The only thing Pixel users love more than the lock screen’s Now Playing widget is talking about the Now Playing widget. Whenever I’m out and about with my Pixel and there’s music playing, I’ll always take a sneaky look at the lock screen, and yes, it’ll have identified the song. It’s magical. But until now, that’s where the magic stopped.

What if you want a list of all the songs the widget recognized while you were at your local cafe? What if you want to save a song or play it in YouTube Music? Or even trigger the music search manually? Until now, that wasn’t really possible. Now, Google has chosen to bring this functionality to a dedicated app, as part of its March Pixel Drop.

How to find your Now Playing listening history on Google Pixel

First, start by downloading the Now Playing app from the Google Play Store. At launch, it might ask you to download the latest software update and come back in a couple of hours. Once I installed the update, I was in.

To use the app, you’ll need to enable the background feature that scans for music. If it’s disabled, you’ll be prompted to enable it before you can use the app (you’ll be taken to where you can toggle it on).

Credit: Khamosh Pathak

The app opens to a history view, and you’ll be glad to know that all the songs your Pixel’s Now Playing widget previously recognized will all be here. The list can be pretty detailed. For me, it was over 100 songs long.

You can do more than look at your history, too. Tap the three-dot Menu button next to any song to listen to it on YouTube Music, add it to your Liked Songs, add it to a playlist, or add it to a Favorites section (which you can visit using the heart icon in the bottom toolbar).

Credit: Khamosh Pathak

Head over to the Settings section up top, and you’ll find an option for Connected music service. You can change your default music service here. Sadly, the only options available right now are YouTube and YouTube Music, but hopefully this means Google will add options for Spotify and Apple Music in future updates. Other than that, the Settings screen is quite bare. You can tap the Clear History button if you want to get rid of all your previously recognized songs, but that’s about it.

How to manually scan for songs using the Now Playing app

Credit: Khamosh Pathak

Beyond seeing a history of songs, the advantage of having a dedicated Now Playing app is that you can search for a song even if the widget doesn’t automatically detect it. Open the Now Playing app and switch to the Live tab at the end. Then, tap the big Music button to start recognizing the song (if you’ve ever used Shazam, this should be familiar). In a second, the app will recognize the song, and you’ll see a full-screen preview for it.

The Now Playing app also supports Quick Settings controls, one of my favorite ways to trigger shortcuts and utilities on Android. To add the Now Playing control to your Quick Settings, open the notification drawer, switch to the Quick Settings panel, and tap the Edit button. Find and add the Now Playing control. Now, the next time you want to find out what you’re listening to, just open the Quick Settings panel, tap the Now Playing control, and wait as the app does its thing.

Sony is pulling a U-turn on its multi-platform strategy, with Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier reporting that first-party PS5 games soon to become exclusive once again, at the expense of PC players.

Sony started releasing some of its biggest games on PC in 2020, when Horizon Zero Dawn came to Steam. A number of other titles have followed suit since, including The Last of Us Part I, Ghost of Tsushima, God of War Ragnarök and the Marvel’s Spider-Man games. But the company appears to have had a major change of heart, with high-profile titles like Ghost of Yotei and the upcoming Saros set to launch on PS5 only.

Schreier was told by anonymous sources that Sony-published online games like Marvel Tokon and the imminent Marathon will remain multi-platform releases as planned, and Hideo Kojima’s Death Stranding 2, which launched last year as a PS5 exclusive, is still set for a PC release in 2026. But while Sony could always change its mind again, it looks unlikely that the tentpole single-player epics that PlayStation has become known for since the PS4 era will receive PC ports going forward.

There are likely several reasons for this strategic shift. The most obvious one is the poor sales performance of PS5 games on PC, with ports generally not arriving on Steam until at least a year after their console launch. This is in stark contrast with Microsoft, which will launch first-party titles such as Fable and Forza Horizon 6 on Xbox, PC and PS5 at the same time later this year. It would see Sony return to a more Nintendo-like approach, with the latter famously (and extremely successfully) holding firm on console exclusivity for the likes of Mario, Zelda and Pokémon.

PlayStation insiders also told Bloomberg that some people within the company fear that releasing PS5 games on PC is detrimental to the brand, and could harm sales of future PlayStation consoles. Schreier also points out that with the next Xbox expected to be a proper Windows-powered PC that would presumably be able to run Steam and other launchers, Sony might be acting now to ensure that the versatility of such a machine doesn’t enable Xbox players to play future PS5 games on it. (It’s probably galling enough to the suits at Sony that people are already doing this with Steam’s current library of PlayStation games on the Xbox-branded ROG Ally X handheld.)

A PlayStation spokesperson declined Bloomberg’s request for comment.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/playstation/sorry-first-party-playstation-games-arent-coming-to-pc-anymore-152128980.html?src=rss

A new Android app called Nearby Glasses alerts users when Bluetooth signals from smart glasses are detected nearby. The Android app, called Nearby Glasses, “launches at a time as there is an increasing resistance against always-recording or listening devices, which critics say process information about nearby people who do not give their consent,” reports TechCrunch. From the report: Yves Jeanrenaud, who made the app, first spoke to 404 Media about the project and said he was in part inspired to make Nearby Glasses after reading the independent publication’s reporting into wearable surveillance devices, including how Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses have been used in immigration raids and to film and harass sex workers.

On the app’s project page, Jeanrenaud described smart glasses as an “intolerable intrusion, consent neglecting, horrible piece of tech.” Jeanrenaud told TechCrunch in an email that his motivation came from “witnessing the sheer scale and inhumane nature of the abuse these smart glasses are involved in.” Jeanrenaud also cited Meta’s decision to implement face recognition as a default feature in its smart glasses, “which I consider to be a huge floodgate pushed open for all kinds of privacy-invasive behavior.”

The app works by listening for nearby Bluetooth signals that contain a publicly assigned identifier unique to the Bluetooth device’s manufacturer. If the app detects a Bluetooth signal from a nearby hardware device made by Meta or Snap, the app will send the user an alert. (The app also allows users to add their own specific Bluetooth identifiers, allowing the user to detect a broader range of wearable surveillance gadgetry.) Further reading: Meta’s AI Display Glasses Reportedly Share Intimate Videos With Human Moderators

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Big Tech is set to agree to build its own power plants for data centers and shield consumers from rising electricity costs, but companies face daunting logistical obstacles to delivering on the pledge championed by President Donald Trump.

At a White House event on Wednesday, executives from Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, xAI, Oracle, and OpenAI are due to sign the pledge to supply their own power instead of relying on a grid connection.

Trump hailed the plan in his State of the Union speech last week, promising US consumers that “no one’s prices will go up” as a result of “energy demand from AI data centers.”

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Traditionally, movies released in theaters in January and February are, uh, troubled. But streaming is opposite world. Studios want to get their best material in front of as many eyes as possible in the run up to the Oscars, leading to a glut of streaming prestige movies, an embarrassment of cinematic riches. Whether you like high-concept sci-fi, quirky, auteur-driven dramas, or record-breaking awards contenders, February’s streaming charts are excellent.

Here’s the full list of the top 10 most-streamed movies of February 2026 across all major streaming services, as compiled by JustWatch.

Predator: Badlands (2025)

The excellent reboot of the Predator franchise continues with Predator: Badlands, a fast-paced thrill-ride of a movie told from the predator’s point of view. Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi stars as a young alien super-hunter, cast out from his tribe and banished to a lonely planet where he meets Thia, played by Elle Fanning. The unlikely pair set out on a quest for the ultimate adversary. Stream Predator: Badlands on Hulu.

Predator: Badlands (2025)

at Hulu

at Hulu

Bugonia (2025)

I love when a weirdo movie finds a big audience, and Bugonia is that movie. Jesse Plemons and Aidan Delbis play a couple of societal dregs who kidnap a high-powered pharmaceutical executive (Emma Stone) because they think she’s an alien. Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, who helmed 2023’s excellent Poor Things, the Best Picture Oscar nominee is a must-watch, even if you’re only a little weird. (And if you want more weirdness, it’s based on an even odder South Korean film called Save the Green Planet.) Stream Bugonia on Peacock.

Bugonia (2025)

at Peacock

at Peacock

Blue Moon (2025)

The great Richard Linklater (Dazed and Confused, Boyhood) directs Ethan Hawk in a biopic about the last days of legendary lyricist Lorenz Hart. The year is 1943, and Oklahoma! is opening on Broadway. While Richard Rodgers is celebrating his biggest hit with his new partner Oscar Hammerstein, Hart is left to drink and pine for his muse Elizabeth, played by Margaret Qualley. Ethan Hawk delivers a career-defining and Oscar-nominated performance in this funny, sad rumination on the nature and price of genius. Stream Blue Moon on Netflix.

Blue Moon (2025)

at Netflix

at Netflix

If I Had Legs I’d Kick You (2025)

Production company A24’s unbroken string of interesting, intelligent movies continues with If I Had Legs I’d Kick You. Directed by Mary Bronstein, If I Had Legs is a tense look at the toxic side of motherhood. Rose Byrne earned an Oscar nomination for her portrayal of Linda, an exhausted mom caring for her chronically ill daughter while navigating her own mental breakdown. It’s not exactly an uplifting crowd-pleaser, but it is an uncompromising, unforgettable film. Stream If I Had Legs I’d Kick You on HBO Max.

If I Had Legs I’d Kick You (2025)

at HBO Max

at HBO Max

One Battle After Another (2025)

Paul Thomas Anderson’s nuanced, intelligent thriller about resistance and race in a fascistic, anti-immigration United States is an instant classic. Featuring fantastic performances from heavyweights like Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, Benicio Del Toro, and Regina Hall, One Battle After Another is that rare movie that’s equal parts thoughtful and exciting. It was nominated for 13 Oscars. Stream one Battle After Another on HBO Max.

One Battle After Another (2025)

at HBO Max

at HBO Max

Song Sung Blue (2025)

I would not be interested in a movie about “Sweet Caroline” singer Neil Diamond, but I could totally get down with a movie about a Neil Diamond impersonator. Song Sung Blue tells the true story of Milwaukee-based husband and wife Mike and Claire Sardina, who performed at state fairs as Neil Diamond tribute duo “Lightning & Thunder” throughout the 1990s, and even found a weird kind of semi-fame by opening for bands like Urge Overkill and Pearl Jam. Kate Hudson was nominated for an Oscar for playing Lightning and Hugh Jackman was robbed. Stream Song Sung Blue on Peacock.

Song Sung Blue

at Peacock

at Peacock

Sinners (2025)

This one-of-kind flick mashes up so many styles, it’s practically its own genre. A historical-horror-ensemble romance-drama-comedy-musical exploring race and historical prejudice in the United States, Sinners tells its story through both song and vampire violence. It is absolutely top-notch in every cinematic way, which is probably why it earned a record 16 Oscar nominations. Stream Sinners on HBO Max and Prime Video.

Sinners (2025)

at Prime Video

at Prime Video

The Running Man (2025)

Based on a 1982 novel by Stephen King (writing as Richard Bachman) and directed by Edgar Wright, The Running Man is a dystopian near-future sci-fi action movie in which the most popular show on TV is a deadly reality competition with contestants who must survive 30 days while being hunted by professional assassins. I hate to admit that I would totally watch that show, and you should totally watch this movie. Stream The Running Man on MGM+ and Paramount+.

The Running Man (2025)

at MGM+

at MGM+

Eternity (2025)

In this high-concept romantic comedy, Elizabeth Olsen plays Joan, a recently deceased woman with a very important decision before her. She has a week in purgatory to choose who to spend eternity with: her first husband Luke—a handsome, romantic dude played by Callum Turner—or her second husband, Larry—a dependable everyman (Miles Teller). Stream Eternity on Apple TV+.

Eternity (2025)

at Apple TV+

at Apple TV+

Rental Family (2025)

The resurgence of Brendan Frasier is delightful. In Rental Family, Fraser is perfectly cast as an American actor in Tokyo whose job is playing different roles in people’s lives. A premise like that could set up a dystopian nightmare of a movie, but director Hikari takes a lighter, more subtle approach to exploring the thin line between performance and reality. Stream Rental Family on Hulu.

Rental Family (2025)

at Hulu

at Hulu

The most interesting product Apple announced this week was its cheapest and least powerful laptop, the MacBook Neo. It’s just fascinating to see the company tackle an entirely new category — it’s not a premium ultraportable like the MacBook Air, and it’s not a computing powerhouse like the MacBook Pro. It’s simply an affordable $599 laptop. And after spending some time with it at Apple’s spring launch event today, I’m convinced it’s going to be a huge hit for the company.

For a $599 system, the MacBook Neo doesn’t look or feel like a budget machine. Its colorful aluminum case looks even more attractive than the MacBook Air and Pro’s, and at 2.7 pounds (the same as the Air), it’s easy to carry. I need to spend more time with its 13-inch screen, but at first glance it looks decently vibrant as well. It’s a shame Apple didn’t include a MagSafe charging port, but hey, at least the headphone jack is still around. And for many people, two USB-C ports should be plenty.

The downsides to the MacBook Air became more apparent as I used it. Its keyboard feels a bit flimsy — it’s almost reminiscent of the old-school butterfly keyboards. And while its touchpad feels smooth and responsive, it lacked the sturdiness from the company’s more expensive haptic touchpads. And then there are the starting specs: For $599, the MacBook Neo comes with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. Bumping up to $699 gets you 512GB of storage and a Touch ID button, but you’re still stuck with 8GB of RAM.

For a basic productivity machine, I suppose 8GB of RAM can work. But when coupled with the slower performance of the A18 Pro mobile chip, it’s unclear if the MacBook Neo will hold up over time. At the very least, the MacBook Neo serves an important role as Apple’s cheapest laptop. It’s an inexpensive way to bring people into the world of macOS, and it could be a great option for schools who want something a bit more sturdy than your average Chromebook.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/laptops/macbook-neo-hands-on-apples-599-laptop-feels-shockingly-great-142313318.html?src=rss

Meet the MacBook Neo, Apple’s long-rumored low-cost Mac. Powered by the A18 Pro chip from the iPhone 16 Pro series, the $599 MacBook Neo is Apple’s first attempt at delivering a genuinely affordable Mac laptop. (Ironically, it comes after Apple raised the base prices of the new MacBook Air M5 and MacBook Pro M5 Pro/Max.) It’s well below the $1,099 MacBook Air, but Apple didn’t skimp on the design.

For $599 you get 256GB of storage and no Touch ID on the keyboard; another $100 doubles the storage and adds Touch ID. All models of the MacBook Neo ship with an extremely scant 8GB of RAM — but at this price, we can withhold judgement on whether that’s enough until we put this thing though some testing.

The A18 Pro chip includes a 6-core CPU, 5-core GPU and 16-core Neural Engine — based on pure numbers that’s far behind what you’ll get with a current M-series processor, but again it may be enough juice for the basic computing tasks this laptop seems geared towards.

There’s still a sturdy aluminum case, with no cheap plastic to be seen. It includes a 13-inch Retina display, a 1080p webcam, two USB-C ports, a headphone jack and optional Touch ID. You’ll need to use one of those ports for charging, as there’s no MagSafe connector on this MacBook. The side-firing speakers support Dolby Atmos playback. And the MacBook Neo comes in four colors than usual: silver, indigo, blush and citrus. The keyboard is color-matched to the case, too.

The display appears to be fairly basic. The 13-inch LCD has a 2,408-by-1,506 and 500 nits of brightness. There’s no True Tone features for adjusting the screen’s color temperature to your surroundings; this is the first display Apple has released in years without that feature. It also doesn’t support the P3 wide color gamut, another feature present on most other Apple screens.

And while its mobile chip isn’t nearly as powerful as the Air’s M4, it’s still fast enough to handle many productivity tasks without much trouble. As we argued last week, the Neo could just be the cheap MacBook to tempt over Windows users disgruntled with Microsoft’s AI obsession.

It’s easy to view the MacBook Neo cynically as a sign that Apple is running out of ideas. But given how many PC options there are between $500 and $1,000, it simply makes sense for Apple to offer something in that range. The company experimented with a low-cost offering by selling the the older M1 MacBook Air at Walmart for $700 in 2024, which later went down to $650 last year. The only question now is how long Apple can maintain its prices, as the AI-induced RAM shortage will likely lead to some increases this year. HP claims RAM now accounts for a third of its PC costs, double the amount from last year.

As with everything else Apple announced this week, the MacBook Neo is up for pre-order today, and it’ll ship on March 11.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/laptops/the-599-macbook-neo-is-apples-cheapest-mac-laptop-yet-141028666.html?src=rss

Most of Apple’s announcements this week have been fairly straightforward internal updates to existing products, give or take some big architectural changes to its high-end processors.

But Apple has saved its most interesting announcement for today: the MacBook Neo is a brand-new lower-cost member of Apple’s laptop family, and will take over for the 13-inch MacBook Air as the company’s entry-level laptop. The new laptop starts at $599, the same as the M1 MacBook Air that Apple has been selling through Wal-Mart in the US, and much lower than the $1,099 starting price for the new M5 MacBook Air.

The new MacBook will go up for pre-order today and will be available on March 11, and you’ll be able to buy it directly through Apple’s website and retail stores in addition to third-party retailers. It’s available in four colors: silver, indigo, a pink-ish color called “blush,” and the yellow-ish “citrus.”

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At Mobile World Congress, Cristiano Amon of Qualcomm argued that the coming 6G networks will power an AI-driven “agent economy,” where devices and AI assistants constantly communicate across the network. “AI will fundamentally change our mobile experiences,” Qualcomm chief executive, Cristiano Amon says. “It’s going to change how we think about our smartphones. Think about our personal computing. Think about and interact with a car. The car is now a computing surface. If you actually believe in the AI revolution, 6G will be required. Resistance is futile.” The company says early consumer testing could begin around the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, with broader rollouts expected by 2029. Fortune’s Kamal Ahmed reports: Akash Palkhiwala is Qualcomm’s chief financial officer and chief operating officer. I spent some time with him at the company’s stand, as his leading engineers took me through a 6G future where individuals will have real-time information delivered to them via their glasses. Palkhiwala compliments me on my watch, which only does one thing. It tells me the time. “6G is going to be the first time that connectivity and AI come together in the network. What we’re building is the first AI-native wireless network that’s ever been built,” he explains.

“The traffic that we expect on 6G is way different than what we had before,” says Palkhiwala. “Before, it was all about consumer traffic. We expect 6G to be driven by [AI] agent traffic. Think about all these use cases where there are AI agents sitting on various devices — your glasses, your watch, your phone, your PC. These agents are going to be talking back and forth across the network to other agents and services. “The traffic completely changes. 6G is being built with this idea that the traffic that goes on the network is not just going to be consumer voice calls or downloading videos, we’re going to have agents talking to each other, so the reliability of the network becomes very important.”

On-device capabilities (the ability of your phone to process far more data); edge computing (locally sourced IT technology rather than distant data centers); more efficient use of available bandwidth (AI-enabled load control); and greater cloud access will all come together to produce a new wireless network. […] “Today we are in the application economy,” he notes. “On the phone, you want to make a travel reservation, you go to one application. You want to order an Uber, you go to a second application. You want to order food, you go to a third application, movie tickets, etc. The user has to go through that effort. In the future, you think of the app economy moving over to an agent economy, where there’s one agent I’m interacting with, and I can ask that agent to book me a movie ticket or a plane ticket, to order food for me, get an Uber for me. It knows everything about me.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Google has released its Android Security Bulletin for March with patches for 129 vulnerabilities, one of which is a zero-day flaw in a Qualcomm display component that may be under “targeted, limited exploitation.”

The latest update also fixes 10 critical severity bugs across Android components. CVE-2026-0006 is a remote code execution vulnerability in the System component that attackers could exploit with no additional privileges or user interaction. CVE-2025-48631 is a denial-of-service flaw in System, while CVE-2026-0047 is an escalation of privilege vulnerability in Framework. There are seven critical escalation of privilege flaws being patched in Kernel components.

Google is also addressing issues in Qualcomm, MediaTek, Arm, Misc OEM, Unisoc, and Imagination Technologies components, which may not affect all Android devices.

One zero-day patched

The zero-day patched with this security update is as an integer overflow or wraparound in a Qualcomm Graphics subcomponent that allows local attackers to trigger memory corruption. The vulnerability—labeled CVE-2026-21385—affects 235 Qualcomm chipsets. According to Qualcomm’s own security advisory, the vulnerability was reported on Dec. 18, 2025 through the Google Android Security team, with customers notified on Feb. 2, 2026.

Update your Android ASAP

Android users should install the latest security patch as soon as it becomes available—you should get a notification prompting you to do so. Google pushes updates for its own Pixel devices and the core Android Open Source Project (AOSP) code, while other manufacturers release patches for their respective devices around the same time. If you have a Samsung, Motorola, or Nokia, for example, you may experience a slight delay.

There are two patch levels labeled as 2026-03-01 and 2026-03-05, the latter of which fixes all issues included in the former. This month’s patches apply to AOSP versions 14, 15, 16, and 16-qpr2. You can check for available updates via Settings > Security & privacy > System & updates > Security update.