The Italian Competition Authority (AGCM) has opened two investigations into Microsoft-owned game studio Activision Blizzard, centered around the mobile games Diablo Immortal and Call of Duty: Mobile. The AGCM alleges the free-to-play games use “misleading and aggressive practices” to encourage in-game purchases.

Regulators say the games rely on a “deceptive user interface design” meant to encourage longer and more frequent play sessions while bombarding players with reminders and opportunities to spend real money in-game. Players might be reminded to buy a limited-time item before it’s gone or urged not to miss out on rewards, with in-app messages and push notifications that reach players during and outside gameplay. The authority also raised concerns about virtual currency and in-game currency bundles that can make it harder to understand real-world costs.

Parental control settings are also being scrutinized as the AGCM says the default settings are too permissive, such as allowing in-game purchases and unlimited play time. The watchdog will also investigate potential violations of consumer contractual rights and practices that may encourage players to unknowingly give up those rights, such as the EU’s 14-day right of withdrawal.

Free-to-play games have long leaned on loot boxes and other in-game purchases to drive monetization. Unlike full-priced games like Diablo IV, these systems can blur the line between natural progression and pay-to-win. For an idea of how quickly costs can add up, consider one player who reportedly spent $100,000 on Diablo Immortal.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/italian-regulators-are-investigating-activision-blizzards-monetization-practices-135057481.html?src=rss

San Francisco-founded Smart glasses maker Viture has been sued in a US court by rival XREAL over claims it infringed on its patents, XREAL announced in a press release. The complaint, lodged in a federal Texas court, accuses Viture of illegally incorporating XREAL’s patented tech into its products including the Luma Pro, Luma Ultra and Beast models. 

“The lawsuit is not merely about enforcing a single patent,” the company wrote. “It is about stopping a pattern of intellectual property infringement that undermines the integrity of innovation and endangers continued technological development in this industry.” 

XREAL has already won a preliminary injunction against Viture in Germany. That resulted in a sales freeze in that country, which could spread to nine other European nations including France, Italy and Spain. That injunction affects Viture’s Pro, Luma and Luma Pro smart glasses.

Both companies make augmented reality (AR) glasses with built-in displays that connect to smartphone or laptops, letting you play games, watch movies or do productivity tasks. Their products offer similar display resolutions and fields of view, both of which are key specifications for those products. 

In response, Viture issued its own statement: “Our product does not infringe upon the cited patent in any way,” the company told Tom’s Guide. “We encourage everyone to look closely at the patent itself and form their own judgment, it becomes clear very quickly how weak and questionable it is. XREAL has simultaneously circulated false claims suggesting that Viture is ‘banned across nine European countries.’ This is entirely untrue.” The company added that it’s taking legal action itself because of XREAL’s comments. 

Viture is a relatively new player in the AR/VR world, but XREAL’s lawsuit could be a prelude to similar actions, judging by the wording in its press release. XREAL holds over 800 patent and patent applications around the world around AR, VR and other tech, and claims that Viture has fewer than 70 and none in the US and Europe. At CES 2026, XREAL unveiled several new products, including the ROG X R1 AR glasses built in conjunction with ASUS. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/wearables/xreal-files-lawsuit-against-rival-smart-glass-maker-viture-133018692.html?src=rss

After telling the YouTube channel Hardware Unboxed that it was putting its RTX 5060 Ti 16GB and 5070 Ti into “end-of-life status,” ASUS has backtracked on those comments and now says the GPUs will remain on sale. 

“Certain media may have received incomplete information from an ASUS PR representative regarding these products,” the company said in a dedicated press release.” The GeForce RTX 5070 Ti and GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB have not been discontinued or designated as end-of-life (EOL). ASUS has no plans to stop selling these models.”

ASUS further clarified that supply fluctuations, primarily due to memory supply constraints, have temporarily affected production output and stocks. “As a result, availability may appear limited in certain markets, but this should not be interpreted as a production halt or product retirement. ASUS will continue to support the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti and RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB and is working closely with partners to stabilize supply as conditions improve.”

Yesterday, Hardware Unboxed said that ASUS “explicitly told us this model is currently facing a supply shortage and, as such, they have placed the model into end-of-life status.” In a new pinned comment, the channel noted that the new information “completely walks back their original statement to us.”

Hardware Unboxed learned of the shortage by speaking to resellers in Australia, who said that the 5070 Ti is “no longer available to purchase from partners and distributors,” adding they expect that to be the case throughout at least the first quarter of the year. Based on that, along with ASUS’s statement, they released the video in question yesterday. 

Although ASUS now says that it will still make both of those GPUs, being able to buy one could be next to impossible, based on what retailers told Hardware Unboxed. The AI boom has sent the cost of memory soaring, leading to price hikes for GPUs and other PC components. That in turn has led to anger among gamers, and the problem may get much worse before it gets better. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/accessories/asus-changes-mind-will-continue-selling-the-rtx-5070-ti-after-all-130934271.html?src=rss

TikTok is bolstering its age-verification measures across Europe. In the coming weeks, the platform will roll out upgraded age-detection tech in the European Economic Area, as well as in the UK and Switzerland.

The systems will assess the likely age of a user based on their profile information and activity. When the tech flags an account that may belong to a user aged under 13 (the minimum age to use TikTok), a specialist moderator will assess whether it should be banned. TikTok will send users in Europe a notification to tell them about these measures and offer them a chance to learn more.

Also, if a moderator is looking at content for other reasons and thinks an account might belong to an underage user, they can flag it to a specialist for further review. Anyone can report an account they suspect is used by someone under 13 as well. TikTok says it removes about 6 million underage accounts in total from the platform every month.

Those whose accounts are banned can appeal if they think their access was wrongly terminated. Users can then provide a government-approved ID, a credit card authorization or selfie for age estimation (the latter process has not gone well for Roblox as of late, as kids found workarounds for age checks).

TikTok acknowledged that there’s no single ideal solution to the issue as things stand. “Despite best efforts, there remains no globally agreed-upon method for effectively confirming a person’s age in a way that also preserves their privacy,” it stated in a blog post. “At TikTok, we’re committed to keeping children under the age of 13 off our platform, providing teens with age-appropriate experiences and continuing to assess and implement a range of solutions. We believe that a multi-layered approach to age assurance — one in which multiple techniques are used — is essential to protecting teens and upholding safety-by-design principles.”

TikTok is rolling out these practices after a pilot in Europe over the last year. That project helped the platform to identify and remove thousands more underage accounts. It worked with the Data Protection Commission (its main privacy regulator in the EU) to help ensure it complied with the bloc’s strict data protection standards.

These measures are coming into force amid intensifying calls to keep kids off social media. A social media ban for under 16s in Australia went into effect last month. Affected platforms have collectively closed or restricted millions of accounts as a result. Reddit has filed a lawsuit over the ban. 

A similar ban might be on the cards in the UK amid public pressure and cross-party support. Prime Minister Keir Starmer said “all options are on the table” and that he was watching “what is happening in Australia.”

The House of Lords is set to vote on proposals for an under-16 social media ban next week. If an amendment passes, members of parliament will hold a binding vote on the matter in the coming months.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/tiktok-tightens-age-verification-across-europe-130000847.html?src=rss

An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Wall Street Journal: Amazon is turning to an Arizona mine that last year became the first new source of U.S. copper in more than a decade, to meet its data centers’ ravenous appetite for the industrial metal.
The mine was restarted as a proving ground for Rio Tinto’s new method of unlocking low-grade copper deposits. Rio signed a two-year supply pact with Amazon Web Services, a vote of confidence for its Nuton venture, which uses bacteria and acid to extract copper from ore that was previously uneconomical to process. The move by Amazon is the latest example of a technology company rushing to secure the power and critical materials necessary to build and operate artificial-intelligence data centers. The Nuton copper will satisfy only a sliver of Amazon’s needs. The biggest data centers each require tens of thousands of metric tons of copper for all the wires, busbars, circuit boards, transformers and other electrical components housed there. The 14,000 metric tons of copper cathode that Rio expects the Arizona Nuton project to yield over four years wouldn’t be enough for one of those facilities.

Rio deployed its bioleaching process in the recent restart of a mine east of Tucson and has partnerships to take the technology to several others in the Americas. The idea is to uncork the low-grade ore left behind at old mines and is key to Rio’s plans to boost output when new discoveries are harder than ever to bring online and copper demand is surging. […] “We work at the commodity level to find lower carbon solutions to drive our business growth,” said Chris Roe, Amazon’s director of worldwide carbon. “That means steel, and that means concrete, and it absolutely means copper with regard to our data centers.” Roe said the copper will be routed to companies that produce components for Amazon’s data centers. As part of the deal, Amazon is supplying Rio with cloud-computing and data analytics to optimize Nuton’s recovery rates and help the miner expand production.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

In the history of technology, there is perhaps no greater cautionary tale of complacency than the death of Internet Explorer. Once the undisputed gatekeeper of the World Wide Web with a 95% market share, it now exists only as a punchline and a technical fossil. Today, we see a chillingly similar pattern emerging with the Windows operating system. As Microsoft struggles to push a reluctant user base toward Windows 11, the platform faces a growing “IE moment” a period where a dominant product becomes so disconnected from its users’ needs that it creates a vacuum for a more agile competitor to fill.

The Chrome Revolution: A Blueprint for Displacement

To understand why Windows is at risk, we must look at how Google Chrome displaced Internet Explorer. In the early 2000s, Microsoft used its OS dominance to bundle IE, effectively suffocating Netscape. However, once the competition was dead, Microsoft stopped innovating. IE became bloated, slow, and famously insecure. It ignored web standards, forcing developers to build “IE-only” sites, which frustrated the burgeoning tech community.

When Google launched Chrome in 2008, it didn’t just compete on features; it changed the paradigm. Chrome introduced the V8 JavaScript engine, which made web applications run orders of magnitude faster than they did on IE. It was minimalist, secure through sandboxing, and updated silently in the background. While Microsoft treated the browser as a static piece of the OS, Google treated it as a living service. By 2012, Chrome surpassed Internet Explorer as the world’s most popular browser. The lesson was clear: ubiquity is not a permanent defense against a superior user experience.

The Windows 11 Resistance: A Billion-Device Bottleneck

The parallels with the current state of Windows are striking. As of January 2026, Windows 11 has failed to achieve the dominance Microsoft envisioned. Despite Windows 10 officially reaching its end-of-life in late 2025, a massive portion of the user base—estimated at nearly 45% of Windows desktops—refuses to upgrade.

The resistance is not merely stubbornness; it is rooted in three distinct categories of friction:

1. Artificial Hardware Barriers: Microsoft’s strict requirement for TPM 2.0 and specific CPU generations has orphaned hundreds of millions of perfectly functional PCs. Recent reports suggest there is a billion-device bottleneck, consisting of 500 million PCs that cannot upgrade and another 500 million that will not because users see no value in the transition.
2. Unwanted Feature Bloat: The integration of AI tools like “Recall” (which originally drew heavy fire for privacy concerns) and the constant push for cloud-integrated Microsoft accounts have alienated privacy-conscious power users.
3. The “If It Ain’t Broke” Factor: For the average user, Windows 11 feels like a cosmetic skin on Windows 10 with more advertising and less control over the user interface.

This stagnation leaves the platform vulnerable. When a dominant player stops serving its customers’ best interests—by forcing hardware refreshes or intrusive telemetry—users begin looking for the exit.

Assessing the Contenders: Who Wins the Desktop?

If Windows follows Internet Explorer into obsolescence, the replacement must be more than just a different brand; it must solve the problems Microsoft has created.

MacOS: The Premium Stronghold Apple is the most obvious beneficiary of Windows friction. MacOS has seen a steady climb to roughly 15-16% of the global desktop market. For users who want a “it just works” experience and are willing to pay the hardware premium, the Mac is a natural destination. However, the closed nature of the Apple ecosystem and the high entry cost mean it is unlikely to ever capture the 70%+ market share Windows currently enjoys.

Desktop Android and ChromeOS Flex Google’s strategy for the desktop mirrors its strategy for the browser: simplify. ChromeOS Flex allows users to turn aging, “incompatible” Windows 10 PCs into fast, cloud-centric machines. While “Desktop Android” remains niche, the convergence of Android apps with ChromeOS makes Google a formidable threat in the education and light-enterprise sectors. If the “browser is the OS” trend continues, Google is perfectly positioned to repeat its Chrome victory but they’ll need to market the result to get people to switch and Google is historically poor at staffing and funding marketing adequately and they have the attention span of a 4-year-old on sugar. They have the funding and the greatest potential, but their historically poor execution offsets both sharply. 

The Rise of the Linux Desktop: Mint and Zorin OS Perhaps the most interesting development in 2025-2026 has been the surge of Linux. The Linux desktop share recently hit a record high of over 6%. Two distributions are leading the “refugee” movement:

• Linux Mint: Known for its “Cinnamon” desktop, Mint provides a UI that is nearly identical to the Windows 7/10 workflow. It is incredibly stable, respects user privacy, and runs beautifully on older hardware that Windows 11 rejects.
• Zorin OS: This distribution is designed specifically for Windows switchers. It includes a “Zorin Appearance” tool that can mimic Windows or MacOS layouts with a single click. Following the end of Windows 10 support, Zorin OS reported over one million downloads, with the vast majority coming from Windows users looking for a safe harbor.

The Verdict: The Most Likely Replacement

If Windows truly collapses, no single OS will likely hold a 90% monopoly again. Instead, we will see a fragmented landscape. MacOS will dominate the high-end and creative professional space, while ChromeOS will capture the budget and education sectors.

However, for the traditional PC power user and the “orphaned” hardware market, Linux (specifically Zorin OS and Mint) is the most likely functional successor. Unlike MacOS, Linux can run on existing hardware. Unlike Android, it offers a full-powered desktop experience. For the first time in thirty years, the “Year of the Linux Desktop” isn’t a meme; it’s a migration strategy for a billion users who feel abandoned by Redmond.

Wrapping Up

Microsoft is currently walking the same path of complacency that led to Internet Explorer’s demise. By prioritizing AI telemetry and forced hardware upgrades over user trust and compatibility, they have created the perfect conditions for a mass exodus. While Windows 11 will likely remain the corporate standard for the next few years due to legacy software, the consumer and small business markets are rapidly reaching a breaking point. Whether the future is the polished simplicity of MacOS or the privacy-focused flexibility of Linux, the era of the Windows monopoly is finally drawing to a close.

If you thought we were exaggerating, the hunger for memory and GPUs is making many companies reassess their priorities. YouTube channel Hardware Unboxed discovered ASUS has stopped producing the RTX 5070 Ti and 5060 Ti 16GB due to the ongoing memory crunch. Both GPUs are 16GB models, making them more expensive to manufacture in the current climate.

“Demand for GeForce RTX GPUs is strong, and memory supply is constrained. We continue to ship all GeForce SKUs and are working closely with our suppliers to maximize memory availability,” an NVIDIA spokesperson told Engadget.

At CES 2026, we saw PCs and computing in the next 12 months will have higher prices and more limited availability for consumers. At the end of 2025, RAM prices skyrocketed, driven by demand from AI data centers. That’s not stopping anytime soon.

— Mat Smith

The other big stories (and deals) this morning

• The Animal Crossing: New Horizons 3.0 expansion has arrived earlier than expected

• How to claim Verizon’s $20 credit for Wednesday’s service outage

• Get one month of the Disney+ and Hulu bundle for only $10

• Valerion VisionMaster Max projector review: Near-perfect image quality comes at a price

Matthew McConaughey just trademarked himself

In the fight against AI.

Getty

Matthew McConaughey filed trademark applications to prevent AI companies from using his likeness without permission, and the US Patent and Trademark Office has approved eight so far.

Trademarks were for video and audio clips featuring the actor staring, smiling and talking. One was for an audio recording of him saying “alright, alright, alright,” his catchphrase from the movie Dazed and Confused. Under the law, it’s already prohibited for companies to steal someone’s likeness to sell products. However, given the vague rules governing the use of someone’s likeness, McConaughey is taking a proactive approach. McConaughey himself is an investor in ElevenLabs and has partnered with the AI startup to create a Spanish version of his newsletter. Está bien, está bien, está bien.

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Amazon is making a Fallout competition reality TV show

Addiction! Radiation poisoning! Skeletal law enforcement?

AMAZON

The second season of Amazon’s excellent Fallout show is currently streaming, but the company is already looking to generate more revenue from its license to the well-regarded game series. Prime Video has greenlit an unscripted reality show titled Fallout Shelter. It will be a 10-episode run with Studio Lambert, the team behind reality projects including Squid Game: The Challenge and The Traitors.

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X says Grok will no longer edit images of real people into bikinis

But image generation isn’t going anywhere.

Following numerous complaints and several state and national investigations, X is revising its policies on Grok’s image-editing capabilities. New safeguards will place Grok’s image-generating features behind X’s subscription offering, and it will geoblock all users’ ability to generate images of real people in… well, less clothing, in regions where it’s illegal.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta cited one analysis that found “more than half of the 20,000 images generated by xAI between Christmas and New Year depicted people in minimal clothing.” That’s been the primary use?

Continue reading.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/general/the-morning-after-engadget-newsletter-121506027.html?src=rss

Welcome to Edition 8.25 of the Rocket Report! All eyes are on Florida this weekend as NASA rolls out the Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft to its launch site in Florida for the Artemis II mission. NASA has not announced a launch date yet, and this will depend in part on how well a “wet dress rehearsal” goes with fueling the rocket. However, it is likely the rocket has a no-earlier-than launch date of February 8. Our own Stephen Clark will be in Florida for the rollout on Saturday, so be sure and check back here for coverage.

As always, we welcome reader submissions, and if you don’t want to miss an issue, please subscribe using the box below (the form will not appear on AMP-enabled versions of the site). Each report will include information on small-, medium-, and heavy-lift rockets as well as a quick look ahead at the next three launches on the calendar.

MaiaSpace scores a major launch deal. The ArianeGroup subsidiary, created in 2022, has inked a major new launch contract with satellite operator Eutelsat, Le Monde reports. A significant portion of the 440 new satellites ordered by Eutelsat from Airbus to renew or expand its OneWeb constellation will be launched into orbit by the new Maia rocket. MaiaSpace previously signed two contracts: one with Exotrail for the launch of an orbital transfer, and the other for two satellites for the Toutatis mission, a defense system developed by U-Space.

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