There are physical editions of the iconic shooters Doom and Doom II coming out, thanks to Limited Run Games. All editions ship with both games, but the highlight is something called the Will it Run Edition. This one comes with all kinds of extra goodies, including a game box that actually runs the original Doom. You read that right. Box play Doom. All you have to do is connect a USB controller, as the box also has a port.

It costs $666, which is a nod to the devilish source material, and is being kept to a limited run of 666 copies. It comes with the aforementioned screen-enabled game box that runs Doom, but that’s just the beginning. The combo pack ships with the soundtrack on cassette, a certificate of authenticity and a trading card park with five cards.

It comes with a couple of toys based on one of the franchise’s most iconic enemies. There’s a detailed three-inch Cacodemon that connects to a five-inch base, which looks pretty nifty. There’s a smaller handheld Cacodemon that, you’ll never guess, also runs Doom.

Limited Run Games

This edition is available for Switch, PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC. The PC version, however, ships with a download code and not physical copies of both games. Preorders start on April 18 and end on May 18, with a release sometime after that.

If $666 is too rich, or demonic, for your blood, there are also cheaper editions available. The Big Box Edition costs $100 and ships with both games, a really big box, a trading card set and the soundtrack on cassette. The Standard Edition only includes the games and costs $30.

However, these aren’t straight ports of two 30-year-old games. The developer has made some enhancements for modern players. The visuals have been upgraded, with a native 60 FPS frame rate and 16:9 support. The weapon carousel has been updated for faster switching and the dev has added gyroscopic aiming. These titles now offer local four-player co-op and online play.

The games also include a bunch of new maps and long-standing community mods, with the ability to integrate new mods. There’s even a brand-new episode called Legacy of Rust that was co-designed by id, Nightdive Studios and MachineGames. Players can also switch between the original music and a modern soundtrack.

For those wondering why the developer would even make a box that runs Doom, it’s because the game’s ability to run on weird things has become a beloved meme at this point. Doom has been found running on pregnancy tests, rat brain neurons and even via gut bacteria.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/666-edition-of-doom-includes-game-box-that-itself-plays-doom-165022410.html?src=rss

An anonymous reader shares a report: A silent update rolling out to virtually all Android devices will make your phone more secure, and all you have to do is not touch it for a few days. The new feature implements auto-restart of a locked device, which will keep your personal data more secure. It’s coming as part of a Google Play Services update, though, so there’s nothing you can do to speed along the process.

Google is preparing to release a new update to Play Services (v25.14), which brings a raft of tweaks and improvements to myriad system features. First spotted by 9to5Google, the update was officially released on April 14, but as with all Play Services updates, it could take a week or more to reach all devices. When 25.14 arrives, Android devices will see a few minor improvements, including prettier settings screens, improved connection with cars and watches, and content previews when using Quick Share.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Nvidia is rounding out its GeForce RTX 50-series graphics cards today with the official announcement of the mainstream RTX 5060 series. The company is announcing three new GPUs today: The 5060 Ti will launch on April 16 in both 8GB and 16GB variations, for $379 and $429, respectively. The regular RTX 5060 will follow at some point in May for the same $299 MSRP as the last-generation RTX 4060. It is also sticking with 8GB of RAM.

Obviously, it remains to be seen whether the company and its partners can actually stock these cards at these prices. GPUs from the top-tier RTX 5090 to the mainstream RTX 5070 have been difficult to impossible to buy at their announced MSRPs. And it’s not just Nvidia’s problem or a high-end problem—AMD’s Radeon RX 9070 series GPUs have also been hard to buy, as have Intel’s Arc B580 and B570 cards.

The new graphics cards’ specs essentially match numbers that have been floating around for a couple of months now. Both models include modest increases in the number of CUDA cores compared to the last-generation 4060 and 4060 Ti models, with the same amount of RAM and the same 128-bit memory interface. But an upgrade to GDDR7 instead of GDDR6 provides a healthy bump to memory bandwidth and is probably also partially responsible for an increase in peak power consumption. The 4060 Ti in particular was memory bandwidth-constrained at higher resolutions, so hopefully some extra bandwidth will make it a better choice for a decent 1440p gaming PC.

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Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg considered resetting all Facebook users’ friend connections to boost the platform’s declining relevance, according to internal emails revealed Monday in a landmark FTC antitrust trial. In a 2022 message to executives, Zuckerberg proposed “wiping everyone’s graphs and having them start again,” referring to users’ friend networks. Facebook head Tom Alison questioned the idea’s viability, citing Instagram’s reliance on friend connections. Zuckerberg later testified that the plan was never implemented and that Facebook has “evolved” from its original purpose.

The FTC argues Meta violated competition laws by acquiring Instagram ($1B) and WhatsApp ($19B) as part of a “buy or bury” strategy outlined in Zuckerberg’s 2008 email stating, “It is better to buy than compete.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

It’s officially Tax Day. If you already filed months ago, first off: Good for you. And secondly, you may have already received a pleasant surprise in the form of a slightly larger tax refund compared to last year. According to the most recent IRS report, over $211 billion has been refunded this cycle so far—a 5% increase over last year. On an individual basis, the average direct deposit refund amount is $3,186, up 3.2% from last year’s $3,088. But what’s driving these larger refunds?

Inflation adjustments boost refunds

The primary reason for the increase in tax refunds stems from the IRS’s annual inflation adjustments. For the 2024 tax year (filed in 2025), the IRS implemented significant increases to both standard deductions and tax brackets.

Standard deduction increases

The standard deduction—the amount taxpayers can subtract from their income before income tax is applied—saw notable increases:

• Single filers: $14,600 (up from $13,850 in tax year 2023)

• Married couples filing jointly: $29,200 (up from $27,700 in tax year 2023)

• Heads of household: $21,900 (up from $20,800 in tax year 2023)

Filers who are 65 or older or are blind may be eligible to claim an even higher standard deduction. For 2024, the amounts are:

• Single or head of household: an additional $1,950

• Married filing jointly: an additional $1,550

So for example, a 68-year-old single filer would claim a $16,550 standard deduction for tax year 2024. These increases mean that taxpayers who don’t itemize deductions (aka the vast majority of Americans) protect more of their income from taxation.

Tax bracket adjustments

In addition to higher standard deductions, the IRS also adjusted tax brackets for inflation. This adjustment effectively moved some taxpayers into lower tax brackets, reducing their overall tax burden even if their income increased slightly from the previous year.

What these adjustments mean for taxpayers

For many Americans, these adjustments have resulted in lower tax bills or higher refunds for the 2024 tax year. However, it’s worth noting that a larger refund isn’t necessarily a financial win—it means you’ve been giving the government an interest-free loan throughout the year.

Financial advisors often recommend adjusting your withholding if you consistently receive large tax refunds. This allows you to access more of your money throughout the year, potentially using it for investments or to pay down debt.

If you haven’t filed yet, today is the last day you can apply for an extension. Remember that it’s always better to file—even if you can’t pay what you owe—than not to file at all. The penalties for non-filing are substantially higher and can lead to much more serious consequences.

Larian Studios has deployed the final major update for Baldur’s Gate 3. It’s a pretty spicy one too, as the developer is adding a bunch of the community’s most-requested changes. Among them is full cross-play support. So, no matter whether you’re playing on PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S or Mac, you can squad up with your buddies and help each other get through the huge RPG.

Another welcome arrival is that of a built-in photo mode. This will be available during most parts of the game, including cutscenes. You can also slap stickers on your snaps and apply several effects to them.

Along with those updates, Larian has added 12 new subclasses, and it says each of them offer new ways to play the 2023 hit. The additions are as follows:

• Bard — College of Glamour

• Barbarian — Path of Giants

• Cleric — Death Domain

• Druid — Circle of Stars

• Fighter — Arcane Archer

• Monk — Way of The Drunken Master

• Paladin — Oath of the Crown

• Ranger — Swarmkeeper

• Rogue — Swashbuckler

• Sorcerer — Shadow Magic

• Warlock — Hexblade

• Wizard — Bladesinging

Larian says each of the subclasses has fresh abilities, animations, visual effects and summons. The latest Paladin subclass comes with new voiced dialogue for the Oathbreaker Knight, the studio says.

Steam Trading Cards are new to Baldur’s Gate 3 too, enabling Steam players to craft badges and unlock profile backgrounds and emoticons for their accounts. On top of all that, Larian has added support for partial level editing for current characters, items and triggers to its modding toolkit, as well as some quality-of-life updates. The studio says it’s passing the reins to the community to make future updates as it’s moving onto other projects, which will not include the next game in the series. While it’s beavering away on other games, Larian plans to release weekly videos about Baldur’s Gate 3 and development of the game on YouTube.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/baldurs-gate-3-gains-cross-play-a-photo-mode-and-more-in-its-final-major-update-155317724.html?src=rss

Dune: Awakening, the open-world MMO inspired by Frank Herbert’s novels and Denis Villeneuve’s films, has been delayed. Developer Funcom said on Tuesday that it needs “a bit more time to cook.” Previously slated for May 20, the game has a new release date of June 10 on Steam.

Funcom says the three-week delay will allow it to “act on a lot more of the feedback we know is important to our beta testers.” The game is in a closed one now, but the developer says it will roll out a larger-scale beta test in May. Further details on that are coming “soon.”

Although June 10 is the new launch date for those who buy the $50 standard version, Funcom is launching a head-start incentive for those who plunk down $70 or $90 on the Deluxe or Ultimate edition. Those versions will unlock on June 5. (Gotta love paywalling an earlier release date.)

Funcom

Although Dune: Awakening is set in the familiar Duniverse on Arrakis, it uses an alternate timeline. In this “what if?” version, the Fremen have disappeared, Paul Atreides was never born (sorry, Chalamaniacs) and Lady Jessica gave birth to a girl. You start as a prisoner taken to the planet but soon “learn the true meaning of desert power,” rising to become an agent of the Atreides or the Harkonnen.

You can get a jump on things today with a character creator, launched in February, that lets you build your hero and take the Gom Jabbar test. (For more casual Dune fans, that’s the hand-in-a-box torture test.) You can use your character when the game launches.

Dune: Awakening will only be available on Steam when it arrives on June 10. You can pre-order it now. It’s also coming to PS5 and Xbox Series X/S, but those versions don’t yet have a release date.

$50 $50 at Steam

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/dune-awakening-gets-pushed-back-to-june-155059951.html?src=rss

Tax Day is here. Many of us high achievers have already received our tax refunds—and are perhaps enjoying slightly larger checks than expected this year. While it might be tempting to spend that entire sum on a vacation or shopping spree, I recommend a more balanced approach. Enter the “1/3 rule”: a simple and effective strategy to maximize the benefits of your tax refund.

The 1/3 rule is straightforward: Divide your tax refund into three equal portions and allocate them to three different financial priorities.

Allocate 1/3 for saving

Set aside the first third of your refund for your financial future. I’ve recommended before that dividing your money into multiple accounts helps you see all your saving goals separately so they’ll be easier to track. The money set aside for emergencies goes to a different account than your dream vacation fund, and so on. This could mean:

• Adding to your emergency fund (aim for around six months of living expenses)

• Contributing to your retirement accounts like an IRA or 401(k)

• Saving for a major planned expense, like a home down payment

• Opening a high-yield savings account for short-term goals

Allocate 1/3 for spending

It’s perfectly reasonable to enjoy some of your refund! A budget is like a diet—you need moderation, and you need to treat yourself here and there. Allow a portion of your refund to go to things that actually enrich your life, such as:

• A modest vacation or weekend getaway

• Home improvements or new furniture

• That gadget or item you’ve been eyeing (for me, it’s this Garmin Forerunner)

• Experiences such as concert tickets or classes

Allocate 1/3 for debt payments

It’s easy to feel paralyzed by your debts, but finding the right payment strategy will help. You’re no doubt feeling a major strain on your monthly budget, especially if you’re one of the millions of Americans carrying a growing balance on high-interest credit cards. Use the final third to improve your financial position by paying down debt:

• Focus on high-interest debt first (typically credit cards).

• Make an extra payment on your student loans.

• Reduce your car loan or mortgage principal.

• Consolidate smaller debts for easier management.

If you don’t know where to begin with paying down your debts, check out my guide here.

Alternative budgeting ideas for your tax refund

While the 1/3 rule is a great technique to make the most of your refund, your specific financial situation (or simple preferences) might call for a different approach. Here are some other popular strategies you can use.

The 50-30-20 rule

This is the go-to system for most first-time budgeters. The principle behind it can also be applied to your tax refund:

• 50% toward needs (debt repayment, home repairs, medical expenses)

• 30% toward wants (entertainment, travel, non-essential purchases)

• 20% toward savings and investments

The 80-20 rule

If you want to simplify the 1/3 rule into just two parts, I recommend you break it down with the 80-20 rule:

• 80% toward long-term financial goals (retirement, investments, education funds)

• 20% for immediate enjoyment

The debt avalanche method

If you’re struggling with significant debt, you should take advantage of this refund and tackle as much as you can:

• 70% toward paying off your highest-interest debt

• 20% for emergency savings

• 10% for something enjoyable to maintain motivation

Making the most of this year’s refund

With many taxpayers reporting slightly larger refunds this year, it’s an excellent opportunity to make meaningful financial progress. Remember that a tax refund isn’t “free money”—it’s your money that you overpaid throughout the year. Treat it with the same intentions as your regular income, and you’ll maximize its benefit.

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr has issued a stark ultimatum to European allies, telling them to choose between US and Chinese communications technology. In an interview with Financial Times, Carr urged “allied western democracies” to “focus on the real long-term bogey: the rise of the Chinese Communist party.” The warning comes as European governments question Starlink’s reliability after Washington threatened to switch off its services in Ukraine.

UK telecoms BT and Virgin Media O2 are currently trialing Starlink’s satellite internet technology but haven’t signed full agreements. “If you’re concerned about Starlink, just wait for the CCP’s version, then you’ll be really worried,” said Carr. Carr claimed Europe is “caught” between Washington and Beijing, with a “great divide” emerging between “CCP-aligned countries and others” in AI and satellite technology. He also accused the European Commission of “protectionism” and an “anti-American” attitude while suggesting Nokia and Ericsson should relocate manufacturing to the US to avoid Trump’s import tariffs.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

It looks like that long-rumored remake of Bethesda’s Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion is actually real, according to a report by Eurogamer. There are actual screenshots of the game in action that were published on developer Virtuos’ website. Even cooler? Eurogamer suggests that the game will be shadow-dropped next week for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. The same report also indicates it’ll be available on Game Pass.

Fans on Reddit and elsewhere began poking around on the developer’s website and reportedly found a treasure trove of in-game images, which included comparison screenshots to the original game from 2006. Eurogamer has collected these images on imgur to preserve them for posterity. It has also been corroborated that the screenshots do come from Virtuos’ server. We’ve reached out to Bethesda and will update this post when we hear back.

Virtuos

This remake has been bouncing around the rumor mill since 2020. Initial reports pegged it as a simple remaster, but a former Virtuos employee claimed it was a full remake back in 2023. It’s reportedly being built using Unreal Engine 5. That same employee also suggested that several gameplay systems have been completely reworked, including stamina, archery, sneaking, blocking and hit reaction. The HUD has also supposedly been remade.

All we can do now is wait for next week and see if Microsoft does indeed surprise-drop the game. If not, there’s an Xbox summer showcase on June 8. Maybe we’ll get some clarity at that event.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/the-elder-scrolls-4-oblivion-remake-is-real-according-to-developer-screenshots-151955341.html?src=rss

Industry groups have submitted deregulatory wishlists for the Federal Communications Commission’s “Delete, Delete, Delete” initiative that aims to eliminate as many regulations as possible.

Broadband providers that want fewer telecom regulations and debt collectors opposed to robocall rules were among those submitting comments to the FCC in response to Chairman Brendan Carr’s request for public input. The Carr-led FCC last month issued a public notice asking for help with “identifying FCC rules for the purpose of alleviating unnecessary regulatory burdens.”

The FCC said it opened the official proceeding—which is titled “Delete, Delete, Delete”—because “President Trump has called on administrative agencies to unleash prosperity through deregulation and ensure that they are efficiently delivering great results for the American people.” Initial comments were due on Friday, and there is an April 28 deadline for reply comments.

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Riot Games has unveiled details about the next season for League of Legends. This chapter of the MOBA is themed Spirit Blossom Beyond, and it will bring a temporary new look to Summoner’s Rift and several floral cosmetics for the champions. Season 2 will also involve some notable gameplay changes, as well as introducing an all-new game mode called Brawl.

LoL is a perpetual balancing act, and the team at Riot have pared back the emphasis on early- and mid-game objectives this season so players can focus more on laning at the start of a match. Void Grubs are getting nerfed, with only one trio of grubs spawning per game. The reward for securing all three will be a single Void Mite to aid in your tower takes. Rift Herald has been slightly retuned, removing the Shelly’s Gaze debuff to make the camp easier to solo.

Atakhan is getting overhauled for Season 2. With this streamlined approach, he will only have one form that expands on the Bloody Petals mechanic introduced in Season 1. Killing the new Thornbound Atakhan will grant a team all remaining Bloody Petals that have spawned on the map with an increased buff amount. The team will also get a permanent buff for the rest of the match called Spiritual Purification: when an enemy is killed, opponents in the surrounding area will be slowed and take damage. Riot intended this Atakhan design to match the seasonal theme as well as nixing the unpopular mechanics like the team-wide Withdraw buff from the Voracious version of this new neutral camp.

Riot Games

As the name implies, the new Brawl mode for LoL is all about fighting. It’s a 5v5 matchup that removes much of the strategic burden from typical bouts, with no towers and only a handful of neutral buffs available to claim. Instead, teams score points by taking down enemy champions and by shepherding minions into the rival gate on a new map designed just for this mode. Riot is positioning these bite-sized, 10-minute matches as on-ramps for newer players still building their basic skills or as a mental break from the regular solo queue grind.

As with any big new content release, there are plenty of other tweaks to balance and quality of life that will be fully detailed in the patch notes. Season 2 for League of Legends kicks off on April 30.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/league-of-legends-season-2-hello-brawls-bye-bye-voracious-atakhan-150028605.html?src=rss

A few years ago, I gave up on my Gmail inbox. I used to be meticulous. I would assign labels to every new email that came in, starring those that I wanted to find later easily. But between a job in journalism and way too much spam, the volume of new messages became unmanageable. And as of this article, I have more than 21,000 unread emails. After trying Notion’s new email client, I might have a chance to reclaim my inbox.

With Notion Mail, Notion isn’t trying to reinvent email. “I feel like every email client has their own system, and many have a religious onboarding experience,” Notion Mail Lead Andrew Milich tells me over video chat. “You know, it’s either keyboard shortcuts, a screening feature, a chatbox or something else. We tried to do something more lightweight.”

Milich knows a thing or two about rigid email apps. Before joining Notion, he was the co-founder of Skiff, a startup that offered, among other things, end-to-end encrypted email. Notion acquired Skiff at the start of 2024. Since then, the Skiff team has been working on Notion Mail. For those keeping track, Notion Calendar was similarly born out of the company’s acquisition of Cron.

“We want Notion Mail to stand alone as an email product you would love and want to use independent of Notion, but also one that every existing Notion user will find familiar and enjoyable,” Milich says.

To that point, current Notion users will find much that’s familiar. For instance, in the compose window there’s support for slash commands, code blocks and Markdown shortcuts. However, it’s the new features Milich and his team created for Notion Mail that are what make the app interesting.

Notion

It starts with two related tools: AI labels and views. The first time you open Notion Mail, the software will analyze your inbox and suggest personalized labels for broad categories of messages, and create corresponding folders where those emails will be automatically sorted. You can filter, group and sort emails independently within each view for added flexibility. If you ever want to create additional AI labels, a button at the top of the interface to do so quickly. Additionally, any labels you create through Notion Mail will be preserved in Gmail, and your data won’t be used to train future AI models.

“We try to sync as much data as possible, so that means all these labels, even the ones that are applied by AI as the emails are received, get synchronized to Gmail too,” Milich says, adding, “we’ve deliberately moved drafts and sent lower and tried to focus users on the labeling, views and templates.”

The final pillar of Notion Mail revolves around scheduling. Provided you’ve granted Notion Calendar access to your Google Calendar, you can insert booking links directly within the compose window by typing “/schedule”. For the recipient, a single click will get them on your calendar.

Notion

Outside of those big features, Notion Mail offers the usual time savers you’ll find in its competitors, including suggested replies, keyboard shortcuts and a built-in AI editor for drafting and editing messages. There’s also a snippet library you can use to save yourself from writing the same section of text over and over again in different emails.

In the short time I’ve had with Notion Mail, I’ve noticed it’s incredibly flexible. According to Milich, the app isn’t designed to push users toward a goal like inbox zero that isn’t obtainable (or really useful) in a modern context. Instead, he says his hope is that Notion Mail limits how much the act of managing your inbox drains your time, energy and attention, and so far I can say it has done exactly that.

If you want to try Notion Mail for yourself, Notion is making the client available to everyone, including free users, at no additional cost. You will only need to pay for the app if you frequently use some of its AI features. At launch, it works with Gmail. Milich says support for Outlook and iCloud is on the roadmap, but didn’t share a specific date.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/notion-mail-is-a-powerful-but-lightweight-email-client-for-busy-people-150007543.html?src=rss

No matter how much Google has tried over the past couple of years, it’s never managed to make Android updates as seamless as iOS updates. On the iPhone, every compatible iPhone across the globe gets the same updates, at the same time.

On Android, it’s anyone’s guess. Google releases the latest and greatest Android updates for Developers and its Pixel devices, and then Android smartphone manufactures get started with developing their own versions. For instance, because Samsung’s version of Android 15 is different from what OnePlus is doing, that can sometimes mean key features don’t show up on your phone until quite a ways down the line.

To mitigate this to some extent, Google has decided to take matters into its own hands, pushing out some security, privacy, and device tracking features to all Android devices at once, using a little known framework called Google Play system updates.

And yes, it’s confusing. It’s not just about the Google Play Store or services, and it’s something that you might never come across on your own. Google doesn’t send notifications about it, nor is it a part of the regular Software Update screen. So what is it, where is it, and why is it so important?

Why are Google Play system updates so important?

Credit: Khamosh Pathak

As I mentioned above, unless you’re on a Pixel, any regular Android update comes straight from your phone’s manufacturer, and not Google itself. This is usually where you get big Android updates, like how Samsung phones got updated to Android 15 with the One UI 7 update.

But the Google Play System updates are different.

It all started in 2019 with Project Mainline, where Google started to split some of the key components of the OS. With this project, Google can enhance Android’s security and privacy features without going through the regular channels. This is why, in the past, Google has been able to push features like Android Theft Detection, Remote Lock, and Offline Lock to all Android phones running Android 10 and above overnight. Something like this just isn’t possible with regular Android updates.

While these are small features, they’re not all that Play System updates give you. Google Play System updates are also responsible for Google Play Protect, the framework that scans and reports malicious apps on the Play Store, plus they add new features to the Google Play Store and Google Wallet.

Unlike a regular Android update, which might show up at any time, Google Play system updates show up every month without fail. You can check out Google’s website to see what’s new each month.

It’s important to make sure you’re getting these. Alongside their new features, they also introduce important security updates and bug fixes to the entire Google Play Services platform.

Why don’t you ever see Google Play system updates?

These updates are critical. But sometimes months can go by before you actually have the newest one. That’s because Google doesn’t promote these updates in any fashion. There are no notifications for them, and they aren’t even automatically installed when you perform a regular Android OS update.

Weirdly, they are only automatically installed when you reboot your smartphone. And give how smartphones are used these days, that can be months apart.

How to check for Google Play system updates

Credit: Khamosh Pathak

I can’t say if Google will eventually change its ways and make Play system updates more prominent. But for now, there’s only one way to check for them, and that is to manually install them in the Security updates section in the Settings app.

Different phones have different menus, so I’ll use Pixels as an example for how to find this page. If you’re using a Google Pixel phone, go to Settings > Security & privacy > System & updates. You’ll see two sections, Security update and Google Play system update. Tap the latter option to download and install the update. The update will be installed after your device reboots.

On any other smartphone, search is going to be your friend. In the Settings app, search for “Play system update,” which should help get you where you need to go.

Did you know an estimated 264,000 gallons of urine are splashed out of urinals daily? That is not a pool I would want to swim in. Not even dip my toes. To help prevent return fire, these are a few new urinal designs created and tested by scientists with the intention of minimizing backsplash. Granted, these won’t help at all if you close your eyes and pee on the floor directly.

To resolve these problems, the team created a fluid physics model of how a stream of liquid splashes when it hits a surface like the back of a urinal, and experimentally tested these models by spraying liquid at surfaces at various angles.

The researchers’ Cornucopia and Nautilus designs both achieved a significant reduction in urine splashing, with the Cornucopia performing best. However, the Nautilus was considered the most ideal design due to its height, which would allow shorter people — including children or those in wheelchairs — to more easily use it. Its larger gape would also be easier to clean, and would be more accepting of poor aim, and therefore would also be appropriate for use on boats or airplanes.

Personally, I prefer the camaraderie of trough urinals. Did I ever tell you about the time I accidentally blinked one of my contacts out into a trough urinal filled with ice in a New Orleans bar? I 100% would have popped it back in if I’d found it (and become patient zero for swamp eye), but I could not. The rest of the night was a blur, both literally and figuratively.