RSS Reader
$rss = get::component('rss');
$articles = $rss->getFeed('https://www.engadget.com/rss.xml');
foreach ($articles as $article) {
echo $html->h2($html->link($article['link'], $article['title']));
echo $html->p($article['description']);
}
Live RSS feed output:
Microsoft's new college deal is a half-hearted answer to the $500 MacBook Neo
Apple's MacBook Neo is a $600 (or $500 for students) shot across the bow at affordable Windows laptops, and it seems like Microsoft has ready its first response. The newly announced "Microsoft College Offer" is a bundle of Microsoft 365 Premium, Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, custom Xbox controller and discounted laptop that the company thinks could woo students away from Apple's new deal.
With the purchase of a discounted machine directly from Microsoft, retailers like Amazon and Best Buy or PC makers like HP, ASUS and Acer, you can get what the company says is an extra $500 of value from its bundle. The laptop deals include a Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3x with a Snapdragon X chip, 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage for $500 from Best Buy, around $250 off the laptop's usual $750 price. Or if you wanted something even cheaper, Walmart is selling an HP Omnibook 3 for $429, a discount of $270 off its usual $699 price. Microsoft is less generous with the deals on its own laptops and tablets, but you can even get a discount on a Surface Laptop as part of the offer.
A discounted laptop is great, but where the value of the Microsoft College Offer gets harder to define is with the services the company is packing in. Getting what would normally be a $200 year-long subscription to Microsoft 365 Premium for free is a meaningful deal, but many colleges give their students access to Microsoft's apps (and other software) with the cost of their tuition. A year of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, which costs $30 per month as of October 2025, sounds like significant savings, but the offer is only valid for new subscribers. That leaves the free custom Xbox controller as the simplest bonus of the bunch, a value of around $76.
Windows PC makers are expected to make more serious attempts to compete with the Neo over the next year. For now, though, the Microsoft College Offer isn't exactly a bad deal, but it's certainly not as straightforwardly appealing as an Apple-quality laptop for $500 with a college discount.
The Microsoft College Offer is available to students starting April 15 and runs through June 30, 2026. Microsoft says redemption of the full bundle of services and accessories it’s offering needs to happen by July 31, 2026.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/laptops/microsofts-new-college-deal-is-a-half-hearted-answer-to-the-500-macbook-neo-215336362.html?src=rssFederal jury finds concert business Live Nation is a monopoly
Live Nation, which operates the Ticketmaster platform, has been determined to be a monopoly. A federal jury handed down its decision today that the company violated federal and state antitrust rules. This finding won't surprise anyone who has used Ticketmaster and been sticker-shocked by their final bill. However, it's unclear what the jury’s decision will mean in practice.
For starters, the judge overseeing the case hasn't determined what remedies will be applied. The actions could go as far as requiring Live Nation to sell off Ticketmaster. There are also monetary damages to be awarded, which haven't been set yet. And whatever the judge decides, it's likely that Live Nation will appeal the decision. In a statement released by Live Nation today, the company noted that there are other motions still pending that could also impact the jury's ruling. "Of course, Live Nation can and will appeal any unfavorable rulings on these motions," it said.
The Department of Justice and a group of state and district attorneys general sued Live Nation on monopoly claims in 2024. The government agency reached a settlement with Live Nation last month, but the other parties continued their action. There's also a separate case being waged by the Federal Trade Commission questioning whether Live Nation colluded with ticket resellers.
Update, April 15, 2025, 6:31PM ET: Added statement from Live Nation.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/music/federal-jury-finds-concert-business-live-nation-is-a-monopoly-203924011.html?src=rssPlayStation Plus April catalog adds include Horizon Remastered, Squirrel with a Gun and Frank Stone
For PlayStation Plus subscribers, April is going to be a little bit spooky, a tad sporty and extra squirrelly. PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium players will get access to The Crew Motorfest, Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered, Football Manager 26 Console, Warriors: Abyss, Squirrel with a Gun, The Casting of Frank Stone and Monster Train. Additionally,Wild Arms 4 will be exclusive to Premium libraries. Expect the full lineup to go live on April 21.
The Crew Motorfest, Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered, Warriors: Abyss and Wild Arms 4 will hit PS4 and PS5 consoles, while the rest of the month's additions are PS5 only. In the case of Horizon, PS4 players will receive Horizon Zero Dawn Complete Edition, rather than the PS5 remaster.
Horizon, The Crew and Football Manager are self-explanatory at this point in gaming history, but here's a quick rundown of the more underground titles on April's list: Warriors: Abyss is a hectic hack-and-slash roguelite from Koei Tecmo; Squirrel with a Gun is a silly yet competent third-person shooter from a two-man indie team; Monster Train is a much-loved demonic deckbuilder from Shiny Shoe and Good Shepherd Entertainment; and Wild Arms 4 is a PS2-era RPG from Japanese studio Media.Vision.
The Casting of Frank Stone is what PlayStation Plus was made for, in my estimation. It comes from Supermassive, a campy-horror studio that I'm quite fond of, but it's a crossover with Dead by Daylight, a game I've never played, despite a latent interest in its vibe. For whatever reason, Frank Stone never eclipsed other titles in my to-play pile and in the harsh light of 2026, I was on the verge of forgetting all about it. Now that it's being shoved in my digital face (complimentary), I'm ready to give it a go. And who knows, maybe it'll be a gateway into the rich world of Dead by Daylight.
Most of the games on this month's list can fit this description to some degree — minus the Dead by Daylight hook, unless you really squint at Monster Train — so it feels like a quality batch.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/playstation/playstation-plus-april-catalog-adds-include-horizon-remastered-squirrel-with-a-gun-and-frank-stone-194534366.html?src=rssThere's yet another study about how bad AI is for our brains
A group of researchers from across the US and the UK have conducted a study on what AI does to our brains and the results are, in a word, grim. These results were published in a paper called "AI assistance reduces persistence and hurts independent performance" which kind of tells you everything you need to know.
“We find that AI assistance improves immediate performance, but it comes at a heavy cognitive cost,” the study declares. Researchers went on to state that just ten minutes of using AI made people dependent on the technology, which led to worsening performance and burnout once the tools were removed.
The study followed people who use AI for "reasoning-intensive" cognitive labor. This refers to stuff like writing, coding and brainstorming new ideas, which are some of the most common use cases.
The researchers recruited 350 Americans, who were asked to complete some fraction-based equations. Half of the participants were randomly granted access to a specialized chatbot built on OpenAI's GPT-5 for help and the others had to go it alone. Halfway through the exam, the AI group had their access cut off.
This led to a steep decline in correct answers by the AI group and many instances of people simply giving up. This result, in which performance and perseverance both dropped, was repeated in a larger experiment with 670 people. Finally, the scientists performed one final experiment with reading comprehension questions, and not math. The results were more of the same.
“Once the AI is taken away from people, it’s not that people are just giving wrong answers. They’re also not willing to try without AI," Rachit Dubey, an assistant professor at the University of California and coauthor of the study, told Futurism. "People’s persistence drops."
Dubey went on to warn that rapid deployment of AI in the education sector could lead to a "generation of learners and people who will not know what they’re capable of, and then that will really dilute human innovation and creativity."
The study likens using the technology to the "boiling frog" effect, in which "sustained AI use erodes the motivation and persistence that drive long-term learning." These effects accumulate and "by the time they are visible, they will be difficult to reverse."
A recent study found that chatbots affected people’s critical thinking performance differently depending on how users engaged with the bots.https://t.co/IBbLLqrNdG
— Science News (@ScienceNews) April 15, 2026
There are two caveats here. The study has yet to be peer-reviewed. Also, researchers found one tiny bright spot regarding the use of AI. People who used AI tools for hints and clarification had a much easier time once the chatbot was removed when compared to those who used the bot to essentially prompt the answers.
This is just the latest study trying to get to the bottom of what AI is doing to our collective noggins. It has been found to increase fatigue among full-time workers who rely on the tools, which led to the term "AI brain fry." To that end, researchers discovered that employees who use AI actually end up working harder and longer than those old-fashioned luddites.
The results are even starker in the world of education. Studies have found that AI use in school leads to poor social and intellectual development and that kids who rely on chatbots tend to do worse on tests.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/theres-yet-another-study-about-how-bad-ai-is-for-our-brains-183418494.html?src=rssGoogle unleashes a native Gemini app for the Mac
Not content with stuffing Gemini into all of its own apps and services, Google wants you to adopt its AI assistant on desktops and laptops too. The company released a Gemini Windows app on Tuesday and it's following that up a day later with one for Macs.
Google says the macOS Gemini app is a "native desktop experience" that you can access with a keyboard shortcut. By default, pressing option and space will open a mini chat, while a combo of option, shift and space will open the full Gemini chat experience. You'll be able to adjust these bindings in the app settings.
Users will be able to share anything that's on their screen, including files they have saved on your system, with the chatbot and ask it questions about whatever they’re seeing. This can include anything from images to documents, and data to code.
There's an option to share full web pages with Gemini, not just what's on your display. The Gemini app also supports image and video generation with Nano Banana and Veo, respectively. The app is available on Macs that are running macOS 15 (i.e. macOS Sequoia) or later in all countries and languages in which Gemini is supported.
"We're building the foundation for a truly personal, proactive and powerful desktop assistant, with more news to share in the coming months," Michael Friedman, group product manager for the Gemini app, wrote in a blog post. That's intriguing, given that Apple's long-delayed, generative AI revamp of Siri may finally debut at WWDC in June. Apple's retooled chatbot, which is slated to have deep integration with macOS apps, is powered by Gemini models.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/google-unleashes-a-native-gemini-app-for-the-mac-170500185.html?src=rssRecteq X-Fire Pro 825 review: A smart grill that pulls double duty
Occasionally, you really can have it both ways. For the most part, pellet grills are great for smoking and mid-temperature cooking, but you’ll typically need other grills for high-heat searing and 1,000-degree temperatures(with a few exceptions). Sure, some pellet grills allow you to move the heat deflector for direct access to the fire pot for searing, but that’s still not a cooking experience that will be familiar to gas grill users.
With the X-Fire Pro 825 ($1,550), Recteq is putting its pellet grill expertise to work in a dual-mode design that’s meant to bridge the gap between gas and wood fire. Of course, this is a smart grill thanks to its Wi-Fi connectivity, and the backbone of this beast is undoubtedly a pellet grill. Plus, the company offers totally separate controls to avoid confusion between Smoke and Grill modes, all combined in a durable, all-stainless steel design. It’s the rare device that really is the 2-in-1 the company claims.
Design
All Recteq grills are made of stainless steel, but unlike the Deck Boss, Patio Legend and other models in the company’s lineup, the X-Fire Pro doesn’t have a powder coated lid. This isn’t a problem per se, but it does require extra care with cleaning and maintenance to avoid rust. Apart from the cast iron grill grates, the interior components are also stainless steel, so most of this grill is clearly built to last. When you combine that with the robust cart and premium casters that the X-Fire Pro sits on, this grill is one of the most well-designed I’ve reviewed.
Like most pellet grills, the X-Fire Pro has a digital controller mounted on the side. In this case, it’s situated on the front edge of a shelf on the left of the grill. Single-knob navigation allows you to set cooking temperature and food probe alerts, which can also be done via the Recteq app thanks to the grill’s Wi-Fi connectivity. The X-Fire Pro allows you to use two wired food probes simultaneously, but there’s no option for wireless probes. Recteq does sell wireless probes though, but they connect directly to the company’s app, not to the grill itself.
Rather than a traditional on/off switch, the X-Fire Pro is turned on with the far left knob on the front. To do so, you choose between the grill’s two modes, Smoke or Grill. If you select Smoke mode, the controller on the left will light up and you set your desired temperature between 225 and 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Personally, I prefer a slightly lower minimum temperature, around 180 degrees, to enable things like cold smoking or even mimic the Keep Warm feature that competitors like Traeger offer. In Grill mode, you can expect temperatures from 225-400 degrees on low, 350-650 on medium, 500-850 on high and 800-1,200 on max.
There are two fire pots inside the X-Fire Pro. The one on the left is used exclusively for Smoke mode while both can be used in Grill mode. I typically set the right side to a higher grilling temperature, since there’s an Adaptive Sear Control for direct access to the flame (there’s a dedicated knob on the front to control this). I would then leave the left side on low, which would give me a hot/cold setup like I would normally use on a gas grill. Of course, you can set both fire pots to the same heat level and use the entire cooking surface at the same temperature. You could also leave one of the fire pots completely off if you needed to do so.
Dual-mode cooking
Recteq promises that the X-Fire Pro is a pellet grill that will offer the best aspects of gas grilling with familiar knob-based controls. I agree that the large knobs are similar to what you’ll find on a gas grill, although you can’t fine-tune the heat like you can with gas burnersI didn’t find this problematic, though. Where Recteq surpasses propane or natural gas options is the fact that the X-Fire Pro entirely runs on wood pellets, so your food tastes much better. Just keep in mind that it’s a different flavor than charcoal.
During my testing, I unexpectedly spent most of my time using the X-Fire Pro in Grill mode. I cooked steaks, chicken, burgers, sausages and more, all of which tasted a lot better than they would have on a gas grill. Even at high temperatures, you still get some wood flavor, which helped elevate my sous vide New York Strips beyond a simple high-heat sear. Of course, I also had the option to open the Adaptive Sear Control for direct-flame finishing, which was absolutely the right move for steaks and burgers.
One important caveat about Grill mode is that the digital controller for Smoke mode completely turns off. You operate this mode entirely with the front-mounted knobs — just like you would a gas grill. As such, you don’t have access to the food probes or any Wi-Fi features that Smoke mode employs. I can understand why Recteq would want to keep the two modes separate, but I do wish there was a way to use the food probes to track internal temperature of things like steak and chicken, or any items where exact doneness is essential.
When it comes to smoking, the X-Fire Pro works just as well as any other pellet grills I’ve reviewed from Traeger, Weber and others. It’s very much a set-it-and-forget-it device, if you want it to be, which means you can put on a pork shoulder or a brisket early in the morning and it will be ready by dinner. But since the X-Fire Pro has two fire pots and therefore two smaller pellet hoppers instead of one larger one, each hopper’s capacity is limited to just10 pounds. While I had no trouble getting through an 8-hour smoke session with a full hopper (at 275 degrees), I wouldn’t feel comfortable with overnight cooks due to the reduced pellet supply. In Grill mode, though, a single full hopper on the right was always enough to get through a cook.
Recteq says the digital controller can maintain the set temperature in Smoke mode within five degrees. I found this to be true during all of my low-and-slow cooking, and the graph in the app confirms it. The only dips it showed corresponded to the times I opened the lid. This performance was consistent across multiple uses of the X-Fire Pro, although on one particularly cold and very windy day, I did see some greater fluctuations (there’s a warning about this in the user manual). Under normal weather conditions though, this grill is reliable at maintaining the desired cooking temperature in Smoke mode.
Other features on the X-Fire Pro
The main cooking surface of the X-Fire Pro consists of four removable cast iron grates. These are reversible with one side for general use and the other with wider bars for more apparent sear marks. There’s also a shallow top grate above the primary cooking area, perfect for resting foods when they’re done or warming buns in Grill mode. In Smoke mode, you could also put another rack or two of ribs up there, but it’s not big enough for larger cuts of meat.
Most pellet grills direct ash and grease to a catch pan of some sort. Since the X-Fire Pro has two fire pots, it has two ash removal trays on either side with levers to help with the debris. Like every other pellet grill, you’ll need to clean out some ash from the cooking chamber every few uses, and the best way to do that is with a shop vacuum. Recteq cautions against allowing grease buildup with Smoke mode, but I never found this to be a problem. That’s likely due to the fact that I used Grill mode between low-and-slow cooking sessions, so I probably burned off any excess residue. What’s more, I like to use aluminum pans for pork shoulders for easier cleanup, rather than placing them directly on the grates.
Like every other Wi-Fi-enabled pellet grill I’ve tested, the X-Fire Pro works with an app that allows you to control and monitor it from afar. You can keep tabs on both grill and food probe temperatures as well as turn the whole thing off. Recteq’s app also has more advanced features like temperature graphs, a 30-day cooking history and over 60 step-by-step guided recipes. Plus, you can save cooking sessions with notes for future reference and the app’s complete recipe book houses over 450 dishes. The company prides itself on the quality of its app, and I can confirm it’s the most reliable mobile software I’ve used during a smart grill review.
Now let’s discuss a few things you won’t find on the X-Fire Pro. First, there’s no option for a folding front shelf since the pellet hopper is front-mounted. The hopper lid gives you a slight ledge to rest the corner of a pan or tray, but it’s not enough to do any kind of wrapping or setting anything down completely. There’s also no interior lighting, which was probably the thing I missed most from other pellet grills. Sure, we can debate the utility of how some companies arrange these lights, but something is better than nothing, especially when you’re loading a grill before dawn or finishing a cook after dark.
The competition
While there are other pellet grills with direct-searing capabilities, none of those offer the dual-mode functionality of the X-Fire Pro. For example, several Pit Boss models have levers for open access to the fire box — or, as the company calls, it the Flame Broiler. Some companies offer open-lid modes, like Weber does on the Searwood, but not all of those designs allow you to get direct access to the fire. These grills also let you set a high searing temperature on the regular controls rather than giving you completely a separate operating method like Recteq does. Again, the appeal with the X-Fire Pro is something familiar to both pellet and gas grillers with controls best-suited for each style of cooking. And yes, the $1,550 price puts this firmly in the premium category, but when you consider it’s two grills in one, that amount doesn’t seem excessive.
Wrap-up
Rarely does a device live up to its billing as a double-duty workhorse. With the X-Fire Pro, Recteq has successfully combined the best aspects of pellet grills with a dedicated high-heat mode and separate controls that will be familiar to gas grillers. This model offers robust build quality, reliable performance and Wi-Fi connectivity for extended smoking sessions. The smaller pellet hoppers require slightly more vigilance, and there are a few features I’d love to see in the future, but Recteq has certainly bolstered its reputation for well-built smart grills with this dual-mode machine. I’d much rather keep tabs on my pellet supply than guess if my propane tank is empty.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/home/kitchen-tech/recteq-x-fire-pro-825-review-a-smart-grill-that-pulls-double-duty-170000586.html?src=rssSnap is laying off 16 percent of its workforce, blames AI
Snap is laying off around 1,000 staff, amounting to 16 percent of its workforce, which it will seemingly replace with AI. The cuts were announced in a company-wide memo from CEO Evan Spiegel, who added that more than 300 open roles are also being closed.
Spiegel said the "incredibly difficult" decision would likely save Snap more than $500 million by the second half of 2026, in turn helping it to "establish a clearer path to net-income profitability." Impacted staff were notified by email and the company’s North America-based team were instructed to work from home. Snap said it would provide four-month severance packages to those affected by the layoffs, as well as healthcare and other entitlements.
"While these changes are necessary to realize Snap’s long-term potential, we believe that rapid advancements in artificial intelligence enable our teams to reduce repetitive work, increase velocity, and better support our community, partners, and advertisers," Spiegel wrote. "We have already witnessed small squads leveraging AI tools to drive meaningful progress across several important initiatives, including Snapchat+, enhanced ad platform performance, and efficiency improvements in our Snap Lite infrastructure."
Snap laid off around 20 percent of its employees in 2022, with further cuts made in 2023 and 2024. It follows in the footsteps of a number of tech companies laying off employees in favor of AI in a move to boost efficiency, including Amazon, Fiverr, Microsoft and Pinterest in the last year. Snap is expected to launch the consumer version of its Specs AR glasses later this year, and recently span off the brand into its own business.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/snap-is-laying-off-16-percent-of-its-workforce-blames-ai-162456069.html?src=rssShoe company Allbirds pivots to AI compute in sign of a totally normal and healthy economy
The shoe company Allbirds, famous for its wool trainers, is pivoting to AI. You read that right. The San Francisco company has plans "to pivot its business to AI compute infrastructure, with a long-term vision to become a fully integrated GPU-as-a-Service and AI-native cloud solutions provider." It's also changing its name to NewBird AI.
This is subject to shareholder approval, with a vote scheduled for May 18. Once approved, the company will raise $50 million from an unnamed investor to assist with this enterprise. This money will be used for the "acquisition and monetization of graphics processing units, related high-performance computing infrastructure capable to support high workloads and other related assets." In other words, all of the things one would need to start an AI compute company.
Allbirds, the shoe brand, now says it's an AI compute company. pic.twitter.com/MRAG2LXyY9
— Tracy Alloway (@tracyalloway) April 15, 2026
Allbirds has always been known as an eco-friendly shoe company and, well, there's no real way to do AI while protecting the environment. The company plans on getting rid of any eco-friendly branding, with stockholders being asked to approve a charter amendment proposal to "remove references to the company being operated for the environmental conservation public benefit."
Investors absolutely love AI, despite rising public sentiment against the technology. To that end, the announcement that Allbirds was transitioning from shoes, a product category it has a decade of experience in, to AI compute, a product category it has no experience in, shot the stock up by over 400 percent. Financial Times has suggested this uptick will be short-lived and that retail investors should stay away.
Allbirds was once valued at $4 billion. It just struck a deal to sell most of itself for $39 million. https://t.co/DsX89JdtEM
— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) March 31, 2026
This pivot to AI cloud compute is surprising and, frankly, bizarre, but something drastic was bound to happen to Allbirds at some point. The shoe company was once riding high, with a valuation of around $4 billion as recently as 2021. It sold its shoe business and branding to an investment firm earlier this month for just $39 million.
Allbirds isn't the only company pivoting to compute in an effort to feed the hungry goblin called AI. Boom Supersonic is a startup trying to build the world's fastest airliner but has begun selling gas turbines to AI companies to power data centers. Many Bitcoin mining centers have pivoted to AI and it's worth remembering that NVIDIA's GPUs were once used primarily for PC gaming.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/shoe-company-pivots-to-ai-compute-in-sign-of-a-totally-normal-and-healthy-economy-161449196.html?src=rssTraeger debuts Westwood smart pellet grills that start at $700
Traeger gave backyard pit masters something more affordable last year with the Woodridge, but now the company is back with an even more budget-friendly option. With the Westwood series, the company offers very basic pellet grill functionality with a simplified controller and a no-frills design. You’ll still get Wi-Fi connectivity that works with the company’s app, and the Westwood grills are compatible with Traeger’s rail-based accessories. As you might expect at the $700 and $800 prices, there are a number of caveats compared to the company’s more expensive options.
The new Westwood grills have an even more streamlined controller than the Woodridge models. A button-based interface replaces the knob, with buttons for increasing and decreasing temperatures, both wired and wireless food probes, Wi-Fi and ignition. The side-mounted hopper has an 18-pound pellet capacity and there are shelves on the left side and underneath the cooking chamber. Inside, a two-tier setup offers either 653 or 823 square inches of cooking space, depending on which Westwood model you opt for.
The Westwood remains a set-it-and-forget-it device. The Wi-Fi connectivity allows you to keep tabs on cooking sessions from anywhere with the Traeger app. You can do everything from low-and-slow smoking to roasting and grilling with the 180-450 degrees Fahrenheit temperature range. There’s also a front rail for the company’s Pop and Lock accessories, which include a folding front shelf.
Of course, with the lower price comes a number of sacrifices. There’s no mention of Super Smoke or Keep Warm modes that Traeger offers on some of its more expensive grills. The Westwood only supports one wired food probe, so you’ll have to plan accordingly there. If you’re willing to spend an extra $80, these new grills do connect with Traeger’s wireless meat probe, so you at least have an option for additional food monitoring. Lastly, there’s no mention of a pellet sensor inside the hopper, which is a handy component for keeping track of your fuel supply.
While Traeger has consistently focused on midrange and premium pellet grills in recent years, the Westwood and Westwood XL are now the company’s most affordable options. These new grills will replace the popular Pro series in Traeger’s lineup. What’s more, new affordable options come at time when the company faces financial troubles and is currently in the midst of an ongoing restructuring.
The Westwood and Westwood XL are now available from grill retailers including Ace Hardware.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/home/kitchen-tech/traeger-debuts-westwood-smart-pellet-grills-that-start-at-700-160448450.html?src=rssThe Vivo X300 Ultra is a powerful camera phone aimed at videographers
Chinese phonemaker Vivo has been pushing the limits of smartphone photography in the last few years. However, the availability of its phones — like last year’s X200 Ultra, with its beefy add-on telephoto — has been intermittent in the West.
The company says the X300 Ultra its first global flagship launch, although there’s still no word on a US launch or pricing at the time of writing. Like the latest phones from Xiaomi and Oppo, Vivo is also obsessing over larger camera sensors, peripherals and a dizzying array of technical photography specs, with a particular focus on cinematic video recording.
Collaborating with Zeiss again, the X300 Ultra features a “triple prime lens” camera system with 85, 35 and 14mm equivalent focal lengths. This can be punched up to 400mm equivalent with a new telephoto extender, the messily-named Zeiss Telephoto Extender Gen 2 Ultra, whose price is also unknown for now.
Even without that add-on, Vivo has built its 85mm equivalent 200-megapixel telephoto camera to handle most of your zoom-heavy shooting moments. A “gimbal-grade” APO (apochromatic) camera is designed to correct color fringing and stabilize your shots. These are both typical issues when using higher zoom levels. In a dedicated “snapshot” mode, Autofocus tracking will even work at 60 fps, which I’m excited to test, as the phone can also shoot at up to 12 fps. Vivo says its optical image stabilization can correct up to three degrees of movement.
Other cameras are similarly powerful, spec-wise. The 35mm equivalent Zeiss “Documentary” camera uses a 1/1.12-inch 200MP Sony sensor and is apparently engineered for strong low-light performance and portrait shooting, with an f/1.8 aperture. Finally, there’s a 50MP ultrawide rounding out the camera lineup.
All three rear cameras support up to 4K 120fps 10-bit log video and the same in Dolby Vision. Vivo says the X300 Ultra will capture “film-like” color performance without the need for editing. If you want to dig into editing, however, it supports 10-bit log video for more dynamic range and color depth.
Vivo is going hard on video capture. The X300 Ultra's new “pro video mode" has an upgraded monitoring feature that supports users’ custom LUTs, showing a real-time preview of how it will look while recording in log. Vivo’s log format is also compatible with ACES workflow, making it easier to integrate the X300 Ultra alongside other cinema cameras.
To make it easier to use for hypothetical professional shoots, Vivo has collaborated with camera-peripheral maker SmallRig on a video-rig kit. This includes an expandable camera cage with quick-release ports (alongside multiple cold shoe mounts), dual handgrips and even a physical shutter control and zoom buttons. There’s also a cooling fan to keep the X300 Ultra recording at high resolution for extended periods.
It’s otherwise a flagship phone everywhere else, with a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen5 processor and a 6.82-inch display at 3,168 x 1,440 resolution, topping out at an industry-leading 144Hz refresh rate. The X300 Ultra also supports up to 100W FlashCharge and 40W wireless charging (with compatible Vivo chargers) and a huge 6,600mAh battery.
We’re planning to test the X300 Ultra in the very near future. At the time of writing, the company is keeping pricing and launch dates to itself. We’ll update this story once we hear those crucial details. It’s also likely to face immediate competition from sibling brand Oppo, which has also been teasing an ultra iteration of its latest flagship phone, the Find X9 Ultra.
For now, Vivo says the X300 Ultra will launch across Asia, as well as parts of Europe (Austria, Spain, Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Italy and Russia) and several other countries, including Brazil. And yep, no US, Canada or the UK on that list.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/vivo-x300-ultra-launch-powerful-camera-phone-availability-160008605.html?src=rssSpotify is selling books now
A collaboration between Spotify and Bookshop.org that allows readers to purchase physical books in the Spotify app is now live in the US and UK.
Rather than positioning audiobooks as the hard copy-killer, Spotify is encouraging you to see them as complimentary to one another. First announced back in February, the new partnership with Bookshop.org appears to be an acknowledgement from Spotify that physical still reigns supreme in the book world. Bookshop is a digital marketplace that enables indie booksellers to take their businesses online, and Spotify says any purchase made through its app will "directly support those bookshops and the authors who brought the story to life."
When viewing an audiobook on Spotify, where available you should now see a "Get a copy for your bookshelf" link that redirects you to the Bookshop.org website, which takes over the rest of the purchase and shipping process, reports TechCrunch. The feature is now live on Android, with iOS support arriving next week.
Key to this partnership is the new Page Match feature that Spotify launched in February, which allows readers to sync their progress between audiobooks and physical or ebooks so they can jump between formats seamlessly. When reading a paperback, you can use your phone camera to scan the page you reach and continue from that point in the audiobook. It also allows you to scan ereader pages so you can pick up when you left off in the audiobook, and vice versa.
Spotify has today expanded Page Match to support more than 30 new languages, including French, German and Swedish, while Audiobook Recaps are now available on Android. Introduced last year, initially for iOS users, these AI-powered audio summaries refresh you on your progress before you start reading, becoming available once you pass the 10-minute threshold in a book.
Spotify launched audiobooks in 2022 and now offers 15 hours of free listening time a month to Premium subscribers.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/spotify-is-selling-books-now-144340074.html?src=rssMost US teens say TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat aren't hurting (or helping) their mental health
Most teens in the United States say that Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat aren't harming their mental health, though a slightly higher proportion report negative effects on their sleep and productivity, according to a new report from Pew Research. The report offers fresh insights into how teens perceive the effects of social media at a time when there are increasing calls to ban younger teens from social platforms altogether.
The report is based on a survey of 1,458 teens between the ages of 13 and 17. Teens were asked about their use of Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok and how those apps affect them. Pew also asked the teens' parents to weigh in.
Relatively few teens reported negative mental health effects, with 9 percent of Snapchat and TikTok users and 11 percent of Instagram users saying they thought the services had hurt their mental health. More teens reported negative effects on sleep and productivity, however, especially when it comes to use of TikTok. Thirty-seven percent of teens said their use of the app had hurt their sleep and 29 percent reported that it had affected their productivity. Even so, the majority of teens responded that the apps had "neither helped nor hurt" their mental health, sleep or productivity.
A significant number of teens did say that social media apps had helped their friendships, particularly Snapchat. At the same time, the app had a "somewhat higher rate" of bullying and harassment compared with the other services.
While the self-reported data is hardly a definitive answer to whether social media is harming teens, the numbers do offer a somewhat different narrative than the one that lawmakers, regulators and other critics have used to pursue social media bans and civil litigation against major companies. Meta, Snap and TikTok are all facing lawsuits that claim the platforms have purposefully created addicting features and enabled other harms to teen users,
Perhaps unsurprisingly, when researchers surveyed those same teens' parents, they had a more negative view of the apps' impact on their children. About four in ten parents said that social media hurts their kids' sleep and productivity and about a quarter thought it hurt their mental health. Forty-four percent of parents whose teens use TikTok said they thought their child was spending "too much" time in the app.
"The share of parents who say the same of Snapchat and Instagram is lower," the researchers note. "But the same pattern continues for both, with parents being more likely than teens to describe their teens’ use of these sites as excessive."
The report isn't the first time Pew has polled teens on their relationship with social media. Last year, a separate report found that teens were becoming more worried about social media, though they were less likely to say they had been negatively impacted on a personal level.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/most-us-teens-say-tiktok-instagram-and-snapchat-arent-hurting-or-helping-their-mental-health-140000912.html?src=rssAdobe's Firefly AI Assistant works across Photoshop, Premiere and other apps
Few creative software companies have embraced AI like Adobe, with the company embedding image, video, audio and vector generation tools into nearly all its apps. Now, Adobe is taking on AI apps like Gemini's Nano Banana with its new prompt-based Firefly AI Assistant. You simply describe the outcome you want and it will execute "complex multi-step workflows" across Photoshop, Premiere, Lightroom, Illustrator and other apps to achieve that result, Adobe says.
The complexity of apps like Photoshop creates a "barrier to entry" for users who may have a vision but lack skill, according to Adobe. That's where the FireFly AI Assistant comes in. It works much like ChatGPT and other prompt-based AI assistants, but it has Adobe's suite of powerful apps behind it to execute the required steps. "You no longer have to map the process. You can start from the outcome," the company says.
Adobe emphasizes that while the Firefly AI Assistant is doing the grunt work, you remain in control. "You stay in the loop as the assistant executes, stepping in at any point to guide direction, adjust outputs and create something that's distinctly yours." It also maintains Adobe's native file formats, so the final output remains fully editable.
You'll be able to launch complex workflows with Creative Skills that let you run multi-step workflows from a single prompt, then customize them to your working style. For instance, you can start with the "social media assets" skill then direct the assistant to crop or use Generative Extend to make it fit the format of Instagram, Facebook and other platforms.
It can also handle context-aware creative decisions. In one example, Adobe describes a product photo set in a forest. "The assistant might give you a simple slider to increase or reduce the surrounding trees and foliage — making it easy to adjust the scene without complex edits," the company explains. Finally, to gather and act on feedback, the Assistant can organize and share work among team members via Adobe's Frame.io.
Adobe emphasizes that Firefly AI Assistant is grounded in the company's pro-grade creative tools to deliver "precise, context aware results" in a way that other AI agents can't and will learn your style over time. That's an argument the company no doubt hopes will counter a narrative that generative AI apps like Nano Banana are "eating software" like Adobe Photoshop. Adobe's Firefly AI Assistant will arrive in public beta in the coming weeks.
Should you wish to use other AI image generator within Adobe apps, the company has added Kling 3.0 and Kling 3.0 Omni, "all-purpose video models optimized for fast, high-quality production with smart storyboarding and audio-visual sync." That's on top of other models already offered, including Google's Nano Banana 2 and Veo 3.1, Runway Gen-4.5, Luma AI’s Ray 3.14, ElevenLabs’ Multilingual v2, Topaz Lab’s Topaz Astra and others.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/adobes-firefly-ai-assistant-works-across-photoshop-premiere-and-other-apps-130055883.html?src=rssAmazon's new Fire TV Stick HD is slimmer than ever and has no power adapter
After unveiling a 4K version of its Fire TV Stick Select at its hardware event last September, Amazon is launching the latest version of its HD dongle today. The Fire TV Stick HD costs $35, comes with Alexa+ built in and offers the redesigned experience that the company previewed at CES in January. It might be confusing, considering Amazon makes at least five different configurations of its streaming stick, but the model announced today comes in at the entry-level and brings some meaningful upgrades.
First, it’s about 30 percent narrower, according to the company, which makes it easier to fit into tight spaces (or to wedge between your TV and wall, perhaps). It comes with a short USB-C cable with a USB-A head that plugs into one of the USB ports on your TV, allowing it to draw power without the typically longer cables that would connect to wall adapters. To quote the company, the new Fire TV Stick HD is “optimized for Direct Power through a TV’s USB port, so it fits more neatly behind a TV without requiring a separate power adapter.”
But if your TV doesn’t have a USB port for that, you can still use a USB-C cable with a traditional wall adapter to power the new Fire TV Stick HD. Given how little power the USB ports on a TV provide, it's likely any old charger will do.
The new dongle also comes with other improvements like support for Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.3, and Amazon says it’s “more than 30 percent faster on average” compared to its predecessor, “which means it turns on and opens apps more quickly.” That, together with the redesigned layout, should make it easier to find what you want to watch.
And if you’re a Prime Member or subscribed to Alexa+, you can also ask the assistant for show recommendations, dim your lights or pick up where you left off on a Prime video in a different room, if you have a compatible TV set in there.
Amazon also said that “in the coming months,” it will add a “new Adaptive Display setting to the Fire TV Stick HD.” This is supposed to be an accessibility feature that makes onscreen elements like words, menus and images easier to see. The company said that it would proportionally scale content artwork while enlarging text and menus, so the overall experience is “more balanced.” Multiple size options will be available.
Like its predecessors, the Fire TV Stick HD is a pretty straightforward device that brings modern features to older TVs. At $35, it’s a relatively budget-friendly price, though we recommend springing for the 4K Max model if you have a bit more to spare. If not, the new Fire TV Stick HD will start shipping on April 29 to those in the US, the UK, Canada, Mexico, Japan, Australia and New Zealand, with more regions coming later.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/home/home-theater/amazons-new-fire-tv-stick-hd-is-slimmer-than-ever-and-has-no-power-adapter-130000885.html?src=rssAmazon's budget-friendly answer to the Frame TV will start shipping on April 22
When Amazon introduced the Ember Artline TVs in January, it didn’t have a specific date of availability to share. Now, the company is ready to supply the details: Pre-orders open today, and units ship on April 22 in the US and Canada, “with the UK and Germany to follow.” The company also announced a new version of its Fire TV Stick HD this morning, as well as some new features for its Fire TV software.
For those who don’t remember offhand, the Ember Artline is basically Amazon’s answer to Samsung’s Frame TV. It’s a matte, 4K QLED panel that can double as artwork when you’re not watching TV, and to that end, Amazon is including more than 2,000 pieces of art for free. That’s also part of the Fire TV package that comes on the new Fire TV Stick HD, so you don’t necessarily need an Ember Artline to access them.
In its press release, Amazon said “Our collection spans artistic movements and includes Impressionist classics by Monet, Degas, and Renoir, alongside contemporary works of street art, murals, mixed media, and photography. Customers also have access to 60 exclusive motion video pieces commissioned by documentary filmmaker Sam Nuttmann, who traveled the world capturing landscape and wildlife scenes.”
To make it easier to match the Ember Artline to your room’s decor, there are 10 frame color options to choose from, and the varieties I saw (a faux wood grain and a muted teal metallic finish) looked quite pleasant. If you really want some help finding artwork that will fit your space, Amazon’s “Match the room” feature might come in handy.
At a recent demo, I watched as the company’s representatives scanned a QR code from the TV to pull up the tool on their phone. There, they took three photos of the environment (surrounding walls and furniture, for example) and the system generated suggested pieces of art from the gallery. Using the TV remote, they were then able to choose from the recommendations on the big screen.
In my brief experience, the suggestions were typically quite good at matching the vibe, while offering a variety of styles (geometric, landscapes, modern etc) each time. According to the press release, “the AI tool will suggest artwork from our collection based on the room's colors, overall style, and any recurring themes in their existing artwork, including nature or travel photography.”
If you’d like a more personal touch, you can showcase your own photos instead by connecting your Amazon Photos account. You can also ask Alexa+ to
“play a slideshow of us biking in the mountains,” for example, to pull up memories ad hoc.
That’s not the only new feature coming to the Fire TV ecosystem, by the way. In addition to adding Alexa+ support and the new Fire TV UI it showed off in January, Amazon said that this month, it’s “adding another tool for US customers to seamlessly transfer a show or sports game by asking Alexa to move the content to another enabled Fire TV device in your home.”
So say you started watching a show in your bedroom and wanted to continue on the bigger screen in your living area. You could say “Alexa, move this to the living room.” The demo I saw took place on two Ember Artline TVs on adjacent walls, so the speediness was quite noticeable.
After the VP for Fire TV Aidan Marcuss asked the assistant to move the content over, the second TV picked up where the first left off in just about a second or two. Maybe real-world performance may vary but I can't imagine dashing from my bed to my couch in under three seconds just to avoid missing precious moments of The Boys drama.
For now, the feature is limited to Prime Video content, and Amazon said it plans “to roll it out to more services over time.”
The Ember Artline comes in 55-inch and 65-inch sizes and starts at $900. For context, Samsung’s The Frame (not the Pro versions) is available as a 32-inch model that costs $600, while the 65-inch configuration starts at $1,100 at the moment.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/home/home-theater/amazons-budget-friendly-answer-to-the-frame-tv-will-start-shipping-on-april-22-130000337.html?src=rssGodzilla goes to New York in 'Minus Zero' teaser trailer
Japanese entertainment company Toho has released a teaser video for Godzilla Minus Zero, the upcoming sequel to the award-winning film Godzilla Minus One. The teaser shows the famous monster next to the Statue of Liberty as it rampages across New York. Godzilla Minus Zero is set in 1949, two years after the events of the first film, and will be a direct sequel. You’ll see familiar faces from Minus One in the short trailer, as well, namely Koichi Shikishima and Noriko Oishi, two of the first movie’s main characters.
The kaiju flick was filmed specifically for IMAX with high-definition digital cameras. Even its audio was optimized for the massive screen’s immersive cinema experience. Minus One won an Oscar for Best Visual Effects, so expectations are high for this sequel. The good news is that this movie is also helmed by Takashi Yamazaki, who wrote, directed and oversaw the visual effects for Minus One. Godzilla Minus Zero is heading to cinemas in Japan on November 3 and in the United States on November 6 this year.
Sony is nerfing its Bravia TVs' program guide
Sony is removing some features from its TV guide and program guide displays for channels received by an over the air TV antenna on select models of Bravia televisions from 2023-2025. Cord Cutters News reported on the changes, which will take effect in late May.
Channel logos and thumbnail images in program descriptions are going away from the built-in TV Guide for antenna TV channels. Only programs from recently watched channels will be shown in the guide, and depending on the channel, program information may not be displayed. Change is also coming for set top box users, with the dedicated Set Top Box TV menu being removed and replaced by a Control menu. This setup will also not show program thumbnail images any longer.
This is an admittedly narrow use case in the age of both streaming and cable TV, but Sony didn't provide any reason for making the change. And for those people who are impacted, this could be an unpleasant surprise next month that makes the TV guide and program guide much less helpful.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/home/home-theater/sony-is-nerfing-its-bravia-tvs-program-guide-225640797.html?src=rssFCC just handed Netgear a de facto router monopoly in the US
The Federal Communications Commission has announced that Netgear has been given conditional approval that effectively exempts it from a previous ban on foreign-made networking routers. The conditional approval gives the company a de facto — though potentially temporary — monopoly on the selling and servicing of new consumer routers in the US.
"We're pleased to share that Netgear is the first retail consumer router company to receive conditional approval from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) as a trusted consumer router company," Netgear CEO CJ Prober said in a statement. "As a US founded and headquartered company, Netgear is aligned with the vision for a more secure digital future for our customers. For the last thirty years, we have been, and continue to be, committed to leading the consumer router category for the United States and setting the bar for quality, performance, innovation and security."
Both Netgear's lines of Nighthawk and Orbi mesh routers are covered by the approval until October 1, 2027, which appears to mean that the company can continue to offer software updates to both lines and presumably release and sell new models in the future.
The FCC dramatically expanded the Covered List, a collection of communications equipment seen as posing a risk to national security, to cover all foreign-made routers in March 2026. The decision prevents companies who make routers outside of the US from introducing new foreign-made models, and pushing certain software updates to existing models after March 1, 2027. Confusingly, though, it doesn't require anyone to replace their existing router or prevent those companies from selling routers they've already made. Receiving conditional approval is the definitive way companies can get off the list, but part of the FCC's requirements for approval is the company offering a plan to bring some or all of its manufacturing to the US — a theoretically costly decision.
Engadget has contacted Netgear for information about the US manufacturing plan it included in its application for conditional approval. We'll update this article if we hear back.
The vast majority of router companies, even ones that are headquartered in the US like Netgear, build their routers in Asia. It's not clear what makes Netgear's currently foreign-made routers safer than, say, an Amazon Eero 7 or a Google Nest WiFi Pro. Until other companies are given conditional approval, though, Netgear is in a unique position.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cybersecurity/fcc-just-handed-netgear-a-de-facto-router-monopoly-in-the-us-223712324.html?src=rssGoogle's new Windows app is yet another way to access Gemini
Google has introduced a new app for Windows desktops and, unsurprisingly, it puts AI front at center. If you aren't a big fan of Google's Gemini chatbot, then skip on past this download. For those of you who are heavy Gemini users, though, this could mean a simpler and more integrated experience on Windows machines.
Once installed, you can pull up the app's search bar with the Alt + Space shortcut. Queries typed into this open-ended search box can hunt down information from the web like typical Google search, where AI Mode will be enabled for an extra layer of artificial intelligence for follow-up questions or a deeper dive down a rabbit hole. But the app isn't limited to web search. It can delve into your computer's files, other installed apps or Google Drive files to retrieve information. Screen sharing is also built into the app, which enables using Google Lens to conduct AI-powered searches on content displayed on your monitor.
The app is rolling out globally today in English. Interestingly, this hasn't been gated to the most recent Windows 11, but it does require a machine running at least Windows 10.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/googles-new-windows-app-is-yet-another-way-to-access-gemini-214000564.html?src=rssNAACP sues xAI over data center pollution
The NAACP is suing xAI and a subsidiary called MZX Tech for allegedly operating unpermitted methane gas turbines to power its Colossus 2 data center in South Memphis. The association is asking the federal district court of the Northern District of Mississippi to declare that the company has violated the Clean Air Act, force it to stop using its unpermitted turbines and assess financial penalties against xAI for violating federal law, among other requests.
The lawsuit claims that xAI — the Elon Musk-founded AI startup now owned by SpaceX — is operating 27 gas turbines without an air permit to power Colossus 2, one of a growing number of data centers xAI has set up to train Grok, its AI assistant. Gas turbines expel pollution, hazardous chemicals and fine particulate matter that are linked to things like heart problems, respiratory diseases and even certain cancers, issues that are particularly concerning given Colossus 2's close proximity to people's homes. Operating these turbines without an air permit also violates the Clean Air Act, which requires sources of pollution to be permitted before being operated or constructed.
The NAACP is represented in the lawsuit by the Southern Environmental Law Center and Earthjustice. Before filing today's lawsuit, the NAACP sent xAI a 60-day notice of intent to sue in compliance with the Clean Air Act. xAI's failure to respond to the notice is why the lawsuit is moving forward today.
"xAI's continued operation of these turbines without a permit and without adequate pollution controls is not only illegal, it's an insult to families living nearby who for months have expressed serious concerns about how air pollution from the company's personal power plant could impact their health and well-being," Ben Grillot, a Senior Attorney for the Southern Environmental Law Center, said. "xAI must be held accountable for its reckless, unlawful actions — and that's exactly what this lawsuit aims to do."
Besides the high cost of sourcing the components that train and run AI models, AI companies often have to generate power to run the data centers where all those components are being installed. Oracle is reportedly turning to gas generators like xAI. Google, Meta and Amazon, meanwhile, have all invested in or signed deals with nuclear energy providers to power their data center efforts. Building new energy sources for data centers is one of several price-lowering methods proposed by the Ratepayer Protection Pledge, an agreement several tech companies signed to try and prevent data centers from raising the cost of the average person's energy bill.
Quickly building out new energy sources might help ease costs, but it doesn't account for the negative environmental impacts of having a new power plant in your neighborhood, something the Trump administration doesn't appear all too interested in addressing. In his latest AI framework proposal, President Donald Trump largely ignored the environmental impact of AI in favor of calling for the permitting process for things like on-site energy generators to be streamlined.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/naacp-sues-xai-over-data-center-pollution-213511352.html?src=rssWhat to expect from Google I/O 2026
We're sliding into developer conference season and one of the biggest events on the upcoming calendar is Google I/O. This year's edition is taking place on May 19 and 20. As usual, the in-person element will happen in Mountain View, California, though many of the keynotes and sessions will be livestreamed. Google will surely make its biggest announcements during the opening keynote, which will start at 1PM ET on May 19. A developer keynote will take place later the same day.
As ever, the rumor mill will pick up speed in the leadup to Google I/O. We do have some ideas about what Google will discuss at the event. So let's take a look at what to expect at Google I/O 2026 (we'll update this story as we hear more credible rumors).
What's officially on deck
When it confirmed the dates for this year's I/O, Google revealed a little bit about what it has in store for us. As you might imagine, AI will be a major focus of the event. Google plans to share its "AI breakthroughs and updates in products across the company, from Gemini to Android, Chrome, Cloud and more," it wrote in a blog post in February.
There will be news on Gemini model updates as well as agentic coding. Google will have some product demos too.
The company has released its initial schedule of keynotes and sessions, but it doesn't provide us with a lot of specifics as yet. It has lined up discussions on what's new in the likes of Google Play, Firebase (a mobile and web app development platform), the Gemma open model family and the open-source app development framework Flutter. Interestingly, there isn't a dedicated session for Android XR on the schedule just yet.
What to expect
There haven't been many credible leaks ahead of Google I/O as yet, but we can make some educated guesses about what to expect from the event. It's all but certain that we'll get more details about Android 17 at I/O. Developers need time to tweak their apps ahead of the next major version of the operating system rolling out to everyone if they want to take advantage of new features as soon as possible, and they invariably get a heads up about those at I/O every year. (That said, Google has been moving away from a big annual release approach in favor of juicier Pixel Drops/Android updates, so we may not see some of the new features it unveils at I/O for some time.)
As for other operating systems, Google is planning to meld ChromeOS and Android into a unified platform. This seems to be the project that's being referred to as Aluminium OS, which we got a first glimpse of earlier this year thanks to some leaks. I/O seems like the perfect venue for Google to start showing that off to the public.
On the AI front, a reveal of Gemini 4 could be on the docket, along with details of the latest Veo text-to-video model. Maybe we’ll hear more about Project Astra, Google’s pitch for a universal AI assistant.
If Google has some consumer hardware to show off at this year's event, I suspect it'll be an Android XR device or devices, rather than a Pixel phone or watch. There is a chance that we'll get a tease of the Google Pixel 11 lineup. But don't be surprised if we don't see that or the Pixel Watch 5 until Google's dedicated hardware event, which has taken place in August or October in recent years (Google will want to stay well away from Apple's iPhone event, which will likely take place in September as usual).
Here’s hoping for a big surprise or two
Sure, Android updates are all well and good. If Google insists on cramming Gemini and other AI tools into all of its tools and services, we’ll at least listen to what they have to say about all that.
But I have my fingers crossed for some cool surprises. Give us something new from Google X (Alphabet’s moonshot factory, not the thing that was once Twitter), an idea that could be a net benefit for humanity and boost the company’s bottom line at the same time. These events are always more fun when there’s something for us to get genuinely excited about, even if it’s something relatively niche but out there, like the Google Beam 3D video conferencing tech.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/what-to-expect-from-google-io-2026-200252914.html?src=rssLeague of Legends' new WASD control scheme will be enabled for ranked later this month
Riot Games released a pile of updates for its long-running MOBA League of Legends. One of the more noteworthy changes coming to the game is the official launch of WASD controls. This alternate option, allowing players to traverse the rift by keyboard rather than by mouse, is rolling out to ranked matches in patch 26.9.
Riot first announced that it was pursuing support for WASD controls last August. The studio said it wanted to ensure that the alternate control scheme wasn't more powerful than point-and-click movement; Riot said it was targeting a low win-loss rate difference between the options before releasing it to League players. "There's still a small delta in the win-rates between the control schemes, with Point and Click having a minor advantage," according to today's devlog dedicated to this new feature. "We expect that difference will decrease over time as players gain more mastery with WASD, but we will continue to monitor this stat in the future."
That blog post goes into more detail about how the team tested and gauged community responses to WASD, which is pretty neat stuff if you're a game dev nerd. League will be receiving a few new accessibility improvements, such as custom inputs for moving the mouse cursor and some new flexibility for keybinds, along with the new control scheme. Although Riot was clear to say that it's not adding official support for controllers or gamepads, players will be able to use WASD controls with a joystick.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/league-of-legends-new-wasd-control-scheme-will-be-enabled-for-ranked-later-this-month-193858052.html?src=rssMicrosoft raises prices on Surface PCs due to skyrocketing RAM costs
The RAMpocalypse continues. Microsoft just revealed significant price increases across the entire Surface line of products, according to reporting by Windows Central. The updated pricing has already hit the official Microsoft Store, with other retailers expected to follow suit in the near future.
These are fairly significant upticks. For instance, the base model 15-inch Surface Laptop 7 now starts at $1,600. It cost $1,300 when the laptop was first released back in 2024. It did receive a price increase last year to $1,500, so today's increase tacks on another $100.
The cost balloons even further when upgrading components, as a top-end Laptop 7 with a Snapdragon X Elite, 64GB of RAM and 1TB of SSD storage now costs a whopping $3650. As a comparison, a 16-inch MacBook Pro with an M5 Pro, 64GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD comes in at $3,300, and the M5 Pro blasts the Snapdragon X Elite out of the water.
This trend continues with the Surface Pro line of hybrid computers. The 12-inch Surface Pro starts at $1,050, after launching at just $800. The flagship 13-inch Surface Pro cost $1,000 in 2024 and now starts at $1,500. That's a $500 increase in just two years, though the base hard drive did get a bit bigger.
These price increases are, of course, being blamed on generative AI's penchant for eating up RAM and related components. "Due to recent increases in memory and component costs, Surface is updating pricing on Microsoft.com for its current‑generation hardware portfolio," Microsoft wrote in a statement.
Industry reports have also indicated that the company is currently readying refreshes across the Surface line. It's highly likely these new prices will stay in place if component prices don't decrease.
Motorola slapped sudden price increases on the Moto G series right after its new model went live https://t.co/00DzRHXK0f by @chaosromero
— 9to5Google (@9to5Google) April 8, 2026
These aren't the first devices that have shot up in price due to AI. Motorola recently instituted increases that even impacted its budget-friendly phones. Samsung has also pushed up the cost for its Galaxy Z Fold 7.
The PS5 is now much more expensive when compared to the 2020 launch price, though Sony didn't explicitly blame these increases on RAM, but rather "continued pressures in the global economic landscape." There are also rumors that the continued RAM shortage has made it difficult for Valve to manufacture the Steam Deck and likely pushed back the release of the Steam Machine to 2027.
VDURA hikes its enterprise SSD pricing, now costs 22.6x more than hard drives — the price of a 30TB SSD has climbed 472% https://t.co/iDOZYMtQbB
— Tom's Hardware (@tomshardware) April 10, 2026
SSDs have also shot up in price, with old-school HDDs not far behind. It's getting thorny out there.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/microsoft-raises-prices-on-surface-pcs-due-to-skyrocketing-ram-costs-181648588.html?src=rssChrome Skills let you save your favorite Gemini prompts for easy access
Gemini in Chrome is about to get a small but handy upgrade. Starting today, Google is rolling out a feature it calls Skills to Chrome on desktop. Skills allow you to save your favorite Gemini in Chrome prompts for quick access, thereby making it easier and faster to repeat certain tasks. For instance, Google suggests you could use one saved prompt to get Gemini to calculate how much protein there could be in a new recipe you found online. Another Skill can make it easier to do a side-by-side spec comparison of a few different products you're looking at across multiple tabs.
You can save prompts you want to use again directly from Gemini in Chrome's chat history. To use a saved prompt, type forward slash or click the plus button and select the Skill you want to use. To help people get started, Google is providing a set of ready-to-go prompts you can use to save time on common workflows or as a jumping off point for your own Skills. Skills you save are available on any version of Chrome for desktop where you're signed into your account, though for the time being, Google is only rolling out the feature to people who have their browser language set to US English.
Gemini in Chrome, like its other AI tools, has become a major area of focus for Google in recent months. At the start of the year, the company rolled out an update that saw the addition of a dedicated Gemini sidebar to Chrome and access to Nano Banana image generation directly from said sidebar. More recently, Google began rolling out Gemini in Chrome to users in Canada, India and New Zealand. As the high-stakes AI race countinues to heat up, expect more features in that vein, though we may still get more traditional enhancements — like vertical tabs — from time to time.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/chrome-skills-let-you-save-your-favorite-gemini-prompts-for-easy-access-170000683.html?src=rssSony Inzone's latest monitor boasts a blazing 720Hz panel for competitive gamers
Super fast gaming displays have grown in popularity recently following the release of several new models back at CES. Now Sony is hopping on that bandwagon with its latest display featuring a tandem OLED panel from LG that offers the choice of either 540Hz or 720Hz refresh rates.
That said, priced at $1,100, the new 24.5-inch Sony Inzone M10S II is only for the most dedicated and deep-pocketed gamers. In normal use, the monitor offers a 540Hz refresh rate at QHD (2,560 x 1,440). However, in competitive situations where that still might not be enough, the display can go even faster by reducing its resolution to 720p while boosting its refresh rate all the way up to 720Hz. On top of that, to help make visuals clearer, Sony added a new Motion Blur Reduction algorithm with Black Frame Insertion that boosts brightness while still delivering a response rate of just 0.02ms.
Elsewhere, a new Super Anti-Glare film helps reduce reflections. The company also used feedback from pro gamers to create a stand with a smaller footprint and a wider range of tilt adjustability (from -5 to 35 degrees). For those worried about the panel's long-term performance, the Inzone M10S II comes with a three-year warranty and OLED protection features like a custom heat sink.
Aside from its new monitor, Sony is also releasing a pair of open-back wired headphones in the Inzone H6 Air. Priced at $200, they are based on the company's well-known studio monitor headphones — the MDR-MV1 — but with some additional tweaks for gaming. Not only is it really light at just 199 grams (not including its detachable cable and boom mic), it also features a dedicated RPG/Adventure profile designed to improve clarity and environmental details. The one caveat is that to access this mode, you need to use Sony's USB-C Audio box, which offers additional features like virtual 7.1 surround sound and support for 360-degree spatial audio.
Finally, while they aren't brand new, Sony is releasing a translucent Glass Purple version of its Inzone wireless gaming earbuds that conjures up nostalgic memories of Nintendo’s Atomic Purple N64, along with Fnatic Editions of its Mouse-A, Mat-F and Mat-D peripherals.
All of Sony's new gadgets are available today, aside from the Inzone M10S II monitor, which is due out sometime later this year.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/pc/sony-inzones-latest-monitor-boasts-a-blazing-720hz-panel-for-competitive-gamers-165008263.html?src=rssSamsung's new Micro RGB TVs start at $1,600 for a 55-inch model
Samsung just released its lineup of Micro RGB TVs for 2026, and it includes models that start at 55 inches and go up to 85 inches. These 4K sets feature the company's Micro RGB display technology, which uses thousands of little red, green and blue LEDs to minimize color bleed and enable "expanded color with pinpoint accuracy."
The display is assisted by a new AI processor that has been specifically designed to calibrate the picture to bring out all of that gorgeous color. The company says this results in "stunningly sharp images with incredible detail." The processor also assists with motion smoothing, in addition to handling all of those smart TV apps.
These displays support HDR10+ Advanced, which is an updated standard co-developed by Samsung. This ensures genre-based optimization and enhanced brightness, among other features.
The TVs are split into two lines. The R95H is the beefier of the two, with access to Samsung's anti-glare technology and a 165Hz refresh rate. The R85H tops out at 144Hz. All models include Dolby Atmos sound and the ability to pair up to five Samsung sound devices via its Q-Symphony technology.
They can also all access Samsung's Art Store, which is a platform that originally launched alongside the company's The Frame display. This lets subscribers choose from thousands of art pieces which will then be displayed on the screen when it's not being used to watch TV or play video games.
The R95H line starts at $3,200 for a 65-inch model, going all the way up to $6,500 for an 85-inch display. Samsung promises a 100-inch version is coming later this year. The R85H line is cheaper, starting at $1,600 for the 55-inch release and shooting up to $4,000 for the 85-inch model. The TVs are available right now, directly from Samsung and from retailers like Best Buy.
The company recently did manufacture an absolutely massive 130-inch Micro RGB display, which it brought to CES 2026. However, this was just a concept design.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/home/home-theater/samsungs-new-micro-rgb-tvs-start-at-1600-for-a-55-inch-model-150023242.html?src=rssGoogle Search tackles sites that try to stop you from leaving when you hit the back button
Websites that act like a super-chatty colleague who just won't shut up and let you go when a conversation should be over are among the most annoying things on the internet. Google is now doing something about that scourge.
Picture the scene: you look up something on Google Search and — instead of relying on potentially hallucinating AI Overviews — you click through to an actual website for your information. But, when you try to leave the site by hitting the back button, your browser doesn’t immediately take you back to the previous webpage. Instead, the website first displays an "oh, while you're here..." page that suggests other content in which you may be interested in checking out or just a bunch of ads.
This shady move that some traffic-hungry websites have adopted is called "back button hijacking." No one in their right mind likes it, and nor does Google.
Under a new policy that 9to5Google spotted, Google will treat back button hijacking as an "explicit violation of the 'malicious practices' of spam policies" alongside the likes of malware. As such, it may punish websites that engage in such practices by treating them as spam and downranking them in search results.
"Back button hijacking interferes with the browser's functionality, breaks the expected user journey and results in user frustration," Chris Nelson, from the Google Search Quality team, wrote in the announcement. "People report feeling manipulated and eventually less willing to visit unfamiliar sites. As we've stated before, inserting deceptive or manipulative pages into a user's browser history has always been against our Google Search Essentials."
Google says it has seen an increase in back button hijacking and it’s great that the company is taking steps to combat it. Developers and website operators have until June 15 to make sure they aren't interfering "with a user's ability to navigate their browser history" by engaging in the practice. Google will start enforcing this policy then.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/general/google-search-tackles-sites-that-try-to-stop-you-from-leaving-when-you-hit-the-back-button-143302862.html?src=rssOpenAI buys its second startup in a month
OpenAI has acquired Hiro Finance, a startup that offers AI-powered financial planning tools. As first reported by TechCrunch, fiscal terms of the deal, which was announced on Monday, were not disclosed by OpenAI. However, all signs point this to being an acquhire, with Hiro founder Ethan Bloch writing on LinkedIn that the company's product would stop working on April 20. Users have until May 13 to migrate their data off of Hiro's servers before everything is deleted.
It's unclear if OpenAI plans to offer a dedicated financial planning tool in the mold of Hiro. At the start of the year, the company released Prism, a Claude Code-like app for scientific research that built on its acquisition of the startup behind Crixet. At the very least, it sounds like some of the expertise Hiro has built will make its way to OpenAI's chatbot. "For decades, personalized financial guidance has been too expensive, too generic, or too hard to access. ChatGPT is finally changing that," Bloch wrote on LinkedIn.
The deal is the second acquisition in only two weeks to be announced by OpenAI. At the start of the month, the company bought Technology Business Programming Network (TBPN), a media company known for its daily tech podcast. For a company that has by all indications a long and tough road ahead to profitability, it sure does seem OpenAI is spending a lot of time and money on startups that might not end being central to its core business, which in recent months has seen it target the coding market to edge out Anthropic.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/openai-buys-its-second-startup-in-a-month-140550769.html?src=rssAmazon buys the satellite internet company behind Apple’s SOS system
Amazon has today announced it is merging with satellite internet provider Globalstar Inc. to bolster Leo, its Starlink rival. Globalstar isn’t a household name but you do know its work, as it provides Apple’s emergency satellite connectivity for compatible iPhones and Watches. In a statement, Amazon says the deal will grow Leo’s space-based footprint and enable direct-to-device service for its burgeoning satellite network.
An interesting wrinkle is Apple owns 20 percent of Globalstar, which it bought for $1.5 billion in 2024, but that didn’t get a mention. Instead, the release says Amazon and Apple have agreed Leo will “power satellite services for supported iPhone and Apple Watch models.” And that this support will continue as Leo’s network evolves, as well as collaborating “with Apple on future satellite services using Amazon Leo’s expanded satellite network.”
The release adds Leo’s direct-to-device service won’t start until 2028, and the deal itself isn’t expected to close until 2027. That is, of course, unless Amazon doesn’t placate the FCC into extending its deadline to get more satellites into orbit before July 2026. At present, the company needs to have 1,600 satellites in orbit by that deadline, but only expects to have around 700 actually up in the heavens and working by then.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/general/amazon-buys-the-satellite-internet-company-behind-apples-sos-system-130150744.html?src=rssGoPro's Mission 1 offers 8K 60p video and interchangeable lenses
GoPro has seen its action camera market share diminish due to strong competition from rivals like Insta360 and DJI of late. Now, the company is fighting back with a new line of flagship cameras called Mission 1, designed to greatly improve the video quality offered by its current Hero 13 camera. The company also introduced a new Wireless Mic system similar to DJI's Mic Mini, along with a point-and-shoot grip and other accessories.
"The combination of our new 50 megapixel one-inch sensor and ultra-efficient GP3 processor sets a new performance bar for compact cinema cameras, enabling resolutions, frame rates, low-light performance, runtimes and thermal capabilities never seen before in cameras this small," GoPro's senior VP Pablo Lema said in a statement.
The new line includes three models: the Mission 1, Mission 1 Pro and Mission 1 Pro ILS. All have a one-inch 50-megapixel sensor, new GP3 processor and up to 8K video, but the Mission 1 Pro supports higher frame rates. The Mission 1 Pro ILS (interchangeable lens system) comes with a lens mount so you can use high-quality Micro Four Thirds lenses from the likes of Panasonic and OM System.
The Mission 1 has an updated lens design with a 159 degree native field of view, the widest in its category. It also features a new OLED rear display that's 14 percent larger than previous flagship GoPro cameras, along with bigger raised buttons for easier use with gloves and a removable lens hood to reduce glare and lens flare.
The 50MP 1-inch sensor has large 1.6μm pixels at full resolution or 3.2μm fused pixels when it's in operating at 4K in quad-bayer mode. That allows for higher dynamic range up to 14 stops and improved low-light performance with "exceptional detail in the darkest of shadows while protecting highlight details," GoPro claims. That low-light performance is likely to be better in quad-bayer 4K mode than full resolution 8K, however.
Meanwhile, the new GP3 Processor offers a power-efficient 5nm design that allows "best-in-class resolutions, frame rates and image quality," the company says. Those resolutions include 8K at up to 60 fps for the Mission 1 Pro/Pro ILS models, 4K at up to 240 fps and 1080p at up to 960(!) fps. GoPro also offers 10-bit HLG/HDR and a 10-bit GP-Log2 mode to maximize dynamic range.
The Pro models support 4:3 open gate capture so you can easily reframe shots or export video for different platforms. The Mission 1, meanwhile, captures up to 8K 30 fps, 4K 120 fps and 1080p 480 fps video, along with 4K 120 fps open gate video. You can capture 50MP RAW stills at up to 60 fps burst speeds on all Mission 1 models.
The lineup promises excellent battery life thanks to the new Enduro 2 battery, with three-plus hours of 4K 30p recording on a charge. You can use the Hero 13 batteries as well albeit with shorter recording times. The company is also promising faster charging speeds. Thermal performance is solid despite the small size, with 8K 60p capture possible for 37 minutes straight with no airflow, or 74 minutes with airflow (when riding a bike for instance). However, unlike recent rivals, the Mission 1 supports microSD storage but has no internal memory.
Like its DJI and Insta360 rivals, the Mission 1 cameras offer multiple intelligent capture modes, including subject tracking, Dive (underwater stabilization) and Low-Light, along with Slow-Mo, Lapse, Sport POV, Vlog and Open Gate. GoPro action cams generally have excellent stabilization, so it'll be interesting to see if the Mission 1 series continues that trend, especially in low-light conditions.
GoPro isn't skimping on audio either, as the Mission 1 models offer a four-mic system with 32-bit float along with stereo recording and wind noise reduction. You can connect wirelessly to compatible devices via Bluetooth 5.3 or wired mics over USB-C audio.
The Mission 1 Pro ILS appears to be the first action camera with an interchangeable lens mount that's compatible with any Micro Four Thirds lenses and adapters. GoPro's HyperSmooth electronic video stabilization will work with any prime (non-fisheye) lens. It's "the world’s smallest, most rugged and versatile high-speed cinema camera at a fraction of the cost and size of comparable cameras," GoPro said. Most lenses will likely make the camera too heavy and awkward to attach to a helmet or body, but you could certainly mount it to a motorbike, car or other vehicle.
Along with the Mission 1 cameras, GoPro is introducing some new accessories. Key among those is the new Wireless Mic System designed for easy pairing with the Mission 1 cameras, along with DSLRs and smartphones. With a charging case and magnetic clips, it looks a lot like DJI's Mic Mini system and offers 24-bit/48kHz audio with Dynamic Noise Reduction, 150 meters of wireless range, 6.5 hours of run time, adjustable gain and a safety track mode.
Other accessories include a Media Mod kit with a built-in multi-pattern mic and expanded I/O capability including 3.5mm mic and headphone ports, a micro HDMI port and a line-in port for timecode sync. GoPro is also offering a new Point-and-Shoot grip, M-Series ND Filters, a protective housing, a dual Enduro 2 battery charger, Volta battery grip and Light Mod 2 LED light. It's compatible with a GoPro subscription and Quick App, along with GoPro Labs that lets you unlock higher data rates (up to 300Mbps) and over 1,000 complex settings.
The new models will be available individually or in kits, including the Mission 1 Pro Creator Edition bundled with the Media Mod, Wireless Mic System and Volta battery grip. The Mission 1 Pro Ultimate Creator Edition includes those while adding GoPro's Fluid Pro AI gimbal and Light Mod 2. Pricing and availability will be announced at a later date.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cameras/gopros-mission-1-offers-8k-60p-video-and-interchangeable-lenses-130018643.html?src=rssAlienware 27 (AW2726DM) QD-OLED monitor review: A budget PC gamer's new best friend
The price of nearly every type of gaming gadget has skyrocketed recently. RAMageddon has caused the cost of memory to double or triple in the last six months, with companies like HP saying that RAM now accounts for more than a third of a new PC’s bill of materials. Meanwhile, the Xbox Series S/X and the PS5 have gotten price hikes, and a similar bump for the Switch 2 is starting to look “inevitable.” Even mobile devices are not immune, with Samsung jacking up the cost of the Galaxy Z Fold 7 nine months after release. But with the $350 27-inch QD-OLED (AW2726DM), Alienware hasn’t just created a gaming display that’s an excellent value, it’s made a beacon of hope for anyone looking to upgrade their setup without emptying their bank account.
Design
Unlike some of Alienware’s more expensive displays, the AW2726DM’s design couldn’t be simpler. It sits on a square 8.75-inch base that supports tilt, pivot and height adjustments. Though it does require a little assembly, everything you need comes in the box. Alienware’s monitor arm attaches via a captured thumb tab, while the monitor relies on four screws and a VESA mount that can be connected using the bundled Philips wrench. (Though if you have a proper screwdriver, that would be even better.) Setup only took me a few minutes and after arranging it properly on my desk, the monitor felt quite solid. The only potential drawback is that if you have limited desk space or you’re the kind of gamer that likes jamming your keyboard as close to your monitor as possible, Alienware’s stand might get in the way.
At around 4mm thick, the AW2726DM’s panel is exceedingly sleek, though naturally that expands a bit on the lower portion of the monitor where its ports are located. This brings us to one of the biggest differences between Alienware’s budget display and more premium options: limited connectivity. All you get here is two HDMI 2.1 jacks, one DisplayPort 1.4 slot and a 3.5mm plug for audio out. There’s no support for data transfer, power sharing or anything else. Heck, there isn’t even any RGB lighting, which feels weird on a product from Alienware. But given its price, I’m not upset. In fact, it’s actually kind of refreshing. Finally, there’s a handy control stick on the back of the display for navigating its on-screen menu.
Visuals
The AW2726DM features a QD-OLED panel supplied by Samsung that comes with a QHD resolution (2,560 x 1,440) and up to a 240Hz refresh rate. Alienware supports VRR via AMD FreeSync Premium and VESA AdaptiveSync, though sadly there’s no native option for NVIDIA G-Sync. That means if you have a GPU from Team Green and want to take full advantage of the monitor’s potential, you’ll want to rely on that DisplayPort for optimal compatibility.
Regardless, for a $350 gaming display, the AW2726DM checks all the most important boxes and it looks fantastic. Alienware’s budget monitor showcases the strengths of OLED panels versus LCD, even when compared to Sony’s Inzone M9, which was a much more expensive monitor when it debuted back in 2022. Alienware offers richer colors (it covers 99 percent of DCI-P3), and thanks to its deep inky blacks, contrast is significantly better as well.
The one big drawback is that, with a typical brightness of 200 nits, the AW2726DM is dimmer than more expensive rivals. That means the monitor doesn’t have fancy certifications for stuff like VESA True Black and instead relies heavily on general HDR10. Furthermore, Alienware chose a glossy (and quite reflective) finish that makes colors look even more saturated while improving perceived brightness. The one thing you need to watch out for is glare, especially if your PC or console lives in a room that gets a lot of sunlight. But if you’re like a lot of gamers that prefer to frag at night or in the dark, this may not be an issue.
Outside of gaming, there’s another shortcoming of the AW2726DM. Between its QHD resolution and the arrangement of Samsung’s QD-OLED subpixels, folks with good eyesight may notice a little fringing, especially when compared to higher-res 4K displays. This means some Word docs and web pages may not look quite as sharp as you’d like, but that’s a small price to pay for some of the best visuals you can get on a gaming monitor in this price range.
Warranty and care
One of the major concerns about OLED displays when they first hit the market was the potential for burn-in, resulting in permanent damage to the panel from things like static UI elements staying on the screen too long. Thankfully, the AW2726DM comes with a three-year warranty that includes a clause covering burn-in, along with a free panel replacement in case there’s even a single bright pixel. Furthermore, Alienware uses a graphite film heatsink and an AI algorithm to prevent any sort of ghosting from appearing in the first place.
Wrap-up
The AW2726DM might not have all the fancy features you get on more expensive monitors, but it’s an excellent example of a no frills gadget done right. You get just enough ports, a straightforward design and a beautiful QD-OLED panel with a solid resolution and refresh rate — all for just $350. It would certainly be nice if it was a little brighter or if text looked a touch sharper, but those shortcomings are pretty easy to live with. For anyone looking to upgrade what might be arguably the second most important part of your gaming setup (your screen is your window into new worlds after all), this display is budget gold.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/pc/alienware-27-aw2726dm-qd-oled-monitor-review-a-budget-pc-gamers-new-best-friend-130000287.html?src=rssYou can attend Pokémon EDM shows in Los Angeles and London
If you love Pokémon and electronic dance music, the Pokémon Company made the perfect event for you. As part of Pokémon’s 30th anniversary festivities, the company is holding EDM concert experiences called “Pokémon Night Out” in Los Angeles and London. American DJ Marshmello, known for wearing a marshmallow-like mask on stage, will be headlining the events, with Australian DJ Alison Wonderland as a supporting act. The experiences will feature custom sets and Pokémon-inspired visual storytelling.
The events will be open to fans 16-years-old and up. It will be held at the Intuit Dome in Los Angeles on October 24, 2026, and at the O2 arena in London on November 10. You can get tickets for both concerts starting on April 18 at 10AM Pacific time for the Los Angeles concert and at 10AM British time for the London experience.
In addition to holding EDM concerts, Nintendo and the Pokémon Company re-released the Game Boy Advance remakes of Pokémon Red and Blue on Nintendo Switch Online for the franchise’s 30th anniversary. They also released a Game Boy-shaped portable Pokémon jukebox, little music players that can be loaded witha different melody or sound effect from the original games' soundtracks.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/nintendo/you-can-attend-pokemon-edm-shows-in-los-angeles-and-london-120405128.html?src=rssThe Morning After: Meta is reportedly working on an AI model of Mark Zuckerberg
If you were looking for the worst AI project announced so far this week, try Meta. According to a Financial Times report, the company is developing its own Mark Zuckerberg AI, training it on Zuckerberg’s mannerisms, tone and publicly available statements. AKA, the good stuff. (Will it smoke meats?)
The company has reportedly been working for some time on creating photorealistic, 3D-animated AI characters that can manage interactions. However, it now appears to be focusing on this Zuckerberg AI character, which would interact with employees in his stead. Yeesh. Remember when the Meta boss introduced legs to the metaverse? Hopefully, a backbone is in the works soon.
— Mat Smith
The other big stories this morning
Meta warned that facial recognition on smart glasses would empower predators
Multiple organizations, including the ACLU, are wary of the tech.
Dozens of civil rights organizations have written a letter to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg warning of the dangers posed by adding facial recognition technology to the company’s smart glasses. More than 70 groups have urged Zuckerberg to abandon plans to incorporate the tech on the grounds that it would empower stalkers, sexual predators and other bad actors. They also want the company to disclose past or ongoing discussions with federal law enforcement agencies, including ICE, about the use of Meta smart glasses and other wearables, according to a report by Wired.
Adding to the grossness of all this, according to The New York Times, Meta issued an internal memo last year suggesting it could roll out this technology “during a dynamic political environment where many civil society groups that we would expect to attack us would have their resources focused on other concerns.” In short, attempting to add the feature when pushback would be limited or unfocused. The coalition called this “vile behavior” that looks to take advantage of “rising authoritarianism.”
Xbox CEO called Game Pass ‘too expensive for players’ in a leaked memo
Microsoft is eyeing changes to its gaming sub.
Xbox’s new chief exec, Asha Sharma, reportedly wrote in a memo to employees that the current pricing of the Game Pass subscription service might be too high. According to the note, seen by The Verge: “Short term, Game Pass has become too expensive for players, so we need a better value equation.”
Microsoft raised the price of Game Pass twice in 15 months, and many Xbox exclusives have made their way to rival PlayStation. Game Pass continues to add games: the April update adds indies like Hades 2 and Double Fine-project Kiln alongside Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. The Verge reports the addition of the CoD franchise might have contributed to Game Pass price increases, as in the past, buying the game at retail value was less favorable than a one-month subscription.
Apple may be testing up to four styles of smart glasses
And another one.
It’s a real connected-story edition of TMA today. Bloomberg reports Apple could reveal its smart glasses by the end of this year, and it’s already testing four eyewear styles. Apple is reportedly mulling over a large rectangular frame comparable to Ray-Ban Wayfarers, a slimmer rectangular design, like the one Apple CEO Tim Cook wears, as well as an oval or circular frame in large and small iterations. Apple is also working on a selection of colors.
Apple’s upcoming smart glasses will compete directly with the second-gen Ray-Ban Meta model. While similar, Apple might be differentiating its design with “vertically oriented oval lenses with surrounding lights,” according to the report. Apple’s upcoming product will capture photos and videos but is meant to play better with iPhones, so users can take advantage of Apple’s ecosystem for editing, sharing and more.
Sony is developing a Bloodborne animated film adaptation
An R-rated animated film adaptation of Bloodborne is currently being developed by Sony, according to Variety. Sony Pictures Entertainment Motion Picture Group held a presentation at CinemaCon, where the division’s president said that the adaptation will be “very true” to the violent and graphic nature of the game. Bloodborne was created by Japanese studio FromSoftware and was published by Sony back in 2015. The critically acclaimed title is an RPG in the style of Dark Souls, featuring heavy blood splatters during combat and other body horror elements. Its director, Hidetaka Miyazaki, said his biggest inspiration for the game was HP Lovecraft’s works.
Bloomberg had reported in February that Bluepoint Games, the now-defunct Sony studio behind many PlayStation remakes, wanted to work on a new version of the classic Gothic horror RPG for modern consoles. However, FromSoftware blocked the project. Miyazaki reportedly wanted to work on the remake himself. Despite being too busy to do it, he said during an interview that he "doesn't want anyone else to touch it."
The Bloodborne film adaptation will be co-produced by PlayStation Productions, Lyrical Animation and Seán McLoughlin, a gaming YouTube known by his pseudonym jacksepticeye. It seems to be early stages at this point, and Variety doesn’t have a target release date for it yet.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/sony-is-developing-a-bloodborne-animated-film-adaptation-110421866.html?src=rssTwo suspects have been arrested for allegedly shooting at Sam Altman's house
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman's house may have been the target of a second attack after San Francisco Police Department arrested two suspects for a reported shooting in the Russian Hill neighborhood. The SFPD said in a press release that police officers responded to a "suspicious occurrence of possible shots fired" at around 5:56 AM ET / 2:56 AM PT on Sunday, April 12.
SFPD's Special Investigation Division took over the case and have since detained both 25-year-old Amanda Tom and 23-year-old Muhamad Tarik Hussein, seizing three firearms in the process with the help of a warrant. The two suspects were charged with negligent discharge.
According to the initial police report, as reported by The San Francisco Standard, two people inside a Honda sedan stopped in front of Altman's property that spans from Chestnut Street to Lombard Street. The police report also noted that the passenger appeared to fire a round at the Lombard Street side of Altman's property. The property's security personnel reported hearing a gunshot and there was surveillance footage that recorded the incident, according to the report.
This could be the second instance of violence targeting Altman and his residence in a matter of days. On Friday, a 20-year-old man allegedly hurled a Molotov cocktail at Altman's home, which caused a fire on one of the property's exterior gates, according to SFPD. The San Francisco Standard reported that there were no injuries in either incident. Daniel Moreno-Gama, the 20-year-old suspect from Texas, was charged on April 13 with murder and attempted arson. According to The New York Times, he wrote a document that “discussed the purported risk AI poses to humanity. The document also reportedly included the names and addresses of other executives, investors and board members of AI companies.
Update, April 14, 2026, 2:06 AM ET: Updated with the latest information on the suspect who allegedly hurled a Molotov cocktail at Altman’s home.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/two-suspects-have-been-arrested-for-allegedly-shooting-at-sam-altmans-house-142655308.html?src=rssBlackmagic's DaVinci Resolve 21 takes on Adobe Lightroom with a new Photo page
Many creators have already switched from Adobe Premiere to DaVinci Resolve, and now the developer, Blackmagic Design, is going after Lightroom and Photoshop. The Australian company just unveiled DaVinci Resolve 21 in beta at the NAB 2026 broadcast convention with a brand new page called Photo designed to let you do things like crop and color-correct still images. At the same time, the new version introduces video AI tools that can age a subject or reshape their facial features.
DaVinci Resolve has always let you edit photos as clips on a video timeline, but now it's greatly simplified with the Photo page. You can import and manage photographs, including RAW files from Canon, Fujifilm, Nikon and Sony, directly into the new page. Then, you adjust them using the node-based Color page that offers similar and arguably even more powerful tools than Adobe's Lightroom.
Just as with video, the Color page includes primary color correction, curves, qualifiers and power windows (along with noise reduction, sharpening and more). However, Resolve's node-based workflow really shines for photo editing. You can add nodes in series or parallel to build complex grades, then save them to apply to other images or an entire photo album. You can also reframe and crop images at their original source resolution and aspect ratio, without affecting the original image quality.
The LightBox view lets you see an entire album with grades applied. "Select any image and grade it live while seeing the results update across the whole collection in real time. Filter by graded, ungraded, star rating, flag and clip color," Blackmagic Design explains in a press release. Albums, meanwhile, let you build collections like you do in Lightroom. Those also appear as timelines in the Color, Cut and Edit pages for easy access.
For pro photographers, the Color page includes camera controls that let you tether a Sony or Canon camera to Resolve for live image capture, while adjusting settings like ISO, exposure and white balance. You can save capture presets to "lock in a consistent look before customers shoot," according to Blackmagic.
Other Resolve tools also work with the Photo page, like the AI Magic Mask that lets you make one click selections of an object or person. It's also possible to do advanced VFX on still photos using Resolve's Fusion page, or add OpenFX or FusionFX filters directly on the Photo page. Finally, you can collaborate with others using Blackmagic Cloud, though that does require a paid subscription.
I briefly tested the Photo and Color tools and, as someone who's admittedly familiar with DaVinci Resolve, I found it easy to grasp. It's simple to import and organize images (easier than Lightroom in my opinion) and is as powerful as Lightroom's Develop page for most adjustments, though I really missed the latter's "Clarity" tool. The node based workflow is powerful, and Resolve makes it easier to apply adjustments to multiple images. When you're ready to export, that's done through a special photo-only version of the "Export" page and is relatively intuitive as well. Whether or not I'll cancel my Photoshop/Lightroom subscription remains to be seen, however.
On top of the Photo page, Blackmagic Design introduced a number of new features for video and VFX as well. Among the most interesting are a series of AI tools for facial adjustments. The AI Face Age Transformer tools lets you analyze a face, enter the subject's age and adjust the age offset slider to add things like wrinkles and facial fullness. You can also change the way a subject looks through the AI Face Reshaper tool that lets you adjust the eyes, nose, mouth, eyebrows and overall face shape. Plus, you get an AI Blemish Removal feature that reduces the appearance of superficial skin imperfections like acne, discoloration and large pores, while retaining the skin's natural texture.
Another tool that will no doubt be popular is AI UltraSharpen that can upscale video "to make previously unusable footage sharp in higher resolutions," according to the company. It can also be used to improve slight focus errors. Meanwhile, the AI Motion Deblur fixes slightly blurred images, making it particularly useful for slow motion and freeze frame shots.
Other key new upgrades, to name just a few, include the ability to edit Fusion effects from within the Cut and Edit pages, the addition of the Krokodove library of compositing tools and new immersive VR tools for delivery to platforms like Meta Quest and YouTube VR. Most of the new features are available in Blackmagic Design's free version of DaVinci Resolve, though a couple of tools (AI Magic Mask and Film Look Creator) are only available with the paid, $295 DaVinci Resolve Studio version. A complete list of new features is here and you can download the free and paid versions here.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/blackmagics-davinci-resolve-21-takes-on-adobe-lightroom-with-a-new-photo-page-053034084.html?src=rssXbox CEO called Game Pass 'too expensive for players' in a leaked memo
Xbox's new chief exec, Asha Sharma, has only been in charge for a few months but things already seem like they might be changing for the better. Or at the very least, they might be getting cheaper. The Verge reported that the new Xbox CEO wrote a memo to employees addressing the current pricing of the Game Pass subscription service.
"Game Pass is central to gaming value on Xbox. It’s also clear that the current model isn’t the final one," Sharma allegedly said. "Short term, Game Pass has become too expensive for players, so we need a better value equation. Long term, we will evolve Game Pass into a more flexible system which will take time to test and learn around."
After Microsoft upped the price for Game Pass twice within 15 months, many of us certainly felt that the service had gotten too costly to keep. Xbox is still offering a wide range of titles on Game Pass; the April update is adding indies like Hades 2 and new Double Fine project Kiln alongside AAA hits like the remake of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. The Verge's sources suggested that the addition of the CoD franchise might have been a factor in some of the Game Pass price increases, since Microsoft would lose out on revenue by making the latest entries in the series available under the subscription.
It's too early to say whether this memo from Sharma means Xbox is on the brink of a resurgence. And there are changes the company could make, like adding ever more complicated tiers, that would further hamper interest and uptake of Game Pass. But acknowledging the problem, even internally, is refreshing to see after so many baffling moves from Xbox in recent years.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/xbox/xbox-ceo-called-game-pass-too-expensive-for-players-in-a-leaked-memo-194749597.html?src=rssGames Workshop brings seven classic Warhammer games to Steam for the first time
Fans of miniature plastic soldiers, rejoice. Games Workshop has brought a host of older Warhammer and Warhammer 40K video games to Steam for the first time, alongside a dozen games that haven't been available on Valve's storefront for a few years. The new to Steam releases consist of three games from the Warhammer fantasy range — Shadow of the Horned Rat, Mark of Chaos – Gold Edition and Dark Omen — and four from its sci-fi 40K universe — Chaos Gate, Fire Warrior, Final Liberation and Rites of War.
If you're a Warhammer fan of a certain age, some of these may be formative experiences for you. I know they are for me. I can't count how many hours I spent playing Chaos Gate when I first discovered 40K at the age of 10. Yes, it was an XCOM clone, but by that point I didn't know about the MicroProse original, and Space Marines were cool.
Years later and as a Tau collector at the time, I also loved Fire Warrior, even if it wasn't the most polished or deep first-person shooter. I haven't played the other five games included in today's announcement, but I've heard Warhammer: Shadow of the Horned Rat and Warhammer 40K: Rites of War are pretty good if you're into the setting or, in the latter case, a fan of the Eldar.
To celebrate the re-release of these old gems, Games Workshop is running a Classics sale on Steam, with discounts on all 19 re-releases. Plus, you can get discounts on some more recent releases, including the excellent Dawn of War – Definitive Edition and Dawn of War 2 – Anniversary Edition. If you're new to the Warhammer 40K universe, and would rather avoid a plastic addiction, one of those would be my first port of call, along with the excellent Space Marine 2.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/pc/games-workshop-brings-seven-classic-warhammer-games-to-steam-for-the-first-time-185432304.html?src=rssMeta warned by dozens of organizations that facial recognition on its smart glasses would empower predators
Dozens of civil rights organizations have written a letter to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to warn of the dangers in bringing facial recognition technology to the company's smart glasses. More than 70 groups have banded together to form a coalition to urge Zuckerberg to abandon plans to incorporate the tech, on the grounds that it would empower stalkers, sexual predators and other bad actors.
This coalition includes organizations like the ACLU, the Electronic Privacy Information Center, Fight for the Future, Access Now and many others. The letter isn't asking for safeguards. These groups want the feature to be completely eliminated, stating the idea behind facial recognition of this type is so dangerous that it “cannot be resolved through product design changes, opt-out mechanisms or incremental safeguards." This tracks, as there would be no real way for bystanders to know or consent to being identified.
"People should be able to move through their daily lives without fear that stalkers, scammers, abusers, federal agents and activists across the political spectrum are silently and invisibly verifying their identities and potentially matching their names to a wealth of readily available data about their habits, hobbies, relationships, health and behaviors," the letter states.
The organizations have urged Meta to disclose any known instances of its wearables being used for stalking, harassment or domestic violence. They also want the company to disclose past or ongoing discussions with federal law enforcement agencies, including ICE, about the use of Meta smart glasses and other wearables, according to a report by Wired.
There is certainly some cause for worry here. According to the New York Times, Meta issued an internal memo last year that suggested it could roll out this technology "during a dynamic political environment where many civil society groups that we would expect to attack us would have their resources focused on other concerns." That's corporate speak for "we'll do it when nobody is watching." The coalition called this "vile behavior" that looks to take advantage of "rising authoritarianism."
NEW: Meta plans to add facial recognition to its smart glasses as soon as this year, according to a new report from The New York Times. The feature, internally known as “Name Tag,” would allow smart glasses wearers to identify people and get information about them through Meta’s… pic.twitter.com/et7PO9JGW5
— Insider Paper (@TheInsiderPaper) February 13, 2026
The technology in question is apparently called Name Tag, for obvious reasons. It uses AI to pull up information about people in a field of view to smart glasses displays. That's about as dystopian as it gets.
The company has reportedly been working on two versions of the toolset. There's one that would only identify people that are currently connected to a Meta platform and another that would identify anyone with a public account on a service like Instagram. It doesn't look like there's any way, as of yet, to use this tech to identify strangers on the street who don't have a Meta account of any kind. In other words, the company should expect a wave of cancellations if this rolls out.
In an emailed statement, a Meta spokesperson told Engadget: "Our competitors offer this type of facial recognition product, we do not. If we were to release such a feature, we would take a very thoughtful approach before rolling anything out."
Public outcry has gotten Meta to back off from facial recognition in the past. The company ended Facebook's photo-tagging system in 2021 after pushback from civil liberties groups and years of costly litigation. Meta paid out billions of dollars to settle biometric privacy lawsuits in Illinois and Texas and another $5 billion to the FTC for a separate privacy case partially tied to facial recognition software.
Update, April 13 2026, 4:45PM ET: This story was updated after publish with comment from Meta.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/meta-warned-by-dozens-of-organizations-that-facial-recognition-on-its-smart-glasses-would-empower-predators-185000998.html?src=rssRetro handheld maker Anbernic's latest device has a swiveling display
There are plenty of retro gaming handhelds on the market, but Anbernic is introducing one that offers a unique spin on the square shape. The retro gaming handheld maker revealed the RG Rotate on its YouTube channel, showing off a 1:1 display that swivels out much like the T-Mobile Sidekick of yore.
Anbernic often drip feeds details of its upcoming products over time, but so far, we know that the RG Rotate will run on Android, feature an aluminum alloy frame and come in Polar Black and Aurora Silver. Anbernic's video detailed that the handheld will have a "proprietary ultra-thin alloy hinge" that went through "high-durability testing." While the handheld maker has experience with other hinges as seen with its RG DS and RG 34XXSP, the RG Rotate's hinge mechanism could prove to be a new engineering challenge.
As for the rest of the build, Anbernic is adding swappable L2 and R2 buttons that allow users to adjust the height of the shoulder buttons. From the video, the RG Rotate might only be built with a single USB-C port, which has irked a few fans hoping for an audio jack. Anbernic hasn't announced pricing for the RG Rotate yet, but it'll likely be much cheaper than more premium options from Ayn or Retroid.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/retro-handheld-maker-anbernics-latest-device-has-a-swiveling-display-174705958.html?src=rssHow to de-Gemini your Google apps
Over the past couple of years, Google has found ways to stuff Gemini in nearly every app and service it offers. Whether it's Gmail with its AI inbox or Chrome with its chat sidebar, Gemini is now inescapable inside of Workspace. I don't know about you, but I don't need an AI to tell me how to write a =SUM equation in Sheets or an outline for a first draft. Most of the time, I find Gemini is a distraction. If you feel the same way, this how-to is for you.
How to remove Gemini from your personal Workspace account
To turn Gemini off, you will need to disable two separate sets of options. The first set covers a set of features, including smart compose, that are shared across Gmail, Chat and Meet — so if you turn them off in one app, they won't be available in any of the three. All of this is most easily done through Gmail's web client.
In Gmail, tap the cog icon.
Select See all settings.
Under the General tab, scroll down to find Smart features.
Disable Turn on smart features in Gmail, Chat, and Meet.
In Japan, Switzerland, the United Kingdom or European Economic Area, smart features are turned off by default.
Next, turn your attention to Workspace.
In Gmail, tap the cog icon.
Select See all settings.
Under the General tab, scroll down and click Manage Workspace smart feature settings.
Toggle off smart features in Google Workspace and Smart features in other Google products.
A word of warning: completely disabling smart features in Google Workspace turns off not only Gemini integration but also access to basic capabilities like spelling and grammar corrections. You'll also lose features that have been Google staples for years. In Gmail, for example, the app will stop sorting incoming emails by priority, a notification at the top of the screen informing you that smart features are required for inbox categorization. Whatever Google's motivation for this state of affairs, it's a design decision that actively discourages users from disabling Gemini integration.
If you want to rid yourself of Gemini but would still like to use some of the other features the company offers through Gmail and its other apps, I recommend leaving the first set of smart features on while disabling the Workspace-specific ones. You can also opt to turn off some of the features included in the first group, while leaving others on. Below is a list of those features, with a brief overview of the less self-explanatory ones.
Grammar
Spelling
Autocorrect
Smart Compose — as you write an email, Gmail will generate predictive writing suggestions
Smart Compose personalization — as you write, Gmail will tailor Smart Compose suggestions to your writing style
Nudges — Gmail will generate notifications prompting you to respond or follow up on unanswered emails
Smart Reply — Gmail will generate suggestions on how to respond to an email
Package tracking — Google will display shipping updates inside of Gmail
Desktop notifications — Yes, for some reason you need the power of AI to get notifications on your PC
Unfortunately, Google doesn't offer this same level of granular control when it comes to smart features inside of Workspace. For instance, if you turn off Gemini in Docs, Calendar won't automatically display events from Gmail. Again, Google really wants to dissuade you from disabling Gemini.
How to remove Gemini from your professional Workspace account
If your workplace uses Google Workspace, all of the above options should be present in Gmail's settings menu, and you can follow the same steps to turn off most of the smart features Google offers. Unfortunately, the second part of the process does nothing. You will still see Gemini in Docs, Sheets and elsewhere, even with smart features in Workspace turned off. Only your admin can completely turn off Gemini for you.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/how-to-de-gemini-your-google-apps-170000462.html?src=rssMajority of Australian kids are still on banned social media platforms, study finds
Many countries are pursuing social media bans for anyone under 16, but a recent poll is putting the effectiveness of such laws into question. The Molly Rose Foundation, a charity organization that focuses on preventing online harm, recently published a study that polled 1,050 Australian children between ages 12 and 15 in March. The study's results showed that 61 percent of those between 12 and 15 who previously had access to affected social media platforms still have one or more active accounts.
Australia made a first-in-the-world decision to ban social media for those under 16 years old, beginning on December 10. While it's only been a few months since the ban went into effect, the foundation's poll concluded that the ban doesn't have a "clear positive or negative impact on children’s wellbeing." The study also noted that 70 percent of children trying to get on restricted platforms said that it was easy to get around the ban.
"These results raise major questions about the effectiveness of Australia’s social media ban and show it would be a high stakes gamble for the UK to follow suit now," Andy Burrows, the CEO of the Molly Rose Foundation, said in a statement.
The Australian government has also published its own findings in March that examined how social media platforms are complying with the ban. According to the government's report, Snap, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube are currently being investigated for potential non-compliance. The report added that Australia's eSafety agency is finalizing these investigations and will make a decision about enforcement by the middle of 2026. According to the eSafety report, the agency's enforcement powers include issuing infringement notices, seeking court-ordered injunctions and "civil penalties up to A$49.5 million," or around $35 million USD.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/majority-of-australian-kids-are-still-on-banned-social-media-platforms-study-finds-162922768.html?src=rssMeta is reportedly building an AI clone of Mark Zuckerberg
Picture this: You're a senior Meta employee looking for feedback from the CEO. But, instead of hearing from the real Mark Zuckerberg, you get a response from a Zuckerberg AI character. As absurd as that sounds, it could eventually be a reality.
Meta is reportedly working on such an AI character, training it on Zuckerberg's mannerisms, tone and publicly available statements, according to the Financial Times. The character is also learning about the CEO's thoughts on recent company strategy, with the idea that it could offer advice to Meta employees.
The company has reportedly, for some time, been working on creating photorealistic, 3D animated AI characters that can manage interactions. However, it now appears to be focusing on this Zuckerberg AI character, which would interact with employees when the CEO can't or doesn't want to.
This additional AI tool follows last month's news that Zuckerberg is creating an AI agent to help him do his job, first reported by the Wall Street Journal. It would reportedly do things like finding answers for him, but there aren't many details of the still developing AI agent.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/meta-is-reportedly-building-an-ai-clone-of-mark-zuckerberg-130242840.html?src=rssRoblox introduces mandatory age-gated account tiers
Roblox is preparing to roll out its biggest change since starting age verification late last year. While that program was initially focused on chat access, today’s news is about age-segregating the games on the massive platform.
Starting in mid-May, users will be pushed into one of three worlds: Roblox Kids, Roblox Select or Roblox. The exact age ranges of these groups will vary by territory, but in the US they are 5-8 for Kids, 9-15 for Select and 16+ for the regular account. These three account types then align with the platform’s current content maturity labels, which divide games into Minimal, Mild, Moderate and Restricted.
Kids accounts will be the most restricted, with chat off by default and only Minimal and Mild experiences available.
Ages 9-15 get to chat with kids in their age group and “trusted friends” that have passed the parent test, and will be able to access Moderate content as well as games for babies.
At 16, teens will automatically be moved to a full-fat Roblox account with all of its features, but not all of the games. Content marked as Restricted will only unlock once they turn 18.
Roblox says over half of its users are now age checked, whether through ID verification or face scans. With the new account types rolled out globally — which the company says should be done by June — it’ll start forcing users who haven’t completed an age check into a Kids-like experience, with no access to chat or games rated higher than Mild.
Once age verification is completed, Roblox still faces the task of ensuring that its vast collection of user-created content is actually age-appropriate. Its solution to this is, of course, ID verification, AI and upcharges.
Developers will have to verify their identity and pony up $5 a month for Roblox Plus to show “a long-term commitment to the platform.” The wisdom is that, with these hurdles cleared, a developer will surely apply the correct maturity label to their games. On the off-chance that an experience is mislabeled, Roblox’s AI moderation will keep tabs on game instances to make sure what's happening on-screen and in-chat matches the maturity label. On the surface, this does leave a gap where a toddler could end up playing an incorrectly labeled mature game before the AI catches it. Don’t fret, though, as Roblox says users over 16 “play new games first,” which surely isn’t an overgeneralization and will ensure that no child ever plays a mature game.
Roblox also previewed a pair of new parental control features coming in June. First, parents will be able to block any game and manage direct chat access until a child turns 16. Previously, kids over 13 could unblock experiences by themselves. Second, parents will be able to approve games outside of their child’s age bracket on a case-by-case basis. Roblox gave an example of a younger child wanting to play a game with their older sibling for this feature’s utility.
Of course, the big blocky elephant in the room is the efficacy of automated age verification. Reporting from Wired in January suggested even enterprising toddlers might be able to get past the platform’s age checks, which somewhat undermines everything Roblox is trying to achieve. Speaking to press ahead of today’s announcement, Roblox Chief Safety Officer Matt Kaufman said, “If we get it wrong … we offer users multiple ways to correct that.” He added that the platform is “constantly measuring users’ behavior and comparing that against what their age-check data says. If we see those things divert, then we will just ask people to run through the age process again.”
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/roblox-introduces-mandatory-age-gated-account-tiers-121535702.html?src=rssApple reportedly testing out four different styles for its smart glasses that will rival Meta Ray-Bans
Apple may be late to the smart glasses market, but it could be covering all its bases with up to four potential styles for its upcoming product. According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, Apple could launch some or all of the four styles it's currently testing for its smart glasses.
Gurman reported Apple is testing out a large rectangular frame that's comparable to Ray-Ban Wayfarers, a slimmer rectangular design like the glasses that Apple CEO Tim Cook wears, a larger oval or circular frame and a smaller oval or circle option. Apple is also working on a range of colors, including black, ocean blue and light brown, according to Bloomberg.
Internally code-named N50 for now, Apple's upcoming smart glasses will compete directly with the second-gen Ray-Ban Meta model. While similar, Apple might be differentiating its design with "vertically oriented oval lenses with surrounding lights," according to the report. Like Meta's smart glasses, Apple's upcoming product will capture photos and videos, but is meant to better sync with an iPhone, allowing users to take advantage of Apple's ecosystem for editing, sharing, phone calls, notifications, music and even its voice assistant, according to Gurman. The release of Apple's smart glasses could even coincide with the upcoming improved Siri that should arrive with iOS 27.
Gurman reported that Apple could reveal its smart glasses as soon as the end of 2026 or early 2027, followed by an official release sometime in 2027. As for the competition, Meta released its latest model that's better suited for prescription lenses and offers a more customizable fit.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/wearables/apple-reportedly-testing-out-four-different-styles-for-its-smart-glasses-that-will-rival-meta-ray-bans-200550013.html?src=rssThe US government wants Reddit to snitch on one of its users through a grand jury
Immigration and Customs Enforcement has a certain Redditor in its crosshairs and it's now strong-arming the social media platform to reveal who they are with a grand jury subpoena, according to a report from The Intercept. The nonprofit news outlet was able to obtain the subpoena that ordered Reddit to provide info on one of its users who's been accused of criticizing ICE by April 14.
According to the report, ICE has been trying to identify this Redditor for a month without success. More specifically, Reddit is being asked to give up the user's name, address, phone number and other personal data. The Intercept reported that the subpoena was issued by federal prosecutors in Washington, D.C. after a failed attempt from ICE to do the same through a federal court in Northern California, which has jurisdiction in San Francisco where Reddit is headquartered.
Reddit attorneys said their client's posts and anonymity are protected under the First Amendment and described ICE's use of a grand jury as "a disturbing escalation," according to the report. Reddit didn't state if it would challenge the government's order or not, according to The Intercept, but it did provide a statement saying, "privacy is central to how Reddit operates and we take our commitment to protecting that seriously." Reddit also said in the statement that it does "not voluntarily share information with any government, especially not on users exercising their rights to criticize the government or plan a protest.”
While this grand jury subpoena could set an alarming precedent, it's not the first time a government agency has requested social media platforms reveal accounts that have spoke negatively about ICE. According to a New York Times report, the Department of Homeland Security has filed hundreds of subpoenas to Google, Discord, Meta and even Reddit again, for identifying details about its users.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/the-us-government-wants-reddit-to-snitch-on-one-of-its-users-through-a-grand-jury-190532844.html?src=rssOpenAI says Elon Musk is orchestrating a last-minute 'legal ambush' before trial
The feud between Elon Musk and OpenAI is getting even more contentious as the two sides get ready for trial later this month. The latest development in the legal back-and-forth saw OpenAI accuse Elon Musk and his latest proposals as a "legal ambush," as first reported by Bloomberg. OpenAI filed its response on Friday, which detailed that Musk was "sandbagging the defendants and injecting chaos into the proceedings, while trying to recast his public narrative about his lawsuit."
The lawsuit dates back to 2024 when Elon Musk sued both OpenAI and Microsoft, accusing the AI giant of ditching its original mission of being a non-profit and instead converting into a for-profit business after receiving financial backing and forming a partnership with Microsoft. Prior to OpenAI's latest filing, Musk amended his original complaint to instead award any damages received to OpenAI's nonprofit arm instead. Musk's amendment, which was filed earlier this month, also sought to oust Altman from his role as OpenAI's CEO and board member. In OpenAI's Friday filing, the AI company claimed that Musk's last-minute changes were "legally improper and factually unsupported."
There's a lot at stake with this lawsuit since Musk is reportedly seeking anywhere between $79 billion and $134 billion in "wrongful gains." With both OpenAI and Microsoft denying any wrongdoing, according to Bloomberg, the trial is still set to kick off on April 27.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/openai-says-elon-musk-is-orchestrating-a-last-minute-legal-ambush-before-trial-163248345.html?src=rssRockstar Games has confirmed it was hit by third-party data breach
An experienced hacking group has claimed to have infiltrated Rockstar Games' cloud servers, while the game publisher has confirmed that there was a "third-party data breach." ShinyHunters, a hacker group that's been linked to data breaches targeting Microsoft, Google, Ticketmaster and others, posted a message on its website with a final warning to Rockstar to "pay or leak." The hack was first spotted by Hackread and the Cybersec Guru.
ShinyHunters didn't detail what Rockstar data it gained access to, only adding that the company had until April 14 to reach out or that the group would leak the compromised info that would lead to "several annoying (digital) problems." Rockstar Games confirmed the breach to Kotaku, explaining that "a limited amount of non-material company information was accessed in connection with a third-party data breach," and that the incident had "no impact on our organization or our players.”
Previously, Rockstar had to deal with a major hack that led to a leak including plenty of gameplay footage and assets for Grand Theft Auto VI in 2022. Following the hack, one of the 18-year-old members of the Lapsus$ group responsible for the leak, was sentenced to an "indefinite hospitalization."
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cybersecurity/rockstar-games-has-confirmed-it-was-hit-by-third-party-data-breach-175112621.html?src=rssThe first European country to get Tesla’s Full Self-Driving Supervised will be the Netherlands
Tesla's Full Self-Driving (Supervised) is ready to make its European debut, and it's starting with the Netherlands. According to Tesla Europe, the automaker's driver assistance system was approved in the Netherlands and will start rolling out shortly. RDW, the country's regulatory authority on vehicles, confirmed the news with a post on its website about Tesla receiving a type approval for its Full Self-Driving (Supervised) system.
According to the RDW, Tesla's Full Self-Driving (Supervised) "has been extensively examined and tested for more than one and a half years on our test track and on public roads," and concluded that it was a "positive contribution" to road safety. However, RDW pointed out that a Tesla with FSD Supervised was not "self-driving," adding that the "driver remains responsible and must always remain in control."
With Dutch approvals, Tesla notched its first regulatory green light for FSD use in Europe. The RDW also added that Tesla's FSD Supervised could get "possible later admittance in all member states of the European Union" thanks to its approvals. Tesla has been working on bringing its automated driving features to other regions, including Europe and China, as detailed in a roadmap posted in 2024. In the meantime, the automaker's software has been mired in several safety investigations from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The latest development comes from a probe that targets collisions when using FSD, including the supervised version, in reduced road visibility conditions.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/the-first-european-country-to-get-teslas-full-self-driving-supervised-will-be-the-netherlands-170157644.html?src=rssIBM settles its DEI lawsuit with the DOJ for $17 million
IBM has agreed to settle the US Department of Justice's accusations that the company violated civil rights laws with its DEI practices. According to a press release from the DOJ, IBM will pay more than $17 million to resolve allegations of taking "race, color, national origin, or sex" into account when making employment decisions. This settlement is the latest development in a longstanding effort from the Trump administration to end DEI programs, which was kick-started from an executive order in early 2025.
IBM denied any wrongdoing and said the settlement wasn't an admission of liability, while the US government said this conclusion wasn't a concession that its claims weren't well founded, according to the settlement agreement. According to the DOJ, IBM had violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with practices that included altering "interview criteria based on race or sex," developing "race and sex demographic goals for business units," using "a diversity modifier that tied bonus compensation to achieving demographic targets" and more.
An IBM spokesperson told Engadget in an email that the company "is pleased to have resolved this matter," adding that "our workforce strategy is driven by a single principle: having the right people with the right skills that our clients depend on.”
According to Todd Blanche, the agency's acting attorney general, this action is one of the first resolutions to come out of the Civil Rights Fraud Initiative, which was launched in May 2025. IBM isn't the only company to alter its policies, with both T-Mobile and Meta agreeing to put an end to its DEI initiatives last year.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/ibm-settles-its-dei-lawsuit-with-the-doj-for-17-million-153749285.html?src=rss