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Welcome to our latest roundup of what's going on in the indie game space. It's been a very busy week of fun game releases (next week will be too!), so let's get into some of them after a quick reflection on gaming while traveling.
I love my Steam Deck. I really truly do. It's a fantastic machine. And yet when I brought it with me on a five-week trip over the holidays, I used it for barely an hour the entire time. That doesn't really justify the space and weight it takes up in my bag. The same holds true for my Nintendo Switch 2 and PlayStation Portal.
I'll be leaving them all at home next time. I'll take a small controller (probably OhSnap's MCON) so I can play the odd game on my laptop or phone. I'll bring my Playdate as well. I adore that little yellow console, and I haven't spent nearly enough time using it. I have a lot of neat-looking indie games to catch up on there (Diora looks particularly interesting). I'm more likely to play something on a flight if it's on a device I can pull out from my pocket. I just wish Panic had put a backlight in the Playdate.
New releases
Massive Monster and publisher Devolver Digital gave
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Google has started rolling out a new feature for its Photos app that can turn your images into memes. The feature, called Me Meme, uses Google Gemini to take meme templates and recreate them with the photo you use from within the app. It's still in its experimental stages and will only be available for users in the US in the English language. In addition, it seems to be rolling out for Android users only at the moment, and Google warns that the generated images may not match the original photo at times. If you do get access to the feature soon, check out the instructions below on how to use it.
Open your Photos app. Go to the Create tab at the bottom and find the Me Meme option. If it's not showing up even though you're an Android user in the US, you'll have to wait for it as it continues rolling out. Google told TechCrunch that it will reach iOS users over the coming weeks.
You'll see onscreen instructions the first time you use it. The next time you access the feature, you'll go straight to the meme creation process.
You can browse and choose one of the preset templates Google provides, but you can also upload a meme or any other image as a template.
You then have to upload a photo that you want to insert into the meme. Google advises using a selfie or a photo where your face is clearly visible.
After you tap Generate, you can save the meme if you're satisfied with the result or share it directly to social media platforms online. You can also tap Regenerate to see a different output.
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 In an email to developers this week, Apple indicated that it will begin showing additional ads in App Store search results starting Tuesday, March 3.
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On this week's episode of The MacRumors Show, we discuss Apple's plan to turn Siri into a chatbot with iOS 27, alongside plans for new hardware such as an AI pin.
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 Apple is considering a significant shift in how it operates Siri by potentially running its next-generation chatbot on Google's cloud infrastructure rather than entirely on its own Private Cloud Compute servers, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.
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The festive lights, time off and cute scarfs can only conceal the truth for so long: Winter can be pretty bleak. I don't mean to be a downer, but it's cold all of the time, dark most of the time and this lasts far beyond the most wonderful time of the year. Here at Engadget, we've tried so many tools and products to make winter more bearable from therapy lamps to
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While many users see generative artificial intelligence (genAI) technology as automation tools that will eliminate many of today's jobs, most in the IT industry see it as a generator of knowledge jobs.
That's because genAI tools such as ChatGPT and Midjourney can help eliminate mundane tasks, freeing up workers to take on more valuable creative roles and be more productive.
GenAI is also expected to "democratize jobs." That is, the technology will enable employees without computer science degrees to create applications using AI-augmented coding. Already, many companies see that possibility as genAI's "low-hanging fruit."
To read this article in full, please click here
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