta 1 to return to stable without a data wipe. Otherwise, the next opportunity for that is in June.
Following Beta 1, Platform Stability is targeted for March with “final SDK/NDK APIs and largely final app-facing behaviors.” The final release is coming “several months” after that, or June.
This 26Q2 release is the major SDK release this year with behavior changes, new APIs, and features. It will be followed by 26Q3 (17 QPR1) and 26Q4 (17 QPR2) with a minor SDK release, while 27Q1 (17 QPR3) will round out Android 17.
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The owner and manager of a Westborough spa were arrested Tuesday on charges related to running a brothel, according to police.
Westborough Wellness Spa owner, Michael Langille, and manager, Leir Guo, both pleaded not guilty to keeping a house of prostitution, procuring a person to practice prostitution and deriving support from prostitution during their arraignments in Westborough District Court on Tuesday, according to court records.
The two were arrested after police carried out a search warrant at the East Main Street business, Westborough police said in a press release. Both Langille and Guo were wanted on outstanding warrants related to the investigation into Westborough Wellness Spa.
During their arraignments, the judge ordered Langille held on $25,000 cash bail and Guo held on $20,000 cash bail, according to court records. Both were ordered to surrender their passports if released, but neither had posted bail as of Tuesday.
The Department of Homeland Security, Massachusetts State Police and the Worcester County District Attorney’s Office assisted in the investigation, Westborough police said.
Westborough police ask that anyone with information relevant to the investigation call them at 508-475-4250. The investigation is active and ongoing, and police plan to share further details in the future.
Samsung sent out invites Tuesday to its next Galaxy Unpacked event, scheduled for February 25 in San Francisco, where the company is expected to launch its Galaxy 26 series of smartphones.
AI features will be at the forefront again, as the company said the upcoming phones are “built to simplify everyday interactions, inspire confidence and make Galaxy AI feel seamlessly integrated from the moment it’s in hand.”
A standout feature the company has teased is a privacy display expected to debut on the Galaxy S26 Ultra.This feature will allow users to hide certain areas of the phone’s screen from onlookers to protect sensitive information. For instance, users will be able to hide the notification area from prying eyes.
Reports suggest that the top phone in the lineup will run Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon Elite Gen 5 processor in the U.S. and China. Samsung will likely opt for its own Exynos 2600 processor in other regions. The distinction matters, but increasingly less so. Snapdragon processors have historically outperformed Samsung’s Exynos chips in benchmarks and thermal efficiency, but the performance gap has been narrowing.
According to a report from the tech site SamMobile, the S26 will also have a 5,100 mAh (milliamp-hour, a standard unit of battery capacity) battery and will support 60W wired charging along and 25W wireless charging.
In addition to phones, Samsung is likely to release updated Galaxy Buds 4 wireless earbuds. The company plans to update the design from the previous generation, which drew widespread comparisons to Apple’s AirPods.
Samsung is offering a $30 promotional credit to anyone who pre-registers interest it its upcoming devices. Pre-registering is merely an expression of interest; consumers will still get the credit as a discount toward other Samsung products even if they don’t end up buying the new devices. If you pre-register and then pre-order one of the devices, the company will increase that to a $150 credit — no trade-in required.
Samsung’s 2025 was filled with new foldables, an ultra-thin new form factor and the launch of Google’s XR platform. After making some announcements at CES 2026, the company has just announced its first Galaxy Unpacked of the year will take place on February 25, where it is expected to introduce the Galaxy S26 lineup. Official invites have just been shared, but actual information on what devices are arriving then is still unknown. But as usual, we know a lot about what’s expected at Unpacked.
Engadget will be covering Galaxy Unpacked live, and we’ll most likely have hands-on coverage of Samsung’s new smartphones soon after they’re announced. While we wait for the full details, here’s everything we expect Samsung will introduce at the first Galaxy Unpacked event of 2026.
When is Unpacked 2026 taking place?
According to the official invite that Samsung shared on February 10, Unpacked will happen on February 25, 2026 in San Francisco. The keynote will start at 10AM PT (1PM ET) and be livestreamed on Samsung.com, as well as the company’s newsroom and YouTube channel. The announcement on February 10 also said this launch will mark “a new phase in the era of AI as intelligence becomes truly personal and adaptive.” It’s not a lot to go on, since we’ve heard a version of this from various companies over the last few years, but at least we won’t be shocked when we hear more about AI in just about two weeks.
Galaxy S26, S26+ and S26 Ultra
Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra hands-on photo (Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget)
Samsung’s restrained approach to updating its phones will likely continue with the Galaxy S26. Based on leakedimages of the new lineup, the company is not expected to radically reinvent the look of the Galaxy S26, Galaxy S26+ or Galaxy S26 Ultra, and instead will stick with a similar design to what it used on the Galaxy S25. The phones will have a flat front screen and frame, with rounded corners and cameras housed in a vertical pill-shaped plateau on the back. Unlike Apple’s move from the iPhone 16 Pro to the iPhone 17 Pro, the biggest difference here will likely be internal components like the screens, chips and camera sensors Samsung uses.
Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chip is expected to be in all Samsung Galaxy S26 phones, though Korean news site Yonhap News reports Samsung’s relatively new Exynos 2600 chip could be used in some phones in the lineup depending on the region, a strategy Samsung has deployed in the past. Either way the new phones should be more performant than the previous generation, and in the case of the models with the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, particularly good at on-device AI processing.
One notable difference between the Galaxy S26 and the Galaxy S25 could be the phone’s screen. The new phone will reportedly feature a 6.3-inch FHD+ display according to specs shared by leaker Ice Universe, which makes it ever so slightly larger than the 6.2-inch display used on the Galaxy S25. The S26 will also allegedly come with 12GB of RAM, either 256GB or 512GB of storage and a slightly larger 4,300mAh battery. Samsung isn’t changing the cameras on the entry-level phone, though: leaks suggest it’ll feature the same 50-megapixel main camera, 12-megapixel ultrawide, 10-megapixel 3x telephoto and 12-megapixel selfie camera as the previous generation. Changes appear to be even more minor on the Galaxy S26+. Other than the new Snapdragon chip, the phone will reportedly feature the same 6.7-inch FHD+ screen, 4,900mAh battery, 12GB of RAM and the same camera array used on the base Galaxy S26.
The difference between the Galaxy S26 Ultra and Galaxy S25 Ultra is reportedly a bit clearer. According to Android Headlines, the new phone’s cameras will be slightly more raised, and stand out thanks to a new metallic finish. Samsung may also switch back to using an aluminum frame on the Galaxy S26 Ultra, after using titanium frames on both the Galaxy S24 and S25 Ultras. Most importantly, to make the phone actually support Qi2 rather than only technically work with the standard when a case is attached, rumors suggest Samsung will remove the S Pen digitizer layer in the phone and adopt a new method for accepting stylus input. It’s not clear what that new method will actually be, but it could let the Galaxy S26 Ultra more easily work with Qi2 accessories without losing its stylus.
Android Headlines also recently shared what appear to be full image renders of the S26 series, and they generally line up with what has already been rumored, leaked and reported so far. If these pictures are accurate, they give us a clearer look at the camera bump and two color variants of the S26 Ultra.
Fans of magnets may continue to be disappointed by Samsung if the latest rumors are accurate. Despite the launch of the Qi 2 wireless charging standard adding support for convenient magnetic alignment years ago, Samsung has yet to bring that feature to its phones. Though the S-series have the higher speed charging rates that the spec enables, Nieuwemobiel.nl is reporting that, due to images it received of cases with magnetic rings, the S26 series likely won’t have built-in magnets. Samsung has made these cases to add the magnetic capability to its S-series in the past, and the existence of the images of these accessories lends weight to the idea that the company will continue this approach.
Galaxy Buds 4
Galaxy Buds 3 Pro in case. (Engadget)
Samsung released the Galaxy Buds 3 and 3 Pro in 2024, with a major redesign that brought them much more in line with Apple’s AirPods. The Galaxy Buds 4 and Buds 4 Pro Samsung is rumored to be announcing soon won’t necessarily change that, though they will feature a more compact case and less angular stems, according to leaked images from the Samsung Tips app.
Support for head gestures to accept and decline calls, a feature Apple includes on the AirPods Pro 3 and AirPods 4, is also rumored to work on both versions of the new Galaxy Buds. SamMobile reports the Galaxy Buds 4 and 4 Pro may also ship with a new Ultra Wideband chip that will make them easier to find with Google’s Find Hub network.
Galaxy Z Trifold
Yes, the TriFold has a crease, two in fact. But they still don’t ruin the experience. (Sam Rutherford for Engadget)
Samsung announced the Galaxy Z TriFold in late 2025 without firm details of when the new smartphone-that-folds-into-a-tablet would be available in North America. That info came on January 27, when the company announced the TriFold would be available in the US on January 30, for a whopping $2,900. Considering we’ve already seen the device in person at CES 2026 and people are most likely to have had a chance to look at, if not buy the foldable for themselves by the time Unpacked rolls around, we don’t expect Samsung to spend too much time dwelling on it, if at all.
Galaxy S26 Edge
At just 5.8mm thick, the Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge is one of the thinnest smartphones ever made. (Sam Rutherford for Engadget)
When the Galaxy S25 Edge was announced in 2025, it seemed possible that Samsung could replace its “Plus” smartphone with a unique form factor, just like Apple has opted to do with the iPhone Air. There have been conflicting reports on the matter, but it seems like Samsung will not be doing that with the Galaxy S26 Edge.
Instead, the smartphone will reportedly remain another option, much like foldables are for customers not swayed by Samsung’s traditional smartphones. The Galaxy S26 Edge is rumored to feature a slightly different design than last year’s model, according to Android Headlines, with a large rectangular camera plateau that’s reminiscent of Google’s Pixel phones, and the raised oval Apple used on the iPhone Air. Beyond that, the phone is also expected to be ever so slightly thinner at 5.5mm than the 5.8mm Galaxy S25 Edge.
Bixby and other AI features
Samsung already acts as a first place Google can show off new AI features for Android, but the company is reportedly exploring other AI partnerships, too. In June 2025, Bloomberg reported that Samsung was nearing a deal with Perplexity to integrate its AI-powered search engine across OneUI and its homegrown mobile browser. Perplexity already has a deal with Motorola on its Razr phones, so the only thing that would make a deal with Samsung unusual is the close relationship the company already has with Google.
The company also accidentally announced a new version of its Bixby AI assistant, which will likely also be integrated with Perplexity and could serve as an alternative to Google Gemini. Both a new Bixby and a deeper integration with Perplexity seem like natural new software features to show off at Galaxy Unpacked.
Update, January 27 2026, 11:55AM ET: This story has been updated to reflect the latest news around the Galaxy Z TriFold’s price and availability in the US.
Update, January 30 2026, 12:45PM ET: This story has been updated to include the latest leaks on the possible dates for Unpacked 2026.
Update, February 02 2026, 11:30AM ET: This story has been updated to include the latest leaks with full image renders of the S26 trio of devices.
Update, February 03 2026, 11:00AM ET: This story has been updated to include the latest leaks about the possible lack of magnetic support on the S26 series.
Update, February 10 2026, 7:15PM ET: This story has been updated to include the official date of Galaxy Unpacked as Samsung announced it today. The intro was also edited to reflect that detail.
Android 16 QPR3 Beta 2.1 is the final release in that cycle, and Google is turning its attention to the “next Beta program cycle that covers our Android 17 Platform Release (26Q2).”
Officially, “Android 17 Beta 1 will kick [off] soon.”
Those on 16 QPR3 Beta 2.1 who remain in the Android Beta Program will “automatically receive Android 17 Beta 1.” You will not be able to opt-out without a data wipe until the “end of the Android 17 Beta cycle in June 2026.”
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A June release for Android 17 is not surprising.
If you don’t want to test Android 17 Beta 1, you need to opt out of the Android Beta Program and “ignore/don’t apply the downgrade OTA update.” You have to “wait for the final public stable release of Android 16 QPR3(CP1A) coming soon,” which translates to March.
The OTA message will have ‘Downgrade’ in the description. Opting out will not cause a data wipe as long as you don’t apply the downgrade OTA update.
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Are you tonight’s lucky winner? Grab your tickets and check your numbers. The Mega Millions lottery jackpot continues to rise after someone won the $90 million prize on December 2.
Here are the winning numbers in Tuesday’s drawing:
5-25-30-36-68; Mega Ball: 6
The estimated jackpot for the drawing is $366 million. The cash option is about $165.6 million. If no one wins, the jackpot climbs higher for the next drawing.
According to the game’s official website, the odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 302,575,350.
Players pick six numbers from two separate pools of numbers — five different numbers from 1 to 70 and one number from 1 to 25 — or select Easy Pick. A player wins the jackpot by matching all six winning numbers in a drawing.
Jackpot winners may choose whether to receive 30 annual payments, each five percent higher than the last, or a lump-sum payment.
Mega Millions drawings are Tuesdays and Fridays and are offered in 45 states, Washington D.C. and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Tickets cost $5 each.
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