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This past summer, Lyft began testing its driver verification program in nine cities. Now, the feature will be available nationwide. The program mirrors Uber's own verification system, which went live for US customers in September.With either company, the verification system works about the same: rider names are cross-referenced against a database to ensure they are who they say they are. Failing that, riders can upload photos of government IDs to enroll. Ideally, verified identities will make drivers feel safer picking up complete strangers in their cars.Along with the verification program, Lyft is adding a few quality-of-life improvements. The app will now inform drivers if their passengers are in areas like bike or bus lanes. Drivers in some places will also find out if a route goes through a school or traffic enforcement. Additionally, Lyft is piloting a restroom finder for drivers. Like Uber and Waze, it's also implementing real-time road alerts that allow drivers to mark accidents, heavy traffic or road closures.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/lyft-is-bringing-rider-verification-to-the-entire-nation-140013926.html?src=rss

Amazon is battling back against Spotify on the audiobook front. Starting today, Amazon Music Unlimited subscribers in the US, UK and Canada have access to Audible's library of a million-plus audiobooks. Individual subscribers and the primary account holders of the family plan can listen to one book a month at no additional cost alongside their music and ad-free podcasts.Naturally, Amazon doesn't want to cannibalize Audible's business. Along with a swathe of on-demand content, the latter's Premium Plus subscription offers one audiobook credit per month. Redeem that and the title is yours to keep forever, even if you cancel your plan. Amazon Music Unlimited's approach is more like a library. You can effectively borrow one audiobook from Audible's catalog at a time.You can listen to the book as much as you want during that month. When your next billing cycle starts, you can try another one - or borrow the same audiobook for another month. You can, of course, subscribe to Audible or buy audiobooks ad hoc if access to one per month isn't enough for you.As it happens, Amazon is offering new Music Unlimited subscribers three months of free access. Otherwise, Amazon Music Unlimited costs $10 per month or $99 per year for Prime members and $11 per month for other users.Last year, Spotify started offering Premium subscribers 15 hours of audiobook listening per month at no extra cost (which is not enough to listen to all of The Fellowship of The Ring, for instance), with the option to add 11 hours of listening time for $11. The company later introduced an audiobook-only plan with 15 hours of listening time for $10 per month - just $1 less than it costs for a Premium plan with the same benefit plus much more.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/amazon-music-unlimited-subscribers-can-now-borrow-audiobooks-from-audibles-library-140002085.html?src=rss

Sony is reportedly in talks to purchase Japanese publisher Kadokawa, Reuters reports, citing sources familiar with the dealings. Kadokawa owns FromSoftware, which is behind incredibly difficult Soulslike games, including Elden Ring, Dark Souls and Bloodbourne. Sony already holds a 14 percent stake in FromSoftware.Elden Ring is the brain child of director Hidetaka Miyazaki and Game of Thrones author George R. R. Martin and available on Sony's PlayStation 4 and 5, among other platforms. FromSoftware released it in early 2022 and it has since sold over 25 million units. Its expansion, Shadow of the Erdtree, also sold five million copies in just three days when it came out in June.FromSoftware isn't the only studio Kadokawa owns. Sony would also gain ownership of Acquire, Spike Chunsoft and Gotcha Gotcha Games - bringing the developers of games like Mario & Luigi: Brothership, Shiren the Wanderer and Tenchu under its umbrella. Plus, purchasing Kadokawa would expand Sony's existing anime and manga portfolio.Sony is valued at about $114 billion, but it's unclear how much it's willing to fork out for Kadokawa. However, sources say a deal might go through in the next few weeks, so we should have more information then.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/sony-reportedly-in-talks-to-buy-elden-ring-and-dark-souls-developer-133015041.html?src=rss

Accessing and securing the cloud is a necessity for companies and Microsoft has taken another step by announcing the Windows 365 Link device. According to Microsoft, "it enables desk-based users to work securely on a familiar Windows desktop in the Microsoft Cloud with responsive, high-fidelity experiences."Windows 365 Link is a small, lightweight device that Microsoft claims can immediately wake from sleep, boot up in seconds and locally process video conferencing solutions like Microsoft Teams. It doesn't store local data or apps, has security baseline policies enabled and doesn't allow for individuals to disable security features. Plus, logging in requires Microsoft Entra ID along with the Microsoft Authenticator app or USB security keys.Microsoft's new device also works with dual 4K monitors, an audio port, four USB ports, an ethernet port, Bluetooth 5.3 and Wi-Fi 6E. The Windows 365 Link is currently available in preview but should come to select areas in April 2025 for $349.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/accessories/microsoft-made-a-349-hardware-client-to-connect-to-cloud-pcs-133027364.html?src=rss

We at Engadget spend a lot of time thinking about the best tech gifts for anyone and everyone in your life. But during that process, we often can't help but think about the things we'd like to receive as gifts. We encourage everyone to treat themselves in some way while scrambling to find gifts for those they love, and it's about time we take our own advice. Here, we've compiled a list of gadgets on our staffers' wish lists with the hope that it may inspire you to splurge a bit on yourself this year. Check out the rest of our gift ideas here. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/best-tech-gifts-on-our-editors-wishlists-130043069.html?src=rss

Black Friday is upon us once again, and the internet's awash with gonzo deals on the world's most sought after tech. Naturally, you're too busy living your actual life to check if the deals on offer are as good as they're made out to be. That's why Engadget employs a crack team of spreadsheet nerds to comb through what's hot and what's not. If you're in the market for a new device, keep your eyes on our guide of the real deals.For instance, a big chunk of change has been knocked off the M3 MacBook Airs to clear room for the M4s. Given the M3 was already a superlative-exhausting piece of equipment, that you can now snag one for as little as $899 is staggering. If I was in the US and in the market for a new machine, I'd have whipped my credit card out before writing this newsletter. I'm asking the universe for Fujifilm to offer an even tastier discount for the X-T50 in the coming days.- Dan CooperGet this delivered daily direct to your inbox. Subscribe right here!News in Brief

If your Instagram recommendations have been feeling a little stale, you'll soon have a way to make the app's algorithm forget everything it thinks it knows about you. Meta is testing a new feature that will allow users to reset the algorithmic suggestions that power the app's feed, Reels and Explore section.The company described the feature as a test," but said the update will soon roll out globally." With the change, users will be able to reset suggested content" from the content preferences section in Instagram's settings. This will, according to Meta, allow you to start fresh" and provide an opportunity to re-tune the app's suggestions.But while this may help you get an Instagram feed that better reflects your current interests, Meta notes that doing this kind of reset" doesn't delete any of your data from the app or change how the company serves you ads. (Instagram has a separate setting to personalize ad preferences.)Meta is framing the change as part of its push to bring new safety features to teens, even though the feature will be available to all users. We want to give teens new ways to shape their Instagram experience, so it can continue to reflect their passions and interests as they evolve," the company wrote in a blog post. The service has previously faced criticism over its recommendations, which EU regulators have suggested could encourage addictive behavior."The company notes that it has other teen-specific features meant to prevent its younger users from seeing inappropriate content. It recently introduced teen accounts," which have stricter privacy settings, and attempts to block certain types of harmful content from appearing in their feeds.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/instagram-will-let-you-reset-your-recommendations-120022492.html?src=rss

It has long been possible to listen to music from within Opera's browser. If you go down its sidebar, you'll see a player icon where you can choose from Apple Music, Spotify and Deezer and then log into any of them with your account details. But now Opera has teamed up with Spotify and has made the music streaming service the default option on the company's flagship browser with generative AI features, Opera One.After logging into your account and activating the player, you'll be able to detach it from the sidebar and move it around the screen to a place that wouldn't interrupt your workflow. The player will float inside the browser and will not disappear if you tab away. It also automatically fades out the audio that's currently playing when you join meetings and calls. Your songs will remain paused for the duration of the call or meeting and will resume as soon as it's over.Perhaps the best thing about the companies' teamup, if you live in a certain location at least, is that you can get Spotify Premium for free if you don't have a subscription yet. If you're in Argentina, Brazil, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Malaysia, the Philippines, Poland, Spain, Thailand, Turkey, the UK, the US or Vietnam, you can redeem two to three months of Spotify Premium at no cost from within the browser's sidebar.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/spotify-is-now-the-default-music-player-in-the-opera-one-browser-090024069.html?src=rss

Two undersea communications cables in the Baltic Sea have been knocked offline, and at least one appears to have been physically cut. CNN received confirmation from a local telecom company that a cable between Lithuania and Sweden was cut on Sunday morning. A second cable, about 60 to 65 miles from the first, routes communications between Finland and Germany. The cause of that outage has yet to be determined, but officials suspect intentional damage."The outages follow a September warning from the US about an increased risk of Russian sabotage" of undersea cables. That came after a joint investigation from public broadcasters from Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland that Russia had deployed a fleet of spy ships in Nordic waters. They were reportedly part of a program designed to sabotage the cables (and wind farms).This doesn't leave the European nations entirely without online communications, as data is typically routed through multiple cables to avoid overreliance on a single one.Cinia, the state-controlled Finnish company that oversees the second cable, said it wasn't yet determined what caused the outage since they haven't yet physically inspected it. However, the sudden outage reportedly suggests it, too, was cut by an outside force.The foreign ministers of Finland and Germany released a joint statement on Monday. We are deeply concerned about the severed undersea cable connecting Finland and Germany in the Baltic Sea," they wrote. The fact that such an incident immediately raises suspicions of intentional damage speaks volumes about the volatility of our times. A thorough investigation is underway. Our European security is not only under threat from Russias war of aggression against Ukraine, but also from hybrid warfare by malicious actors. Safeguarding our shared critical infrastructure is vital to our security and the resilience of our societies."The Lithuania-Sweden cable, which handles about a third of Lithuania's internet capacity, is expected to be repaired over the next few weeks," and weather could determine the precise timing.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/two-baltic-sea-communications-cables-have-been-knocked-offline-214130723.html?src=rss

The Pixel Watch 3 is one of the smartwatches that's available for a lower price than usual in early Black Friday deals. Just a couple of months after Google debuted the wearable, it has hit a new record low price of $280. That's a solid discount of $70 on the Wi-Fi-only 41mm model. The LTE-enabled version of that size is on sale too, but only if you opt for the matte black aluminum case with an obsidian band. That Pixel Watch 3 model has dropped by 17 percent to $373. The Pixel Watch 3 is our pick for the best smartwatch for Android users. It's Google's finest Pixel Watch yet. It has a display with a 60Hz refresh rate. The screen can drop to just 1 nit of brightness while you're asleep (or perhaps at the movies) to help conserve battery life. The smartwatch can run for over 24 hours on a single charge. Handily, the Pixel Watch 3 charges faster than previous models too. Thanks in part to the help of Fitbit's knowhow, the wearable is a great activity tracker. Functions include detection and custom running plans, along with the ability to track other metrics such as Cardio Load. However, you'll need to stump up for a Fitbit Premium plan to access more in-depth coaching. Some software quirks and slight bulkiness are other drawbacks of the Pixel Watch 3. Other features include the likes of weather forecasts, calendar alerts and map directions that you can access via Google Assistant voice commands. In the end, we gave the Pixel Watch 3 a score of 84 in our review, with Engadget deputy editor Cherlynn Low calling it a "a serious smartwatch [that's] ready for the competition." Check out all of the latest Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals here.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/google-pixel-watch-3-drops-to-280-ahead-of-black-friday-183726496.html?src=rss

The winter holidays are upon us and despite the festive feelings we might be hoping for, this time of year is often paired with increased stress, worry and anxiety. Fortunately, there are tools out there that can help you manage those negative emotions and enjoy the holiday season to the fullest. The meditation app Headspace is one such tool, and Black Friday deals have brought subscription costs down by 50 percent. You can get one year of Headspace for $35 right now, which is half off its usual $70 price tag. Headspace's service has features to help users with meditation, sleep tools, mindfulness and general mental health. Its holistic approach made Headspace stand out as one of our top picks for meditation apps. Reviewer Lawrence Bonk appreciated how well Headspace created progression across its courses, as well as the chance to pick from different instructors so that any user can find the meditation guidance that will work best for their individual brains. This app is also getting the AI treatment. Headspace has introduced an AI companion named Ebb that can help users by recommending meditations and activities to best match their current challenges. Since this is a year-long subscription, it's a gift that keeps on giving for whoever you choose to buy this plan for. Having a happier brain is a present anyone can appreciate. Check out all of the latest Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals here.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/headspace-subscriptions-are-50-percent-off-ahead-of-black-friday-140026192.html?src=rss

When Cray Computing, a supercomputer manufacturer acquired by HP in 2019, announced that it would build El Capitan it expected the computer to reach a peak performance of 1.5 exaflops. Today, the 64th edition of the TOP500 - a long-running ranking of the world's non-distributed supercomputers - was published, and El Capitan not only exceeded that forecast by clocking 1.742 exaflops, but has claimed the title as the most powerful supercomputer in the world right now.El Capitan is only the third exascale" computer, meaning it can perform more than a quintillion calculations in a second. The other two, called Frontier and Aurora, claim the second and third place slots on the TOP500 now. Unsurprisingly, all of these massive machines live within government research facilities: El Capitan is housed at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory; Frontier is at Oak Ridge National Laboratory; Argonne National Laboratory claims Aurora. Cray had a hand in all three systems.El Capitan has more than 11 million combined CPU and GPU cores based on AMD 4th-gen EPYC processors. These 24-core processors are rated at 1.8GHz each and have AMD Instinct M1300A APUs. It's also relatively efficient, as such systems go, squeezing out an estimated 58.89 Gigaflops per watt.If you're wondering what El Capitan is built for, the answer is addressing nuclear stockpile safety, but it can also be used for nuclear counterterrorism. Being more powerful than anticipated, it's likely to occupy the throne for a long while before another exascale computer overtakes it.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/el-capitan-ranked-the-most-powerful-supercomputer-in-the-world-180037304.html?src=rss

The 2024 Game Awards nominees have just been announced and a broad mix of 96 different games, teams and individuals picked up nods across a range of categories. As ever, though, many folks are sure to be riled up about what did and did not make the cut.Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth- the second installment of the Final Fantasy 7 remake trilogy - and the utterly wonderful Astro Botlead the way with seven nominations each. Metaphor: ReFantazio, a fantasy JRPG from the Persona 5 team, is right behind with six nods, while the excellent poker-esque roguelike Balatroand the Silent Hill 2 remake have five each.Save for Silent Hill 2, all of those are shortlisted for the Game of the Year prize. The other two contenders are Black Myth: Wukong and Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree. The latter is an (admittedly huge) expansion for the event's 2022 GOTY winner, though the DLC's inclusion in the top category this year may be controversial to some.According to the ceremony's FAQ, "Expansion packs, new game seasons, DLCs, remakes and remasters are eligible in all categories, if the jury deems the new creative and technical work to be worthy of a nomination. Factors such as the newness of the content and its price/value should be taken into consideration." A jury of more than 100 media and influencer outlets from across the globe determines the nominees.PlayStation received more nominations than any other publisher this year with 16. Square Enix and Xbox landed 12 each, while Sega snagged 11. Bandai Namco received seven and Nintendo has six.It's always great that a bunch of great, deserving indie games are recognized. It's perhaps not too surprising that Balatro picked up so many nominations (many of the Engadget crew still can't put that game down), but it's lovely to see Neva, Indika, Animal Well, Lorelei and the Laser Eyes, UFO 50 and The Plucky Squirelanding some as well. Meanwhile, the Best Adaptation nominees are Arcane, Fallout, Knuckles, Like a Dragon: Yakuza and Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft.A public vote is now open for all categories at The Game Awards website. The nominees for the entirely fan-voted Players' Voice award will be revealed on December 2. The Game Awards 2024 ceremony takes place on December 12, though many people will be watching for big trailers and game announcements rather than to find out the award winners.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/astro-bot-and-final-fantasy-7-rebirth-lead-the-2024-game-awards-nominees-175942582.html?src=rss

Though I do love walking through a supermarket and picking out my own foods, I will admit that, come winter, I often turn to delivery apps to get my products. DoorDash, one of the many delivery apps on the market, has launched a new feature that could make this process even more seamless, allowing iOS users import their grocery list from Reminders into the app.To take advantage of this, you can go to Reminders and copy your list or import it directly in the DoorDash app. An option should appear while you're shopping inside a store that says "Got a grocery list?" in a box on the page. From there you can click import and choose which list you want to sync based on the titles and a preview of the items. DoorDash will then show you options based on your list. So, for example, if you wrote onions, then it will let you scroll through different onions for sale and below it will have your next item with other options.DoorDash is also unveiling other changes, such as letting you add items from multiple stores to an order before placing it. The company has offered DoubleDash since 2021 but that only allowed you to include items from close stores after placing the original order.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/doordash-can-import-grocery-lists-from-ios-reminders-app-140020164.html?src=rss

Once upon a time, in the year 2016 Apple completely disrupted our lives by removing the headphone jack. Starting with the iPhone 7, there was no port for your wired headphones, just a lightning charger. But, they did include one thing with the phone to soften the blow: a lightning to 3.5mm headphone jack adapter that allowed up to use our wired headphones in peace. Well, as all good things come to an end so, it seems, is the adapter, MacRumors reports.Right now, the $9 adapter is listed as sold out in the US and most other countries, with it for sale only a few places in Europe. The same pattern occurred earlier this year to the SuperDrive, with it selling out around the world before being discontinued.It's not a big shock if the adapter is no more, with wireless headphones and earbuds becoming such mainstays over the last decade (remember 2016 is also when Apple released its first generation of AirPods). Plus, you can't even use this adapter on the iPhone 15 or 16 series thanks to their USB-C port. Notably, the USB-C to headphone jack adapter is still available, also for $9.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/audio/headphones/it-might-be-time-to-say-goodbye-to-apples-lightning-to-35mm-jack-adapter-133014701.html?src=rss

Back in January at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), LG unveiled a 27-inch 480Hz OLED panel with some incredible specs, but didn't say when or even if it would build a monitor around it. Now, the company has announced the UltraGear GX7 (27GX790A), a 27-inch QHD (2,560 x 1,440) OLED gaming monitor with a 480Hz refresh rate and a .03-millisecond response time - the fastest of any QHD OLED monitor, LG claims.The new display supports both NVIDIA's G-Sync and AMD's FreeSync technology to reduce screen tearing and flickering. It received VESA's DisplayHDR True Black 400 certification, meaning it's decently bright, supports a wide color gamut (DCI-P3 98.5 percent) and produces deep blacks. It also comes with an anti-glare and low reflection coating.The UltraGear GX7 is equipped with a headphone jack and both HDMI 2.1 and DisplayPort 2.1 inputs. It should be noted that neither of those display technologies natively support 480Hz refresh rates at 1440p resolutions, so LG's new display will likely use DSC (display stream compression) technology that allows such a high refresh rate in conjunction with modern NVIDIA and AMD GPUs. Finally, it's perched on sleek, height-adjustable stand with 15 degrees of tilt and 30 degrees of swivel.LG's new display isn't cheap at $1,000, but it does undercut rival Sony's InZone M10S (also a 1440p 480Hz OLED display) by $100. However, Sony's monitor has a few extra pro gaming features, including one that draws an outline around enemies and another that simulates older LCD monitors for players who prefer that. The UltraGear GX7 is live on LG's site, but there's no pre-order button or shipping date yet.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/lg-unveils-its-own-480hz-oled-gaming-monitor-131924601.html?src=rss

President-elect Donald Trump has named Brendan Carr as the new chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, The New York Times reported. Carr has previously argued in favor of punishing TV networks for political bias and regulating big tech firms like Google and Apple. The appointment doesn't require the usual senate approval, since Carr has sat on the commission since 2017.Under a Trump administration, the FCC will have two Democrat and three Republican commissioners. Carr will take over from current FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel.Carr wrote the FCC section on the infamous Project 2025 document, proposing new social media restrictions that could benefit conservative viewpoints. He also wants to limit the Section 230 legal shield that allows social media and other platforms to host and moderate comments and other user-generated content."The censorship cartel must be dismantled," Carr wrote last week on X. He added that the FCC under his leadership will also go after TV networks. " Broadcast media have had the privilege of using a scarce and valuable public resource - our airwaves. When the transition is complete, the FCC will enforce this public interest obligation."However, Carr won't have full powers to enact new rules. Since companies like Google and Meta aren't considered communications services, the FCC would have limited power to regulate them. That means an expansion of its powers would require new legislation. Brendan Carr has proposed to do a lot of things he has no jurisdiction to do and in other cases he's blatantly misreading the rules," Free Press co-chief executive Jessica Gonzalez told the NYT.That's not to say that Carr can't affect the way the internet operates. In 2017, he voted to repeal net neutrality rules, and in 2021, voted against restoring them.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/trump-names-commission-member-brendan-carr-as-fcc-chairman-130041732.html?src=rss

Roblox is adding new restrictions to younger kids' accounts and revamping its parental control features as part of a push to beef up the safety features on its platform. The changes come after damaging reports about the company's safety practices and amid a broader industry reckoning over online platforms' effect on kids.Now, Roblox is drastically limiting the ability of its youngest users to interact with others on its service. The company plans over the next few months" to bar all kids under 13 from exchanging private messages with other users outside of specific games or experiences. The company will continue to allow younger kids to see messages publicly broadcast within games and experiences, but they won't be able to message other users without parental permission.The added restrictions follow a previous update in which the company barred kids under 13 from accessing certain types of experiences. This included unrated experiences, as well as Social Hangouts and Free-form User Creation experiences."Roblox is also making it easier for parents to set up and tweak their parental control preferences. With the changes, some of which were previously detailed by Bloomberg, parents will be able to monitor their children's Roblox usage and settings from their own devices. Previously, Roblox's parental control features required parents to make adjustments on their child's device. Now, parents are able to get push notification when their kids want approval for specific actions like joining an experience with a higher maturity rating. Parents will also be able to keep tabs on their kids' screen time stats and set daily limits, after which the app will be inaccessible.The changes are Roblox's latest effort to address safety concerns about its service. A report in Bloomberg Businessweek earlier this year detailed what it described as Roblox's pedophile problem," noting that since 2018, police in the US have arrested at least two dozen people accused of abducting or abusing victims they'd met or groomed using Roblox." Hindenburg Research, a firm known for short-selling, also recently published a report in which it accused Roblox of failing to protect children from being targeted by predators.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/roblox-restricts-dms-for-kids-under-13-and-beefs-up-parental-controls-in-safety-push-120031833.html?src=rss

The iFixit teardown of the PS5 Pro is here, and while there isn't all that much different going on from what we've seen with the PS5 and PS5 Slim in terms of repairability, Sony has made one notable change: in the Pro, it's pretty easy to get to the CMOS battery. Whereas accessing this battery to replace it in the two previous PS5 models required a fair amount of work due to its placement beneath the main board, iFixit found that it's right under the faceplates in the PS5 Pro and nestled behind a hatch that has just one screw.That's a nice improvement over the other PS5s, where you've got to take apart almost the whole thing to change [the CMOS battery] out," iFixit notes. Other than that, things look pretty familiar. That's not to say the PS5 Pro itself doesn't have excitement to offer - as our reviewers found, the PS5 Pro is an absolute beast of a console when it comes to performance. Less exciting though is its $700 price tag.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/playstation/ifixits-ps5-pro-teardown-reveals-an-easily-replaceable-cmos-battery-204423402.html?src=rss

It's been a few years since Apple first introduced the AirTag, and while the tracker has undoubtedly become a useful everyday tool for a lot of buyers, there have also been concerns - and a class-action lawsuit - over misuses of the device as reports of AirTag stalking have come to light. With all of this in mind, Apple is reportedly building some privacy improvements into its next AirTag. Namely, it'll be more tamper-proof, Mark Gurman reports in this week's Power On newsletter.The second-generation AirTag, which Gurman reports is expected to be released mid-next year, will be made so it's more difficult to remove the speaker, he writes. Apple has implemented features to curb unwanted tracking, including sound alerts that will let a person know there's an unknown AirTag in their vicinity, but it's still relatively easy to remove the speaker, which would make it less noticeable. On top of the privacy tweaks, the new AirTag will also bring upgrades to range and the onboard wireless chip, according to Gurman. But looks-wise, it shouldn't be much different from the AirTag we're used to.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/wearables/apples-next-airtag-is-coming-in-2025-with-privacy-improvements-173028439.html?src=rss

After a judge on Thursday ordered an evidentiary hearing into The Onion's winning bid to purchase Infowars, Alex Jones' site resumed operations and claimed the sale has been blocked. But Onion CEO Ben Collins countered this in an update posted on Bluesky and X on Saturday, writing, We left the hearing with clear next steps to complete the sale." According to Collins, a court date has been set for a week from Monday, when the process is expected to be completed, and Infowars asked for permission to continue publishing in the meantime. The long and short of it: We won the auction and - you're not going to believe this - the previous InfoWars folks aren't taking it well," Collins wrote.On Thursday, the person overseeing the auction told us that The Onion's bid for InfoWars, along with the Connecticut Sandy Hook families, won," Collins wrote in the thread.We haven't heard anything that changed that - except, of course, from the guys currently running InfoWars, doing InfoWars stuff." Jones has unsurprisingly called the auction rigged," and in a livestream on X said that lawyers for Elon Musk's social media site have gotten involved and attended the hearing, Mother Jones reported.The Onion only went up against one other bidder in the auction for Infowars: First United American Companies, which is associated with a website that sells Jones' supplements. The company reportedly bid $3.5 million. The dollar amount of Global Tetrahedron's (The Onion's parent company) bid has not been disclosed, but it's been backed by families of the Sandy Hook shooting victims. Per Bloomberg, trustee Christopher Murray, who is liquidating Jones' estate, said these families have agreed to waive their potential recovery and give it to all other unsecured creditors" that Jones owes.There was a status conference with the judge overseeing the auction on Thursday, shortly after we were deemed winners," Collins, who formerly covered disinformation and online extremism as a reporter for NBC News, wrote in the thread on Saturday. The judge had some questions about process and some assets. We're glad he's doing that, since our bid with the families is clearly the best and transparency is even better." He added further down: We expected all of this, obviously. Buying this site was always going to be fun later on, but annoying right away. The fun part is still to come."Collins' plan for Infowars is for it to relaunch as the dumbest website on the internet." The nonprofit Everytown for Gun Safety will reportedly be the sole advertiser at launch.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/the-onion-won-the-auction-for-infowars-and-was-given-clear-next-steps-to-complete-the-sale-ceo-says-222134454.html?src=rss

It's Half-Life 2's 20th anniversary, and in celebration, Valve has released a special update that adds the Episode One and Episode Two expansions to the base game so you can play it all straight through, along with a two-hour documentary, developer commentary, and much more. The game is also free on Steam until November 18. Valve's announcement itself is an interactive experience - grab the gravity gun at the bottom of the page and you can pick up just about anything on the screen and toss it around (including that can, which you can then put in the trash).Every map in Half-Life 2 has been looked over by Valve level designers to fix longstanding bugs, restore content and features lost to time, and improve the quality of a few things like lightmap resolution and fog," the team says. The release notes are extensive, including updates to the graphics settings, gamepad controls and the Steam Deck menu. Valve's also published some old demo videos from Half-Life 2's development.ValveThe anniversary celebration also brings good news for anyone who didn't manage to snag a copy of Raising the Bar, the 2004 behind-the-scenes book that's since become a coveted collector's item: an expanded second edition is coming in 2025. This new version adds concept art from Episode One and Episode Two, plus ideas and experiments for the third episode that never came to be."This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/pc/valve-celebrates-half-life-2s-20th-anniversary-with-a-big-update-174316547.html?src=rss

You'll have to wait for more than a couple of years for the next Star Wars movie. According to Variety and The Wrap, Disney has pulled an untitled Star Wars film from its 2026 release lineup and replacing it with Ice Age 6, which is set to premiere on December 18 that year. It's not quite clear which film that is, but Daisy Ridley announced at the Star Wars Celebration in London last year that she was going to reprise her role as Rey in a new film. The movie will be directed by Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, who also directed some episodes of Ms. Marvel, and will be a direct sequel to Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.Set 15 years after the events of the previous film, the upcoming movie will reportedly revolve around Rey as she establishes a new Jedi academy and build a new Jedi Order. Steven Knight (Peaky Blinders, Angelina Jolie's Maria) joined the production when he replaced the original screenwriters last year, but he also left the project in October. Lucasfilm's search for a new screenwriter might have contributed to the film's delay.While the next installment in the main Star Wars series won't be coming out in 2026, a film that's part of the franchise will still be coming out that year. The Mandalorian & Grogu, a continuation of the Disney+ TV series directed by Jon Favreau, has already started filming and will be released on May 22, 2026. The Wrap also says it was "assured" that the next Star Wars film was "still very much in development," which hopefully means that it won't end up being cancelled like the movie planned by Game of Thrones' creators David Benioff and D. B. Weiss.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/disney-removes-a-star-wars-movie-from-its-2026-release-lineup-170020691.html?src=rss

Back in October, the FBI and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) admitted that they were looking into "the unauthorized access to commercial telecommunications infrastructure by actors affiliated with the People's Republic of China." These bad actors, collectively called "Salt Typhoon," allegedly targeted US officials and staffers for the recently concluded presidential elections. A few days later, though, The Wall Street Journal reported that the group had access to a lot more people than originally thought. Basically, the hackers could have accessed the data of any American who's a customer of AT&T and Verizon. That list of carriers has grown just a bit longer, because according to a new report by The Journal and Reuters, Salt Typhoon had also infiltrated T-Mobile's network.The hackers are believed to have exploited various vulnerabilities, such as those plaguing Cisco Systems routers, to get inside the carriers' network. They also used AI and machine learning, The Journal said, and stayed inside some of the systems they infiltrated for over eight months. That's enough time to get away with a bunch of sensitive data - they were allegedly able to access the phone lines of US senior national security officials, as well as the call logs and unencrypted texts of their targets. The hackers were also reportedly able to access the information collected by carriers to comply with surveillance requests from the American authorities.A company spokesperson told The Journal that T-Mobile is "closely monitoring" the attacks and said that its systems and data "have not been impacted in any significant way." They also said that the carrier didn't find evidence that its customers' information has been compromised in the security breach.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cybersecurity/t-mobile-was-also-infiltrated-by-china-linked-telecom-hackers-120004712.html?src=rss

Bluesky, which has surged in the days following the US election, said on Friday that it won't train on its users' posts for generative AI. The declaration stands in stark contrast to the AI training policies of X (Twitter) and Meta's Threads. Probably not coincidentally, Bluesky's announcement came the same day X's new terms of service, allowing third-party partners to train on user posts, went into effect.A number of artists and creators have made their home on Bluesky, and we hear their concerns with other platforms training on their data," Bluesky posted (via The Verge) on Friday. We do not use any of your content to train generative AI, and have no intention of doing so."In a follow-up post, the decentralized social platform clarified that it does use AI to help with content moderation. Bluesky uses AI internally to assist in content moderation, which helps us triage posts and shield human moderators from harmful content," the company posted. Bluesky also added that it uses AI in the algorithms powering its Discover feed.None of these are Gen AI systems trained on user content," Bluesky stressed.The Verge points out that Bluesky's robots.txt (the policy that dictates what outside parties can scrape from a website) doesn't prevent OpenAI, Google or other leading GenAI companies from crawling its data. The company justified that potential hole by pointing to the platform's open and public nature. Just as robots.txt files don't always prevent outside companies from crawling those sites, the same applies here," spokesperson Emily Liu told The Verge. That said, we'd like to do our part to ensure that outside orgs respect user consent and are actively discussing within the team on how to achieve this."Although Bluesky is still the underdog in a race with X and Threads, the platform has picked up steam after the US election. It passed the 15 million user threshold on Wednesday after adding more than a million in the past week.A report from web analytics company SimilarWeb noted that the signup surge coincided with a spike in X deactivations. It found that more than 115,000 US web visitors deactivated their [X] accounts" on November 7, more than on any previous day of Elon Musk's tenure." In parallel, web traffic and daily active users for Bluesky increased dramatically in the week before the election, and then again after election day."This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/the-suddenly-hot-bluesky-says-it-wont-train-ai-on-your-posts-220034195.html?src=rss

A damning report from the Anti-Defamation League published Thursday on the unprecedented" amount of racist and violent content on Steam Community has prompted a US Senator to take action. In a letter spotted by The Verge, Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) asked Valve CEO Gabe Newell how he and his company are addressing the issue.My concern is elevated by the fact that Steam is the largest single online gaming digital distribution and social networking platform in the world with over 100 million unique user accounts and a user base similar in scale to that of the traditional social media and social network platforms,'" Warner wrote.The senator also cited Steam's online conduct policy that states users may not upload or post illegal or inappropriate content [including] [real] or disturbing depictions of violence" or harass other users or Steam personnel."Valve must bring its content moderation practices in line with industry standards or face more intense scrutiny from the federal government for its complicity in allowing hate groups to congregate and engage in activities that undoubtedly puts Americans at risk," Warner writes.Congress doesn't have the ability to take action on Valve or any platform except to shine light on the problem through letters and committee hearings. The Supreme Court overturned two state laws in June that prevented government officials from communicating with social media companies about objectionable content.This also isn't the first time that Congress has raised concerns with Valve about extremist and racist content created by users or players in one of its products. The Senate Committee on the Judiciary sent a letter to Newell in 2023 to express concerns about players posting and spouting racist language in Valve's multiplayer online arena game Dota 2.We reached out to Valve for comment. We will update this story if we receive a statement or reactions from Valve.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/adls-report-on-racist-steam-community-posts-prompts-a-letter-from-virginia-senator-214243775.html?src=rss

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said this week it's pressing criminal charges against X (Twitter) in France related to a Kremlin disinformation campaign that used the nonprofit as a prop to spread fake news. The organization said legal means are its last resort" in its fight against the bogus stories, designed to foster pro-Russia and anti-Ukraine sentiment, that festered on the platform. X's refusal to remove content that it knows is false and deceitful - as it was duly informed by RSF - makes it complicit in the spread of the disinformation circulating on its platform," RSF director of advocacy Antoine Bernard said in a statement.These legal proceedings seek to remind X, a powerful social media company, and its executives that they can be held criminally responsible if they knowingly provide a platform and tools for disseminating false information, identity theft, misrepresentation, and defamation - offences punishable under the French Penal Code," RSF attorney Emmanuel Daoud wrote.RSF published an investigation in September detailing how a fabricated video was planted and spread by Russia on the Elon Musk-owned social platform. The fake clip was made to look like a BBC-produced one, including the news organization's logo. It made the erroneous case that RSF conducted a study that revealed a large number of Ukrainian soldiers sympathizing with Nazism.False claims that Ukraine is a pro-Nazi nation have been a common propaganda tactic used by Russia since its 2022 invasion. The narrative is designed to engender support for the Kremlin-initiated war, which is estimated to have killed a million or more Ukrainian people.RSF's investigation revealed that an account called Patricia," claiming to be a translator in France, planted the seed for the disinformation. However, the report discovered that the account's profile picture was found on a Russian website featuring photos of blond women designed to make avatars."RSF says that even the account's name seemed to have been automatically generated by X. In addition, the organization says Grok, X's AI chatbot with access to live data about the platform, claimed the account has very strong opinions, often in support of Russia and Vladimir Putin, while severely criticizing Ukraine and its supporters in Europe."The investigation found the video then took off, spreading through a chain that included a pro-Kremlin Irish entrepreneur living in Russia, a Kremlin propagandist with a large following on Telegram and even Russian officials. It was also shared by highly influential bloggers" known for unflinching support of Vladimir Putin.In this story, the Russian authorities have acted a bit like they were laundering dirty information," an RSF representative said in a video about the investigation (translated from French) in September. They took false information, they laundered it through official channels. And then, this piece of information that wasn't actual information was reintroduced into public discourse to make it look credible."Russia's bogus video was widely shared on X and Telegram. Reporters Without Borders says the clip's viewership reached half a million combined views by September 13. To capture its frustration with the blow to its credibility, the nonprofit cited the quote (of unknown origin but often attributed to Mark Twain): A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes."RSF says it filed 10 reports with X of illegal content through the social channel's reporting system required by the EU's Digital Services Act (DSA). After a series of rejections from X and requests for additional information - which RSF provided - none of the reports resulted in the removal of the defamatory content targeting our organisation and its advocacy director," RSF wrote.In July, the US Justice Department said it uncovered and dismantled a Russian propaganda network using nearly 1,000 accounts to push pro-Kremlin posts on X. The DOJ claimed the accounts posed as Americans and were made using AI. In October, The Wall Street Journal reported that Elon Musk held multiple private calls with Vladimir Putin from 2022 into this year, describing the contacts as a closely held secret in government."X's refusal to remove content that it knows is false and deceitful - as it was duly informed by RSF - makes it complicit in the spread of the disinformation circulating on its platform," RSF director Bernard wrote in a statement. X provides those who spread falsehoods and manipulate public opinion with a powerful arsenal of tools and unparalleled visibility, while granting the perpetrators total impunity. It's time for X to be held accountable. Pressing criminal charges is the last resort against the disinformation and war propaganda that RSF has fallen victim to, which is proliferating on this Muskian' network."This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/reporters-without-borders-says-its-pressing-charges-against-x-200005117.html?src=rss

WhatsApp, the most popular messaging platform on the planet, finally has a drafts feature. Why did it take until the tail-end of 2024 to institute a seemingly simple tool that has been available for rival platforms for years? Who knows, but it's here now.The appropriately-named Message Drafts offers a new and easy way to find your unfinished messages on WhatsApp." Just look for the Draft" indicator at the beginning of a message. The platform says that these unfinished messages will move to the top of the chats list so people can quickly locate them."It's a drafts feature, so there really isn't anything else to say. The tool's available now across the globe via the app. Finally, we will have no pressure to actually finish messages. We can tinker with them occasionally until the heat death of the universe. It's a procrastination mitzvah!This is just the latest update to WhatsApp, as the platform has been busy. It recently unveiled custom lists, to help people keep track of conversations, and introduced a program that allows users to add contacts from any device.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/whatsapp-finally-has-a-drafts-feature-194516831.html?src=rss

The Internet Archive is one of the very best things on the web, so it's great that the repository is up and running again after recent DDoS attacks. It hosts more than old versions of web pages, though. It hosts a trove of video (I'm forever thankful to whoever uploaded the wonderful Lucha Underground in its entirety), software, text, audio recordings and games as well. There have been two notable additions on the latter front in the form of Unreal and Unreal Tournament, seemingly with the blessing of Epic Games.You can now freely download disc images of the arena shooters from the Internet Archive via direct links for Unreal and Unreal Tournament. Alternatively, as Game Developer points out, the site OldUnreal offers installers for Unreal and UT, both of which pull the disc images from the Internet Archive and include the latest community-created patches.The installers are Windows-only for now, but the OldUnreal team is working on Linux and macOS versions. You'll also need to put in a little extra effort to get online with the games and savor their true multiplayer flavors. Heck, you might still even be able to join an Unreal clan.Epic delisted the Unreal games from Steam and shut down their servers quite some time ago, so this is a nice boost for game preservation. It comes on the heels of GOG introducing a new label for older titles that the platform is maintaining for current hardware. Unreal was one of the first PC games I played as a kid, so it's neat to learn that it will be available in perpetuity through the Internet Archive.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/pc/two-early-unreal-games-are-now-permanently-free-via-the-internet-archive-190501047.html?src=rss

Elon Musk's X is taking the state of California to court over a new law that prevents the spread of AI-generated election misinformation. Bloomberg reports that X filed a lawsuit against AB 2655, also known as the Defending Democracy from Deepfake Deception Act of 2024, in a Sacramento federal court.California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the bill into law on September 17, creating accountability standards for using false political speech faked with AI programs close to an election. The legislation prevents the distribution of materially deceptive audio or visual media of a candidate within 60 days of an election at which the candidate will appear on the ballet."X argues that the law will create more political speech censorship. The complaint says the First Amendment includes tolerance for potentially false speech made in the context of such criticisms."Newsom signed AB 2655 into law as part of a large package of bills addressing concerns about the use of AI to create sexually explicit deepfakes and other deceptive material. The next day, a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction against the law and other bills from Newsom's signing.California has become one of the epicenters of debate over the use and implementation of AI. Concerns about the use of AI in film and television projects, among other issues, prompted SAG-AFTRA to go on strike in 2023. SAG eventually reached a deal that included AI protections for actors prohibiting studios from using their likeness without permission or proper compensation. The following year, the state of California passed AB 2602, a law that makes it illegal for studios, publishers and video game studios to use someone's likeness without their permission.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/x-sues-california-over-deceptive-ai-made-election-content-ban-185010406.html?src=rss

When reality becomes stranger than satire, maybe the satirists can teach us something. Or, maybe the last laugh will be on them after all. The Onion said on Thursday that its parent company bought Infowars, the disgraced purveyor of Sandy Hook misinformation and vendor of pseudoscience supplements. The Onion posted on Bluesky that it plans to transform the rebooted Infowars into a very funny, very stupid website." However, the Texas judge overseeing the bankruptcy sale temporarily halted the takeover, citing concerns about the auction process. A review hearing will be scheduled for next week.The Onion said it received the blessing of the families of the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting to scoop up Infowars in a bankruptcy auction. Everytown for Gun Safety, a nonprofit founded in the massacre's aftermath, reportedly plans to advertise on the rebooted site if the sale is finalized.Infowars founder Alex Jones was found liable in 2022 for nearly $1.5 billion in damages for spreading conspiracy theories about the 2012 shooting that killed 20 children and six adult staffers.After The Onion's triumphant announcement on Thursday, the AP reported that US Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez called for an evidentiary hearing to review the auction that led to the takeover. Christopher Murray, the trustee overseeing the auction, reportedly said in court that The Onion's parent company, Global Tetrahedron, didn't offer the highest bid in cash. However, the sale price included a clause where some Sandy Hook families would forego their portion of the proceeds to pay Jones' other creditors. Murray said Global Tetrahedron's bid was the best despite having a lower (undisclosed) cash amount due to that agreement.The only other bidder was First United American Companies, which runs a website using Jones' name to sell his supplements. The company reportedly placed a $3.5 million bid that, based on cash alone, would have won the secret auction. First United's attorney reportedly told the judge on Thursday that the trustee changed the auction process days before, omitting a final round on Wednesday that would have given the parties a chance to outbid each other.The trustee only chose from the sealed bids submitted last week. However, he said his decision followed Judge Lopez's auction rules in September, describing the final round as optional.Lopez struck a disapproving tone in court, throwing the sale into question. We're all going to an evidentiary hearing, and I'm going to figure out exactly what happened," the judge reportedly said. No one should feel comfortable with the results of this auction."Elon Musk allowed Jones back on X (Twitter) last year after the platform permanently" banned him in 2018 under its previous ownership.As America's chief satire publication (at least of those doing so consciously), The Onion's (perhaps premature) announcement of the purchase stayed on brand. Its tone, hinting at what's to come, resembled The Colbert Report on steroids - or maybe Jones' Survival Shield X-2" pills.Founded in 1999 on the heels of the Satanic panic' and growing steadily ever since, InfoWars has distinguished itself as an invaluable tool for brainwashing and controlling the masses," The Onion wrote in a truth-meets-fiction announcement. With a shrewd mix of delusional paranoia and dubious anti-aging nutrition hacks, they strive to make life both scarier and longer for everyone, a commendable goal. They are a true unicorn, capable of simultaneously inspiring public support for billionaires and stoking outrage at an inept federal state that can assassinate JFK but can't even put a man on the Moon."If the sale still ends up in its hands, The Onion plans to rebrand Infowars as a parody of itself (more than it already was), poking fun at weird internet personalities" like Jones, according to The New York Times. Ben Collins, the CEO of Global Tetrahedron, hasn't said how much it paid to transform Infowars' destructive self-parody into constructive satire. (Collins reported extensively on Infowars when covering misinformation at NBC News.) He plans to launch the rebooted site in January.Update, November 15, 2024, 1:47PM ET: This story has been updated to reflect the sale's finality being thrown into limbo at a court hearing after the announcement.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/in-an-outcome-beyond-parody-the-onion-has-bought-infowars-171701601.html?src=rss

As the competition between Bluesky and Threads heats up, Meta is adding a new feature to Threads that will likely look familiar to Bluesky users: custom feeds. The Meta-owned service is starting to test a feature that allows users to pin topic-based feeds to the home screen of the app.The change will give people additional feeds beyond the algorithmic for you," which will remain the default view, and their following feed." Users can add custom feeds by searching a keyword like skincare" and then tapping the ..." menu and selecting create new feed." These feeds can be further customized by adding specific profiles of people whose posts you want to see in that feed. Users are able to add up to 128 custom feeds in the app, a Meta spokesperson said, though it's still only a test for now so not all users have access to it just yet.The feature is similar in many ways to Bluesky's custom feeds, which the company introduced last year. But while there are dozens of user-created algorithmic feeds in the app, making a new one is still a technical process. Meta's version of the feature, however, is more straightforward. It could also address some users' complaints about Threads' main algorithmic feed.The latest Threads feature comes as Bluesky has had a particularly good month. Though the service is still far smaller than Threads, which has more than 275 million users, Bluesky, which has just under 17 million users at the time of this writing, has been gaining momentum. The decentralized service added a million new users in the week following the election, and added another million new sign-ups in a single day this week. That's striking considering Threads has also been growing by about a million users a day, according to a recent post from Instagram chief Adam Mosseri. If Bluesky is able to sustain that level of growth for very long, Meta may feel even more pressure to borrow some ideas from its smaller rival.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/meta-is-testing-custom-feeds-for-threads-183948414.html?src=rss

Apple's latest M4-powered MacBook Pro is a pretty stellar laptop. We gave it a score of 92 in our review, due in part to its great screen. The display is brighter this time around, peaking at 1,000 nits for SDR (standard dynamic range) content and 1,600 nits for HDR material. However, there's another aspect of the screen about which Apple has strangely been keeping mum.As noted by display expert Ross Young, Apple used a quantum dot (QD) film instead of a red KSF phosphor film on the display. "In the past, Apple went with the KSF solution due to better efficiency and lack of cadmium (Cd), but the latest Cd-free QD films are very efficient, feature as good or better color gamut and better motion performance," Young explained. That means the latest MacBook Pro screen should offer a wider color range than in the past while making motion look smoother.

The Black Friday elves are smiling today. Xbox holiday deals are officially live, and there are some real goodies to choose from. This is a digital sale, so it's a great time to pad that backlog, particularly if your Xbox lacks a disc drive. Perhaps the most noteworthy deal here is for Halo: The Master Chief Collection. It's on sale for $10, which is a massive discount of 75 percent. This collection includes Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, Halo 2: Anniversary, Halo 3 and Halo 4. This adds up to 45 campaign missions and more than 100 multiplayer maps. Much of this content has been updated to provide 4K visuals and HDR support. The well-reviewed Street Fighter 6 is on sale for $30, which is a discount of 50 percent. We said the game oozes style" in our official review and praised the robust World Tour mode, which is sort of like a tutorial mixed with an RPG. The controls are as tight as ever and the myriad of playable characters are a whole lot of fun. The first-party game Pentiment is also half off, going down to $10 from $20. This is an RPG with a fantastic historical art style. It's a niche title, but a great one, particularly for ten bucks. The game's certainly easy on the eyes. Everyone's favorite walking simulator, Death Stranding: Director's Cut, is available for $20 instead of $40. Diablo IV: Vessel of Hatred is 25 percent off, bringing it down to $30, and Star Wars Outlaws is $52 instead of $70. Other discounted games include Hogwarts Legacy, Resident Evil 4, Tekken 8 and, well, too many more to list. The sale ends on December 2. Check out all of the latest Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals here.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/xbox-black-friday-deals-are-live-so-snag-halo-the-master-chief-collection-for-just-10-170334593.html?src=rss

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TMSC) is the first CHIPS Act awardee to get part of the money that the government has promised. The Biden administration has finalized its grants for TSMC, which expects to receive $6.6 billion in grants as part of their agreement to grow semiconductor production in the US. TSMC will also loan another $5 billion from the government to fund the expansion of its planned $65 billion three-factory complex in Arizona. According to Bloomberg, it's getting at least $1 billion from the total before the year ends, since it has already met a certain set of requirements.In October, a Canadian research firm discovered that Huawei was using TSMC chips for its artificial intelligence accelerators even though that violates US government sanctions. TSMC denied having any working relationship with Huawei, and it stopped shipping to the client that may have been illegally sending its chips to Huawei. It also decided to stop producing advanced AI chips for its Chinese clients, reportedly because it wanted to show the US government that it's "not acting against US interests.""Today's final agreement with TSMC - the world's leading manufacturer of advanced semiconductors - will spur $65 billion dollars of private investment to build three state-of-the-art facilities in Arizona and create tens of thousands of jobs by the end of the decade.... The first of TSMC's three facilities is on track to fully open early next year," President Joe Biden said in a statement.Other companies, like Intel and Samsung, are still waiting to get their grants. Business groups are reportedly urging the government to finalize their CHIPS Act deals before Biden leaves the office. While they're not worried about the new administration killing the CHIPS Act, which enjoyed bipartisan support, they apparently want to avoid the possibility of having to renegotiate with the government.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/us-government-finalizes-tsmcs-66-billion-chips-act-incentives-143007608.html?src=rss

The latest Amazon Fire HD 8, updated last month and starting at $100, is a modest refresh, offering more RAM, a nominally upgraded camera and some new AI features. The general sales pitch, however, remains the same: You get a just-competent tablet for the essentials at a dirt-cheap (and often-discounted) price, and in exchange, Amazon gets to plant another appliance for its own apps and services in your home. Nothing about this update drastically changes that agreement, but after using the tablet for the past month (and after using older Fire tablets for years prior), it may be time to demand more from Amazon's end of the bargain. It's definitely a cheap tablet Physically, the new Fire HD 8 is nearly identical to the last one. It is, without a doubt, A Budget Tablet - it's nowhere near premium, but it doesn't feel distractingly cheap either. At just under eight inches tall and 0.37 inches thick, it's small enough for most kids to operate without much struggle and most adults to carry with one hand. If you care more about your tablet's travel-friendliness than its virtues as a miniature TV, this size should be fine. The whole thing is lightweight at 0.74 pounds, so it's not an anchor in your bag. Its textured plastic frame is somewhat slippery but altogether sturdy, with no creaking or flexing. Its gently rounded edges dig comfortably into your palms. There are fairly thick bezels around the display, but I've never minded those on a tablet - they give your thumbs a natural place to rest. The display won't win any awards. It's the same LCD panel Amazon has trotted out in previous generations, with the same 1,280 x 800 resolution. If you've used any iPad, or even many midrange Android tablets, in the last decade, everything about it will be an obvious downgrade. The meager pixel density (189 ppi) makes images and text visibly less sharp. Colors are more muted, too. It doesn't get bright enough to be totally usable in direct sunlight; you can read it comfortably on the couch, but don't expect it to work as well by the pool. It's also a smudge and fingerprint magnet. The back of the Amazon Fire HD 8 is composed of a sturdy, if mildly slippery, textured plastic. Jeff Dunn for Engadget Again, though, the Fire HD 8 is competing in a different weight class than even an older iPad. The fact that the screen is relatively small makes the lower resolution at least tolerable. You can watch Netflix or read Kindle books and not think man, this sucks" the whole time, especially if you bought the thing for well under $100. There are other hardware compromises. The speakers aren't all that loud and struggle to fully separate different parts of songs. They're entirely on the left edge when you hold the tablet vertically, which always sounds odd. There's an old USB-C 2.0 port for charging and a glacially slow 5W power adapter in the box. Amazon says it'll take about five hours to fully charge the tablet with that; you can cut the wait in half if you bring your own 15W charger, though that's still not fast. There's no water resistance rating, so you'll need to be careful if you ever want to read in the tub. Both the five-megapixel rear camera and 2MP front camera are brutal, washing out colors and blurring fine details even in good lighting. (As always, please report anyone using their tablet as a camera to the nearest authorities.) It's not all bad. While the Fire HD 8 only comes with 32GB or 64GB of storage built in - of which only 25GB or 54GB is usable, respectively - you can add up to 1TB of additional space with a microSD card. The 13-inch iPad Pro, which starts at $1,299, does not let you do that (I'm just saying!). The Fire HD 8 also has a headphone jack, which helps offset the mediocre speaker performance a little bit, plus there's Bluetooth for wireless headphones. And one benefit of the shoddy display resolution is that it makes the Fire HD 8 less power-hungry: Amazon rates the tablet's battery life at up to 13 hours. I got much more than that in our (relatively forgiving) battery test, but closer to 10 or 11 hours with more strenuous use. Either way, it's good. Most people can safely expect it to survive a day of basic streaming and web browsing. The Fire HD 8's rear camera has technically jumped from 2MP to 5MP and now supports 1080p video recording, but it still doesn't take photos you'd want to share. Jeff Dunn for Engadget The new Fire HD 8 runs on a 2 GHz six-core processor (the MediaTek MT8169A). The base model includes 32GB of storage and 3GB of RAM, while a $130 variant with twice the storage bumps the memory up to 4GB. I tested the former. The previous generation only came with 2GB of RAM - the pricier Fire HD 8 Plus" had 3GB - so this is a welcome upgrade. That said, it's not a huge boost. With the entry-level model, the gist is the same as it's been with past Fire HD tablets: You can get by with simple video streaming, web browsing, reading and gaming, but there'll be hitches and occasional crashes along the way, and it'll never be powerful enough for serious work or reliable multitasking. The modern web is just too ad-heavy and grossly inefficient for a low-end chip like this, so you'll inevitably have to deal with some choppiness when loading media-heavy sites like ESPN or The New York Times. Apps take just a bit longer to open than they would on a pricier tablet, and it's not uncommon to get some lag when you jump back to the home screen. Still, for the money, it's all workable. It doesn't take forever to open a Peacock stream or load an article on Engadget. The Mali-G52 GPU can even handle a decent level of gaming - casual card and match-three games run fine, and even more involved fare like PUBG Mobile and Diablo Immortal are totally playable, albeit with severely low-res textures. On the Geekbench 5 benchmark, the Fire HD 8 earned a single-core score of 193 and a multi-core score of 907. That is lightyears away from impressive, but given that the last-gen version struggled to even complete the tests without crashing, it's still a step up. One benefit of buying a cheap tablet: You usually get a headphone jack. Jeff Dunn for Engadget Ultimately, it's about managing expectations. You don't buy a $100 tablet demanding a workhorse. When discounts bring that tablet's price below $60, not constantly annoying" becomes a compliment. If you can afford the model with 4GB of RAM, that should hold up better over time. Then again, a device like this makes the most sense when it's as cheap as possible. The ad-pocalypse that is Fire OS The Fire HD 8 still runs on Amazon's Fire OS, a fork of Android 11 that uses a custom app store and is designed to put Amazon's own apps and services in the spotlight. (For the record, stock Android is up to version 15.) The generous read is that many of those apps are popular, so having them all front and center can be convenient. If you often stream movies on Prime Video, use Amazon Music with a Prime subscription or own a bunch of Kindle ebooks or Audible audiobooks, all of it is right there. You can set up different user profiles - also not available on an iPad - including child accounts that present a curated selection of kid-friendly websites and videos. A fairly robust set of parental controls let you monitor your child's screen time within that. You can also call on Alexa and thus control various smart home devices hands-free, though Amazon has dropped support for the Show Mode" that turned the tablet into a pseudo smart display. You can install Alexa and all of those Amazon services on any tablet, though. Most of Fire OS' actual changes suck, and they have for years now. The app store plays a big part in that. It covers many of the big streaming and social media players - Netflix, Hulu, TikTok, X, Max, Spotify, Disney+, etc. - but still omits all Google apps, Reddit, Apple Music, Apple TV+, Slack, tons of games and any browser besides Amazon's ultra-basic Silk, among many others. The lack of Google remains the biggest killer; Amazon's stock email and calendar apps are far less robust than Gmail and Google Calendar, while the bootleg YouTube app" is just a web shortcut. Left to right: one of Fire OS' lockscreen ads, a snapshot of the less-than-useful "For You" page and an example of the AI-powered "Wallpaper Creator" tool. Jeff Dunn for Engadget It's true that you can install the Google Play Store and download most of what's missing with a hacky workaround, but that's not the experience Amazon is selling (and not one most people will opt to do). I can't praise an OS that works best when you go behind its back. And as with many Android tablets, many of the apps that are supported look like blown-up phone apps more than experiences designed with a larger screen in mind. Because this is a tech product launching in 2024, the Fire HD 8 also comes with a few AI-centric features, including an automated wallpaper creator, a writing assist tool and webpage summaries in the Silk Browser. All of these perform reasonably fast, but It's hard to call them game-changers: The writing assist makes copy sound overly stilted, while the webpage summaries strip down most articles of their nuances (I beg you, just read the post.) The DALL-E-style wallpaper generator is neater, offering different styles and responding well to natural language requests, but I can't get excited over AI art when there's so much of the real thing out there. More egregious are the ads. Oh, so many ads. Upon activating the tablet for the first time, I was greeted with a full-screen promo for BetMGM - because what budget-conscious tablet buyer isn't looking to gamble their savings away - and have since been bombarded with lockscreen ads to buy Toshiba hard drives, State Farm insurance and SteelSeries gaming keyboards. Thankfully, you can remove these for an extra $15, either upfront or after purchase. You can technically install the Google Play Store and get around some of Fire OS' app limitations, but it'll require a bit of legwork. Jeff Dunn for Engadget But the spirit of nickel-and-diming you goes beyond that. The first app you see is Shop Amazon." The home screen itself is split into two sections: For You and Home. The former is a page filled with content suggestions, a significant chunk of which are either sponsored apps, links to movies on Prime Video and songs on Amazon Music or calls to subscribe to Amazon services like Kids+, Luna and Audible. Some of these are free; many others are paid. At one point, I kid you not, it presented me with an ad to buy a different Fire tablet. The Home tab does have a traditional app grid, but above it is a Discover" row that takes up the top 40 percent of the screen and delivers a similar range of not-so-personalized suggestions. As I write this, it includes a link to the Prime Video series Fallout, the sponsored app Vita Mahjong for Seniors," the Max app, links to two different thriller books from the author Frieda McFadden and a few other things I've shown zero interest in over my time using Amazon services. It's a jumbled, undignified mess. There's a distinct lack of care to Fire OS, a pervading sense that it doesn't so much have your best interest at heart it wants to needle cash-strapped customers into pumping more revenue into the Amazon machine. This just isn't the case with iPadOS or even stock Android. Actually pay attention to what Fire OS is doing, and it becomes difficult to see Fire tablets as anything but subsidized ad platforms Amazon can seed in homes on the cheap. If you want a product that treats you with a little more respect, you have to pay for it. The Fire HD 8 resting on top of a 13-inch iPad Air. Jeff Dunn for Engadget Wrap-up I get it, some of us just need to save some cash. And Amazon, fairly or not (i.e., not), can significantly undercut most other decent budget tablets on price. If cost is your number-one concern, you only want a tablet for casual media consumption and you can live with the unfiltered Amazon-ness of Fire OS, there's still value to be had here. Little about the Fire HD 8 is good, but much of it is fine for the price, and when that price is as bananas-cheap as $55 with deals, that's probably enough. So it goes. Just make sure the slate is on sale before you take the plunge. Otherwise, I'd consider the 10.1-inch Fire HD 10, which has the same software annoyances but a sharper, roomier display, more CPU power and a touch more battery life. Either way, here's hoping Fire OS becomes less user-hostile one day.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/tablets/amazon-fire-hd-8-2024-review-a-cheap-tablet-hampered-by-outdated-software-141924425.html?src=rss

Elon Musk has amended his lawsuit against OpenAI, adding more anti-trust claims against the company and including Microsoft as a defendant. He also added his company, xAI, as well as Shivon Zilis, a former OpenAI board member and mother to three of his children, as plaintiffs. Musk originally sued OpenAI in March, accusing founders Sam Altman and Greg Brockman of violating the organization's non-profit mission by teaming up with Microsoft. He withdrew the state court lawsuit in June before suing OpenAI and Altman again in federal court.Musk was one OpenAI's earliest backers, and one of his arguments was that he was "betrayed by Mr. Altman and his accomplices." In response to his lawsuit, OpenAI published old emails from 2015 to 2018 in a blog post, wherein it claimed that Musk was involved in the planning when the company first explored transitioning into a for-profit structure. xAI's founder allegedly wanted majority equity, control of the initial board of directors and the CEO position and even suggested merging OpenAI with Tesla. Musk left the organization in 2018 before Microsoft invested the first billion in OpenAI. Since then, Microsoft has invested $13 billion in the generative AI firm, and OpenAI has taken steps to complete its transformation into a more traditional for-profit company with a non-profit arm.As TechCrunch notes, the amended lawsuit argues that OpenAI is "actively trying to eliminate competitors," including xAI, by making investors promise not to fund them. xAI has been harmed by OpenAI's and Microsoft's exclusive exchange of "competitively sensitive information," the lawsuit also says. Musk's new complaint names LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman and Microsoft VP Dee Templeton as defendants, as well, for being involved with both OpenAI and Microsoft boards. As for why Zilis was named as a plaintiff, the lawsuit says it's because the former OpenAI board member and current director of Neuralink repeatedly raised concerns over OpenAI's deals that were similar to Musks.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/elon-musk-adds-microsoft-as-defendant-in-his-lawsuit-against-openai-140023400.html?src=rss

GM's robotaxi unit Cruise has agreed to pay a $500,000 for submitting a false accident report as part of a deferred prosecution agreement. The US Justice Department (DoJ) said that Cruise failed to disclose vital details about a serious October 2023 accident in which one of its vehicles struck a pedestrian and dragged her 20 feet after she was hit by another vehicle."Federal laws and regulations are in place to protect public safety on our roads. Companies with self-driving cars that seek to share our roads and crosswalks must be fully truthful in their reports to their regulators," said Martha Boersch, Chief of the Office of the U.S. Attorney's Criminal Division. Uber has yet to comment on the matter.Under the terms of the three-year settlement, Cruise must cooperate with the government, put a safety compliance program into place and provide annual reports to the US Attorney's office. The company could still be prosecuted if it fails to comply with those conditions. Cruise was previously fined $1.5 million by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and reportedly reached a settlement with the victim worth at least $8 million.According to the US Attorney's office, a Cruise driverless vehicle operating in San Francisco ran over a pedestrian who had been thrown into its path after being struck by a separate, human-operated vehicle. The Cruise vehicle initially stopped after running over the pedestrian, but its systems failed to detect that she was still under the vehicle. It then tried to pull over to the side, dragging the woman over 20 feet. In Cruise's report to the NHTSA, it said nothing about dragging the victim after it struck her. (Cruise also omitted this information in statements to the press at the time of the accident.)Cruise was subsequently stripped of its license to operate self-driving vehicles in California. The company stopped all operations of both its driverless cars and its manned robotaxi service in order to engage in a comprehensive safety review. CEO Kyle Vogt resigned in November and GM announced plans to slash Cruise's funding and to restructure leadership based on external safety reviews. Nearly a quarter of the company's workforce was cut that in December.Cruise vehicles stayed off roads for several more months but returned to Arizona in April and to Houston in June under the supervision of human drivers. In September this year, Cruise recommenced operations in California, again with human drivers at the wheel. In August, the company said its self-driving vehicles would come to Uber starting next year.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/gms-cruise-will-pay-a-500000-fine-for-submitting-a-false-accident-report-133041789.html?src=rss

For obvious reasons, Twitter users are leaving en masse and heading to Bluesky, its most prominent decentralized competitor. In this episode, we discuss why Bluesky now feels like the best of early Twitter, filled with vibrant conversations and people discovering a new social network filled with useful features (like serious blocking and content filtering). And of course, the lack of an algorithmic feed surely helps. Also, we chat with Justin Hendrix from Tech Policy Press about how Elon Musk has become a crucial ally to the upcoming Trump administration.Listen below or subscribe on your podcast app of choice. If you've got suggestions or topics you'd like covered on the show, be sure to email us or drop a note in the comments! And be sure to check out our other podcast, Engadget News!Subscribe!

The final piece of Apple's recent explosion of Mac hardware, the iMac is ready for review - and possible purchase - and it looks the same as ever.One quiet update that transforms the lineup, beyond the powerful M4 chip, is the boost in base memory, finally giving the entry-level models 16GB instead of the miserly 8GB they used to get. With an unchanged design, there might seem to be no justification to buy or upgrade to the iMac M4. However, that extra memory allows you to do more than ever on an entry-level iMac, including 4K video editing and AAA gaming - to a degree. Having said that, upgrades remain expensive beyond the base loadout, which is already $1,299.- Mat SmithThe biggest tech stories you missedApple's AI-infused Final Cut Pro 11 is availableGoogle now offers a standalone Gemini app on iPhoneThe new Xbox ad campaign is confused about what an Xbox isGet this delivered daily direct to your inbox. Subscribe right here!The Onion has bought InfowarsIt plans to remake it into a very stupid website' of a less harmful variety.The Onion, arguably America's biggest most influential source of satire, confirmed on Thursday its parent company has bought Infowars, the disgraced purveyor of Sandy Hook misinformation and vendor of pseudoscience supplements. The Onion posted on Bluesky its plans to transform the rebooted Infowars into a very funny, very stupid website."The publication says it received the blessing of the families of the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting to scoop up Infowars in a bankruptcy auction. Everytown for Gun Safety, a nonprofit founded in the massacre's aftermath, will reportedly advertise on the rebooted site.Continue reading.The best Black Friday 2024 deals so farApple, Amazon, Nintendo and more.November is in full swing, which means Black Friday is right around the corner. If you want the best of the best deals, hold tight until the week before Thanksgiving. Still, the sales already available are some of the best this year. Rather than recommend things you already have/ don't want, take a look at our extensive list - so far.Continue reading.The best PS5 games for 2024Whether you've picked up a PS5 Pro or not.EngadgetIn the run up to gift-buying season, we're updating our pick of the best games for all the gaming platforms. This time, it's the PS5. With the massive library available, it's easy to get a little lost scrolling through titles. From award-winning adventures to intense-action RPG experiences, there's a world of incredible games to explore. Increasingly, the console has built up a collection of PS4 remakes and/or remasters too, offering the best playing experience for hits like Last of Us.Continue reading.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/general/the-morning-after-engadget-newsletter-122246108.html?src=rss

The Rogue Prince of Persia, a modern reboot of the classic platformer published by Broderbund in 1989, is still in early access mode but it's getting a bunch of new, cool-sounding stuff next week. Developer Evil Empire posted a blog on the game's Steam page that includes information about the new update and premieres a new teaser trailer with some gameplay footage.The Steam page says the update effectively doubled the game's content from launch." The Second Act" will include a second act and tons of narrative polish for Act 1" and more biomes, bosses and enemies. The update will also add more Quality of Life" features like multiple save slots and localization for German, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish players. The game's protagonist will also look pretty different - RIP Prince of Purple.The new update drops on November 21. The Rogue Prince of Persia was already slick and inventive, even in its infancy. It's been updated quite a bit since its early access launch, but next week's update is likely to be its largest. It's shaping up to be a good mix of classic gameplay with new visuals and a modern roguelite" gameplay loop as seen in other indies like Hades.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/pc/the-rogue-prince-of-persia-gets-a-big-update-with-the-second-act-000515851.html?src=rss

These times are very trying and it's understandable if someone goes a little off the deep end once in a while. Just like Norman Bates said in Psycho, We all go a little mad sometimes." However, a new Xbox ad campaign has us a little concerned.Microsoft launched a new marketing campaign for its Xbox consoles and cloud gaming service called This is an Xbox." It features posters and commercials with a bunch of different objects like a laptop, a smartphone and a Meta Quest 3 that are all an Xbox."We confirmed with a thorough fact check that all of those objects are not an Xbox. That may sound like overkill but when you live in a world where there's a real chance that the goopy mass voiced by Tim Curry in FernGully might become Secretary of the Interior, we're not taking any chances.The commercial is even trippier. It zips between objects like a flat screen TV, an ROG Ally and a laptop while Black Sheep's The Choice is Yours" blasts in the background. This time though, it displays the simple sentence This is an Xbox" with a secondary clause or imperative statement behind it. Is there some kind of malware virus in the AI software that runs our universe or something?Microsoft, we know this is an ad campaign and that you don't really believe these non-Xbox items are an Xbox." Of course, you want to talk up your cloud gaming service, which is available across all of the devices in the ads. But last I checked, I didn't need an expensive subscription to play games on a regular Xbox.Also this is the internet, a gathering place for conspiracy weavers, liars and ne'er-do-wells. Reality is hard enough right now without having to debate the merit of what things are. This feels like the kind of stuff that Jobu would pull when she finished decorating the bagel in Everything Everywhere All at Once.MicrosoftThis article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/xbox/the-new-xbox-ad-campaign-is-confused-about-what-an-xbox-is-231013374.html?src=rss

On Thursday, the European Union published its first draft of a Code of Practice for general purpose AI (GPAI) models. The document, which won't be finalized until May, lays out guidelines for managing risks - and giving companies a blueprint to comply and avoid hefty penalties. The EU's AI Act came into force on August 1, but it left room to nail down the specifics of GPAI regulations down the road. This draft (via TechCrunch) is the first attempt to clarify what's expected of those more advanced models, giving stakeholders time to submit feedback and refine them before they kick in.GPAIs are those trained with a total computing power of over 10^2 FLOPs. Companies expected to fall under the EU's guidelines include OpenAI, Google, Meta, Anthropic and Mistral. But that list could grow.The document addresses several core areas for GPAI makers: transparency, copyright compliance, risk assessment and technical / governance risk mitigation. This 36-page draft covers a lot of ground (and will likely balloon much more before it's finalized), but several highlights stand out.The code emphasizes transparency in AI development and requires AI companies to provide information about the web crawlers they used to train their models - a key concern for copyright holders and creators. The risk assessment section aims to prevent cyber offenses, widespread discrimination and loss of control over AI (the it's gone rogue" sentient moment in a million bad sci-fi movies).AI makers are expected to adopt a Safety and Security Framework (SSF) to break down their risk management policies and mitigate them proportionately to their systemic risks. The rules also cover technical areas like protecting model data, providing failsafe access controls and continually reassessing their effectiveness. Finally, the governance section strives for accountability within the companies themselves, requiring ongoing risk assessment and bringing in outside experts where needed.Like the EU's other tech-related regulations, companies that run afoul of the AI Act can expect steep penalties. They can be fined up to 35 million (currently $36.8 million) or up to seven percent of their global annual profits, whichever is higher.Stakeholders are invited to submit feedback through the dedicated Futurium platform by November 28 to help refine the next draft. The rules are expected to be finalized by May 1, 2025.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/the-eu-publishes-the-first-draft-of-regulatory-guidance-for-general-purpose-ai-models-223447394.html?src=rss

We initially heard about a team modding an RTX remaster of Half-Life 2 last August. Today, NVIDIA released a trailer giving fans a behind-the-scenes look at Orbifold Studios' efforts to apply more modern graphics tools to the iconic title. The video highlights the RTX Remix engine and how the team is using it to make visual upgrades to a game with an engine two decades old. They have examples of how they're creating more dynamic light sources, volumetric fog in moody areas, and full 3D detail on the objects in the environment.The crew at Orbifold still doesn't have a release date for their work, but as the 20th anniversary for Half-Life 2 approaches on November 16, it's possible that there may be something official in the works from Valve. No, not Half-Life 3. But YouTuber and veteran Valve reporter Tyler McVicker noticed that there is a new, password-protected branch of the game in Steam. Just based on the number of new test builds that have been pushed out on that branch, the new update seems more involved than the one the company released to mark the 25th anniversary of Half-Life 1 last year. So if you're itching to pick up the gravity gun again, this weekend might be the time to do it.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/pc/heres-a-fresh-look-at-the-half-life-2-rtx-remaster-221321847.html?src=rss

Google will stop serving political advertisements in the European Union. The decision, announced in The Keyword blog, is in response to an upcoming new rule for the bloc that "introduces significant new operational challenges and legal uncertainties for political advertisers and platforms." The company says the Regulation on Transparency and Targeting of Political Advertising has an overly broad definition for political advertising and raised concerns that technical guidance around the policy may not be given until close to October 2025, when the rules will take effect.In addition to no longer serving that ad content ahead of next October, Google said that paid political advertisements will also not be allowed on YouTube in the EU. The company said that similar regulations have already led it to stop serving political ads in Canada, France and Brazil.Google's advertising and ad tech have been subjected to scrutiny by the European government in recent years. The company faced (but ultimately avoided) fines for "abusive" advertising practices in 2019, and last year was hit with antitrust accusations. And Google has also engaged in other eyebrow-raising behavior in the bloc. Just yesterday, the company began what it called a "small, time-limited test" to omit results from EU-based news publishers in search, Google News and the Discover feed.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/google-will-stop-serving-political-ads-in-the-eu-including-on-youtube-210604043.html?src=rss

Valve's Steam store is more than just a place to buy computer games online. It's an active community of gamers. Unfortunately, a sizable portion of those gamers are posting an unprecedented" amount of hateful, racist and anti-Semetic content on the gaming site's cyber social gathering place Steam Community, according to a report from the Anti-Defamation League.The organization found 1.83 million unique pieces of extremist or hateful content" from 1.5 million unique users in 73,824 groups. The content included explicitly anti-Semitic symbols" and tens of thousands of instances" of users showing support for foreign terrorist groups. The online gaming community even included an alarming number of copypastas," more than half of which were variations of Nazi swastikas.ADLThe report also found a significant number" of Steam avatars with hateful symbols. Investigators uncovered 827,758 users with extremist or racist-signaling avatar images including the cartoon character Pepe the Frog in Nazi regalia or adorned with stereotypical tropes and looks, swastikas, the white supremacist skull or siege" mask and the Nazi Eagle. Another 15,129 avatars contained images of flags, emblems or logos of terrorist groups, the majority of which referred to the jihadist group ISIS.The ADL even uncovered images that glorify violent extremists" and violent hate crimes. The report found references to and stills from tragedies like the 2019 Christchurch, New Zealand shooting and the stabbing of five people in Eskisehir, Turkey committed by an 18 year old wearing neo-Nazi imagery.Even the Collections" and Mods" community on the gamer gathering site contained hundreds of mods that contained hateful imagery. An unidentified user named after the Christchurch shooter Brian Tarrant took the Valve physics sandbox game Garry's Mod and made the Australian S**poster collection." The user recreated Tarrant's body armor look and posted screenshots implying the character is killing Muslims just as Tarrant did in 2019.ADLOther users utilized the Garry's Mod game to create maps that also celebrated tragedies like the Columbine High School shooting and the Tops supermarket white supremacist shooting in Buffalo. The maps inspired even more racist comments and reactions such as make synagogue next" and remember labs, subscribe to PewDiePie," a chilling reference to a comment Tarrant made on a livestream just before he committed his shooting.The ADL accused Valve, Steam's owner, of not taking enough action to remove or curb the use of these images in its communities. The report claims Valve has a highly permissive approach to content policy" and only took action in rare notable cases."Steam has selectively removed extremist content, largely based around extremist groups publicized in reporting or in response to government pressure," the ADL report says. However, this has been largely ad hoc, with Valve failing to systematically address the issue of extremism and hate on the platform."We've reached out to Valve for a comment on the ADL's report.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/adl-report-finds-steam-is-rife-with-racist-posts-and-images-203934592.html?src=rss

Amazon and PBS have entered a partnership that will bring content from the public media operation to Prime Video. More than 150 local PBS channels and the PBS Kids Channel will launch as a free ad-supported TV (or FAST) offering on Prime Video over the coming months. The press release from PBS noted that this is the first time this collection of programming will be available on a major streaming service for free.PBS Distribution is also launching two new FAST channels that will be available exclusively on Prime Video for a limited time beginning November 26. These channels are PBS Drama and PBS Documentaries. It seems Amazon is looking to focus on a lineup of FAST channels within Prime Video for free viewing, since the company announced that it is closing Freevee.Having yet another place to watch public media content is a happy development for PBS fans. The broadcaster recently launched a FAST channel with Roku called PBS Retro, specifically with shows from the 1980s and 1990s for those of us who want to dive into a little nostalgic escapism.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/pbs-programming-is-coming-to-prime-video-190443155.html?src=rss