X has never been a go-to app for messaging, even back when it was known as Twitter. Direct messages are useful, sure, and I have no doubt that someone out there uses it as their main chat app. But the platform’s chat function have never been most users’ reason for logging on, especially compared to dedicated platforms like WhatsApp.

But Elon Musk isn’t content with that status quo. As TechCrunch reports, Musk has made it clear over the years since he acquired and renamed Twitter that he wants DMs to compete with (and beat out) competitors like Signal and iMessage. Now, he’s finally making a move, as DMs on X are transforming into something new: XChat.

On Sunday, Musk posted on X announcing that XChat’s rollout. It does appear that the new chat feature is currently in beta, but between Musk’s post, and some first-hand reporting, it looks like XChat is bringing four key new features to chatting on X.

Encryption

Encryption is the first new feature Musk mentions in his XChat post, and it’s no mystery why. End-to-end encrypted (E2EE) messaging is a key feature for modern chat apps. It ensures that only the users involved in the conversation are able to read the messages sent and received—if bad actors were to intercept the thread and attempt to read the messages without logging into the approved user’s account, they’d see a jumble of meaningless code. Importantly, it means the company that makes the chat app can’t access your messages either.

Most chat apps offer E2EE to at least some degree. Signal made the standard famous, but iMessage, WhatsApp, and Messenger all use it. X’s DMs have traditionally not been encrypted, which meant it is possible for someone at X to read your chats, or to release your chats to the authorities should they request them.

Musk isn’t wrong that E2EE is necessary if you’re trying to make a chat app to compete with the likes of Signal, but he also isn’t clear if he understands how encryption works. Musk says XChat’s encryption is “build on Rust with (Bitcoin style) encryption.” Rust is a programming language, which makes his wording here a bit odd. (One Redditor points out Musk is treating Rust like a platform, not the programming language that it is.) But more importantly, Bitcoin isn’t encrypted, which makes “Bitcoin-style encryption” a confusing statement. There’s speculation that Musk means “cryptography,” which Bitcoin does use, but that’s not the same as encryption. For the sake of XChat’s users, I hope chats are actually E2EE, but it’s tough to say at this point.

Vanishing messages

Snapchat may have made vanishing messages popular, but it’s far from the only app to offer them. For years, you’ve been able to send self-destructing texts in apps like Telegram, WhatsApp, and Instagram. Soon, you’ll be able to do the same in XChat.

It’s not clear how XChat will handle vanishing messages, but I’m guessing the app will offer a self-destruct feature that will let you select a time limit before a sent message expires, like Telegram.

File sharing

With XChat, Musk says you’ll have the ability to send “any kind of file.” He’s sparse any other details, but file sharing is a useful element to any chat app. Currently, you can send photos, videos, and GIFs in X DMs, but not other file types.

Make messages as unread

Musk did not announce this feature in his initial post, but a user testing out the beta noticed it. XChat supports “unreading” a message, or, essentially, marking it as unread. It’s a small but helpful change for messages you can’t get to right away, but don’t want to forget about the next time you scroll through your chats.

Delete messages for everyone in the chat

This is another new feature Musk did not announce himself. That same beta tester post notes that XChat supports the ability to deleting a message for all participants. Like many chat apps, if you send a message you regret, you can “undo” it, and it will be removed from the recipients’ chats as well.

Many apps place a time limit on this feature, however. iMessage, for example, only lets you undo a message within two minutes of sending it. After that, you’ll only see the option to delete it for yourself. It’s not yet clear how long XChat will let you delete a message for everyone after you send it.

Audio and video calls (which aren’t actually new)

As part of the announcement, Musk said that audio and video calls would also be rolling out to XChat—but X has already had audio and video calling for a while, so I’m not sure why he chose to highlight them.

Will XChat actually catch on as a messaging alternative?

Maybe I’m skeptical, but I strongly doubt these new features—while genuinely useful—will make XChat the chat app to beat, and for a simple reason: Have you ever tried getting your friends and family to switch chat apps? It’s like pulling teeth. People are set in their ways when it comes to communication—whether they’re committed to their iPhones with iMessage, or they’re dedicated to WhatsApp like most of the world. There are a lot of apps out there for communication, and while people switch between them for various reasons, you’re unlikely to move them en masse to one specific platform.

Add to that the fact that this new option is tied to a controversial platform owned by a controversial person, and it’s hard to imagine anyone signing up for X just to use XChat. I could be wrong, but something tells me I won’t be XChatting with my friends and family in the near future.

Google is still waiting to hear how it will have to address its monopoly in the search engine business — it plans to appeal the judgement — but in the meantime, it also has to answer to its shareholders. According to a report from The Financial Times, Google’s parent company Alphabet has reached a preliminary settlement with shareholders who were also suing the company for allowing Google’s anticompetitive behavior, which they believe exposed the company to “reputational damage” and “substantial costs.”

The new settlement will reportedly force Alphabet to rebuild its “global compliance structure” and will cost the company a minimum of $500 million over the next 10 years to make it happen. At its most basic, this means establishing some kind of committee within the Alphabet board to oversee regulatory issues, of which Google has accrued many in the last few years.

“A new body made up of senior executives would meanwhile report directly to chief executive Sundar Pichai,” FT writes, while another group “consisting of product managers and internal compliance experts,” would consult. The goal is to prevent Alphabet and its subsidiaries from making the kind of business decision that led to Google being deemed a monopoly on multiple counts. A judge will need to approve the settlement before the company can move forward, though.

The case against Alphabet officials like Sundar Pichai and Sergey Brin was originally brought by a Michigan pension fund on behalf of shareholders back in 2021. In comparison to the structural changes the US Department of Justice is requesting, paying some money and forming some committees is a small ask. In the grand scheme of things, changing how Alphabet deals with regulation will likely be one of the more minor ways the company’s business is forced to change in the next few years.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/alphabet-settles-with-shareholders-over-google-antitrust-lawsuit-195636653.html?src=rss

Every smartphone maker is racing to find a way to put AI in your pocket, but no one has cracked the code yet. Samsung was an early supporter of Google’s Gemini AI, which has largely supplanted its little-used Bixby assistant. However, a new report claims Samsung is planning a big AI shakeup by partnering with Perplexity on the Galaxy S26.

Perplexity pitches itself as an AI-powered search service, running on the same generative AI technology behind ChatGPT, Gemini, and all the others. However, it cites its sources around the web more prominently than a pure chatbot. Perplexity made waves during the Google search antitrust trial when executive Dmitry Shevelenko testified that Google blocked Motorola from using Perplexity on its 2024 phones. The company got its wish this year, though, with Perplexity finding a place on 2025 Razr phones.

A report from Bloomberg says Samsung will be the next to leverage Perplexity’s AI. The companies are apparently close to signing a deal that will make this AI model a core part of the Galaxy S26 lineup. Motorola uses Perplexity for search functionality inside its Moto AI system, but the Samsung deal would be more comprehensive.

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Snowflake’s growth among large enterprise customers faces a significant bottleneck tied to the sluggish replacement cycles of existing on-premises data warehouse systems, according to finance vice president Jimmy Sexton. Speaking at a Jefferies conference, Sexton explained that while the cloud data company secured two deals worth more than $100 million each in the financial services sector during its latest quarter, such migrations unfold over multiple years as “cumbersome projects.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

We’ve seen a few Xbox-styled kitchen items over the last few years, from the Series X fridge to the Series S toaster. The latest one is probably not one for those of you in the US. Over the weekend, Xbox Canada revealed a Xbox Series X bagged milk pitcher styled after the Xbox Series X. 

Milk in a bag is a long-standing tradition in Canada, India, South America and several other parts of the world. The idea is that you plop a bag into a pitcher, cut off the corner and pour away, all the while taking great care not to spill any. 

There are practical benefits, such as bags taking up less space in garbage or recycling. But containers for bagged milk are typically boring white jugs. At least until now.

The Xbox Series X Milk Pitcher comes in white or black and it can hold up to 1.3 liters (fine, if you insist, 2.75 pints) of bagged milk. That should give you enough fuel for your next Halo Infinite deathmatch battle or adventure in the Oblivion remaster. Sadly, there’s no word as yet if Xbox Canada is going to sell this thing or if it’s just a fun marketing gimmick.

I get it, bagged milk confused me too before my first visit to Canada as a teen. But milk in a bag is as Canadian as poutine, Letterkenny, hockey games on frozen ponds and The Beaches. As one of Engadget’s Canadian contingent, it’s my civic duty to test this out. My email’s in my bio, Xbox.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/the-latest-xbox-kitchen-kitsch-is-a-series-x-milk-jug-for-canadians-184154694.html?src=rss

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Before you toss your broken smartwatch and buy a replacement, get this: Coros has introduced a new repair service. The process is a beautifully straightforward exchange model: You need a battery or screen replacement, you send them your watch and a payment, and they send you a working, refurbished watch. The program offers battery, screen, button, and digital dial replacements. If you could use an upgrade or repair on your Coros watch, here’s what you need to know.

How the Coros repair program works

If you need repairs, like a battery replacement or screen fix, all you need to do is visit coros.com/repairs to initiate the process. The repair process can take up to 30 days. Instead of waiting without a device for a month, you can get a replacement immediately to keep training uninterrupted. This means you aren’t getting your physical watch back, but also, it means minimal disruption to training schedules and recovery tracking. The company’s goal is keeping products in active use for as long as possible.

Eligible devices

The following Coros products are eligible for repairs:

• Pace 3

• Pace Pro

• Apex 2

• Apex 2 Pro

• Vertix 2S

• DURA Solar GPS Bike Computer

Pricing

The repair program covers several common issues athletes face with their devices, with the cost of your repairs dependent on the device and service needed. Fees range from $59 to $89 for battery replacement, and $79 to $119 for cracks, scratches, and backlight malfunctions. Here’s the full breakdown.

• Pace 3: $59 for battery replacement, $79 for screen/dial/button repair

• Pace Pro: $59 for battery replacement, $89 for screen/dial/button repair

• Apex 2: $69 for battery replacement, $99 for screen/dial/button repair

• Apex 2 Pro: $69 for battery replacement, $99 for screen/dial/button repair

• Vertix 2S: $89 for battery replacement, $119 for screen/dial/button repair

• DURA: $69 for battery replacement, $99 for screen/dial/button repair

COROS PACE 3

$229.00
at Amazon

$229.00
at Amazon

The bottom line

Coros’ repair program is pretty good, and definitely more accessible and affordable compared to Apple or Garmin repair options. Coros’ approach stands out with the fact that once they receive your return, you get a refurbished device immediately. This really does solve a key pain point for serious athletes who rely on consistent data tracking. While other manufacturers may offer repairs, few prioritize maintaining the user’s training continuity. The program also suits anyone who prefers their favorite, reliable devices over frequently upgrading to the latest models.

Again, full details are available at coros.com/repairs.

College students who have reportedly grown too dependent on ChatGPT are starting to face consequences after graduating and joining the workforce for placing too much trust in chatbots.

Last month, a recent law school graduate lost his job after using ChatGPT to help draft a court filing that ended up being riddled with errors.

The consequences arrived after a court in Utah ordered sanctions after the filing included the first fake citation ever discovered in the state hallucinated by artificial intelligence.

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This is a clip edited together by the Bell Brothers (previously) featuring Mrs. Doubtfire dancing with her vacuum and broom in a variety of other movies. Now this — this is the exactly the internet I was hoping to see when I logged onto AOL this morning. Everything else I’ve seen and read? Makes me wish the internet was never invented in the first place. “You should go off the grid.” You think I haven’t though about it? Those online pharmacies though. If it weren’t for them I’d be in a camper van on a beach somewhere right now with zero internet or boner pills.

An anonymous reader shares a report: Internet service provider Frontier Communications agreed to settle a lawsuit filed by major record labels that demanded mass disconnections of broadband users accused of piracy. Universal, Sony, and Warner sued Frontier in 2021. In a notice of settlement filed last week in US District Court for the Southern District of New York, the parties agreed to dismiss the case with prejudice, with each side to pay its own fees and costs.

The record labels and Frontier simultaneously announced a settlement of similar claims in a Bankruptcy Court case in the same district. Frontier also settled with movie companies in April of this year, just before a trial was scheduled to begin. (Frontier exited bankruptcy in 2021.) […] Regardless of what is in the agreement, the question of whether ISPs should have to crack down more harshly on users accused of piracy could be decided by the US Supreme Court.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

In keeping with its image as a family friendly gaming company, Nintendo has updated its Parental Controls app for the Switch 2, which is scheduled to launch on June 5. This will allow parents to restrict their kids’ usage of the Nintendo Switch 2, so long as their kids are under 16 years old. The Parental Controls app is available on iPhone and Android.

The big new addition is that GameChat, which is a new Switch 2 app for voice and video chat, can now be restricted using the Parental Controls app. Nintendo says that for kids under 16, GameChat can only be used if their account is managed by a parent using the Parental Controls app. Note that GameChat is free until March 31, 2026, and after that, you’ll need to pay for a Nintendo Switch Online membership to use the service.

Every time your child tries to initiate a video call with GameChat, you’ll receive a request for approval on your smartphone. Nintendo says the video call will only begin once you’ve approved the request. Additionally, you’ll need to pre-approve who they can chat with, as Nintendo says “It’s only possible for players under 16 to use GameChat with friends who have been approved by their parent or guardian.”

The company also encourages parents to regularly check their kid’s GameChat history, and add notes next to the people their kid plays with to indicate who they are. This is to help parents know who’s in touch with their kids while the children are gaming on the Nintendo Switch 2. Parents will be able to see who their children are chatting with, how long they’ve played with different people, and the field of view settings for the connected camera in video chats.

As with the Switch 1, you can also use the Parental Controls app to restrict play time for your kids. The app will let you set different play time limits for different days, which means that you could allow them to play for longer over the weekend, as an example. There are preset age restrictions built in to the app, which will automatically restrict certain types of content for your kids, but you can also use custom settings. This will let you choose an age rating for the games your kids are downloading, decide if they should be allowed to post game content on social media, or if they’re allowed to use GameChat at all.

Parents can also whitelist certain games and the console will ignore the age rating for these. Additionally, the Parental Controls app will also let you view Switch 2 play time for various members of your family, generate a monthly play time report, and even send you alerts whenever a game is downloaded. Don’t forget that you can also set a screen lock PIN on the Switch 2, which is also a fairly effective way to restrict usage of the console.

I’m always working on a side quest, from getting certified in an obscure professional trade (airbrush tanning) or developing a new skill (just because I live in Manhattan doesn’t mean I can’t learn to golf or fish). Since March, I’ve been hellbent on learning to do the splits, and I’ve given myself until August to get it done. I have I never been what anyone would consider a flexible person (physically, anyway), so at the start, this mission seemed ill-advised and even far-fetched. But then I discovered that my beloved Peloton app offers stretching classes.

It’s now June, and I’m nowhere near my goal, but practicing my stretches with guidance from the pros has absolutely helped me make significant progress. Even if I weren’t randomly endeavoring to contort my body in a strange new way just for the thrill of accomplishing a goal, I know stretching is important; I start and end every spin class I teach with a stretching routine, because warmups and cooldowns contribute any workout. Whether you’re trying to become significantly more flexible or just want to enhance your own fitness, Peloton’s guided stretching classes are a good option.

Why you should follow a guided stretching routine

The Peloton app offers all kinds of classes on it, some of which I’ve highlighted before. With an All-Access membership ($44 per month),y ou can access the at-home fitness company’s famous cycling classes, go on guided walks, and even meditate. Peloton also offers multiple options for strength training.

Some of these activities—like cycling and lifting—more obviously lend themselves to guided classes, especially for newcomers, but you might think stretching is too straightforward to bother using a guided class. After all, it’s simple enough to just reach down and assess whether or not you can comfortably touch your toes. But this thinking is wrong.

As Peloton points out in its own blog on the topic, stretching can not only help you prepare for or recover from a workout, but can enhance your overall fitness, blood flow, and even your posture. But just as it can be beneficial, stretching can also injure you if you use the wrong form or overextend yourself. Listening to a certified coach walk you through not only the exact stretches you should be doing, but how they should feel, what tools you can use to help yourself ease into them (like yoga blocks), how long you should hold them, and the kinds of modifications you can make if something doesn’t feel right, can help you stay safe and get more out of the effort you’re putting in.

Peloton offers targeted stretching classes for specific goals

You can find the stretching classes in the Peloton app by searching for “stretching” on the home screen. (“Stretching” may also appear as a standalone button on the home screen, depending on what the algorithm is serving you when you open up the app.)

Like all of its offerings, from running to yoga, Peloton’s roster of stretching classes is diverse. You can filter your results by length (from five minutes to 30) and by class type. Here are the types of stretching you can filter for:

• Full body stretches

• Upper body stretches

• Lower body stretches

• Core stretches

• Mobility stretches

• Foam rolling

• Boxing stretches

• Dance cardio stretches

• Pre- and post-cycling ride stretches

• Pre-running stretches

• Post-running stretches

• Pro- and post-rowing stretches

You can also filter by music genre and instructor and add stretching classes to your Peloton Stack.the app’s version of a playlist (your Stack will play your pre-selected workouts in order). Add a stretching class to the beginning and end of your workout to makes the entire thing more well-rounded, safe, and beneficial.

How Peloton’s stretching classes have helped me

As noted, and I am not flexible. I have never been flexible. I remember dreading those days in elementary school gym class when the teacher would measure how far everyone could stretch, and I struggled to extend past my knees. At the start of my mission to do a split, I began doing a vague stretching routine on my own every night, maybe occasionally googling for some new ideas but not really feeling much of a benefit or seeing much progressive improvement. The more structured Peloton classes changed that—I can look at my phone screen and see exactly what I’m supposed to be doing, and hear succinct verbal cues that tell me how I should be feeling during a stretch.

I have absolutely noticed that since I started following along with the app’s classes on lower body stretching, I can sink lower into a stretch while experiencing less pain and friction. Physically, that’s a benefit in and of itself, but mentally, it’s both comforting and motivating—comforting because I am less terrified I will accidentally hurt myself by stretching incorrectly, and motivating because I can actually feel myself progressing toward my goal.

The instructors are encouraging and well informed, which is typical of all Peloton classes. They explain what is coming up, tell you when you should rock back and forth or stay static, and detail the function of each stretch, whether it’s intended to help you with your posture, make your daily activities easier, or help you reach a workout-specific goal. I’ve even stolen a few of the stretches I’ve learned to incorporate into the ones I lead my spin classes through.

While it’s easy enough to do a few improvised stretches before you lift, after you do cardio, or when you’re just feeling tight, it’s beneficial to open up the Peloton app and run through a more intentionally planned routine with help from an expert, and yet another way this app has become totally indispensable for me on my broader quest to improve my fitness.

Stig Asmussen, the game industry veteran who directed God of War III and Star Wars Jedi: Survivor and Fallen Order, is developing a single-player action-adventure game set in the world of Dungeons & Dragons in partnership with publisher Wizards of the Coast.

This will be the first project for Asmussen’s studio Giant Skull since its founding in late 2023. In a press release sent to Engadget, the studio shared it is “dedicated to building gameplay-driven, story-immersed action-adventure games.” The new project will be built on the Unreal 5 engine and is currently in development for PC, with console details coming at a later date. No specific release dates, renderings or game content has been shared as of yet, making it unlikely this game will be out before 2026.

John Hight, president of Wizards of the Coast (the owners of the iconic tabletop RPG), said “Stig and the team at Giant Skull are exactly the type of exceptionally talented creators we want to work with and I’m so happy to be reuniting with him on this new project.” Stig Asmussen shared that the studio’s goal is to “craft a rich new Dungeons & Dragons universe filled with immersive storytelling, heroic combat and exhilarating traversal that players will fully embrace.”

This new project comes as Wizards of the Coast moves on from its deal with developer Larian Studios, the team behind the widely-acclaimed Baldur’s Gate 3. The Hasbro-owned publisher has a slew of games in the pipeline in partnership with various game studios in the United States and Canada. These include the sci-fi RPG Exodus, which is being developed by Archetype Entertainment, and Atomic Arcade’s Snake Eyes, which is based on the G.I. Joe.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/pc/a-single-player-dungeons-dragons-game-is-in-development-172635380.html?src=rss

Automated web-scraping bots seeking training data for AI models are flooding scientific databases and academic journals with traffic volumes that render many sites unusable. The online image repository DiscoverLife, which contains nearly 3 million species photographs, started receiving millions of daily hits in February this year that slowed the site to the point that it no longer loaded, Nature reported Monday.

The surge has intensified since the release of DeepSeek, a Chinese large language model that demonstrated effective AI could be built with fewer computational resources than previously thought. This revelation triggered what industry observers describe as an “explosion of bots seeking to scrape the data needed to train this type of model.” The Confederation of Open Access Repositories reported that more than 90% of 66 surveyed members experienced AI bot scraping, with roughly two-thirds suffering service disruptions. Medical journal publisher BMJ has seen bot traffic surpass legitimate user activity, overloading servers and interrupting customer services.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.