One of the ultimate goals of medieval alchemy has been realized, but only for a fraction of a second. Scientists with the European Organization for Nuclear Research, better known as CERN, were able to convert lead into gold using the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world’s most powerful particle accelerator. Unlike the examples of transmutation we see in pop culture, these experiments with the LHC involve smashing subatomic particles together at ridiculously high speeds to manipulate lead’s physical properties to become gold.

The LHC is often used to smash lead ions together to create extremely hot and dense matter similar to what was observed in the universe following the Big Bang. While conducting this analysis, the CERN scientists took note of the near-misses that caused a lead nucleus to drop its neutrons or protons. Lead atoms only have three more protons than gold atoms, meaning that in certain cases the LHC causes the lead atoms to drop just enough protons to become a gold atom for a fraction of a second — before immediately fragmenting into a bunch of particles.

Alchemists back in the day may be astonished by this achievement, but the experiments conducted between 2015 and 2018 only produced about 29 picograms of gold, according to CERN. The organization added that the latest trials produced almost double that amount thanks to regular upgrades to the LHC, but the mass made is still trillions of times less than what’s necessary for a piece of jewelry. Instead of trying to chase riches, the organization’s scientists are more interested in studying the interaction that leads to this transmutation.

“It is impressive to see that our detectors can handle head-on collisions producing thousands of particles, while also being sensitive to collisions where only a few particles are produced at a time, enabling the study of electromagnetic ‘nuclear transmutation’ processes,” Marco Van Leeuwen, spokesperson for the A Large Ion Collider Experiment project at the LHC, said in a statement.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/science/scientists-find-lead-really-can-be-turned-into-gold-with-help-from-the-large-hadron-collider-163431201.html?src=rss

Google’s Gemini AI has been getting upgrade after upgrade, now being able to handle data analysis in Google Sheets and using your past conversations with its chatbot to inform better responses. One of Google’s latest offerings lets Gemini generate an original background during your virtual meetings for a personal touch before getting down to business.

What are Google Meet’s AI backgrounds?

Google Meet lets you tap into Gemini to make AI-generated backgrounds based on whatever prompt you feed it. You can enter prompts like a “luxurious living room interior” or “a magical sunny forest glade,” as Google suggests, or you can get creative with suggestions like “a gym full of cakes” or “a coworking space in Studio Ghibli style.” This AI feature is currently available on desktop and Android devices, but has some requirements whether you’re using it on a computer or smartphone.

How to create an AI background in Google Meet

This feature requires either an eligible Google Workspace or Google One AI Premium subscription, or entry into Google’s early access testing program called Workspace Labs.

To start on a computer, open up meet.google.com and join a meeting by punching in the specific code, or join via link. Before hitting the blue “Join now” button, navigate to the bottom-right corner of your self-view and click “Apply visual effects” and then “Generate a background.” You then have to provide Gemini with a prompt, which can be as simple as “a cozy coffee shop with flowers” like Google suggests, then hit “Create samples.” You can select an art style to better customize your background, and Google recommends including specific instructions like a setting and objects in your prompt to get the best results.

Google

Gemini’s first attempts at an AI background might not be exactly what you’re looking for, so you can click “Create other samples” to refresh the results. If your initial prompt needs some tweaking, you can edit it by navigating to the top of the panel on the right, then hitting the “Create other samples” button. Once you land on the AI-generated background you want, just click on it and hit the “Close” button on the Backgrounds window to get on with your meeting.

All of this can be done when you’re already in a meeting, too. If you’re using an Android device for Google Meet, you have to open the Meet app and tap the “Effects” button on the bottom of your self-view and navigate to the Backgrounds tab instead of the “Apply visual effects” button on computers. Make sure you have a compatible smartphone, like a Samsung Galaxy S9 or newer or a Google Pixel 3 or newer, that’s running at least Android version 9. For iPhone users, this feature isn’t currently available.

Google

How to remove your AI background

It’s worth mentioning that using these Gemini-generated backgrounds on Google Meet can increase battery usage. If you want to preserve battery life or go back to a more basic background, you can reset everything by navigating to the Effects panel and clicking the Stack button on the bottom right side of your self-view. After you click the Stack button, you can choose which effects to remove or completely reset your background with the “Remove All” button.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/how-to-use-gemini-to-generate-unique-backgrounds-in-google-meet-130000553.html?src=rss

Apple is embracing the world of brain computer interfaces, unveiling a new technology that one day could revolutionize how humans interact with their devices. From a report: The company is taking early steps to enable people to control their iPhones with neural signals captured by a new generation of brain implants. It could make Apple devices more accessible to tens of thousands of people who can’t use their hands because of severe spinal cord injuries or diseases such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS.

[…] Historically, humans interacted with their computers mechanically, using keyboards and mice. Smartphones introduced touch, a behavioral input, but still an observable physical movement. The new capability means Apple devices won’t need to see the user make specific movements, the devices can detect user intentions from decoded brain signals. Apple has worked on the new standard with Synchron, which makes a stent-like device that is implanted in a vein atop the brain’s motor cortex. The device called the Stentrode has electrodes that read brain signals. It translates the signals into selecting icons on a screen.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The Federal Trade Commission has delayed the start of a rule that aims to make the process of canceling subscriptions less of a nightmare. Last year, the FTC voted to ratify amendments to a regulation known as the Negative Option Rule, adding a new “click-to-cancel” rule that requires companies to be upfront about the terms of subscription signups and prohibits them “from making it any more difficult for consumers to cancel than it was to sign up.” Surprising no one, telecom companies were not happy, and sued the FTC. While the rule was nevertheless set to be implemented on May 14, the FTC now says enforcement has been pushed back 60 days to July 14.

Some parts of the updated Negative Option Rule went into effect on January 19, but the enforcement of certain provisions were deferred to May 14 by the previous administration to give companies more time to comply. Under the new administration, the FTC says it has “conducted a fresh assessment of the burdens that forcing compliance by this date would impose” and decided it “insufficiently accounted for the complexity of compliance.” 

Once the July 14 deadline hits, the FTC says “regulated entities must be in compliance with the whole of the Rule because the Commission will begin enforcing it.” But, the statement adds, “if that enforcement experience exposes problems with the Rule, the Commission is open to amending” it. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/ftc-pushes-the-enforcement-of-its-click-to-cancel-rule-back-to-july-201353413.html?src=rss

As first reported by 9to5Mac, PS5 users now have a direct way to buy games in the PlayStation store with Apple Pay. When you purchase a game on your PS5 with Apple Pay, you’ll be shown a QR code that you can scan with your iPhone or iPad to complete the transaction from there.

Previously, PS5 users had to go through the console’s browser or the PlayStation App on iOS to buy games with Apple Pay. The latest update is a simple quality of life upgrade for PS5 owners since most already have a credit card tied to their PlayStation account. However, Apple Card owners can more easily take advantage of their 2 percent cash back on Apple Pay purchases when buying PS5 games.

Besides using a traditional card on file, Apple Pay joins PayPal as an alternative payment method. The Apple Pay compatibility on the PS5 was made possible through an iOS 18 update that allows users to buy things on third-party browsers like Chrome and Firefox with a unique QR code. This change lays the groundwork for more Apple Pay implementation with other browsers and devices, including support for the PS4 in a later software update, as indicated by 9to5Mac.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/playstation/your-ps5-now-natively-accepts-apple-pay-193606732.html?src=rss

Spoilers for “The Story and the Engine.”

Doctor Who lives and dies by the quality of its writing and acting far more than almost anything else on TV. Audiences may demand big explosions and trippy visuals but its best work is often done in small rooms. The Disney era began with an episode that, for all its glossy excess, rested its big moment on Catherine Tate’s acting. Now, as the Disney era potentially draws to its end, it’s once again highlighting what a smart script and great actors can do. “The Story and the Engine” is a stellar episode and a sign of what Doctor Who could look like a year or two from now.

Lara Cornell/BBC Studios/Disney/Bad Wolf

To get Belinda home, the Doctor takes the Vindicator to Lagos, Nigeria, to piggyback on the country’s communications network. But there’s another reason — he wants to visit his favorite barbership, Omo’s. The TARDIS can cut the Doctor’s hair, but it’s not the same — especially now he’s living for the first time (that we know of) as a Black man. A trip to Omo’s is a chance to both get a trim and feel accepted, telling stories and laughing with his friends.

Belinda stays in the TARDIS while the Doctor heads out, past missing people posters and signs warning people to stay away. As soon as the Doctor crosses the threshold into Omo’s, the TARDIS begins blaring red alert, much to Belinda’s confusion. The missing people are here, in the barbershop, but Omo is no longer in charge, having lost control to the mysterious (and unnamed) Barber.

The Barber has kept the men hostage, cutting their hair on a regular basis, with each one telling him a story as he does. Each story is broadcast on the inside of the shop’s window, and as soon as they’re done, their hair grows back. The stories aren’t for entertainment, but to fuel an enormous robot spider traversing a metaversal web. Only one person is allowed to leave the shop, Abena, who brings the men food each day to keep them alive.

Naturally, an immortal time traveler is a fantastic resource for stories, but his first tale is that of Belinda staying behind after work to save a woman’s life. Whereas the other men’s stories are rendered in animation, we actually see Belinda’s story as live action. And, once the Doctor’s hair is shorn, it grows back, ready for his next turn to be an unwilling storyteller. Belinda, after asking the TARDIS to show her where to go, heads to Omo’s, where the Doctor is surprisingly happy to see her as she, too, gets trapped in the barbershop.

Abena is hiding a secret, and has been hostile to the Doctor ever since she met him. That’s because she’s really the daughter of Anansi, the spider-esque trickster god of Akan folklore. Her father defeated the Doctor many (many!) lifetimes ago, insisting they marry her, but the Doctor skipped town, leaving her on her own. [Casual viewers totally lost as to what was going on at that point and why the Doctor suddenly turned into someone else, head down to Mrs. Flood Corner for an explanation.]

At some point in history, Abena teamed up with the Barber, who isn’t a god himself, but a form of fiction-weaving figure. He told tales to entertain and sustain the gods, designing the dimensional web his giant spider robot is currently traversing. At some point, he’d outlived his usefulness and was cast out by his masters, and so he is using people’s stories to power his story engine. When it reaches its destination, he’ll wipe out all the gods of myth and legend and take their place.

Abena, horrified that her own family will be wiped out in the Barber’s revenge, opts to switch sides and tends to the Doctor’s hair. She tells the story of how African people under slavery would braid messages and maps as cornrows to evade detection. The Doctor’s hair is now a map of the story engine’s mazelike corridors, leading him to its beating heart. When the Barber tries to stop him, he (wrongly) invokes Hemingway, talking about the power of his six word story.

Oh, but we’re five minutes from the end, so the Doctor saves the day by, uh, playing a highlights reel of all his prior incarnations. The Barber, however, is a changed man, and comes back with the Doctor as the story engine itself collapses under the sheer weight of the Doctor’s life story. With everyone free, Omo declares he’s retiring, and hands the role to the Barber, who will use his powers for good. Abena opts to part ways with her friend, and the Doctor and Belinda head back to the TARDIS.

James Pardon/BBC Studios/Disney/Bad Wolf

“The Story and the Engine” is a phenomenal debut from British-Nigerian poet and playwright Inua Ellams. The rules of the barbershop and premise of the story is clear enough to grasp before the title sequence has rolled. And little time is wasted getting the Doctor through the door of Omo’s shop, enabling him to engage with the problem at hand. If there’s an issue, it’s the same one that’s dogged every episode this season: the overstuffed narrative that picks up and drops ideas in minutes that another series would have milked for weeks on end.

The narrative and thematic density here includes nods toward folklore versus the mechanical reproduction of storytelling. An exploration of the nature of community, family, safety, betrayal, love and the value of revenge. Hell, the antagonist is a writer who’s pissed off their overlords cut ‘em loose and took the credit that was theirs to claim. Not to mention, Doctor Who is having to make a case for its own continued existence given the behind the scenes rumors. That’s so much to cram into 45 minutes that you just want everything to slow down and let things breathe.

As much as Doctor Who might be seen by the majority of its audience on a streaming platform, it’s still constrained by its broadcast runtime. Like the rest of this run, this episode is just begging for more time to allow its textures to be better explored. In fact, as I lay in bed after watching the episode, I was thinking about how many of these episodes would work well in the old-school half-hour format. Three half-hours would give us more time in the barbershop and a more earned ending. “The Story and the Engine” is already a chamber piece — make the CGI spider a barely-seen matte painting and use stock footage of Lagos and this could have easily been done in the ‘80s. Again, given the rumors that, without Disney’s cash, the BBC can’t afford to produce Doctor Who, we’re seeing how great it can be when it’s just got five or six actors in a single room.

That’s not to say the extra money isn’t welcome: I also want to, again, single out how much great work the rest of the production team is doing this year. The story engine’s heart, a beautifully-made heart-tree-brain sculpture, was another great piece of design work. And any episode of anything that uses Blick Bassey’s “Aké” as a needle drop deserves a round of applause.

A Nigerian barbershop is not the usual place for an episode of Doctor Who to play out, but it’s also absolutely perfect. After all, one of the richest seams of inspiration the show has is to find the magic in the edges of the mundane. What could be more magic than people sitting around, telling stories and forming communities through nothing more than the cutting of hair.

Mrs. Flood Corner

Mrs. Flood gets a tiny cameo this episode, popping into the hospital during the Doctor’s tale of Belinda’s heroism. It’s ambiguous if the Doctor knows Mrs. Flood was there, or if her presence was only for the audience’s benefit. Given the more standalone nature of this episode, we shouldn’t ask too much of Mrs. Flood this week.

It’s certainly interesting to see what Belinda does and doesn’t know about how the world of the Doctor works. My assumption is still that the Doctor briefed Belinda on the basics and even the more advanced details off-screen. Belinda’s smart and capable enough that she’d ask the right questions to learn that the TARDIS wardrobe is also able to style hair.

I am curious, however, about why the Doctor was so happy to see Belinda as she walked into the trap. And why Belinda knew what to do when the Doctor made his break for the story engine in the conclusion. That the costumes have changed since “The Well” implies that time has passed for these two, so maybe their rapport has grown in the interim.

Dan Fearon/BBC Studios/Disney/Bad Wolf

If you’ll allow me to go out on a limb, what if the real identity of Mrs. Flood or this season’s big bad is in fact Fenric? Hear me out: “The Story and the Engine” shares a premise with 1988’s “The Greatest Show in the Galaxy.” In that episode, the Gods of Ragnarok have occupied a circus to fuel their hunger for entertainment, killing anyone who displeases them. The Barber in this story mentions he wrote stories for several Norse gods and tries to pass himself off as one of them before his real identity is revealed.

Now, if you recall, another Norse god the Doctor tussled with in that era was Fenric, the villain from 1989’s “The Curse of Fenric.” Which was one of the classic-series stories highlighted for the 60th anniversary’s Tales of the TARDIS run. Given Davies’ shot an additional episode of that run to introduce new viewers to Sutekh before he appeared in last year’s finale, maybe the groundwork was already laid to bring Fenric back.

Yeah, you’re right, it’s not going to be Fenric.

When was the Doctor a Black woman?

The 2020 season of Doctor Who made a number of controversial changes to the foundation of the series. Showrunner Chris Chibnall opted to dump the series’ original deliberately ambiguous backstory in favor of something a little more stock sci-fi. Before then, our lead character was an outsider who left their world and stumbled around learning to become something of a hero. The show’s first four seasons build to the moment when the Doctor says “There are some corners of the universe which have bred the most terrible things. Things which act against everything we believe in. They must be fought.” Like a lot of early Doctor Who, the character’s development over time wasn’t necessarily visible until you look back on the era as a whole.

Chibnall threw all of that out, insisting that the Doctor wasn’t just the most Special Time Lord Of All Time, but the figure who gave the Time Lords the power of regeneration in the first place. In one season, he’d turned the Doctor into the equivalent of Adam and Eve and Jesus all at once. He also eliminated the series’ longstanding regeneration limit, saying the Doctor can change their body an infinite amount of times. Which rather undermines the action and saps the dramatic tension from episodes like “The Caves of Androzani” and “The Eleventh Hour.”

These changes gave the Doctor an entire as-yet unseen first and second act, with the adult Doctor working for the Time Lord equivalent of the CIA before having their memory wiped before the start of the series proper. The episode “Fugitive of the Judoon” revealed the identity of one of these doctors, The Fugitive Doctor, played by actress Jo Martin — the only time the Doctor had been played by a Black actor before Ncuti Gatwa and only the second time (canonically) they’d been played by a woman after Jodie Whittaker. The Fugitive Doctor’s place in the series’ history is left ambiguous, and she mostly spent that time on deep cover missions.

When Davies’ return was announced, I was privately hoping he would very loudly unwind much of Chibnall’s Timeless Child story arc. Trapping the Doctor in the hacky sci-fi role of chosen one felt like an act of near-fatal violence against the series. There have been many other secret origin stories for the Doctor over its sixty-year tenure, but the others were mostly content to sit in implication rather than bellowed from the rooftops.

It’s here I must offer yet more praise for Russell T. Davies, who opted to Yes-And Chibnall’s hackiest impulses. He has managed to integrate the Timeless Child story in a way that serves the character of the Doctor supremely effectively. Rather than focusing on the ancestral history he’s focused on the Doctor as an orphan, taken advantage of by cruel aliens. It gives greater weight both to his relationships with his companions, and to the need for belonging that takes him to Omo’s. And the events of the Flux miniseries have broken the universe so utterly that it’s opened the door for the pantheon of gods to enter it. Not to mention, it offers a vehicle through which we can get more stories of the Fugitive Doctor that gets it out from under the more reactionary storytelling under which she was created.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/doctor-who-the-story-and-the-engine-review-just-a-trim-thanks-190010762.html?src=rss

The Food and Drug Administration has approved a new device called the Teal Wand, which its creator describes as an “at-home vaginal sample self-collection device for cervical cancer screening.” It could be especially useful for women who find pap smears uncomfortable, painful and even traumatic, as well as for those who may not have time to go to a doctor or have disabilities preventing them from traveling to consult one. Users who get the Teal Wand will have to swab their vagina with the sponge tool at its tip. They then have to send the swab in to test it for HPV, or human papillomavirus, which causes most cervical cancers. 

Since the user isn’t scraping cells from their cervix like what’s done with a speculum during pap smears, there are no samples to analyze for abnormality under a microscope. But as The New York Times noted, some authorities are now recommending HPV testing as the primary screening for cervical cancer. Last year, the National Cancer Institute launched a clinical trial network called the Cervical Cancer ‘Last Mile’ Initiative and teamed up with Roche, which provided a similar self-collection solution for participants. The cancer institute explained at the time that cervical cancer is highly preventable with HPV vaccine and regular screening, but half of all diagnosed cases in the US are of individuals who have never been or are infrequently screened. A self-collection device can vastly expand access to cervical cancer screening. 

Teal Wand users will be able to dial into the company’s telehealth services, with providers who can give them instructions on how to use the device. Users will then have to detach the swab from the wand, put it in a vial, label it and then mail it for testing. Teal Health claims that its solution was proven to be as accurate as in-clinic screening during its clinical study. The company will start shipping out wands to California residents in June before expanding availability across the country. It doesn’t have pricing for the device yet, but it said it’s working with insurance providers so that the wand could be covered by their plans. The company also intends to work with donors to subsidize costs for people without insurance, as well as to offer flexible payment options.

Teal Health

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/science/fda-approves-at-home-pap-smear-alternative-device-for-cervical-cancer-screening-170025767.html?src=rss

Nintendo’s latest legal move to combat piracy may be super effective. According to a new change in the Nintendo User Agreement, the console maker can brick your Switch, or render it useless, if it’s found with pirated games or mods. While some people may have glazed over the changes since Nintendo didn’t make this a major announcement, Game File’s Stephen Totilo dug through the changes and spotted the major updates.

In Nintendo’s own words, you shouldn’t “bypass, modify, decrypt, defeat, tamper with, or otherwise circumvent any of the functions or protections of the Nintendo Account Services.” The company’s previous agreement only prohibited if you “adapt, reverse-engineer, or modify a Nintendo user account,” but this updated language gives exact definitions of what you can’t do with your Switch. If you do break these rules, Nintendo could make your “applicable Nintendo device permanently unusable in whole or in part.” In plain English, that means if you’re found with an emulator or pirated copies of games, your Switch might just end up being a very expensive paperweight.

This latest legal leap isn’t surprising considering Nintendo’s strict stance on emulation. In March 2024, the company filed a lawsuit against the popular Switch emulator called Yuzu claiming that the developers were facilitating piracy. Later that year, another emulator called Ryujinx shut down after Nintendo offered an agreement to the development team to discontinue the project in October. This latest user agreement update comes on the heels of the upcoming release of the Switch 2 that’s planned for June 5.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/nintendo/nintendo-grants-itself-the-power-to-brick-switches-with-pirated-games-162129077.html?src=rss

Activision Blizzard’s Overwatch team has formed a wall-to-wall union under the Communications Workers of America (CWA). The union, which has been recognized by parent company Microsoft, includes nearly 200 developers “across all disciplines,” from design and production to quality assurance, the CWA said in its announcement. It’s the latest development in a broader organizing effort by video game workers, who aim to secure better job protections and improve their working conditions. Last summer, the team behind World of Warcraft announced its own union comprising more than 500 employees, and quality assurance workers at Activision joined the CWA a few months before that.

Per the CWA’s announcement on Friday, “A neutral arbitrator confirmed today that an overwhelming majority of workers have either signed a union authorization card or indicated that they wanted union representation via an online portal.” Members of the new Overwatch Gamemakers Guild-CWA join over 2,000 workers from other studios owned by Microsoft who have unionized with the CWA. “Unionizing is about having a seat at the table so that we can work with leadership to build better, more sustainable working conditions,” said Jess Castillo, senior test analyst II and organizing committee member, in a statement.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/the-developers-behind-overwatch-have-unionized-154021756.html?src=rss

The Mexican government has filed a lawsuit against Google for renaming the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America in Maps within the United States. Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum said during a press conference that the lawsuit has already been filed, but as The Guardian notes, she didn’t say when and where it was submitted. Sheinbaum argued that the Trump administration’s order for a name change only applies to the US portion of the oceanic basin and that the US government doesn’t have the authority to rename the whole body of water. “All we want is for the decree issued by the US government to be complied with,” she said. 

Google renamed the Gulf of Mexico into the Gulf of America for users who open Maps in the US back in February. It first announced that it was going to do so the previous month and said it was only waiting for the US government to make the change official in the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS), which serves as the “federal and national standard for geographic nomenclature.” BBC said the Mexican government wrote to Google at the time to get it to reconsider before eventually threatening legal action. 

When Google announced the name change for US users, it explained that it was following a longstanding practice to show official local names for places in Maps when they vary between countries. In Mexico, the basin is still called the Gulf of Mexico, while it shows up as “Gulf of Mexico (Gulf of America)” for users outside both countries. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/mexico-is-suing-google-over-gulf-of-america-name-change-for-us-users-150012599.html?src=rss

I can’t blame you if you’ve been spending more time outside lately instead of reading gadget reviews. Spring has sprung, at least for us at Engadget HQ in the US, and there’s a lot of touching grass going on amongst our staff. Still, if you’ve missed any of our reviews over the last two weeks, this condensed list has everything you need to catch up quickly. 

Surface Pro (12-inch)

For basic computing in a highly portable device, the 12-inch Surface Pro does just fine. Senior reviews reporter Devindra Hardawar argued that you won’t want this device for it’s power anyway, and you’ll probably be able to overlook its lower-spec display too. “You’re not buying a tiny laptop for speed, you’re buying it because it’s cute and super portable,” he said. “And in that respect, the 12-inch Surface Pro succeeds.”

Rivian R1S Gen 2

Rivian has become a popular option for EV shoppers looking for either a truck or a three-row SUV. Senior reviews reporter Sam Rutherford recently spent some time behind the wheel of the company’s second-generation R1S and came away impressed. “Its size may be imposing, but it certainly delivers on the look and feel of a car that’s just as happy on asphalt as it is on unpaved trails,” he wrote. “The only thing that might give me pause is that for people who aren’t interested in off-roading, alternatives like the Kia EV9 offer similar passenger capacity for a much lower starting price.”

Canon Powershot V1

Compact cameras are making a comeback. Canon’s Powershot V1 may be designed for vlogging, but reporter Steve Dent discovered its also great for stills. “The problem is that it’s still primarily a vlogging camera and a lot of content creators have abandoned this type of compact model in favor of the Osmo Pocket 3,” he explained. “At the end of the day, the PowerShot V1 is bound to be a hit because it delivers when it comes to video and photo quality.” 

Alienware AW2725Q

If you’re looking for a new gaming display that can pull double duty as an everyday monitor, Alienware’s AW2725Q may be worth a look. Senior reporter Igor Bonifacic particularly noted the display’s overall image quality and motion clarity, but there’s a lot to like here. “The best thing I can say about the Alienware AW2725Q is that I’m not looking forward to sending it back,” he said. “It is an amazing display that has made one of my favorite hobbies more enjoyable.”

Roku Streaming Stick Plus

Cheap TV streaming devices are typically easy to recommend, and the fact that Roku’s new Streaming Stick Plus draws power from the TV is icing on the cake. “This is also the stick I want to take with me on my next trip,” senior buying advice reporter Amy Skorheim wrote. “I can plug it in at the Airbnb and, instead of logging in to whatever random apps the TV happens to have, I can watch more Doctor Who. I won’t have to worry about where the nearest outlet is and I’ll be spared the effort of typing in my stupidly long Disney+ password.”

Framework Laptop 13 (2025) 

Framework offers a way for you to easily upgrade your laptop as needed, which means you can swap out the mainboard for a new one when the company makes them available. However, the upgrade might not always be worth it, even if it is easy, but Framework’s overall premise still shows promise. “But while it may not have the razzle or dazzle, it does have the staying power, and that’s going to be a bigger asset in the next few years,” senior editor Daniel Cooper argued. “If you’re the sort of person who would buy a Lenovo Thinkpad and run it until it falls apart, then this is a better option.”

Light Phone III

The Light Phone III seeks to offer a distraction-free smartphone existence, but as deputy news editor Nathan Ingraham found, the lack of polish in the company’s bare-bones UI is a hindrance. “I can blame the music player or lack of autocorrect, but ultimately I was not ready for how radically different the Light Phone III experience is,” he admitted. “But, for a few weeks, I left my iPhone at home when I left the house as much as possible and there was something freeing about the complete lack of notifications and general siren-call for attention that I usually deal with.”

Doom: The Dark Ages, Despelote and Suborbital Salvage

For all the gamers, we’ve published reviews of several titles over the last two weeks. Most recently, senior editor Jessica Conditt spent some time with Doom: The Dark Ages, where she noted the “blood-soaked and beautiful” game offered “a well-rounded romp through the bowels of hell.” She also opined on Despelote, a game that explores memories, magic moments and being a kid. And for the Playdate fans, weekend editor Cheyenne Macdonald found out what it’s like to have a cat serve as your very opinionated supervisor in Suborbital Salvage.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/engadget-review-recap-surface-pro-rivian-canon-light-phone-and-more-130003232.html?src=rss

Welcome to our first weekly roundup of indie game releases, news and trailers. It’s impossible to cover the indie scene completely comprehensively — dozens of games hit Steam alone every single day. There are so many indies we’d love to highlight, but we don’t have the time to cover each individually. Our goal is to shine a spotlight on the games that grab our attention each week, one way or another. (Feel free to email me about your projects too!)

This time around, we’ve got a spreadsheet-based puzzler, a pirate hack-and-slash title that was first announced 22 years ago, two solo-developed games and more.

New releases

Comedy puzzle game SpreadCheat has an early ’90s/Windows 3.11 vibe and a Clippy-style assistant that definitely won’t get annoying. Along with trying to Excel (I’m so sorry) at bending the rules of spreadsheets to solve brainteasers, you can venture into side quests like cleaning up viruses. I’m not sure I’ll try this one myself, as math has no place in my video games (except for you, Balatro, you’re cool), but the concept is intriguing. SpreadCheat is out now on Steam.

From solo developer Andrea Cavuoto, Spear sounds a little like the movie Free Guy in that it’s up to a non-player character to save the day. After a critical error deletes the hero of his game and threatens the existence of his reality, an NPC named Default has to step up. Default uses a makeshift spear to solve puzzles, battle foes and traverse the environment in this action-platformer. Spear is out now on Steam.

Captain Blood is very much a throwback. It’s a hack-and-slash game that looks straight out of the PS2 era (albeit with more refined visuals). Perhaps that shouldn’t be a surprise, since the game was first announced in 2003. In fact, the original pitch was to make an old-school God of War, but with pirates. 

After several reboots, the game was canceled when the original publisher went bust. Legal issues prevented the developers from releasing the game themselves. SNEG later secured the rights to Captain Blood and over two decades since it was revealed, the game has formally been released. It’s had mixed reviews, but I’d like to check it out all the same. That title is pretty great too. Captain Blood is out now on Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Windows PC and macOS.

We covered this one a few weeks ago, but here’s a quick reminder that Geoguessr is now on Steam in early access. The Steam version was supposed to arrive in April, but it landed on May 8 instead. Nevertheless, it should now be easier for you to play the geography guessing game on Steam Deck. Elsewhere, Among Us 3D is out, while the super-charming Little Kitty, Big City has made its way to PS4 and PS5.

Upcoming

Another game from a solo developer, Zefyr: A Thief’s Melody looks like a blend of The Legend of Zelda: Windwaker, ’90s Final Fantasy and one of my favorite games of the last few years, Tchia. Mathias Fontmarty says it took 12 years to make this stealth adventure. Who wouldn’t want to explore a world on the back of a giant turtle? Zefyr will hit Steam on June 2.

It’s always worth keeping an eye on whatever Devolver Digital is up to and this past week, the publisher revealed Botsu. It feels like another spin on Fall Guys, albeit with voxel-based robots. Botsu, which is from developer Peculiar Pixels, is slated to arrive between July and September. A Steam demo is available now.

However you slice it, virtual reality is still a relatively niche market, so it’s always welcome to see games make the transition from VR to 2D formats (still side-eyeing you, Half-Life: Alyx) and perhaps find a wider audience. Survios is (Xeno)morphing Alien: Rogue Incursion into a PS5 and PC game. The studio says the flattened version, Alien: Rogue Incursion Evolved Edition, will have full HD, 60 fps gameplay. It’s set to arrive on September 30.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/spreadsheet-puzzles-metatextual-platformers-and-other-new-indie-games-worth-checking-out-130035266.html?src=rss

Google has agreed to pay the state of Texas $1.375 billion to settle two lawsuits accusing the company of violating its residents’ data privacy rights. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued Google in 2022, alleging that it collected users’ biometrics without their express consent and continued to track their location even after they’ve disabled the feature. In the Attorney General’s website, his office said that it’s the biggest amount Google has agreed to pay to resolve similar lawsuits for data privacy violations. “For years, Google secretly tracked people’s movements, private searches, and even their voiceprints and facial geometry through their products and services. I fought back and won,” Paxton said. 

When the Attorney General filed the lawsuit, Google told Engadget that Paxton mischaracterized its products. One of Paxton’s complaints, for instance, was that Google used features in Photos and Assistant to scan people’s faces. The company’s spokesperson told us that Photos only scanned faces so that users can group images of the same person for organization. Google representative Jose Castaneda told CNBC that the company is not admitting any wrongdoing or liability by agreeing to settle. He said Google doesn’t have to make any changes to its products as part of the agreement. “This settles a raft of old claims, many of which have already been resolved elsewhere, concerning product policies we have long since changed,” he said.

In July 2024, Meta also agreed to pay Texas $1.4 billion to settle a similar lawsuit that accused the company of collecting its residents’ facial recognition data. Paxton said Meta violated the state’s Capture or Use of Biometric Identifier Act “billions of times” by tagging photos and videos without users’ consent. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/google-will-pay-texas-14-billion-to-settle-data-privacy-violation-lawsuits-120044844.html?src=rss

Threads users have long joked about the sometimes bizarre posts served up by its recommendation algorithm since the early days of the app. Lately though, some users are starting to notice another type of strange post appear in their suggestions: posts from random people looking for “friends.”

The posts often feature selfies of young people whose profiles claim to be 18. Engadget has observed numerous such posts appearing in Threads’ “related threads” feature that surfaces recommended content to logged-out users. It’s not clear why these posts are appearing as “related” to other popular recommended posts.

For example, this post about Spotify from popular Threads user Chris Messina was suggested on Threads’ home feed to logged out users. Clicking into the post surfaced a “related” post from Threads head Adam Mosseri. Underneath that post, however, was another “related” post from an account claiming to be an 18-year-old girl in 11th grade.

Screenshot via Threads

For whatever reason, Threads seems to be surfacing many other such posts in its “related threads” feature. For example, the following post was also recommended as a “related” post elsewhere in the app. A look at this user’s profile shows that they have posted the same thing — a photo followed by a WhatsApp link — more than 30 times in the last five days.

Screenshot via Threads

And here’s what Engadget’s editor-in-chief Aaron Souppouris was recently recommended as a “related” thread” underneath one of my own posts while logged out. 

Screenshot via Threads

As Threads has grown to more than 350 million users, it’s not surprising that the platform would see an influx of spam. Meta exec Mosseri said the company had seen an increase in “spam attacks” in July of 2023, not long after the service launched. Last year, the company said it was working to get engagement bait under control. 

But while the mere presence of spam on a platform the size of Threads isn’t unexpected, it’s bizarre that the app is recommending these posts so frequently. Meta didn’t respond to specific questions about these posts or why they are being featured as “related” content, but confirmed that spammy posts shouldn’t be featured as recommended content in the app. 

Notably, spammy posts seem to be appearing as recommendations in other parts of Meta’s apps too. One Reddit user recently noticed a strange post that appeared as a recommendation on Instagram. This post featured a selfie of a woman with the words “I need a bf � Age don’t mind.” A quick look at that user’s profile shows they’ve posted dozens of times with that same caption over the last week. “Literally every time the suggested Threads window shows up, I have to scroll through 2-4 posts like this before seeing something normal,” the Redditor wrote. “I press ‘not interested’ and report every one I see, but they still keep showing up.”

Screenshot via Threads

The post seems to be related to some kind of ongoing spam campaign. The exact same selfie and text flagged by the Redditor was shared by at least one other Threads account. And searches on Threads show numerous other accounts are almost constantly sharing posts saying “age doesn’t matter” or “don’t mind age.”

Have you seen posts like this in your recommendations on Threads? Get in touch at karissa.bell [at] engadget.com or on Signal at karissabe.51.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/why-is-threads-recommending-these-weird-spammy-posts-from-people-looking-for-friends-234829584.html?src=rss

In the latest blow to what was generally a functional government, President Donald Trump wants to eliminate the independent agency in charge of issuing recalls and protecting US citizens from harmful products. The Office of Management and Budget has suggested the responsibilities of the Consumer Product Safety Commission should be folded into “a nonexistent division within the Department of Health and Human Services,” according to a joint letter from lawmakers. And to seemingly start the process, Trump has fired the commission’s three Democratic members without cause, The Washington Post reports.

Following a meeting with the Department of Government Efficiency, Commissioners Mary Boyle and Richard Trumka Jr. received emails on May 8 informing them they’d been fired. A third commissioner, Alexander Hoehn-Saric wasn’t formerly fired, but shared via a statement on May 9 that the Acting Chairman of the commission was “preventing [him] from executing [his] duties.” 

Commissioners in agencies like the CPSC, FCC or the FTC are appointed by the President, approved by the Senate and normally serve out their term in its entirety. Removing a commissioner requires the President to determine that they’ve neglected their duty or are credibly accused of wrongdoing.

That Constitutionally protected standard has not been Trump’s concern since he took office. The Democratic members of the FTC say they were illegally fired in a similar fashion back in March, and are now suing the US government. CPSC Commissioner Trumka has announced that he plans to take his case to court, too. The US Supreme Court is considering a case that could determine whether Trump can actually fire members of independent agencies, but until that verdict is reached, we’re in limbo.

Eliminating the CPSC or at the very least, its Democratic wing, means businesses will receive a lot less scrutiny over the products they sell. Plenty of companies would prefer not to deal with the hassle of recalls and fines. Amazon even proposed in March that the CPSC was too powerful and called the agency “unconstitutionally constructed.” Under the Trump administration, those complaints are apparently being heard and acted upon.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/trump-plans-to-shut-down-the-consumer-product-safety-commission-214635181.html?src=rss

While the company might be pulling back some of its investments in the infrastructure that makes it run, Microsoft remains, at least publicly, intensely focused on AI and Copilot. The company’s annual Microsoft Build developer conference runs from May 19 to 22 and typically touches on all of the company’s various platforms, but it seems like AI will once again be the star.

Microsoft Build is typically a pretty dry affair — Azure comes up a lot — but in the last few years the company has also used the conference to introduce new AI features that eventually make their way into consumer products. Since Microsoft recently released a new Surface Pro and Surface Laptop, too, the event should be all about software.

You’ll be able to watch the opening Build Keynote hosted by Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and CTO Kevin Scott on the Build website, or if you want the highlights as they happen, follow along with Engadget’s liveblog. In the meantime, we can make some educated guesses as to what Microsoft might touch on.

Adding more AI to Windows 11

Microsoft talked up agents — AI that can take action on your behalf — a lot at Microsoft Build 2024, and the ways AI is automating work in Windows will likely come up this year, too. Microsoft has announced plans to introduce an agent into the Settings app that can make adjustments to your computer for you. An in-depth look at the feature or a tease of other agents coming to Windows 11 seems like obvious subject for the keynote to touch on. The company will likely get in to how third-party developers can build agents into their own apps, too.

Microsoft has also shared that its making changes to File Explorer to let you find and tweak files without jumping into another app, and upgrading the start menu so you can find and download apps without having to open the Microsoft Store. Both features could be highlighted at Build.

Letting Copilot see your desktop

One of the most impressive features Microsoft has demoed for Copilot is the ability for the AI assistant to selectively see what you’re doing and talk to you about it. Copilot Vision, as the feature is called, is already available on mobile, and Microsoft has teased an expanded version of the feature that can see your desktop or select app windows. Windows Insiders can already use Copilot Vision, but Microsoft hasn’t shared when it’ll come to normal users. Detailing the feature in-depth and expanding where it works seems like a natural things that could come up during Build. 

Microsoft introduced a new “Researcher” tool to Copilot in March 2025 that uses OpenAI’s o3 reasoning model, but limited the feature to Microsoft 365 subscribers. The tool can perform research on your behalf, compiling information from multiple sources, like data from your OneDrive and web searches. Microsoft didn’t announce plans to bring Researcher to the free version of Copilot in Windows, but it could do that at Build 2025.

Everything else

Microsoft maintains multiple platforms that act as the backbone of the world’s other gigantic businesses. AI is more interesting to the average person, but the company will likely have more to share on Azure, .NET and GitHub at Build 2025, too.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/microsoft-build-2025-what-to-expect-from-copilot-windows-11-and-ai-agents-204521927.html?src=rss

US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) wants eyes on everyone leaving the country by vehicle. Wired reported this week that the agency plans to photograph every person in cars going to Mexico or Canada by land, including backseat passengers.

The program would use facial recognition to match the pictures with travel documents like passports and visas. A CBP spokesperson told Wired that it wasn’t immediately apparent that the surveillance system would track self-deportations, but she wouldn’t rule out future use. “Not to say it won’t happen in the future, though, with the way self-deportation is going,” CBP spokesperson Jessica Turner said.

Among the Trump administration’s self-deportation moves have been offering $1,000 payouts to undocumented immigrants to leave the country voluntarily. It also listed 6,000 living immigrants with temporary parole as legally dead. That included canceling their Social Security numbers, effectively voiding their ability to work or collect benefits.

The outgoing border photography plan would mirror a program CBP is developing for incoming border crossings. A separate Wired report from earlier in the week revealed the agency asked tech companies to suggest how they would track everyone entering the country by vehicle, including those seated two or three rows back. It’s turning to Big Tech because its own attempts haven’t been up to snuff. A recent test of the system at a Texas-Mexico crossing showed that CBP’s cameras only met face-matching validation requirements 61 percent of the time.

The moves come amid souring immigration approval for President Trump. A late-April poll from WaPo-ABC News-Ipsos found his approval rating on immigration underwater by seven points. (In February, he had a net positive of two points on the topic.) Meanwhile, a late-April NYT-Sienna College poll found that 53 percent of registered voters said Trump has “gone too far” on immigration enforcement.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cameras/the-trump-administration-wants-to-photograph-everyone-leaving-the-us-by-car-200129593.html?src=rss

Epic has officially submitted Fortnite to the US Apple App Store. If the game returns, it’ll be the first time in nearly five years that the battle royale shooter will be available on iOS devices.

This is happening after a judge ruled that Apple must stop collecting fees for purchases made outside of the App Store. Epic celebrated the ruling by announcing Fortnite’s imminent return, along with changes to its sales platform aimed at developers and publishers. The company will not charge a commission of any kind to publishers for the first $1,000,000 in revenue from an app per year.

Additionally, Epic announced the formation of standalone webshops, offering another way for devs to avoid Apple’s exorbitant App Store fees. The shops are powered by Epic Games Store and offer a platform for “out-of-app purchases, as a more cost-effective alternative to in-app purchases.” It also announced a higher rate of Epic Rewards when using its proprietary payment system.

Epic CEO Tim Sweeney has stated that the company would return the game to the App Store worldwide, so long as Apple extends the court’s ruling across the globe. We don’t know where Apple stands on that one, but the company did appeal the ruling and filed an emergency motion to ask the federal appeals court to put a pause on any changes to how the App Store operates and collects fees.

Epic responded to this move by calling it a “last ditch effort to block competition and extract massive junk fees at the expense of consumers and developers.” Some companies, like Spotify, have already submitted updates that would let US customers pay outside the App Store.

Additionally, a group of developers have banded together to file a class action suit against Apple. The suit alleges that they have lost large amounts of money due to Apple’s failure to comply with the original court order that ordered it stop collecting fees for purchases made outside the App Store.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/epic-has-submitted-fortnite-to-the-us-app-store-185540630.html?src=rss

Arlo is expanding the AI features offered in its subscription security service as part of its new Arlo Secure 6 update. The updated system will offer improved video search, give cameras and doorbells a greater ability to identify possible emergency events and automatically create captions for anything your security system records when it starts rolling out later in May.

As part of Arlo Secure 6, cameras will not only be able to use object-detection to identify things like packages, but also send you a notification when they visually detect a flame. The list of things devices can detect via sound is also expanding to include gunshots, screams, barking and broken glass, making it easier to know when to call for help.

To make it easier to review footage, Arlo is now also using AI to generate captions for the clips your security system captures, that way you don’t need to watch everything to know what’s going on. And when you need to pull up a specific clip, Arlo Secure 6 will let you search for “specific keywords, descriptions, or time ranges” to find what you’re looking for.

Both Google and Amazon have explored similar AI-powered features in their Nest Aware and Ring Home services, automatically identify smoke alarms or letting you search for a specific person or thing in video search. This Secure 6 update makes Arlo’s service more competitive, while focusing on some specifics that neither Google or Amazon offer.

If you’re already pay for an Arlo Secure plan, you should get the new Arlo Secure 6 features starting this month. Arlo offers two versions of its Secure subscription, a Plus plan for either $8 per month (one camera) or $18 per month (unlimited cameras), and a Premium plan for $25 per month.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/home/smart-home/arlo-updates-its-security-system-to-caption-what-cameras-see-and-detect-gunshots-183019334.html?src=rss

Now that Apple has to stop collecting fees on non-App Store purchases, Epic is pouncing with a new incentive. Starting today, you’ll get 20 percent back in Epic Rewards when using the company’s payment system for in-app purchases in Fortnite, Rocket League and Fall Guys.

The offer isn’t limited to the App Store, so you’ll get the same 20 percent reward on PC, Android and the web. The reward balance will arrive 14 days after your purchase. You can redeem Epic Rewards inside the company’s games or on the Epic Games Store.

PC gamers who use Epic’s Store also get 20 percent back on all purchases. However, unlike the in-app purchase program, that incentive only runs for a limited time. It expires on August 31.

The rewards follow a legal ruling in Epic’s favor. Last week, Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, a federal district judge in Northern California, said Apple violated a previous ruling from 2021. That four-year-old injunction required the iPhone maker to let App Store developers direct users to alternative payment systems, bypassing Apple’s 30 percent fees.

However, after the 2021 ruling, Apple charged a 27 percent commission on external payments. (It was a lower 12 percent for iOS Small Business Program members.) The company also showed “scare screens,” discouraging users from using third-party payment systems due to decreased privacy and security. The judge scolded Apple in her ruling, saying it knew what it was doing and “at every turn chose the most anticompetitive option.”

After the ruling, Epic quickly announced that Fortnite would return to the App Store. Epic said on Friday that it submitted the game for review on Apple’s storefront.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/epic-launches-a-reward-program-to-lure-you-away-from-the-app-store-182027032.html?src=rss