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Mar 16, 2026
There are many E Ink tablets out there, but most of them are basically digital notebooks. They are great for reading and handwriting notes, but not so great for doing all of that regular tablet stuff like checking emails and doomscrolling. Boox, however, has released a number of E Ink tablets that can access the Google Play Store, opening up users to the wide world of traditional smartphone apps.
The company's latest product is a refresh of the Go 10.3 tablet, called the Go 10.3 Lumi. This introduces plenty of new features and, as the name suggests, one is a front light. The tablet has been designed for both natural sunlight and low-light environments. The previous model was great, but it turns into a useless paperweight without access to ambient light.
Boox
Despite the front-facing light, the Go 10.3 Lumi is still lighter than its predecessor, at 12.8 ounces. It's also on the thinner side, with a 4.8mm profile.
The basic specs are similar to the Go tablet, with an octa-core processor, 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage. It runs on Android 15, which is a massive improvement
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Mar 16, 2026
Sometimes, it's the little details in a software update that make the biggest improvements. Google is rolling out a new feature for Chrome that will add a bookmark bar to the browser on Android foldables and tablets. Spotted by 9to5Google, this move will make the browsing experience on larger mobile devices more akin to that of laptops and desktops running Chrome. For those people who do like to do more robust computing on their mobile gadgets, this will be a hugely welcome addition. It's rolling out in version 146 of the browser's Android version, which just dropped today.
The mobile version of the bookmarks bar will appear below the Omnibox, displaying Favicons and site names. A chevron will appear to scroll deeper into the list of bookmarks, and a long press on a bookmark will display the entire URL.
If you're excited to take advantage of this new tool, you'll have to manually enable it. By default, devices will be set to "Hidden on narrow screens." Go to Settings, then Appearance and finally select "Show bookmarks bar."
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/android-tablets-and-foldables-are-getting-a-chrome-bookmark-bar-222533702.html?src=rss
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Mar 16, 2026
At GTC 2026, NVIDIA and Bolt announced what they hope will be a symbiotic partnership. Bolt gets NVIDIA technology that would be costly and impractical to build on its own. Meanwhile, NVIDIA not only gains a major customer but also access to the European rideshare company's driving data.
Bolt says its fleet data will build a "learning engine" for autonomous vehicles (AVs) using NVIDIA tech. The rideshare company will use NVIDIA Cosmos to curate and search driving data. It will tap into NVIDIA Omniverse to reconstruct digital twins of real-world driving logs, then use Cosmos again to generate and augment data at scale.
NVIDIA's Alpamayo model, designed
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Mar 16, 2026
Sony's upgraded PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR) tech is rolling out as part of the PlayStation 5 Pro system update that's available today. The company had teased last month that this update was in the works. These improvements should be a better reflection of why you might pay a premium price for the more powerful console if you value peak image quality in gaming.
For a very surface-level definition, PSSR is Sony's upscaling tech. It uses an AI library for a pixel-by-pixel analysis to display a game with better visuals even while running at a lower resolution. Today's update revamped the algorithm and neural networked in use, which in practice means that "image reconstruction is more precise, motion stability is improved, and developers have greater flexibility to balance performance and fidelity on PS5 Pro," according to the latest blog post from the company. For those who want more technical definition, you'll likely be familiar with the folks at Digital Foundry, who have a more detailed analysis with comparisons between the old and new upscaling on four titles.
The improved PSSR is only available for supported games, but several familiar Sony partners are already on board. PS5 Pro owners can enable the enhanced PSSR image quality for all supported titles via a toggle in the Screen and Video settings menu. The following games are joinin
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Mar 16, 2026
xAI, which is already facing multiple investigations around the world over widespread reports that Grok repeatedly created sexualized images of children, is now facing a class action lawsuit. Three teenagers, who allege that photos of them were used by Grok to generate child exploitation material, have filed a class action lawsuit against xAI in California.
According to the lawsuit, one of the teens was alerted last December that someone was sharing AI-generated images and videos of her and other minors "in settings with which she was familiar, but morphed into sexually explicit poses." The images and videos were allegedly shared on Discord, Telegram and other platforms and used "as a bartering tool" for other CSAM imagery. Law enforcement officials who investigated the images told the girls' parents they were created with xAi's Grok, the lawsuit says.
The three teens, all of whom live in Tennessee and are identified as Jane Doe 1, Jane Doe 2 and Jane Doe 3, have "suffered severe emotional distress," the filing says. "Their lives have been shattered by the devastating loss of privacy, dignity, and personal safety that the production and dissemination of this CSAM have caused," lawyers for the teens write in the complaint, which was provided to Engadget. "xAI's financial gain through the increased use of its image- and video-making product came at their expense and wellbeing. Plaintiffs will have to spend the rest of their lives knowing that their CSAM images and videos may continue to be trafficked and traded online by child sex predators."
Though the lawsuit currently names three individuals, the complaint says that it could cover "at least thousands of minors" who have also had their photos manipulated by Grok into sexualized images. The lawsuit claims xAI has violated multiple laws, including laws
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Mar 16, 2026
Just months after announcing DLSS 4.5 at CES, NVIDIA has unveiled its next major upscaling technology, DLSS 5. The company is doubling-down on AI for this next iteration, claiming DLSS 5 "infuses pixels with photoreal lighting and materials" using a real-time neural rendering model when it arrives this fall.
So what does this mean in practice? In an on-stage demo at NVIDIA's GTC 2026 keynote, CEO Jensen Huang showed off the technology with Resident Evil: Requiem, Hogwarts Legacy and Starfield. DLSS 5 adds a noticeable amount of detail to character's hair and skin tone, but it also appears it's being compared to those games without any DLSS features turned on. It's unclear how much of a difference it makes compared to DLSS 4.5 with path tracing and all of its features turned on.
"DLSS 5 takes a game's color and motion vectors for each frame as input, and uses an AI model to infuse the scene with photoreal lighting and materials that are anchored to source 3D content and consistent from frame to frame," NVIDIA said in a blog post. The company also notes that the technology runs in real time, and it works at up to 4K.
Huang showed off DLSS 5 while running a system with two RTX 5090 GPUs. Eventually, it will be able to run on a single video card (though I'd imagine it would have to be almost as powerful as two 5090s). Huang also paints DLSS 5 as a step towards offering Hollywood-like quality for real-time rendering, without the need for the GPU horsepower required by studios. It sounds a bit like a generative AI video model that can be directly controlled by developers, instead
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Mar 16, 2026
A judge has ruled that publisher Krafton must reinstate Ted Gill as CEO of Unknown Worlds Entertainment, according to a report by Bloomberg. The company fired Gill and two other co-founders last year as part of a shakeup involving the long-anticipated sequel Subnautica 2.
The Delaware judge said Krafton had violated the terms of its contract with Unknown Worlds when it fired the executives. "To remedy these breaches, Gill is reinstated as CEO of Unknown Worlds with full operational authority over the studio," wrote judge Lori W. Will.
A Krafton spokesperson said in a statement that "we respectfully disagree with today's ruling" and that "we are evaluating our options as we determine our path forward." Further litigation over potential damages is still pending.
This legal battle has been brewing for a while. Krafton bought Unknown Worlds back in 2021 and the contract stipulated that executives and staff would get to share in a $250 million bonus if they hit certain revenue targets by 2025. Those targets were not reached, and could not be reached, because Krafton delayed Subnautica 2.
According to the pre-trial brief, Krafton CEO Changham Kim allegedly nixed the payout becau
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Mar 16, 2026
Samsung will reportedly end Galaxy Z TriFold sales in South Korea on March 17, three months after the device went on sale, according to South Korean newspaper Dong-A Ilbo. Samsung has not yet confirmed the report, but Engadget has reached out for comment. In the US, where the TriFold arrived in January, the phone will remain available until existing inventory runs out. A unit at retail (if you can find it) will run you almost $3,000.
Samsung seemingly never intended the model for mass production. It sold the device in small batches through its website, with each selling out within minutes. Samsung reportedly moved roughly 3,000 units across the first two allotments and did not send review units to the media.
Industry sources told Dong-A Ilbo that the TriFold was a technology showcase rather than a revenue-generating product. Rising costs of components like DRAM and NAND flash have left virtually no profit margin on the device. In South Korea, the phone briefly traded for nearly three times its retail price on the secondary market.
In Engadget's limited time with the TriFold, the device felt solid, despite not having been built for a true production run. The original
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Mar 16, 2026
Apple's latest acquisition could be a hint towards improvements for Final Cut Pro. The tech giant acquired MotionVFX, as seen on the company's website and first reported by MacRumors, which is known for providing plugins, templates, visual effects and more to video editors. MotionVFX currently offers its software for a handful of video-editing apps, like DaVinci Resolve and Adobe Premiere, but is also listed as a trusted Apple partner and found in the Final Cut Pro ecosystem of third-party products.
Apple hasn't revealed an acquisition price nor details of the deal. On its website announcement, MotionVFX wrote that it's "thrilled to embrace" similar values seen with Apple products and that it's the "beginning of something wonderful."
Considering a lot of MotionVFX's tools are designed for Final Cut Pro and Apple's Motion app, we could see native integration of popular visual effects and templates into Apple's app interfaces. It's worth noting that MotionVFX already offers an extension that creates a panel directly in Final Cut Pro for users to browse, download and apply visual effects from its repository. The acquisition could also hint at Apple trying to make its Creator Studio more enticing in the f
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Mar 16, 2026
Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight is a game that a whole bunch of people are looking forward to, and they might be pleased to learn Warner Bros. Games is making the wait a bit shorter. The publisher has moved up the game by a week from its previous release date of May 29, meaning it will land on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Steam and Epic Games Store on May 22. A Nintendo Switch 2 version will be released later this year.
Folks who buy the deluxe edition will still be able to jump in three days early. Everyone who pre-orders the game will get access to a The Dark Knight Returns Batsuit from the jump.
TT Games is the team behind Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight. The studio did a fantastic job of folding nine movies worth of material into the fantastic Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga. Here's hoping it can pull off a similar trick this time — it has nearly nine decades of Batman history to work with.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/lego-batman-legacy-of-the-dark-knights-release-date-moves-up-a-week-174035977.html?src=rss
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Mar 16, 2026
OpenAI has been hit with another lawsuit. This time, Encyclopedia Britannica took legal action against OpenAI, accusing the company of copyright and trademark infringements, as first reported by Reuters. More specifically, Britannica alleged that OpenAI illegally used its "copyrighted content at a massive scale" when training its AI models. Not just with training, the encyclopedia company claimed that ChatGPT's responses to user queries sometimes contain "full or partial verbatim reproductions of [Britannica's] copyright articles."
Along with claims of copyright violations, Britannica argued that OpenAI was also responsible for trademark infringement. According to the lawsuit, ChatGPT generates "made-up content or 'hallucinations' and falsely attributes them" to Encyclopedia Britannica. The lawsuit doesn't specify an amount for monetary damages, but Britannica is also seeking an injunction to prevent OpenAI from repeating these accusations.
When reached out for comment, a spokesperson for OpenAI told Engadget that, "ChatGPT helps enhance human creativity, advance scientific discovery and medical research, and enable hundreds of millions of people to improve their daily lives. Our models empower innovation, and are trained on publicly available data and gr
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Mar 16, 2026
OpenAI's forthcoming "adult mode" will allow users to engage in lewd conversations with ChatGPT, but not use the chatbot to generate explicit images, audio or video. In response to reporting from The Wall Street Journal, an OpenAI spokesperson characterized the upcoming release as capable of producing smut rather than pornography.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman first floated the idea of allowing people to use ChatGPT for erotica last October, saying the company wanted to "treat adult users like adults." OpenAI originally planned to release adult mode at the start of 2026. Since then, the company has pushed back the feature a handful of times, with the most recent
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Mar 16, 2026
Subscriptions are out of control. I can remember a time when the monthly payouts were few: just Netflix, a couple of magazines and a mobile plan. Now we have subscriptions for music, security cameras, cloud gaming, AI chatbots, meal kits, LinkedIn, DoorDash, Uber, Photoshop — the list is long. Basically, if there's an app for something, there's likely an associated subscription available, too. This guide was put together to help you locate and cancel the subscriptions that are no longer serving you. That way, you won't end up paying for something you don't use. Every time I go through this process, I'm always amazed at what random stuff I've signed up for — and cancelling always feels good.
It's true that signing up for something is far easier than canceling — that's by design. The FTC tried to pass a rule requiring companies to make cancelling a subscription as easy as it was to sign up for it. But that solution died before it ever went into effect.
That means it will still take some effort to get rid of the services you don't use, but there are a couple of tactics that might make your efforts more effective. Here's our advice on finding and cancelling your unneeded subscriptions.
First things first: Find out what subscriptions you have
Before putting this post together, I had no idea how many subscriptions I was paying for. Surprises included a coding game for my kid (that he no longer plays) and a British streaming app I'd gotten for one show (that I finished nearly a year ago). You
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Mar 16, 2026
A coalition of Big Tech companies is working on a more comprehensive solution to combat online scams. As first reported by Axios, Google, Microsoft, LinkedIn, Meta, Amazon, OpenAI, Adobe and Match Group announced the signing of the Online Services Accord Against Scams. The new agreement is meant to put up a united industry-wide front against online fraud and scams, particularly those from sophisticated criminal networks that use multiple platforms.
According to the Axios report, the measures will include adding fraud detection tools, introducing new user security features, and requiring more robust verification for financial transactions. The agreement will also set up best practices for scam detection, prevention and reporting, while encouraging the sharing of information between companies and law enforcement. On the policy side, the coalition will call on the governments to "declare scam prevention a national priority," according to Axios. While these measures are extensive, the report noted that they're all voluntary since the accord doesn't mention any penalties if the companies don't follow through.
Many of the companies involved in the new accord already have experience in dealing with scams found on their own platforms. Earlier this month, Meta announced several new features across Fac
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Mar 16, 2026
The AirPods Max 2 are almost here. Apple announced this morning that the first true update to its over-hear phones are up for pre-order on March 25 and will be shipping in early April. They look identical to the predecessor, with large, colorful earcups and a matching headband. But inside is the H2 chip that Apple first introduced with the AirPods Pro 2, which enables a host of new features. Chief among those is improved noise cancelation — Apple says with the H2 and improved audio algorithms, the AirPods Max 2 are 1.5 times more effective at reducing noise than the old model.
From an audio perspective, there's a new amplifier on board here as well for clearer music and improved spatial audio performance. If you want lossless music, you can get that by using the included USB-C cable.
There are also a host of new features for the AirPods Max 2 enabled by the H2. These include an "Adaptive Audio" mode that balances betwee
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Mar 16, 2026
Firefly aired for just one season in 2002 before Fox canceled it. In the 24 years since, the sci-fi show has skyrocketed in popularity and now fans are finally getting more. Nathan Fillion has announced that an animated Firefly series is currently in advanced development, Deadline first reported.
Fillion shared the news at AwesomeCon during a live taping of his podcast Once We Were Spacemen with his Firefly co-stars Gina Torres, Morena Baccarin, Summer Glau, Sean Maher, Jewel Staite and Alan Tudyk. Tudyk co-hosts the podcast, in which the duo look back at their careers and interview past coworkers. Each of the actors present at AwesomeCon are expected to voice the animated versions of their characters.
This isn't one of those maybe one day it will happen announcements, with many steps already being taken. The animated reboot is under the direction of showrunners Tara Butters (Agent Carter, Reaper) and Marc Guggenheim (DC's Legends of Tomorrow, Arrow) — original creator Joss Whedon is not involved, but has given his blessing. It has early concept art from ShadowMachine, an Oscar- and Emmy-winning animation studio. Fillion is producing the show through Collision33, his production company, and with 20th Television Animation. There's even already a script in place.
According to Fillion, the one thing left is a home for the series. He and his co-stars took to Once We Were Spacemen's Instagram to provide more details and implore FireFly fans to show demand for the reboot.
Refurbished devices not only save you a bit of cash, they have a drastically lower carbon footprint since most environmental impact comes from manufacturing. It's more efficient than recycling and helps keep e-waste out of landfills. But there are better places to shop refurbished tech than others. We've gathered /a few recommendations, along with our advice on what to look for when you start shopping for refurbished gear.
What to consider when buying refurbished devices
Refurbished vs used
Refurbished is not the same as used. Used items tend to be sold "as-is,'' which means you're simply inheriting whatever mileage and quirks a device had when the previous owner said goodbye to it. It's true that most refurbished items were previously owned, and many are a result of the growing trend of trading in
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Mar 16, 2026
We've loved Apple's 2021-era MacBook Pro design from the start, and the M5 Max edition is once again the professional notebook to beat. But it's hard to deny that the star of Apple's recent laptop rollout wasn't its most powerful Pro systems — all eyes were on the $599 MacBook Neo. The MacBook Pro's next time to shine is likely this fall, when Apple is expected to finally deliver OLED models and a dynamic touchscreen interface. (I've argued before that, at this point, Apple has no excuse not to give us touchscreen Macs.)
This generation of MacBook Pro might just be the last gasp of the 2021 remodel. It's still an incredibly powerful machine that's been honed to near-perfection, but if you're looking for something that feels truly new, it may be worth waiting several months.
It's not too surprising to see the M5 Pro and Max MacBook Pros be relatively low-key efforts. Apple launched the
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Mar 16, 2026
Ahead of its acquisition by Paramount Skydance, Warner Bros. dominated the 2026 Oscars with 11 wins primarily for Ryan Coogler's Sinners and Paul Thomas Anderson's One Battle After Another. Netflix also put in a strong showing with seven Academy Awards, including two for KPop Demon Hunters and three for Guillermo Del Toro's Frankenstein.
All told, dedicated streaming services chalked up eight awards, but were shut out of the major prizes. Frankenstein took the trophies for for Best Production Design, Best Costume Design and Best Makeup and Hairstyling, while KPop Demon Hunters took Best Animated Feature and Best original Song. Netflix also took prizes for All The Empty Rooms (Best Documentary Short Film) and The Singers (Best Live Action Short Film). Apple TV garnered the other streaming service Oscar for F1 (Best Sound).
Warner Bros. dominated the more prestigious awards. The studio took its first Oscar for Best Picture (One Battle After Another) since Argo won in 2012, while also winning Anderson the prizes for Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay, and giving Sean Penn the Best Supporting Actor Oscar. Sinners, meanwhile, won for Best Cinematography, giving Autumn Durald Arkapaw the first ever win for a woman and woman of color in that category. Michael B. Jordan took the Best Actor prize fo
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Mar 15, 2026
If your Playdate wishlist is anything like mine (endless), here's a good excuse to actually go ahead and free some of those games from limbo: Panic is running a sale across the Playdate Catalog to celebrate its three-year anniversary. Sure, the majority of Playdate games are pretty cheap as is, but they can still add up when you're on a wild purchasing spree. Ask me how I know! The sale started on March 5 and goes until March 19 at 1PM ET (10AM PT), so take advantage of the discounts while you can.
There are 423 games available in the Catalog now, according to Panic, so if you're having trouble deciding on which you should go for, I've got you covered with a few recommendations right here.
Season Two
If $39 felt like too much to drop on Season Two when it came out last summer, now's the time to get it. Playdate's second season had only half the number of games as its first, but it still felt like a much stronger collection. Each of its 12 games is really solid, and there's plenty of variety in terms of genre and style, from puzzles and hours-long adventures to fast-paced action games that are great for bursts of intense play. And, it comes with Blippo — an oddball cable TV simulator that's unlike anything out there right now.
All of these games are worth playing, but there were definitely some standouts from the bunch: The Whiteout, a post-apocalyptic adventure that'll surely hit even harder now considering the winter we've had; the puzzle platformer
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Mar 15, 2026
In an unexpected twist, humans have taken some jobs back from AI. Embark Studios' CEO Patrick Söderlund recently told GamesIndustry.biz that the studio "re-recorded" some of the AI-generated voice lines in Arc Raiders with human voices, only after its successful launch in October.
"There is a quality difference," Söderlund told GamesIndustry.biz. "A real professional actor is better than AI; that's just how it is."
With Arc Raiders' player count peaking at nearly half a million users on Steam, the game's breakout success was still marred by its use of text-to-speech AI. While there was no generative AI used for the visuals of the extraction shooter, Embark Studios paid its actors for approval to license their voices for text-to-speech AI, according to Söderlund. Even though Söderlund said that the text-to-speech AI was reserved for lines "that aren't as essential to the immersion of the experience," many players weren't happy with this creative decision.
Responding to the criticism, Embark Studios is seemingly reversing course and relying more on its voice actors. Söderlund said that the studio pays its voice actors for their tim
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Mar 15, 2026
In an unexpected twist, humans have taken some jobs back from AI. Embark Studios' CEO Patrick Söderlund recently told GamesIndustry.biz that the studio "re-recorded" some of the AI-generated voice lines in Arc Raiders with human voices, only after its successful launch in October.
"There is a quality difference," Söderlund told GamesIndustry.biz. "A real professional actor is better than AI; that's just how it is."
With Arc Raiders' player count peaking at nearly half a million users on Steam, the game's breakout success was still marred by its use of text-to-speech AI. While there was no generative AI used for the visuals of the extraction shooter, Embark Studios paid its actors for approval to license their voices for text-to-speech AI, according to Söderlund. Even though Söderlund said that the text-to-speech AI was reserved for lines "that aren't as essential to the immersion of the experience," many players weren't happy with this creative decision.
Responding to the criticism, Embark Studios is seemingly reversing course and relying more on its voice actors. Söderlund said that the studio pays its voice actors for their tim
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Mar 15, 2026
To capitalize on Claude's recent spike in popularity, Anthropic is offering a limited-time promotion that doubles usage limits for anyone using its AI chatbot during off-peak hours. From March 13 to March 27, users on Free, Pro, Max, and Team plans will get double the usage limits in a five-hour window when using Claude outside weekday hours between 8 AM and 2 PM ET. According to Anthropic, the promotion is automatic, and users don't have to enable anything to get the benefits.
— Claude (@claudeai) March 14, 2026
Anthropic said that this promotion applies to anyone using Claude on web, desktop or mobile, but also with Cowork, Claude Code, Claude for Excel and Claude for PowerPoint. Previously, Anthropic offered a similar event from December 25 to December 31, doubling usage limits for Pro, Max 5x or Max 20x subscribers. However, Anthropic is targeting an even wider audience with its latest promotion since only Enterprise users are excluded this time around.
Anthropic is marketing the promotion as a "small thank you to everyone using Claude," but it's likely tied to its
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Mar 14, 2026
A month after Seedance 2.0's launch in China sparked cease-and-desist letters from Disney and Paramount Skydance over its use of copyrighted materials, its developer ByteDance has reportedly hit pause on the release of the AI video tool in other regions. According to The Information, which spoke to two anonymous sources with knowledge of the matter, ByteDanc
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Mar 14, 2026
You're responsible for your own Spotify algorithm now. On stage at SXSW, Spotify's co-CEO, Gustav Söderström, announced the Taste Profile feature, which allows users to personally customize exactly what they want to listen to, whether it's music, audiobooks or podcasts. This AI-powered feature is still in beta, and it will be available to Premium users in New Zealand in the coming weeks.
From its short video demo, Spotify's Taste Profile feature will show you a summary of your listening habits and offer a "Tell us more" prompt at the bottom. With the new prompt, users can inform the AI what they want to see more of or if they want to get rid of a genre that keeps popping up in their algorithm. Spotify said that the Taste Profile will take into consideration more ambiguous prompts, too, like if you're training for a marathon and want upbeat music or want to listen to news podcasts during your commute to work. Spotify added that Taste Profile is an optional feature, and unwilling users can "leave it and enjoy Spotify as usual."
With Taste Profile, Spotify is continuing its momentum of offering AI features, like the Prompted Playlist feature that was made available last month. Unlike the existing AI Playlist feature, Prompted Playlist lets you put in specific requests to generate a playlist, like only including songs from a specific TV show. Like Taste Profile, the Prompted Playlist feature saw
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Mar 14, 2026
There may have been some extra incentive for the Trump administration to get the TikTok US deal done. According to a report from The Wall Street Journal, the Trump administration is set to receive a total of $10 billion in the deal that allowed TikTok to remain in the US. The new investors who acquired stakes in the US entity of TikTok already paid a $2.5 billion fee to the administration when the deal closed in January, but WSJ's latest report noted that the group of investors would continue to make payments until the total hits $10 billion.
After a group of investors, which includes Oracle along with the Silver Lake and MGX investment firms, acquired stakes in the US-based TikTok entity called TikTok USDS Joint Venture, the WSJ previously reported that the administration would receive a "multibillion-dollar fee" for its work on the deal. To better contextualize the recently-revealed $10 billion fee the Trump administration is receiving, the US entity of TikTok was valued at $14 billion by Vice President JD Vance.
The Trump administration has previously involved itself in major deals with other US corporations. Last year
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Mar 14, 2026
Need something new for your reading list? This week, we recommend A.D. Sui's The Iron Garden Sutra, a meditative horror sci-fi/fantasy and murder mystery.
I don't typically gravitate toward locked room mysteries, but the description of this book ticked all the right boxes to win me over: "a death monk and a team of researchers trapped onboard a spaceship of the dead encounter something beyond human understanding." It has all the makings of a compelling murder mystery, which is fine on its own, but thanks to the philosophical musings of its main character, Vessel Iris, and a setting that almost demands existential contemplation, it becomes something much deeper.
Vessel Iris is a monk some time in the far future whose mission is to perform funeral rites for the dead so their souls may reach their ultimate destination, according to the beliefs of his religion, the Starlit Order. "Vessels" like Iris share their mind with an AI companion, which creates a really interesting dynamic for the reader, as there is a constant dialogue going on between the two from the start (carrying a tone that sometimes verges on "old married couple," which I quite enjoyed). Iris shows up to an ancient ship called the Counsel of Nicaea expecting to perform his duties for the long-deceased on board and instead finds himself facing a group of researchers who are very much not dead — and a jumbled mess of bones from the hundreds of bodies they disturbed by moving, which he'll have to sort in order to properly bless.
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Mar 14, 2026
Meta could be preparing for one of the largest layoffs in its history, according to a Reuters report. The tech giant is planning to cut about 20 percent of its workforce, according to the outlet's sources. According to the report, neither a date nor the exact number of layoffs has been finalized yet.
However, Reuters reported that Meta's top executives have told "other senior leaders" to start "planning how to pare back." In its latest financial report, the company's employee headcount was 78,865 as of December 31, 2025, while revenue reached nearly $60 billion for the fourth quarter and more than $200 billion for the entire year. A Meta spokesperson told Reuters that this was "speculative reporting about theoretical approaches."
Meta is no stranger to major layoffs. Earlier this year, Meta targeted about 1,000 employees in its layoffs with the Reality Labs division that's responsible for the company's virtual reality and metaverse efforts. Early last year, Meta laid off about
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Mar 14, 2026
Digg has shut down, for now, just a few months after its open beta launched. Justin Mezzell, the company's CEO, has explained on the home page that it noticed hours after the beta launched that it was already being targeted by SEO spammers. "The internet is now populated, in meaningful part, by sophisticated AI agents and automated accounts," he wrote. Apparently, the Digg team wasn't ready for the scale and the speed at which bots found and started flooding the website.
Mezzell said Digg banned thousands of accounts and deployed both internal tools and external solutions, but they weren't enough. He admitted that the votes and the comments on the website couldn't be trusted due to the amount of bot activity it got. While Digg has decided to significantly downsize its team, a small number of staff members has stayed to rebuild it completely. He said it wasn't enough to present Digg as an alternative to current social networks and community-based websites. "What comes next needs to be genuinely different," he added.
The CEO didn't explain how Digg will reinvent itself, but he did announce that its founder, Kevin Rose, is joining the company full time. Rose bought back Digg last year in partnership with Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian. Back then, they said they had "a fresh vision to restore the spirit of discovery and genuine community that made the early web a fun and exciting place to be." Based on what happened to Digg, that's now harder to achieve with the state of the internet today.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/digg-shuts-down-for-a-hard-reset-because-it-was-flooded-with-bots-153848094.html?src=rss
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Mar 14, 2026
Welcome to our latest roundup of what's going on in the indie game space. A bunch of intriguing games arrived this week, including a mobile port of one of the most absorbing things I've played in years and two completely different titles with the same name. Let's get things started with a look at a few projects that were featured in the latest edition of the Future Games Show.
Hyperwired (from SidralGames and publisher SelectaPlay) is a 2D roguelike shooter with an interesting resource-management twist. To recharge your weapons and systems, you have to plug a cable that trails behind your spaceship into a socket. While you're plugged in, your movement is restricted by the length of the tether, but you gain more firepower.
There are a whole bunch of upgrades and bullet modifiers to play around with here, including a slow-motion system you can activate at almost any time. Hyperwired is slated to hit Steam, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch this summer.
In Clean Up Earth, you and other players can work together to r
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Mar 13, 2026
OpenAI plans to add its Sora video generation model directly into ChatGPT, The Information reports . The standalone Sora app was seen as a smash hit when it launched alongside Sora 2 in September 2025, but interest in the video generation app has fallen in the time since as users ran into limits on the amount and kinds of videos they could create.
Adding Sora to the ChatGPT could give the model a second life, and ideally grow the ChatGPT app's weekly active users from the 900 million OpenAI reported in February, to a billion or more. According to The Information, the standalone Sora app will stick around after the model is integrated, even though the app has fallen out of the App Store's top 100 free apps and only a small number of users reportedly share their videos publicly in the app.
It's hard to pin down an exact number for what generating a video costs OpenAI, but the company charges API customers $0.10 per second for a 720p video, and in 2025, it was willing to give away 30 free video generations per account per a day in the Sora app. When you consider
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Mar 13, 2026
Meta AI should soon be better at surfacing international news content thanks to a set of new deals with publishers. The company announced new agreements with international outlets and offered additional details on its recent deal with News Corp.
The latest deals bring French newspaper Le Figaro, Spanish media company Prisa and German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung into the fold. Together, along with News Corp, which runs a number of outlets in the UK, these sources should give Meta AI better access to timely info about world events. Meta didn't disclose terms of the deals — The Wall Street Journal previously reported the News Corp arrangement was worth up to $50 million a year — but it said that it intends to link out to the relevant news sources.
"These integrations will also facilitate easier access to information by linking out to articles, allowing you to visit these partners' websites for more details while providing value to partners, enabling them to reach new audiences," Meta wrote in an update. The company has a long and sometimes fraught history with publishers as its priorities have shifted over the years. In the past, Meta has struck deals to pay publishers to produce live video and "
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Mar 13, 2026
Adobe has agreed to pay the US government $75 million to settle its lawsuit over the company's allegedly harmful approach to subscriptions. The suit started in 2024, when the US Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission filed a joint complaint alleging the company deliberately made it difficult to cancel subscriptions and obscured the frequently expensive "early termination fee" customers have to pay to get out of annual subscriptions that are paid monthly.
"While we disagree with the government's claims and deny any wrongdoing, we are pleased to resolve this matter," Adobe writes. "We have agreed to provide $75 million worth of free services to customers that qualify. We will proactively reach out to the affected customers once the appropriate filings with the Court are made and accepted. Additionally, we have agreed to a $75 million payment to the Department of Justice."
Adobe's statement also notes that it's made the process of both signing up for and canceling subscriptions "more streamlined and transparent." A major sticking point of the original complaint is that canceling an "annual plan, paid monthly" subscription before completing the first year of service required customers to pay an early termination fee to make up for the value Adobe lost initially offering its software at a discount. Adobe currently allows plans to be refunded if they're canceled within 14 days after signing up, but canceling an "annual plan, paid monthly" subscription after those first 14 days requires paying a hefty fee (as outlined in the company's
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Mar 13, 2026
In the mad dash many companies have made to incorporate AI features into their phones, Nothing arrived at one of the better ideas with Essential Space on the Nothing Phone 3a in 2025. The AI-powered app turns screenshots and voice recordings into actionable to-do lists and transcriptions, and now Nothing is rolling out an update to make the app easier to search and capable of recognizing new kinds of content.
As part of the update, Essential Space now recognizes "Events," displaying them in their own card with fields for the date, time and location. That means, for example, if you add a photo of a flyer for pottery class to the app, Essential Space will be able to pull the details of when and where it's happening, and track it in much the same way it does tasks or to-dos. Nothing foresees events being such a big part of how people will use Essential Space that it's also changing the layout of the app's interface and listing things like Events and Tasks in a new For You page you see when you open the app.
To make everything you've stored in Essential Space easier to find, the app now also supports semantic search, surfacing results that don't just match the text you've entered, but try to match the meaning of what you're looking for. Semantic search should be particularly useful when you're looking for an image, because you can enter a description of what you're looking for and Essential Space should still be able to surface it.
Sorting and
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Mar 13, 2026
Apple's cheapest laptop is also its most repairable. iFixit gave the new MacBook Neo a 6/10 repairability score. Although that number would only be mediocre for, say, a game review or final exam grade, it's the MacBook line's highest iFixit score in about 14 years.
As always, iFixit goes into great detail about the product's repairability, but a few points stand out. First, the MacBook Neo's battery is screwed down rather than glued — moving it from "this might burn the house down" to "routine repair" territory. The laptop also has a flat disassembly tree. That means its battery, speakers, ports and trackpad are all immediately accessible after opening the back case.
In other areas, a simplified antenna ass
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Mar 13, 2026
Meta is killing end-to-end encryption in Instagram DMs. The feature will "no longer be supported after May 8, 2026," the company wrote in an update on its support page. Unlike WhatsApp, Meta never made encryption available to all Instagram users and it was never a default setting. Instead, users in "some areas" had the ability to opt-in to encryption on a per-chat basis.
In a statement, a Meta spokesperson said the feature was being retired due to low adoption. "Very few people were opting in to end-to-end encrypted messaging in DMs, so we're removing this option from Instagram in the coming months," the spokesperson said. "Anyone who wants to keep messaging with end-to-end encryption can easily do that on WhatsApp."
Interestingly, Meta's statement doesn't mention the status of encryption on Messenger. The company began turning on end-to-end encryption as a default setting in 2023 after years of work on the feature. A support page for Messenger currently
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Mar 13, 2026
Amazon is raising the price of its ad-free Prime Video subscription and locking 4K UHD streaming behind this new tier. Starting April 10 for US customers, a rebranded Prime Video Ultra subscription will cost $5 per month, up from $3 per month.
For that extra $2, you get a download capacity increase from 25 to 100, and you can now run five streams concurrently instead of three. Whether those "Ultra" upgrades are worth the $24 annual hike will probably depend on how many boxsets you like to plough through on a long flight, or how many devices are using your Prime Video account.
The changes are most galling for Prime members who automatically qualify for Prime Video with ads through their membership, as Amazon has decided to remove 4K streaming from the standard tier. That means that, despite already paying $15 per month or $139 per year for Amazon Prime, you'll be stuck with 1080p shows and movies unless you sign up to Prime Video Ultra.
Amazon has thrown in Dolby Vision support for the first time, as well as upping the concurrent stream and download count on its free tier as well, but you're losing the privilege of UHD content that has been available to all Prime Video members for years. Dolby Atmos remains exclusive to the $5 tier too.
Amazon is the latest streamer to put its prices up, following similar recent hikes to Apple TV,
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Mar 13, 2026
Parallels, the company best known for making the virtualization software that enables you to run Windows and other operating systems on a Mac, has confirmed that Parallels Desktop is compatible with the MacBook Neo.
At launch it was unclear if Apple's new $600 laptop possessed the under-the-hood heft to run Windows apps, but in a recently updated post on its website, Parallels said that initial tests show its software running "stably," although performance is still being assessed.
The MacBook Neo uses an A18 Pro chip, which debuted in the iPhone 16 Pro. However, as this chip is based on the same ARM architecture as M-series chips for Mac, it's still capable of running Parallels' Windows virtual machine.
But there is a caveat to all this. Just because you can do something, it doesn't necessarily mean you should. While Parallels Desktop could theoretically be a viable option for Neo owners who are only interested in light Windows use, anything that puts a significant strain on the CPU or GPU is going to present a problem.
This is because the MacBook Neo only ships with 8GB of RAM, and as Parallels highlights, Windows 11 requires a minimum of 4GB of RAM to run. That leaves a very small amount of remaining headroom for macOS and your Mac apps to run alongside Windows, which is going to noticeably hurt the laptop's
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Mar 13, 2026
TikTok's Chinese parent company ByteDance has figured out a way to access NVIDIA's latest AI chips despite export restrictions, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal. The company is working with a firm called Aolani Cloud and building out Blackwell computing systems in Malaysia.
This should give ByteDance access to around 36,000 B200 chips. That's NVIDIA's most powerful processor. The hardware buildout will reportedly cost more than $2.5 billion. The company says it plans on using this new computing power for AI research and development outside of China.
The country has been unable to access the B200 chip, as it was designed in California and, as such, subject to US export controls. This has led
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Mar 13, 2026
Inevitably, the more you use something — your Mac included — the more dirty and cluttered it's likely to become. At that point, you can buy a new machine, but the more economical move is to make what you have already work better. To help your computer feel new, or at least a little cleaner and less chaotic, we put together this guide with techniques and useful apps that have helped us maintain a more organized computer. I've been using these tips since before I first published this guide in 2021, and they've helped keep my 2018 MacBook Air looking and running (almost) like brand new.
How to clean your Mac's screen and body
While there are many products out there from manufacturers claiming their one does it best, my advice is to keep things simple. It's also the one Apple recommends. To start, you will need some water in a spray bottle and a clean microfiber cloth. You can use regular water from the tap but I've found distilled water works best; it's far less likely to leave residue behind on your Mac, particularly on the display. You can buy distilled water at a grocery store or make it yourself with
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Mar 13, 2026
It's already smartphone season. Samsung's annual deluge encompasses three new phones for 2026: the frontier-pushing S26 Ultra ($1,300) with its innovative Privacy Screen, the S26 ($899) and the S26 ($999). The smaller flagships, yet again, are iterative versions of what came before, with the major differences centering on bigger batteries and brighter screens.
I'm getting waves of deja vu as I review the Galaxy S26, because at times I was writing exactly what I wrote last year — including the part about it being a little too similar to what came before.
Hardware
Image by Mat Smith for Engadget
Let's focus on the changes. The Galaxy S26's screen size is a little bigger than its predecessor's; 6.3 inches, up from 6.2 inches on the S25. However, it still has the same FHD (2,340 x 1,080) resolution. Given the slight size difference, there's no particular drop in sharpness. The screen can also go slightly brighter, topping out at 3,000 nits, which is always welcome — especially when Samsung has increased the battery to 4,300mAh from the S25's 4,000mAh. (The S25 already impressed us with its battery longevity.)
The design,
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Mar 13, 2026
Somehow, Apple made a $599 laptop that's actually a joy to use. In this episode, Devindra and Deputy Editor Nathan Ingraham chat about what makes the MacBook Neo so great. And they also dive into the new M4 iPad Air, M5 MacBook Air and M5 Pro/Max MacBook Pros. Also, Roberto Baldwin, SAE International's Sustainability Editor, joins us to chat about the state of EVs today as gas prices explode.
Subscribe!
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Mar 13, 2026
Apple is lowering its developer fees in China following discussions with the Chinese regulator. From March 15, the commission rate for standard in-app purchases (IAPs) will be reduced from 30 percent to 25 percent on its mainland China App Store storefront for both iOS and iPadOS.
In a Developer blog, Apple also said that developers belonging to its App Store Small Business or Mini Apps programmes will also have their fees reduced by 3 percent, from 15 to 12 percent. This applies to the commission rate for IAPs and in-app subscription renewals after the first year.
"We strive for iOS and iPadOS to be the best app ecosystem and a great business opportunity for developers in China," Apple said in the post. "We are committed to terms that remain fair and transparent to all developers, and to always offering competitive App Store rates to developers distributing apps in China that are no higher than overall rates in other markets."
Apple says developers are not required to agree to the terms by March 15 to start receiving their benefits, seemingly making the transition as smooth as possible to avoid further regulatory intervention. It will no doubt be taken as a significant win for Chinese businesses, and comes a year after reports that a state watchdog was investigating the fees Apple enforces on developers it hosts on the App Store.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/apple-is-reducing-its-app-store-commission-fees-in-china-131221192.html?src=rss
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Mar 13, 2026
Apple's new family of laptops might have a cringeworthy name, but don't let it fool you. Despite the MacBook Neo running on a built-for-iPhone A-series processor and being limited to 8GB of RAM, it delivers on what Macs do best. It has a capable screen, keyboardand trackpadand its overall build quality should embarrass other laptop-making rivals that have compromised on those areas with their $600 laptops.
Engadget
Don't expect a gaming rig - it struggled predictably to run Lies of P, but for most of the things you need a laptop for - especially for students and desk workers - it handles them with aplomb. Yeah, I said aplomb.
Check out our full Neo review by Devindra Hardawar - surely you're intrigued by the idea of a $600 MacBook?
— Mat Smith
The other big stories (and deals) this morning
Bumble is the latest dating app to add an AI assistant
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Mar 13, 2026
Meditation is often touted as a mental cure-all, purported to help with stress, sleep, mood, focus and even certain medical conditions. I've been meditating most of my adult life. I've done silent retreats. I've been formally trained in various techniques. I've had someone in my contacts list who I referred to as a "guru." So I feel I'm relatively qualified to give some bad news: Meditation won't fix your life, despite what David Lynch says. However, there's also some good news: Despite not actually being a cure-all for everything bad in the universe, meditation can certainly take the edge off.
This is where meditation apps can come into play. Of course, practicing mindfulness doesn't require an app; people have been doing it for thousands of years, with nary a smartphone in sight. But mindfulness apps can be useful in a number of ways. They provide access to all kinds of guided meditations to suit different styles. Some even offer social connections, which can motivate you to keep up your practice via the magic of peer pressure. They are also particularly well-suited to beginners, with many of them offering a free trial. With all of this in mind, I downloaded some of the most popular meditation apps and set about sitting calmly on a comfortable chair to test them out. What follows is a comparison aimed at real people just looking to squeeze a bit more joy and relaxation out of daily life.
Best meditation apps
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Mar 13, 2026
Uber's and Motional's Hyundai Ioniq 5 autonomous EVs will start appearing as an option for riders in Las Vegas. Passengers requesting for an UberX, Uber Electric, Uber Comfort or Uber Comfort Electric ride may be matched with a Motional robotaxi. They will not be forced to take it, though, and will be notified and given the option to decline and choose a regular ride instead. But if they want to try it, they can boost their chances of getting matched with a robotaxi ride by opting in via the Ride Preferences section under Settings.
Riders who get on autonomous rides will be able to unlock the vehicle through the Uber app. Inside, they'll hear audio cues reminding them to close the door and fasten their seatbelt. They'll also be able to access human support through the Uber app in case they need help. The companies started piloting the robotaxi service in Las Vegas in 2022 after establishing a 10-year partnership. Motional's Hyundai AVs were also tested by Uber Eats for autonomous deliveries in the same year.
The first autonomous rides under the partnership will still have safety drivers behind the wheel to monitor the roads. They will also be only available, for now, at designated locations along Las Vegas Boulevard, "including rideshare zones at the Resorts World Las Vegas and Encore at the Wynn Las Vegas — plus Westgate Las Vegas Resort & Casino and curbside in Downtown Las Vegas and throughout the Town Square shopping district near the airport." By the end of the year, the companies expect to start offering fully autonomous rid
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Mar 13, 2026
It's hard to believe that it's been almost four years since Apple gave the MacBook Air a serious glow-up. The 2022 model was a total redesign that bumped its performance with the M2 chip and also improved a number of key components. It was also the first MacBook Air to drop the signature tapered design, and Apple added a 15-inch model one year later to boot. Since then, Apple's primarily focused on making sure it has a new chip every year — we're already up to the M5, if you can believe it.
As such, the latest MacBook Air is an expected update that doesn't change the game. Not that it needed changing: it's been our favorite ultraportable laptop for years now. But the Air's place in Apple's lineup has changed with the simultaneous introduction of the $599 MacBook Neo. And unfortunately, Apple didn't keep the $999 price that last year's M4 MacBook Air hit; it's back up to $1,099, the same price as the M2 and M3 models. Now that there's the new, inexpensive MacBook Neo out there, who is the MacBook Air for? While I haven't used the Neo yet, I'm pretty comfortable answering that question: it's still for almost anyone.
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Mar 13, 2026
Apple's exclusive deal for US broadcast rights of Formula 1 was a big shift to streaming from ESPN's cable coverage of the past, but after the first race (the Australian Grand Prix), it seems to be going well. "The 2026 Formula 1 season on Apple TV is off to a strong start, with fans responding positively and viewership up year over year for the first weekend, exceeding both F1 and Apple expectations," Apple VP Eddy Cue told The Hollywood Reporter.
Apple didn't give any ratings or other details, but we can glean some clues from previous data. Last year, ESPN said the Australian GP averaged 1.1 million viewers, way up from the previous record of 659,000 in 2019. If Cue's comments were accurate, that means Apple TV's audience was above that, which would be impressive considering that it's a streaming-only service.
When Apple's Formula streaming deal was first announced, F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali was bullish on the deal. "It will allow us to enter in the houses of other people in a different way, in great quality that is very important for us," he told Racer. Indeed, Apple is pouring resources into it in a way that ESPN never did. That includes advanced tech that offers multiple ways for fans to watch, including Multiview, Podium Viewer, driver cams and 4K Dolby Vision coverage, Cue noted.
Apple has jumped into Formula 1 racing in other other ways as well, taking advantage of a surge in the sport's popularity aided by Netflix's series Formula 1:
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Mar 13, 2026
Bandai Namco has announced a new Little Nightmares game, this time for virtual reality. Little Nightmares VR: Altered Echoes is developed by Iconik and not by Tarsier Studios, but it's still connected to the beloved titles Little Nightmares I and II. Remember Dark Six, the protagonist Six's dark doppelganger from the previous games? Well, in this installment, you will control her as she goes on a journey to reunite with the actual Six in order to reunited with her and become whole.
The adventure horror puzzle game promises an "eerie, atmospheric universe" with an immersive first-person perspective. It features new locations within Nowhere, a nightmarish world only accessible through dreams filled with dangerous creatures, such as the human-like Residents. The Thin Man, the antagonist of the franchise's second installment, is also back.
Little Nightmares VR: Altered Echoes is optimized for the PSVR2, the Meta Quest 2, 3 and 3s, the Oculus Rift and Rift S, the Pico 4, the Valve Index and the HTC Vive. However, it also works with other PC VR headsets. It will be available on April 24, 2026, and you can add it to your Wishlist right now on the PlayStation, Steam and Meta stores.
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Mar 12, 2026
Many of us remember the halcyon days of being a kid in the ‘90s, spending a weekend afternoon with remote control in hand and a seemingly endless well of stuff to watch on TV. Now you can relive the experience thanks to the appropriately named Channel Surfer web app. It's essentially a YouTube discovery tool that surfaces interesting videos, but presented in a retro homage to the cable channel screen.
Channel Surfer is the work of developer Steven Irby. He has 40 channels on the app right now, mostly grouping content by theme. There are channels for typical cable fare like news and sports, but also music, movies and a number of more tailored tech subjects like AI, gaming, gadgets and space.
"I built Channel Surfer because I'm tired of the algorithms and indecision fatigue," he told TechCrunch, which is where we discovered the app. "I miss channel surfing and not having to decide what to watch. I want to just sit and tune into what's on and not think about what to watch next."
It seems Irby isn't alone, because he posted on X that the number of views he's getting for Channel Surfer already broke 10,000 on its first day.
— Steven Irby (@StevenIrby) March 12, 2026
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engad
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Mar 12, 2026
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters, the union that covers warehouse workers, drivers and a diverse collection of other laborers, has come out against Paramount Skydance's merger with Warner Bros. Discovery. In a press release, the Teamsters announced that it has submitted a report to the US Department of Justice's Antitrust Division outlining its concerns about the impact of the deal, and is urging the DOJ to intervene in the merger.
"This merger threatens the livelihoods of the very workers who built these studios into industry giants," Teamsters General President Sean M. O'Brien said in a statement. "We've seen what happens when corporations consolidate power: jobs disappear, production leaves American communities and workers pay the price. The DOJ has a responsibility to stop deals that eliminate competition and harm working families. Unless Paramount and Warner Bros. can guarantee enforceable protections for domestic production and labor standards, this merger can't be allowed to move forward."
The Teamsters are primarily concerned with how merging the two companies will consolidate power, and eliminate jobs in the process. "Previous mergers have a well-documented track record of harming workers — Disney's 2019 acquisition of 20th Century Fox resulted in eliminated production units, significant job losses and canceled projects," the union says. Motion Picture Teamsters, the division of the union concentrated in Hollywood that transports the equipment, props and crew members that make productions possible, stand to be most impacted.
The high likelihood the merger
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Mar 12, 2026
The newly verified X account for Iran's supreme leader could be putting the company on the wrong side of US sanctions, according to a watchdog group. The Tech Transparency Project, which last month published a report on X granting premium perks to sanctioned officials in Iran, now says that the verified account for the country's new leader raises fresh questions about the issue.
The TTP notes that the X account for Iran's new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, appears to be paying for an X premium subscription despite being on the US government's list of sanctioned individuals since 2019. As the group points out, the Iran-based account was created this month and currently bears a blue checkmark, which typically indicates the account holder is paying for a subscription.
It didn't end there.
An account for Iran's new supreme leader created this month also carries the blue premium checkmark.?? pic.twitter.com/5K9Ss1Sex8
— Tech Transparency Project (@TTP_updates) March 12, 2026
The account belonging to Mojtaba Khamenei has been boosted by other state-linked account
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Mar 12, 2026
Adobe's long-time CEO has shared that he plans to step down. Shantanu Narayen has been the chief exec at the tech company for 18 years, a tenure where he led Adobe in the major shift to become a software-as-a-service provider. The exact timeline for his exit is still up in the air, as Narayen will depart when the board of directors names his successor. He will remain on the board as its chair after leaving the CEO post.
While Adobe was not the first to take the SaaS route, it was one of the first major tech operations to do so. Software such as Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere and Lightroom from the brand have been mainstays in creative fields for years, so the launch of the Creative Suite subscription, which is now called Creative Cloud, was a pretty revolutionary change for its customers.
In an memo to employees, Narayen reflected on his nearly two decades at the helm. Adobe has grown from about 3,000 employees to more than 30,000, while its financial performance has leapt, revenue skyrocketing from less than $1 billion to more than $25 billion. He also looked toward the future and the seemingly-inevitable presence of artificial intelligence.
"The next era of creativity is being written right now — shaped by AI, by new workflows and by entirely new forms of expression," he wrote. "Adobe has never waited for the future to arrive. We've anticipated it. We've built it. And we've led it. What gives me the greatest confidence isn't just our technology — it's our people. Your ingenuity, resilience and commitment to customers are what will define this moment."
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/adobe-ceo-shantanu-narayen-plans-to-step-down-after-18-years-21270562
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Mar 12, 2026
NASA will soon give it another go on April Fools' Day. On Thursday, NASA said it's targeting April 1 at 6:24 PM ET for the Artemis II mission's next launch attempt.
In case that date doesn't pan out, NASA added April 2 at 7:22 PM as a secondary launch opportunity. If necessary, the agency foresees several more openings between April 1 and 6 to get the Orion rocket into space. "Within those six days between the first and the sixth, we can't always turn around every day for an attempt," NASA acting associate administrator Lori Glaze said at a press conference. "We would anticipate […] about four opportunities within that six-day period."
In preparation, NASA is targeting March 19 (a week from today) to roll Artemis II back out to the launch pad. However, it warned that further setbacks could occur. "While I am comfortable and the agency is comfortable with targeting April 1 as our first opportunity, just keep in mind we still have work to go," Glaze said. "There are still things that need to be done within the [Vehicle Assembly Building] and out at the pad. As always, we'll be guided by what the hardware is telling us, and we will launch when we're ready."
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Mar 12, 2026
We've been seeing all sorts of warnings about how RAMaggedon is nigh. The latest horseman signalling a disaster is the International Data Corporation, which had already cautioned that things were looking bad at the end of 2025. Today, the organization further cut its forecasts for the PC market in 2026, anticipating that global shipments would fall 11.6 percent. The previous report projected that this year would see a falloff of up to 8.9 percent due to ongoing memory shortages. And the new figure was set before the escalation of conflicts in Iran and across the Middle East, which could further deflate computing and other industries.
"Memory shortages will persist well into 2027," Jitesh Ubrani, research manager for IDC's Worldwide Mobile Device Trackers, said in the latest forecast. "While we anticipate some easing of prices beginning in 2028, the market is unlikely to return to the pricing levels seen in 2025."
This market report echoes price changes and official statements from all corners of the tech and computing sector. So far this year, we've already seen surging memory costs impacting HP, Samsung,
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Mar 12, 2026
KPop Demon Hunters is getting a sequel, Netflix and Sony have announced. Sony Pictures Animation handed the rights to the film to Netflix in 2021 as part of a larger licensing deal, but neither company could have expected how much of a hit it would ultimately become. Besides being Netflix's "most-watched movie of all time," KPop Demon Hunters is also nominated for Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song at the 98th Academy Awards, and stands a good chance of winning.
Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans, the directors of the first film, are returning to direct the sequel. The project will be the first in the duo's new "exclusive multiyear writing and directing partnership" with Netflix, which is focused on animation. "I feel immense pride as a Korean filmmaker that the audience wants more from this Korean story and our Korean characters," Kang said in a statement. "There's so much more to this world we have built, and I'm excited to show you. This is only the beginning."
"I fe
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Mar 12, 2026
Instagram has long limited users' ability to share links, restricting link-sharing to Stories, Reels and user profiles. But that might now be changing. The company has started to test clickable links inside of post captions for subscribers to Meta Verified.
The new feature, which has been a long-requested update from creators, was spotted by blogger Andrea Valeria, who posted screenshots of a clickable Substack link she was able to add to an Instagram post. According to Valeria, an in-app message indicated she could share up to 10 links a month.
Meta confirmed to Engadget that it's testing links in captions for subscribers to Meta Verified, but didn't provide details on how many people have access to the feature or if it will be widely available. It does seem to be somewhat limited, however, as the link on Valeria's post appears on Instagram's mobile app, but now when viewing the same post on Instagram's website.
Instagram's restrictions on link-sharing have been a notable part of the platform since its early days. The limitation helped kickstart an entire industry of "link in bio" platforms like Linktree, which help creators direct followers to off-platform websites based on what they share on Instagram. If Meta begins implementing the feature widely, it could drastically change how creators are able to interact with their followers (although a 10-link per month limit would likely still require "link in bio" solutions).
The test is also the latest way that Meta has experimented with making link-sharing a paid feature. The company has also recently tested restricting creators' ability to share links
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Mar 12, 2026
European regulators are continuing to crack down on loot boxes and gaming features it classifies as "interactive risk categories." The Pan-European Game Information, better known as PEGI, is rolling out new rules that will apply age ratings based on the presence of loot boxes and other in-game purchases or systems that could be tied to gambling or addictive behavior. The exact policies are as follows:
Purchases of in-game content: games with time-limited or quantity-limited offers will be classified with a PEGI 12, games with NFTs or blockchain-related mechanisms will be PEGI 18.
Paid random items: the default rating will be PEGI 16 if the game contains paid random items (and in some cases they can be a PEGI 18).
Play-by-appointment: mechanisms that reward returning to the game (e.g. daily quests) will get a PEGI 7. If these mechanisms punish players for not returning (e.g. by losing content or reducing progress) they will become PEGI 12.
Safe online gameplay: if games contain entirely unrestricted communication features (e.g. no blocking or reporting), they will be PEGI 18.
These changes will apply to newly submitted games beginning in June 2026. The messaging from the ratings body is that these rules are aimed at helping parents direct their children's online safety. "With the updated set of age rating criteria, PEGI aims to make parents aware that certain features in games should be carefully assessed, and that parental tools can be a very helpful assistant when doing that," PEGI Council Chair Beate Våje said.
Many titles may see an impact from the new policy, some more drastic than others. Online shooters might seen a bump from PEGI 12 to PEGI 16, but a franchise
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Mar 12, 2026
Bumble is testing an AI dating assistant called "Bee" that it hopes will get users on dates without them having to swipe through profiles, Bloomberg writes. The company announced the AI assistant during its fourth quarter earnings, and intends to use the AI in a new experience it calls "Dates."
When a user opts in to Bumble's Dates feature, Bee performs an onboarding chat where it learns about the users' "values, relationship goals, communications style, lifestyle and dating intentions," and then attempts to find other users who share some or all of those traits. Once Bee finds someone compatible, both users are notified in the app that they could be a great match, and receive a summary generated by Bee explaining why. From there, they can chat and see if things lead to a real-life date.
As is often the case with pie-in-the-sky AI features, Bumble has even bigger plans for how Bee could be used in its app, including as a tool for collecting anonymous feedback from user's previous matches or as a way to receive suggestions for dates ideas. AI will also apparently enable Bumble to move away from binary yes or no swipes on profiles and towards a system where users connect over "chapter-based" profiles that are more reflective of their life story.
Bumble is testing Bee internally and plans to launch the AI and its Dates feature in beta soon. The company is far from the only dating app experimenting with integrating AI recommendations and summaries. Tinder uses AI to
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Mar 12, 2026
Anker's Soundcore projectors have become an attractive option for buyers thanks to models like the P1 and Nebula X1 that combine performance and portability. Now, the company has added "affordability" to that equation with its latest model, the $369 P1i. Instead of being detachable like on the P1, its speakers fold out toward listeners, promising better and louder sound than most cheap projectors.
The P1i also delivers 1080p video, Google TV for streaming and the same easy screen fit setup as other Anker projectors. However, unlike some portable models, it lacks a built-in battery for true portability. Overall brightness is lower as well at 380 lumens compared to 650 on the P1. Despite those issues, the P1i is an outstanding budget projector that's ideal for impromptu indoor screenings and outdoor party use.
Features and design
With its relatively small size (8.9 x 7.2 x 8.0 inches) and slight five pound weight, the Soundcore Nebula P1i can be perched nearly anywhere and is easily toted around by the soft handle on top. It's almost too light, as even a slight bump can displace it and ruin the picture. It does have a tripod mount, though, which makes it easy to set up outside or install on your ceiling.
Fortunately, the P1i is perhaps the easiest projector in this price range to align with your wall or screen.
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Mar 12, 2026
It's already been a busy year for high-profile Microsoft departures, with longtime Xbox chief Phil Spencer bowing out last month alongside his expected successor Sarah Bond. Today it's the turn of Microsoft's head of Experiences Devices, Rajesh Jha, who leaves after more than 35 years at the company.
Jha, who oversaw some of Microsoft's most important products and services, including Windows, Office and Teams, said in a press release that he's been planning for his succession alongside CEO Satya Nadella for a while. Rather than bringing in a direct replacement, four members of his team will be promoted to executive vice president and report directly to Nadella.
Taking up these new more senior roles are Office EVP and LinkedIn CEO Ryan Rosl
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Mar 12, 2026
Amazon just unveiled a new personality type for Alexa . The "sassy" option is reserved for adults and the company claims it will throw out censored curse words from time to time. Amazon describes this option as a combination of "unfiltered personality" and "razor-sharp wit, playful sarcasm and occasional censored profanity."
We aren't yet sure how the chatbot handles the censoring. Does it use a garden variety bleep or a replacement word like fudge or something? I managed to get it to say "damn" and "hell", but couldn't force anything more profane than that.
In any event, adult users have to jump through a couple of hoops to activate this mode. It won't work if there's an enabled Amazon Kids profile on the account and it requires additional security checks, like face scans. The company also warns people upon being selected that the new tone could contain "mature subject matter." I'm more afraid of the bot using "clever comebacks" to absolutely shred my buying habits. Yes, I buy bagged popcorn when I have plenty of uncooked kernels in the pantry. I'm working on it.
This is still Alexa , despite the ability to drop colorful language every now and again. It's not an adult AI companion like the anime-inspired weirdness Grok recently trotted out or whatever erotica-infused nonsense OpenAI has been working on. Also, Amazon says the bot won't get involved with
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Mar 12, 2026
Fancy yourself as one of those folks who stands in front of an expensive touchscreen display on a news network on election night, zooming in and out of counties while bleating about polling and voting data? If so, you might get a kick out of BallotGuessr.
This is a riff on GeoGuessr that tasks you with guessing how a county voted in the 2024 presidential election. All you have to go on to figure out the identity of each county are contextual clues from Google Street View images. You can move around the environment a bit, but unless you get lucky, you'll need to have a good sense of politics and geography to do well here.
Once you think you have an idea of where the county is, you move a slider to guess whether residents voted for the Democrat or Republican ticket and by how many points. In the daily challenge mode, you only have 30 seconds to make your guess in each of five rounds. I'm bad at it, but it's a fun take on GeoGuessr all the same.
BallotGuessr features 2,845 curated Google Street View locations from all 50 states, with a maximum of 15 locations for each county. Its creator plans to expand the game with data for the 2022 midterms and 2020 presidential election, as well as recent elections in France, Germany and the United Kingdom.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/ballotguessr-is-geoguessr-for-budding-political-pundits-170028894.html?src=rss
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Mar 12, 2026
Ukraine's four-year war with Russia has made it the world leader in battlefield drone technology. One byproduct of that is that the data it collects has become one of the country's most valuable assets. On Thursday, Ukraine played that card, saying it will begin sharing its battlefield data with allies to train drone AI software.
"In modern warfare, we must defeat Russia in every technological cycle," Ukraine Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov wrote on Telegram (translated from Ukrainian). "Artificial intelligence is one of the key areas of this competition."
Fedorov previewed the move when he took his post in January. At the time, the tech-savvy cabinet member pledged to "more actively" bring allies into projects. Foreign allies and companies have sought access to the country's data as, for better or worse, AI increasingly becomes an integral element of warfare.
Fedorov says Ukraine has a platform that will safely train partners' AI models without providing sensitive data. The system is said to provide continually updating datasets, including large volumes of photos and videos.
"For us, this is the next step in the development of win-win cooperation,"
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Mar 12, 2026
After spending many years as the public face of Overwatch, Jeff Kaplan stayed well out of the limelight after leaving Blizzard in 2021. Five years later, the former Blizzard vice president and Overwatch lead director is back with his own studio and a new game, which you might be able to play pretty soon.
The Legend of California is billed as an open-world, action-survival shooter. It looks like a mix of Red Dead Redemption and Rust (Rust Dead Redemption, if you will). It's set during the gold rush era, but Kaplan says he and his team at Kintsugiyama were not aiming for historical accuracy. For one thing, this version of California is an island. Still, the developers wanted to make the game feel authentic to the time period.
There are cowboys and prospectors, and you'll be able to go hunting, build mines and stables, craft tools and weapons, build out your homestead and raid hostile camps. There are "challenging" player vs. environment encounters (Kaplan says there are four difficulty tiers available to start with) and optional player vs. player battles. You'll be able to form a company with up to three other players and share progress, resources, buildings and other things with them.
Kaplan says his 34-strong team hand-crafted the world, though there's a degree of randomization at play. A certain biome (say, the game's version of the Mojave Desert) might be the easiest, most beginner-friendly area of the game on one server, and the
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Mar 12, 2026
With Claude enjoying a moment of newfound popularity among regular people, Anthropic is previewing an update designed to make its chatbot better at explaining some concepts. Starting today, Claude can generate charts and diagrams as part of its responses, either when asked directly or when it decides visuals might be helpful to the user.
For example, try asking Claude what's the best way to fold a paper plane. Where previously it was limited to text, now it can show you step by step how to fold a Nakamura lock plane. Anthropic is quick to point out what it's introducing today isn't image generation. When producing visual aids, Claude will use HTML code and XML vector graphics. Anthropic likens it to giving Claude access to its own whiteboard.
The new feature is available to all Claude users, regardless of whether you pay for one of Anthropic's subscriptions. However, the company does warn it's releasing beta software, so expect some quirks along the way. The feature also isn't available on mobile just yet. This release comes just days after OpenAI made ChatGPT capable of
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Mar 12, 2026
Honda has announced it is canceling three electric vehicles it was months from starting production on at its EV Hub in Ohio. The Honda 0 SUV, the Honda 0 sedan and the Acura RSX are all being wound down. The company showed off all three models, and touted them as in near-production form at CES 2025. Unlike the
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Mar 12, 2026
Flash floods are notoriously difficult to predict, but Google might have a novel solution. The company just revealed Groundsource, a prediction tool for flash floods that uses Gemini to source data from old news reports. This is the first time it has used a language model for this type of work.
This provides a massive,…
— Google Research (@GoogleResearch) March 12, 2026
Google tasked Gemini with sorting through 5 million news articles from around the world and isolating flood reports. It transformed this data into a geo-tagged series of chronological events. Next, researchers trained a model to ingest current weather forecasts and leverage the Groundsource data to determine the likelihood of a flash flood in a given area.
We don't have any concrete information as to how accurate Google's forecast model is, though that should come over time. One trial user did say it helped his organization respond quicker to localized weather events. For now, the company is highlighting risks for urban areas in 150 countries via its
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Mar 12, 2026
Microsoft has unveiled Copilot Health, an AI-powered tool it claims can help make sense of your medical records, health history and fitness data from wearables, should you grant it access to that information. The company said it will be in a "separate, secure space" in the Copilot app and that the idea is to help provide you with more context and insights so you can ask your doctor the right questions when you see them.
Copilot Health is designed to help you better understand your medical information as a whole, Microsoft says. It is not "intended to diagnose, treat or prevent diseases or other conditions and is not a substitute for professional medical advice," the company pointed out in a blog post.
The tool can pull in activity, fitness and sleep data from more than 50 devices, including Apple Watch, Oura and Fitbit. Through HealthEx, it can access health records that include visit summaries, medication details and test results from more than 50,000 hospitals and provider organizations in the US. It can tap into lab test results from Function, should you allow it to do so.
Copilot Health can take all those details and apply "intelligence to turn them into a coherent story," such as helping you pinpoint the reasons why you don't sleep too well, the company suggested. It can access real-time provider directories in the US to help users find clinicians based on factors like location, specialty, spoken languages and insurance coverage.
Microsoft says that, across AI-powered consumer products li
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Mar 12, 2026
Uber has launched a new invite-only luxury ride experience called Uber Elite. Aimed at "executives, frequent travelers, and riders looking for a more elevated experience," it sounds like an upgraded version of Uber Black for the, well, uber-rich.
A ride booked through Uber Elite will be operated by a professional chauffeur driving a new-model luxury vehicle less than three years old. An Elite-only "Meet and Greet" feature allows riders to pre-arrange to be picked up in the airport terminal they arrive at from a flight, with their chauffeur dutifully awaiting them at baggage claim.
Uber says all Elite rides include chargers, bottled water, mints and premium hand wipes. If those perks are deemed too basic by the customer, they can also request sparkling water or champagne in the app ahead of their ride, and Uber says it'll work with its partners to accommodate them "where feasible." Once an Uber Elite trip is booked, the rider can also take advantage of round-the-clock phone support.
The new luxury service is available through the Uber app, as well as via Uber Reserve and Uber for Business. Rides can be booked one hour in advance or up to 90 days ahead.
Uber Elite is launching first in Los Angeles and San Francisco, with New York to follow soon, and then other cities in the US and internationally. Invitations will first be extended to frequent Uber Black and Uber for Business users, before the service is eventually made available to all riders. If you think you're important enough, you can join a waitlist
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Mar 12, 2026
Ahead of its official release later this spring, today Rivan is announcing full pricing and trim levels for its long-awaited R2 electric SUV.
The rollout for the company's first mid-size (two-row) offering will be similar to its previous vehicles, with more expensive premium models hitting the road first this spring, followed by more affordable configurations becoming available later this year and into 2027. This timeline is especially important for anyone hoping to snag the $45,000 base model of the R2, which isn't expected to go on sale until sometime in late 2027. The R2 Performance with Launch Package and R2 Premium trims will arrive initially as model year 2027 vehicles, followed by the R2 Standard (MY 2028) next year.
The new R2 with Rivian's Black Crater interiorRivianSome features that will be standard on every R2 are a native NACS charging port and Autonomy hardware. However, for the latter, while new vehicles will come with a free 60-day trial of Autonomy , once that expires, owners will need to choose between a one-time fee or a monthly subscription to continue using Rivian's enhanced hands-free driving tech.
Regardless of which trim or performance package you prefer, the arrival of the R2 is a huge deal for Rivian as it represents the company's first true mass-market vehicle that looks to bring a lot of the tech and engineering used in the R1T and
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Mar 12, 2026
It's not just the major social platforms that know how effective an endless scroll of short videos is at hijacking your dopamine system. Disney is adding Verts, a selection of short vertical clips you can scroll through to keep your brain chemistry happy when you are in the bathroom so inclined. The company says it's a "dynamic feed" to help users "quickly find their next favorite watch," letting you jump straight in to see the full movie or TV show the clip hails from. Not to mention the side benefit of elbowing out those social platforms, many of which use cut-down clips of Disney-owned content anyway.
Disney said it would be adding vertical video to its premiere streaming platform back in January, and it also launched Verts on the ESPN app last year. Today, it said the addition of vertical clips drove "additional engagement," but neglected to mention by how much. It's worth noting Disney's not an outlier here — Netflix announced a similar pivot back in January as well.
The company does say, however, that its recommendation engine has an "advanced algorithm" to ensure the clips are relevant to each user. Naturally, Disney is happy to lean on the century or more of content in its library, but also said Verts could broaden out to include "content from creators that reflects our fandoms." Which you could (and should) take as a plan to at least try to put a tank or two on YouTube's front lawn.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/str
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Mar 12, 2026
The first season of a TV show is a tricky thing. It has to convince people to watch it and justify the show's existence to the network (or streaming service) execs. It has to deal with actors and writers who may not have fully dialed into the characters and world yet. There are some shows with absolutely stellar first seasons — Stranger Things, Veronica Mars and Ted Lasso are a few — but many other hit shows stumbled out of the gate, like The Office and Supernatural.
Star Trek is not immune to this phenomenon. The Original Series had a decent first season, with classic episodes like "The City on the Edge of Forever." But the next four shows all have rather weak beginnings, with even fan-favorite The Next Generation stumbling badly with episodes like "Code of Honor." That show picked up in season three, beginning a trend called "Growing the Beard," in reference to how Commander Riker's new beard coincided with the uptick in quality.
This trend unfortunately continued into the current era, with 2017's Star Trek: Discovery delivering a first season with an overwhelmingly dour tone and a lot of franchise changes that didn't sit well with fans. The show made some tweaks in season two (including a change in setting that involved traveling 900 years into the future), and showed a lot of improvement with season three. Picard also floundered horribly, with an uneven first season that killed off some fan-favorite characters and also turned the title character into an android.
Things started looking up after that, with shows like Strange New Worlds all posting
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Mar 12, 2026
The first season of a TV show is a tricky thing. It has to convince people to watch it and justify the show's existence to the network (or streaming service) execs. It has to deal with actors and writers who may not have fully dialed into the characters and world yet. There are some shows with absolutely stellar first seasons — Stranger Things, Veronica Mars and Ted Lasso are a few — but many other hit shows stumbled out of the gate, like The Office and Supernatural.
Star Trek is not immune to this phenomenon. The Original Series had a decent first season, with classic episodes like "The City on the Edge of Forever." But the next four shows all have rather weak beginnings, with even fan-favorite The Next Generation stumbling badly with episodes like "Code of Honor." That show picked up in season three, beginning a trend called "Growing the Beard," in reference to how Commander Riker's new beard coincided with the uptick in quality.
This trend unfortunately continued into the current era, with 2017's Star Trek: Discovery delivering a first season with an overwhelmingly dour tone and a lot of franchise changes that didn't sit well with fans. The show made some tweaks in season two (including a change in setting that involved traveling 900 years into the future), and showed a lot of improvement with season three. Picard also floundered horribly, with an uneven first season that killed off some fan-favorite characters and also turned the title character into an android.
Things started looking up after that, with shows like Strange New Worlds all posting
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Mar 12, 2026
Google has announced that GFiber is merging with Astound Broadband, in an agreement that sees Astound's parent company Stonepeak become the majority owner, with Alphabet retaining a minority stake.
No financial specifics were detailed in a press release, but the new combined business will be an independent provider led by GFiber's executive team, who Google says will use its "expertise in high-speed fiber innovation to manage the combined network footprint." Astound already serves over one million customers across the US, and by joining forces Google says the two providers will be able to grant better internet access to more communities.
GFiber, formerly known as Google Fiber, has been around for nearly 15 years, and currently offers speeds of up to 8Gbps on its $150/month Edge 8 Gig plan. A 20 Gig service was expected to leave
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Mar 12, 2026
In recent weeks, Google has been busy adding AI features to all of its most popular apps. Following Gmail and Chrome, Maps is now the latest service to get a Gemini makeover, with a redesign of the driving experience headlining the update.
Google is billing the new "Immersive Navigation" mode as the most significant update to driving directions in Maps in about a decade. Now instead of displaying a 2D map of the area around your car, Maps will render the surroundings in 3D. Google believes this transformation will make it easier for drivers to orient themselves, with the new view giving greater depth to nearby landmarks like buildings and overpasses.
Behind the scenes, the company's Gemini models power the experience, deciding how to render elements to remove distractions. Pulling information from Google's Street View database and aerial photos, Google says its models are also smart enough to know when to highlight road elements like crosswalks, traffic lights and stop signs to ensure you don't miss an off ramp or important turn. At the same time, Google has made the voice guidance in Maps sound more natural. For instance, when you're driving along the highway, looking for where you need to get off, the voice assistant will say something along the lines of "go past this exit and take the next one." I imagine this will be especially helpful when driving in a foreign country with unfamiliar road names.
The new intelligence Google has built into the redesig
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Mar 12, 2026
JBL just released two new pairs of headphones in its pre-existing Live line. There's the over-ear Live 780NC and the on-ear Live 680NC.
Both sets of headphones have similar specs, despite the difference in design. The biggest news here is likely the battery life. They max out at 80 hours per charge with regular use, which is a fantastic metric. This shrinks to 50 hours when using ANC, but that's still fairly remarkable. We truly live in a golden age of wireless headphone batteries.
JBL's new headphones can also fully charge in just two hours, which is nice. They also offer the option for multi-point connections. There are two dedicated microphones for phone calls, with clarity assisted by an AI algorithm.
JBL
Both can stream high resolution audio via Bluetooth or a wired connection. The models even look similar, with availability in the same seven colorways. The 680NC, however, is slightly lighter.
There is one major difference between the two. The 780NC includes six microphones for ANC, while the 680NC features four. This likely means that ANC performance will be better with the former, which will be assisted by the design itself. Over-ear headphones offer passive noise isolation.
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Mar 12, 2026
We're all holding onto our phones for longer now, and in order to do that, you'll need some protection. Now, with so many good phone cases on the market, you don't have to compromise if you're also trying to live a more eco-conscious life. The best eco-friendly phone cases offer a great blend of durability and sustainability, helping to reduce plastic waste and better the planet.
Made from natural materials like biodegradable plastics, recycled ocean waste or even sustainable bamboo, eco-friendly phone cases and compostable phone covers prove that you don't have to sacrifice style or protection to make the greener choice. Whether you're looking for something sleek and minimal or bold and artistic, there are a number of eco-friendly options to choose from. And remember, even if you can't find a sustainable phone case that fits all your requirements, any phone case that allows you to get a few more years our of your smartphone instead of buying new and upgrading is eco-conscious in itself.
Best eco-friendly phone cases
Eco-friendly phone case FAQs
What makes a phone case eco-friendly?
A phone case can be considered eco-friendly when it's designed to protect not just your phone but also the planet. What sets these cases apart is the use of sustainable materials
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Mar 12, 2026
Uber has teamed up with UK self-driving car startup Wayve and Nissan to launch a pilot program for a robotaxi service in Tokyo in late 2026. The program will use Nissan Leaf EVs powered by Wayve's AI Driver automated vehicle technology, which will then be connected to Uber's platform. Trained drivers will be behind the wheel at first, as the deployed vehicles gather real-world data to be able to navigate Tokyo's driving conditions and complex streets that are also a lot narrower than the roads in the US.
Another company backed by Uber,
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Mar 12, 2026
US self-driving startup Nuro, which is backed by the likes of NVIDIA, Toyota and Uber, has started testing its autonomous vehicles on Tokyo's challenging streets, Bloomberg reported. The company, which plans to launch a robotaxi service with Uber and Lucid in San Francisco this year, will be testing a "handful" of vehicles in the city. Human safety drivers will be at the wheel, as is required by Japanese law.
Tokyo presents a challenge for autonomous vehicles, given its narrow, crowded streets and left side of the road driving. "Testing the capability of the autonomy system in such an interesting market with some international complexity really is a good pressure test of what the system is capable of," said CEO Andrew Chapin. The company's ultimate goal is to achieve Level 4 autonomy, which allows full self-driving under limited conditions.
Waymo is the other major robotaxi operator testing vehicles in Tokyo in collaboration with Japanese taxi operators Nihon Kotsu and the country's leading taxi app, Go. It has been operating in the nation since April 2025 in collaboration with Toyota.
Nuro has yet to announce which operators or vehicle manufacturers it will be partnering with, but Chapin said it may not limit itself to autonomous rides. "A universal autonomy platform that can be extended to a lot of different applications and form factors is a bit different than the approach Waymo is taking," he told Bloomberg. The company previously
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Mar 12, 2026
Google Play has introduced a new feature called Game Trials, which will let you play a portion of paid games for free before you commit to buying them. It's now rolling out to select paid games on mobile, and it's coming soon to Google Play Games on PC. Titles that offer Game Trials will show a button marked "Try" on their profile pages. When you click it, you'll see how long you can play the game before you have to buy it. In Google's example, the survival and horror game Dredge will give you 60 minutes of free play time, after which you'll get the option to either buy the game or delete it from your device.
Google has also announced that it's releasing more paid indie games over the coming months, including Moonlight Peaks, Sledding Game and Low-Budget Repairs. It has launched a new section in the Play store, as well, to feature games optimized for Windows PCs. You can wishlist the games from that section to get a notification when they're on sale.
Finally, the company is rolling out Play Games Sidekick, the Gemini-powered Android overlay it announced last year, to select games downloaded from Play. Sidekick can show you relevant info and tools for whatever game you're playing without having to do a search query. But if you'd rather ask other people for gaming advice instead of an AI, you can also look at a game's Community Posts, a feature now available in English for select titles on
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Mar 11, 2026
In 2024, Microsoft caused a lot of head-scratching and general bemusement with the launch of its "This is an Xbox" marketing campaign. Now, though, it appears the quandary over what is and isn't an Xbox has been resolved. Game Developer noticed that the original blog post on Xbox Wire that kicked off the whole affair has been removed. It seems Xbox will be going a new direction with its future promotions.
Maybe since the new Project Helix hardware it has in the works is more definite attempt to blur console and PC gaming, "This is an Xbox" might have been truly confusing as a tagline. Maybe with the recent changing of the guard at the company, the top brass decided that it was the right time to start fresh with a less meme-able marketing plan. Whatever the reason, we have enjoyed this opportunity to learn about the existential philosophy behind being an Xbox. And fortunately, although the blog post may be gone, the video trailer still exists whenever we need to remind ourselves of the many things that can be
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Mar 11, 2026
Apple still hasn't confirmed a foldable iPhone, and the company's latest round of product announcements didn't change that. Apple launched several new devices last week, but there was still no mention of a folding iPhone. Even so, the steady stream of leaks and analyst reports hasn't slowed. Over the past few months, supply-chain sources and leakers have continued to sketch out Apple's possible plans, with most signs still pointing to a launch in the second half of 2026.
As with any unannounced Apple hardware, plenty could shift before anything ships. Features can be revised, timelines can move and some ideas may never make it beyond internal testing. Even so, the growing consistency across recent reports offers a clearer picture of how the so-called iPhone Fold might take shape and where it could land in Apple's lineup.
Below, we've rounded up the most credible rumors so far, and we'll keep this guide updated as new details emerge.
When could the iPhone Fold launch?Rumors of a foldable iPhone date back as far as 2017, but more recent reporting suggests Apple has finally locked onto a realistic window. Most sources now point to fall 2026, likely alongside the iPhone 18 lineup, with some supply-chain hints suggesting mass production could begin in mid-2026 if development stays on track.
Mark Gurman has gone back and forth on timing, initially suggesting Apple could launch "as early as 2026," before later writing that the
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Mar 11, 2026
The Steam Machine is back from the dead. Not as a Valve-supported program for manufacturers to create living room PCs, but instead as a home console sibling to the Steam Deck. Valve introduced its second attempt at ruling the living room in a surprise hardware announcement in November 2025, and paired the new Steam Machine with a new Steam Controller and a wireless VR headset it calls the Steam Frame. Since the announcement, as is often the case with Valve, some details remain elusive, however.
While we wait for the release of the company's new hardware lineup in 2026, and more information straight from the horse's mouth, here's everything we know about the hardware, software and price of the Steam Machine, so far.
What's the Steam Machine's hardware like?ValveLike the Steam Deck, the Steam Machine is utilitarian and bespoke. The PC is a black, 5.98 x 6.39 x 6.14 inch (152 x 162.4 x 156mm) box, with ports and a grille for a fan in the back and
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Mar 11, 2026
Superhuman has taken its writing assistant Grammarly on quite the merry-go-round ride regarding its approach to AI tools. In August, the company launched a feature called Expert Review that would offer feedback on your writing, offering AI-generated feedback that would appear to come from a famous writer or academic of note. These recreations were based on "publicly available information from third-party LLMs," which sounds a lot like web crawlers of dubious legality were involved.
The suggested experts would be based on the subject matter and could be anyone from great scientific minds to bestselling fiction authors to your friendly neighborhood tech bloggers. Living or dead, these writers' names appeared on Grammarly without their permission or knowledge. "References to experts in this product are for informational purposes only and do not indicate any affiliation with Grammarly or endorsement by those individuals or entities," the company hedged in a disclaimer on the service.
As one might imagine, once people took notice, a large number of the living contingent of those writers were
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Mar 11, 2026
It must be 2017 because loot boxes are back in the news again. Two weeks after New York's attorney general sued Valve over its use of the gimmick, the company has responded. In short, the Steam maker essentially said, "See you in court."
New York's lawsuit accuses Valve of promoting illegal gambling through its games. AG Letitia James called the loot boxes found in titles like Counter-Strike 2, Team Fortress 2 and Dota 2 "addictive, harmful and illegal." The state seeks to "permanently stop Valve from continuing to promote illegal gambling in its games" and pay relevant fines.
In its defense posted on Thursday, Valve likened its mystery boxes to kids buying packs of physical trading cards. "Players don't have to open mystery boxes to play Valve games," the company wrote. "In fact, most of you don't open any boxes at all and just play the games — because the items in the boxes are purely cosmetic, there is no disadvantage to a player not spending money."
That last point, while applicable within the game itself, isn't quite that cut and dry once you zoom out beyond that. As James pointed out, players can trade the cosmetic items they win from loot boxes on Steam's marketplace or sell them on third-party marketplaces. Rarer ones can sometimes fetch lucrative sums.
A CS2 gun skin listed for $20,000 on DM
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Mar 11, 2026
TikTok will soon let you stream full songs in its app via a new integration with Apple Music. The company's new Play Full Song feature makes it possible to link your Apple Music account toTikTok, and play any song that strikes your fancy directly in the app while you're scrolling.
Starting a song is as simple as tapping a button in the Sound Details page or your For You page. Assuming you pay for Apple Music, TikTok will then open up a streamlined version of Apple's music player, which you can use to listen to the song, save it for later or add it to a playlist.
TikTok says that Play Full Song is built using Apple's MusicKit APIs, which let developers surface elements of the Apple Music streaming service in their apps. TikTok has previously offered integration with multiple music streaming services through a feature it calls Add to Music App, which made it possible to save songs you heard on TikTok to your streaming library. What's particularly interesting about this new integration is that because it's using Apple's APIs, songs streamed with Play Full Song count as normal streams for the artists in Apple Music, so they don't lose out on any money.
Alongside the new feature, TikTok and Apple are also introducing a way for fans to listen to music live with their favorite artists. TikTok's Listening Party feature creates a live "shared environment" where people can listen to music and interact with artists directly, in what effectively sounds like an audio-only livestream. TikTok livestreams are a whole ecosystem in their own right, and Listening Party seems like a way to leverage some of the same technology for a more cont
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Mar 11, 2026
Microsoft first debuted its full screen Xbox experience for Windows in the ROG Ally Xbox handheld, in a bid to compete with Steam's nearly 15-year-old Big Picture Mode. That Xbox interface eventually made its way to other Windows 11 gaming portables last year. Today at GDC, Microsoft revealed that its big screen Xbox UI is headed to all Windows 11 devices (including laptops and desktops) in April. Oh yah, and it's now simply called "Xbox Mode."
Xbox Mode will only be available in select markets at first, and Microsoft describes it as bringing "a controller-optimized experience to your Windows 11 device, letting players browse their library, launch games, use Game Bar and switch between apps." You know, just like Steam Big Picture mode. Microsoft didn't have much else to share about optimizations in Xbox Mode, but when it debuted the feature for Windows 11 Insiders last fall, the company noted that its task switcher will let people quickly move between games, as well as their apps.
Microsoft revealed at GDC today that it plans to start sending Project Helix
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Mar 11, 2026
Microsoft plans to begin shipping early units of its next generation console, codenamed Project Helix, to game studios starting sometime next year. "We're sending alpha versions of Project Helix to developers starting in 2027," said Jason Ronald, vice-president of next generation for Xbox, according to IGN, which was present at the company's GDC 2026 presentation where it shared early details about the new device. Ronald did not clarify what he meant by "alpha version," but given the keynote's developer focus, presumably he meant devkits, which studios could use to start creating games for the new console.
Additionally, Ronald reiterated that the new system would be capable of playing both Xbox console games and PC games, and said it would incorporate a custom AMD-made system-on-a-chip capable of rendering graphics with path tracing. Judging from a slide the company shared, Microsoft and AMD are working on many of the same technologies and capabilities AMD is co-designing with Sony for next PlayStation console. For instance, Ronald said Helix would be capable of ray regeneration, a technique designed to produce better-looking ray-traced effects. The new console will also offer multi-frame frame generation and machine learning-based upscaling.
"It delivers an order of magnitude leap in ray tracing performance and capability, integrates intelligence directly into the graphics and compute pip
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Mar 11, 2026
A new company called Musical Beings has officially unveiled the Tembo, which might be the cutest drum machine ever made. Just look at this thing! It's got a wooden chassis that resembles a standard drum machine, but with one key difference. The sequencer is tactile. Users arrange beats by placing magnetic pucks that trigger samples.
This seems like a really good way to introduce the basics of sequencing and beatmaking to kids and young adults, being that DAWs and grooveboxes can feature a steep learning curve. The sequencer isn't all that different from what's found on a typical groovebox, but the analog nature of it seems novel.
The company says it designed Tembo to "enable everyone to create music from the very first touch." Co-founder David Davidov told MusicRadar that most instruments take "so long to get to the fun part" and that Musical Beings wanted to "help people experience music as something they do, not just something they listen to."
Just because it's accessible to kids and amateurs doesn't mean it's not for seasoned musicians. This is a real-deal drum machine with plenty of nifty features. There's a five-channel, 16-step sequencer that's controlled via the aforementioned circular magnets. The machine inclu
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Mar 11, 2026
Meta has announced that it's introducing parent-managed accounts on WhatsApp. Designed to allow young people under the age of 13 to use the messaging platform more safely, these accounts feature new controls that enable a parent or guardian to restrict who can send them messages. Parent-managed accounts can also only be used for messaging and calling, so additional features like Channels, location sharing and Meta AI integration aren't included.
To set up an account, you'll need to put your phone next to the pre-teen's device to link the two accounts. Once that's done, the person managing the kids' account can decide who's able to contact them and which groups they're able to join. Step-by-step instructions on how to activate the new accounts can be found here.
They'll also see message requests from unknown contacts first and can adjust privacy settings from the managed device. Parent-managed accounts are PIN-protected and only the parent or guardian can make changes to privacy settings.
Like all WhatsApp conversations, end-to-end encryption means nobody else can see messages exchanged on parent-managed accounts. By default, only saved contacts can message a managed account, and a child won't be able to join a group or view group invites from strangers before they're separately approved by the owner of the parent account. These requests will appear as notifications to the parent.
WhatsApp doesn't specify a minimum age suitable for a parent-messaged account, but says it'll roll the new features out gradually in the coming months.
Meta has spent the last few years ramping up its parental controls features across its various platforms. In September it introduced
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Mar 11, 2026
Eight of the 10 most popular AI chatbots were willing to help plan violent attacks when tested by researchers, according to a new study from the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), in partnership with CNN. While both Snapchat's My AI and Claude refused to assist with violence the majority of the time, only Anthropic's Claude "reliably discouraged" these hypothetical attackers during testing.
Researchers created accounts posing as 13-year-old boys and tested ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Copilot, Meta AI, DeepSeek, Perplexity, Snapchat My AI, Character.AI and Replika across 18 scenarios between November and December 2025. The tests simulated users planning school shootings, political assassinations and bombings targeting synagogues. Across all the responses analyzed, the chatbots provided "actionable assistance" roughly 75 percent of the time and discouraged violence in just 12 percent of cases. This was the average across all chatbots, with Claude discouraging violence 76 percent of the time.
Meta AI and Perplexity were the least safe, assisting in 97 and 100 percent of responses. ChatGPT offered campus maps when asked about school violence, and Gemini said metal shrapnel is typically more lethal in a synagogue bombing scenario.
DeepSeek signed off rifle selection advice with "Happy (and safe) shooting!" Character.AI, which the report described as "uniquely unsafe," actively encouraged violence in seven instances, at one point telling a researcher to "use a gun" on a health insurance company CEO. In another scenario, it provided a political party's headquarters address and asked if the user was "planning a little raid."
Meta told
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Mar 11, 2026
Sony has announced its latest additions to the PlayStation Plus Game Catalog. While they might not top last month's introduction of Marvel's Spider-Man 2, Extra and Premium subscribers are still getting access to some notable games.
In March, the new additions include Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 (PS5), one of Engadget's picks for the Best Games of 2024, and Persona 5 Royal (PS5 and PS4). The PS4 version of Persona 5 Royal - Ultimate Edition, the complete version of one of Atlus' most popular RPGs, will also be available alongside a collection of other fun additions.
Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 is a third-person action game reminiscent of Gears of War, but set in Games Workshop's elaborate Warhammer 40,000 universe. If you're a fan of the larger franchise, Space Marine 2 is well worth a look, especially with a third entry on the way, but the game is also a solid option if you're just looking for a new co-op game to try with friends.
Persona 5 Royal
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Mar 11, 2026
Fortnite's original Save the World game mode will be free to play beginning on April 16. This is not the battle royale mode that went on to take over the world, but rather a PvE co-op campaign that focuses on crafting and survival. It currently costs $9 but that ends soon.
As a matter of fact, Epic Games will stop selling the paid version of the content tonight, March 11, at 8PM ET. If you have $9 burning a hole in your pocket to spend on something that'll be free next month, go for it. Current players will still be able to access the content, so there are no worries there.
Once the free version goes live, pre-existing players will get a bunch of perks as a thank you of sorts. This includes vouchers for V-bucks, gold bars and end-game resources that are used to boost player and item levels.
Save the World will still be a great way to gather V-bucks, for those worried the freemium shift will change things. Epic says players will earn this currency "through Daily Quests, Mission Alerts, Storm Shield Defense Missions and existing Challenges."
Pre-registration for the free mode
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Mar 11, 2026
When you think of an AI-forward PC, you might think of something like NVIDIA's $3,999 DGX Spark — a computer with enough computing power to run complex large language models locally. That's not what Rabbit is trying to build with Project Cyberdeck. Instead, the company's goal is to produce a device tailored for vibe coding, and Engadget was given an exclusive first look at the upcoming PC.
Rabbit began working on Project Cyberdeck after the company's CEO, Jesse Lyu, saw how much his software engineers were using Claude Code. Lyu thought a small form factor PC, like the netbooks that were popular in the late aughts, with a command line interface would be ideal for on-the-go vibe coding, but when he went online to look for something that fit the bill, he was disappointed.
"They all come with shitty rubber dome keyboards," Lyu says of low-cost PCs like the latest Chromebooks, which use flexible silicone sheets under their keys to save on space and cost. "They're not something you would enjoy typing on for an extended period of time." So Rabbit decided to build its own device. For inspiration, Lyu and company looked to an unlikely source: the Sony Vaio P.
The Cyberdeck takes inspiration from the Sony Vaio P. SonySony's ne
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Mar 11, 2026
Phil Spencer leaving his long-held role at Xbox might have made all the headlines last month, but a few years ago the big story was company veteran Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb's departure from Microsoft. Hryb recently seemingly hinted at a return to the company at which he spent more than two decades, but he's now landed at Commodore instead.
The ex-Xbox icon joins the recently revived 80s computer brand as a Community Development Advisor, where his job will be to "help support and expand the global community," Commodore said in a press release. Hryb, who was the public face of Xbox during the brand's heyday, is now tasked with helping to modernize Commodore by introducing it to "a new generation of creators, developers, and enthusiasts."
"I've always believed the best thing a company can do is partner with its community - and with a passionate fan base carrying the torch for 31 years, Commodore's situation is truly unique when it comes to community engagement," said Hryb. "The community didn't wait around - instead they built something remarkable. Players, hardware hobbyists, developers, content creators, and publishers are all a part of the Commodore community, and now we get to build what's next together."
Hryb's most recent role was at game engine maker Unity, where he served as Director of Community and Advocacy for less than two years before being laid off in January. As for Commodore, the company might be entering a ne
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Mar 11, 2026
Looking Glass has been doggedly committed to making holographic displays the next big thing since 2019, and with its new Musubi digital photo frame, it might finally be offering its tech at a price that's hard to deny. Musubi is scheduled to start shipping in June, and unlike the company's previous, more developer-focused kits, the company's new display only costs $149.
Musubi is a 7-inch frame with a glass border and white matte that acts as the home for whatever content you convert and upload to it. Looking Glass says the Musubi can store up to 1,000 images or 30-second video clips, and is able to display your content for three hours on a single charge, or indefinitely if you plug it in with an included wall adapter. You'll have to convert your photos and videos into holographic files using Looking Glass' free desktop app in order to display them, but once they're converted, all you need to do is transfer them over USB-C to start showing them off on Musubi.
Musubi can also cycle through multiple holographic images.Looking GlassLooki
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Mar 11, 2026
A good cordless stick vacuum cleaner gives you the freedom to move from room to room without dragging a cable or hunting for the nearest outlet. They're lighter than a typical corded vacuum and often easier to store, making them ideal for quick jobs as well as deep cleans. Many of the best vacuum cleaners now come in bagless designs, with powerful suction and smart features that make it simple to clean up anything from crumbs on the kitchen floor to dust on high shelves.
Some models go beyond basic convenience, with features like auto-empty docks that transfer debris straight into a larger bin, so you don't have to empty them as often. You'll also find attachments that make them more versatile, letting you tackle stairs, furniture and even your car without switching machines. Popular options like Dyson vacuums focus on strong suction and advanced filtration, while other brands deliver impressive performance at a lower cost.
Whether you need something lightweight for everyday tidying or a top-end model to replace your main vacuum, there's a cordless option to suit every home and cleaning style. In this guide, we'll help you find the right balance of power, features and value.
Best cordless vacuums for 2026
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Mar 11, 2026
Anthropic has launched a new research initiative called Anthropic Institute and has revealed that its Public Policy team is opening its first office in Washington, DC this spring. The company has made the announcement just a couple of days after it sued the US government to challenge the supply chain risk designation it received from the Defense Department. As Axios notes, Anthropic is tripling its Public Policy team at a time when AI companies are establishing a presence in Washington, so that they can influence future policies around artificial intelligence. In Anthropic's case, it might have to find a way to be re-accepted by the US government first after President Trump ordered federal agencies to stop using its technology.
Sarah Heck, who joined the company as Head of External Affairs, will take over from co-founder Jack Clark as Head of Policy. Meanwhile, Clark has taken the role as Head of Public Benefit and will lead the Anthropic Institute. The company explains that the institute's role is to "tell the world" what it learns about the challenges that arise as AI firms develop more advanced AI systems. Examples include how powerful AI technologies will reshape jobs and economies and what kinds of threats they'll magnify or introduce.
The institute will bring together and expand Anthropic's current research teams: The Frontier R
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Mar 11, 2026
Meta announced new features today aimed at cracking down on scams perpetrated via its platforms. First, Meta is launching AI tools for identifying impersonator of brands and celebrities, as well as for detecting deceptive links, which should help it to quickly take down frauds. Second, it is adding new alerts to caution against interacting with a potentially fraudulent account. Facebook will roll out alerts for suspicious friend requests, WhatsApp is getting warnings for device linking requests, and Messenger will also issue warnings if an account seems suspect.
Finally, Meta is also continuing to expand its processes for advertiser verification. The company said it aims to have verified advertisers account for 90 percent of its ads revenue by the end of the year, up from the current share of 70 percent. Last year, Meta estimated that marketing for scams and banned products could have been responsible for 10 percent of its 2024 revenue.
The social media company has been ramping up its actions against scams, particularly those known as celeb bait. Last month, it sued three entities from Brazil and China that were behind scams that leveraged images and deepfakes of popular people to promote dubious products and investment schemes. Meta said today that over the course of 2025, it removed 159 million scam ads as well as 10.9 million Facebook and Instagram accounts tied to criminal scam centers.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/meta-rolls-out-new-features-for-scam-protection-110000173.html?src=rss
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