Ditto is now on Pokémon Go, but you’ll have to catch a ton of Pidgeys to find it

In a last-ditch effort to get you to open up Pokémon Go for the first time since July, Niantic is adding a new species to the lineup: Ditto.

As you may recall, Ditto is the pokémon that has the ability to mimic other creatures it sees. And that’s exactly what Ditto does in the game: hide under the guise of other pokémon. In order to catch Ditto, you may have to catch a bunch of other scrub pokémon to find the real deal — even the Pidgeys and Rattatas. How else was Niantic gonna make sure you kept walking around and playing?

Once you have Ditto, you can take it to battle at the gym, where it can transform itself to copy the first pokémon it sees and retain all the moves for the remainder of the fight. If it sees another Ditto, however, things stay the same and you’ll just have to aggressively tap your way to defeating the opponent.

If your family is anything like mine, they’ll be pretty convinced Pokémon Go is still very much a thing and won’t question much if you decide you’ve had enough Thanksgiving and need to go for a Ditto hunt. At least that’ll be my excuse to step out of the room.

Google discounts Chromecast, Pixel, and Google Home for Black Friday 2016

Google is well on its way from being a company synonymous with search and the web to a brand name well known for its hardware products. We’re now familiar with the Chromecast name; the streaming stick has been Google’s Trojan horse into the living room, selling millions of units and establishing the search giant’s software as a viable media nexus. Now, there’s the Google Home smart speaker to compete with Amazon’s Echo, as well the company’s new flagship Pixel and Pixel XL smartphones.

All of these products are on sale for Black Friday this week, and you can pick them up on discount from a number of different retailers. Verizon is only the authorized Pixel and Pixel XL seller in the US, besides the Play Store. So phone deals are contingent on joining Verizon’s network, or already being a part of it. For Home and Chromecast, you’ll be able to shop around at a few different places.

Here’s where to start when it comes to picking up Google gadgets starting tomorrow. And be sure to check out are other deal roundups at The Verge’s Black Friday hub.

Google’s AI can now lip read better than humans after watching thousands of hours of TV

Researchers from Google’s AI division DeepMind and the University of Oxford have used artificial intelligence to create the most accurate lip-reading software ever. Using thousands of hours of TV footage from the BBC, scientists trained a neural network to annotate video footage with 46.8 percent accuracy. That might not seem that impressive at first — especially compared to AI accuracy rates when transcribing audio — but tested on the same footage, a professional human lip-reader was only able to get the right word 12.4 percent of the time.

The research follows similar work published by a separate group at the University of Oxford earlier this month. Using related techniques, these scientist were able to create a lip-reading program called LipNet that achieved 93.4 percent accuracy in tests, compared to 52.3 percent human accuracy. However, LipNet was only tested on specially-recorded footage that used volunteers speaking formulaic sentences. By comparison, DeepMind’s software — known as “Watch, Listen, Attend, and Spell” — was tested on far more challenging footage; transcribing natural, unscripted conversations from BBC politics shows.

Microsoft starts shipping Surface Studio orders early, offers dedicated support line

Microsoft has started shipping some Surface Studio orders a little early. The software giant originally planned to ship units to customers in mid-December, but Microsoft has been emailing the first people to preorder the $3,000 device, letting them know the Studio will arrive this week. Microsoft is still accepting “preorders” for the Surface Studio, but new devices won’t ship until “early 2017.”Alongside the shipments, Thurrott.com reports that Microsoft has even setup a dedicated support line for Surface Studio owners. A phone line has been created, alongside a personal note from Panos Panay, head of Surface devices, asking customers to call a special number for questions, comments, or concerns. Microsoft is also shipping a little booklet in the Surface Studio packaging, thanking customers for spending $3,000 or more on the all-in-one PC.

You can check out The Verge’s review of the Surface Studio right here.Alongside the shipments, Thurrott.com reports that Microsoft has even setup a dedicated support line for Surface Studio owners. A phone line has been created, alongside a personal note from Panos Panay, head of Surface devices, asking customers to call a special number for questions, comments, or concerns. Microsoft is also shipping a little booklet in the Surface Studio packaging, thanking customers for spending $3,000 or more on the all-in-one PC.

Sphero’s Force Band wearable can control nearly anything now thanks to IFTTT

Sphero has been selling the Force Band wearable for awhile now, designed to let you control the adorable little BB-8 droid with "force gestures" — like a Jedi. But now the $80 (or slightly less) gadget is potentially a lot more useful. As Gizmodo notes, the company is setting it up to work with If This Then That, which means that you can use it to control much more than a cute robot toy. IFTTT, if you’re not familiar, lets you create little applets that use one thing to trigger another thing automatically. One good example I like: you can set your Instagram posts to auto-Tweet with the embedded image so they actually show up on Twitter. IFTTT can do stuff with smart gadgets, your Android phone, Facebook, and so much more.

And now, they can be triggered by the Force Band. Sphero is obviously leading with the most fun stuff: controlling your smart home gadgets. Making a real world gesture cause real world things to happen is obviously going to impress your family more than using it to fire off a tweet. The recipe page for the Force Band has some pre-made, Star Wars-themed suggestions, including "Play the Imperial March" and "post your Jedi wisdom to Twitter."

There are three gestures that work with the Force Band: push, pull, and stop — but an absolutely massive set of services you can connect those three simple gestures to. Will mapping broad arm gestures to turning on your smart lights actually be useful? Doubtful. Will it be cool? Yes.

Sadly, I don’t think there’s a way to remote start your car with IFTTT, otherwise you’d be able to turn the classic Volkswagen ad into a reality. Maybe next year.

Get a free ticket to Westworld with this sweet Chromecast deal

Google has sweetened the deal for a new Chromecast, offering 3 months of free HBO Now access for new subscribers. If you want HBO, the deal basically nets a more-than-free Chromecast: the streaming device is on sale for $25, and 3 months of HBO Now normally costs about $45. The free subscription also comes with Google’s higher-end, 4K Chromecast Ultra, which costs $69. It’s definitely the best deal Google is offering this year for Black Friday.

We’re not telling you what to do with that HBO subscription, but there are only two episodes of Westworld left, so now is a good time to take a trip to the park if you’ve been missing out.

Star Wars smartphones are coming to SoftBank in Japan

Japanese mobile carrier SoftBank is marking the incoming release of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story by launching a pair of phones that let you choose your Force allegiance. The Star Wars Mobile phones are made by Sharp and come in both Dark and Light side editions.

Here are the unexciting specs:

5.3-inch 1080p IGZO display
Snapdragon 820 processor
22.6-megapixel camera
3,000mAh battery
TV tuner
3GB of RAM
32GB of storage (plus microSD slot)
7.6mm thick, 155g