Paramount Skydance’s $111 billion purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) has a notable supporter in Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr. The FCC boss told CNBC today that the Paramount/WBD combination “is a lot cleaner” than the now-defunct Netflix deal to buy WBD.

Netflix “would have had a very difficult path forward from a regulatory perspective” because of “the scope and scale” of the streaming service that would have been created by combining Netflix with WBD property HBO Max, Carr said. There were “a lot of concerns in DC” about Netflix buying the company, he said.

Netflix backed out of its deal with Warner Bros. instead of matching the Paramount offer. Although Paramount plans to merge its own Paramount+ streaming service with HBO Max, Carr said the Paramount/WBD merger “does not raise at all the same types of concerns [as Netflix]. I think there’s some real consumer benefits that could emerge from it.”

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It’s time for another Apple event! On Wednesday, March 4, Apple will announce new products, and despite the company’s commitment to secrecy, we know what most of the revelations are already. In fact, Apple has already announced a number of new products this week in lead up to the event, including the iPhone 17e, M4 iPad Air, and new Macs—including M5, M5 Pro, and M5 Max variants.

But even though the company has already shared a bunch of news across Monday and Tuesday, that doesn’t mean Wednesday’s event is going to be a bore. In fact, Apple may announce one of its most interesting products in years during its March 4 keynote: the MacBook “Neo.” This is a “budget” MacBook, smaller in size than the 13-inch MacBook Air, that may come in a variety of fun colors. Imagine the iPods of old, but now, as an ultra-portable (and potentially affordable) MacBook.

Nothing is set in stone, of course. Apple could defy the leaks and rumors and announce other products instead. But I highly suspect the MacBook Neo will be among the show stoppers at Wednesday’s event. Other rumors suggest Apple is gearing up to announce the first-ever touch-screen MacBook, and Apple’s own announcements seem to play into those claims. Tim Cook posted this video on X on Feb. 26, featuring an Apple logo being “sculpted” by a user on a MacBook’s lid. It could be nothing, or it could suggest that users will be interacting with their MacBooks with more than just a trackpad and keyboard.

We’ll only know once Apple makes its announcement during Wednesday’s keynote. For all those news, make sure to keep tabs on the live blog below. I’ll be updating it before, during, and after the event, with any and all news Apple happens to share.

darwinmac writes: While many users choose Microsoft Office over LibreOffice because of its support for the proprietary formats (.docx, .xlsx, and .pptx), others prefer Office for its “better” ribbon interface. These users often criticize LibreOffice for having a “clunky” UI instead of the “standard” ribbon interface you would find in Word, Excel, and other Office apps.

Now, Neowin reports that LibreOffice is fighting back, arguing that its UI is actually superior because it is customizable, with several modes such as the classic toolbar interface, an Office-inspired ribbon layout, a sidebar-focused design, and more. Furthermore, it argues that there is no evidence that the ribbon offers “superior usability” over other interface modes. LibreOffice says in a blog post: Incidentally, the characterization of ribbon-style interfaces as “modern” or “standard,” used by several users, is not based on any objective usability parameter or design principle, but is the result of Microsoft’s dominance in the market and the huge investments made when the ribbon was introduced in Office 2007 as a new paradigm for productivity software. The idea that “modern” equals “similar to a ribbon” is a normalization effect: the Microsoft interface has become a benchmark because of its ubiquity, not because of its proven advantages in terms of usability. Added to this is the fact that many users evaluate office software through the lens of familiarity with Microsoft Office and consider deviation from it as a problem rather than a design choice. Before this, LibreOffice had also criticized its competitor OnlyOffice, accusing it of being “fake open source” because it believes OnlyOffice is working with Microsoft to lock users into the Office ecosystem by prioritizing the formats mentioned earlier instead of LibreOffice’s own OpenDocument Format (ODF).

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The indie gaming news has been flying out of Nintendo’s event today at a rapid-fire pace. One of the announcements came from rhythm game Ratatan, which will release on July 16. The title will be arriving that day on the Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S. It’s already been available on PC since September as an early access game. 

Unfortunately, readers may notice that the original Switch isn’t on that list, which is not an oversight. “At this time, we have determined that the multiplayer experience on Nintendo Switch has not yet reached the quality level we aim to deliver,” the team said in a post on Steam. “As a result, we have decided not to proceed with a Nintendo Switch version for now.”

We first got our hands on Ratatan during Summer Games Fest 2025. Although the studio of Ratata Arts may not sound familiar, this group includes several devs from team that created the Patapon games, a series that began in 2007. That lineage is clear in the core concept and in the slightly brain-breaking level of attention required to keep your little army of Cobuns in sync and on beat. Ratatan brings some roguelite and RPG customization into the mix along with the familiar rhythm mechanics.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/ratatan-is-marching-its-way-into-your-console-library-on-july-16-214540775.html?src=rss

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Smart rings are already having a strange year. In January, I saw smart rings taking on all kinds of tasks at CES, looking like some kind of wave of the future. Then I came home and discovered that the brand-new Luna smart ring I was reviewing had already been pulled off the U.S. market. I think it’s time to take a look at why the smart ring market is so weird, where I see its potential, and what I miss about the earlier days of this technology. 

The lawsuit that’s keeping some smart rings off the U.S. market

To understand why some rings have disappeared (or aren’t launching here), you need to know about a U.S. International Trade Commission verdict from 2025. Oura sued two of its competitors, Ultrahuman and RingConn, claiming they infringed on a patent it had for the design of a smart ring. The ITC agreed, and those companies had to pull their rings from the U.S. market by October of 2025. Ultrahuman did so; RingConn instead made a deal to license Oura’s patent and pay them royalties. 

The patent at issue is this one. It describes a smart ring in such general terms that Oura is able to claim that pretty much all smart rings violate it. I’m no patent lawyer, but it seems strange to me that a company should be able to use a 2024 patent to force competitors off the market in a product category that’s been around longer than that. 

Oura called the ITC ruling a “decisive legal victory,” and published this blog post explaining why they won. Ultrahuman published its own blog post detailing why it thinks the decision was a mistake, giving some background on the patent at issue. I’d recommend reading both of those if you want to get up to speed on who is claiming what. 

Oura then brought legal action against yet more smart ring makers, including Noise (which makes the Luna ring), Amazfit, Reebok, and Samsung. Ironically, Samsung had tried to get a judgment before all this saying that its patents don’t infringe on Oura’s, but that suit was thrown out because Oura had not yet tried to sue Samsung. 

I’ve asked several of these companies about where the legal action stands from their point of view, but understandably they’re all guarded and don’t want to say much. Here’s my best understanding of the current state of the market for the major brands I’ve reviewed or that I personally find interesting: 

• Oura: The Oura ring is still going strong, of course. Here’s my review of the Oura Ring 4.

• Ultrahuman: Not available in the U.S., but there’s a chance that could change. Here’s my review of the Ring Air, and my announcement about the new Ring Pro. The Pro uses a different design than the Air, and Ultrahuman has hinted that it hopes to be able to bring it to the U.S. market legally. 

• RingConn: Reached an agreement to keep selling its rings in the U.S. by making royalty payments to Oura. I’m working on a review of RingConn 2, and there is a RingConn 3 coming later this year.

• Luna: The ring is not available in the U.S.; here is my review of it anyway. The company seems to be bringing the same software features to a smart band due to launch this year. 

• Samsung: The Galaxy Ring is still available in the U.S. as far as I can tell. I’ll be reviewing it soon. 

• Amazfit: The Helio Ring still seems to be available as well.

Oura Ring 4 – Silver – Size 8 – Size Before You Buy

$349.00
at Amazon

$349.00
at Amazon

Why rings are exciting right now

I’ve been following the smart ring market since 2018, when I found the Motiv ring (now defunct) to be the “perfect minimalist fitness tracker” except for the teensy problem that it didn’t capture heart rate very well during workouts. (Motiv was bought in 2020 by Proxy, and Proxy was bought in 2023 by Oura.)

Oura first got around the heart rate accuracy problem by marketing the ring for sleep; it’s a lot easier to get good measurements when a person is lying completely still. But the technology has improved, and now all of the products I listed above can get mostly-plausible heart rate readings in a variety of contexts, although none of them let you look very closely at the graphs. Smart rings now also have blood oxygen sensing, better battery life, and more options for colors and finishes. They don’t all have sensor bumps on the interior anymore. In short, smart rings have been working better and looking nicer over time. 

So now we have sleek, decently accurate wearables that you can slip on your finger and pretty much ignore. That ability to ignore the ring while you go about your day is why I’ve managed to use my Oura ring for so long. It becomes a part of you like a wedding ring does—you wear it all the time, whether you’re thinking about it or not, and it feels weird not to have it on. 

It’s impressive how many more features companies have been putting into rings. RingConn’s next ring will have haptic alerts. Ultrahuman’s new ring packs features like alarms and diagnostics into its charging case. But even though the hardware is getting better, and many companies are developing more and more software features (especially Oura and Ultrahuman), it’s arguable whether the experience of using a ring has actually gotten better, or if it’s just more complicated. 

Where rings still struggle

Rings have some inherent issues, and I’m going to lay out my standard list of complaints here. First, smart rings are just not good workout trackers. They’re too chunky to allow for a proper grip in weightlifting workouts, and they’re not comfortable for exercises that require you to grip or pull anything with your hands (deadlifts, the rowing machine, even chores like shoveling snow). 

Since rings don’t have their own display, you need to use a phone app to start and stop workouts or to monitor your data. Auto-detection of workouts is an OK way to bridge that gap, but it’s not good. You’ll get plenty of workouts detected at the wrong time, or of the wrong type, or your hair brushing session will get tagged as a swim. Meanwhile, smart rings may measure heart rate better than they used to, but they still don’t give reliable, exportable heart rate data. 

Sizing will probably always be an issue. You need to get a sizing kit to know what size ring to buy, and makers tend to only offer rings in whole sizes within a certain range. Our fingers swell and shrink from hour to hour and season to season, so there isn’t necessarily a single reliable size that will always fit. There’s no ring equivalent to a watch band you can adjust and tighten. 

Finally, one of the biggest issues with smart rings, and one that I don’t think gets talked about enough, is battery lifetime. Not how long you can go between charges, but how many years you can use the ring before it stops holding a charge. 

I’ve had multiple Oura rings die right around the two-year mark. No smart ring company wants to go on the record with an estimate of battery life, but whenever I’ve mentioned that my smart rings have all died after about two years, I tend to get nods of agreement. Sometimes on social media you’ll see a couple exchanging smart rings in place of traditional wedding rings. I always wonder how they’ll feel about replacing them in a few years.

Ring companies are running out of ideas for things we actually want

Despite all the innovation in recent years, the smart ring I liked the most was Oura’s gen 2 (RIP, 2018-2021). And you know why? Besides the Oura app not having a subscription fee at that time, the best feature was that the LEDs used infrared rather than visible light. There was no green glow from your finger at night. It was beautifully ignorable.

I didn’t use it for workouts, and the app didn’t support workout tracking or even step tracking at that time. It just gave me data on my sleep and HRV. If I wanted to know what heart rate zones I hit during workouts, I could use another device for that, or just go without knowing. 

But in the years since, Oura has tried to be more things. It’s now a fitness tracker, a blood oxygen sensor, a tracking app for your continuous glucose monitor, and more. All wearables seem to be heading this direction, trying to swallow up their competitors’ features the same way every social media app is trying to also be Snapchat and TikTok in addition to whatever it was in the first place. 

I’m not sure if we all want this plethora of features from our smart rings. A smart ring is never going to be an Apple Watch. I miss the gen 2 Oura ring that just tracked my sleep without shining lights in my face. I want that back, and I’d love for it to be inexpensive since it doesn’t need to do all that much. 

But the companies aren’t going to go that direction, and I get why (capitalism). Instead, they’re looking for features and services they can add to justify charging more. Oura added a subscription in 2021, then in 2025 rolled out new colors of rings and “multi-ring support” in hopes you might want to buy two $500 rings. 

Other ring companies have figured out that being “subscription-free” is their best counter to Oura’s business model. That said, they’re still competing in the same world. So Ultrahuman’s main features are free to use, but you’re invited to pony up for a number of mini-subscriptions that provide extra features. Smart ring companies are also looking to other offerings, especially services you can pay for more than once. 

Both Oura and Ultrahuman will sell you a panel of blood tests, and recommend repeat testing. Both of these companies also have partnerships with the makers of continuous glucose monitors (which themselves run about $100/month) so you can use the smart ring app to monitor your blood glucose throughout the day—a controversial offering for people without a medical need. (CGMs are, of course, incredibly valuable to people with diabetes.) 

So the inexpensive, unobtrusive smart ring of my dreams isn’t likely to occur anytime soon. It may be what I want, but it doesn’t seem to be a viable business model. Looking to the future, I hope to see more rings on the U.S. market, with more of a variety in what they offer. I’m excited to see where Ultrahuman goes with its superpowered charging case. But it’s hard to imagine smart rings coming up with many more features that are actually worth paying for. 

Denshattack!, the skateboarding game that manages to mix an anime-inspired narrative with Tony Hawk Pro Skater-style grinding and wall-riding, is coming out on June 17. The game’s publisher Fireshine Games announced its launch date alongside a new trailer at Nintendo’s recent Indie World event.

If it wasn’t clear from previous trailers, Denshattack! remains stylish as hell, filled to the brim with bright colors and over-the-top animation. The new trailer doesn’t offer much more in terms of what the story of the game will be, but it does highlight its fast-paced gameplay, which will have you flipping and grinding a tiny train through settings like a futuristic cityscape, jungles and a snowy mountain region.

Among the other charms of Denshattack!, the game also features original songs from composers Tee Lopes (Sonic Mania), Ryo Nagamatsu (Splatoon series), Richard Jacques (Jet Set Radio series) and Takenobu Mitsuyoshi (Daytona USA). If you’re at all curious to try Denshattack! before it comes out this summer, demos of the game are available to download right now for PC and Switch 2.

Denshattack! will be available on PC, PlayStation 5, Switch 2 and Xbox Series X/S when it launches June 17. The game will also be available to play via Xbox Game Pass.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/skateboarding-train-game-denshattack-is-out-on-june-17-210314631.html?src=rss

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Engadget: Users of Meta’s AI smart glasses in Europe may be unknowingly sharing intimate video and sensitive financial information with moderators outside of the bloc, according to a report from Sweden’s Svenska Dagbladet released last week. Employees in Kenya doing AI “annotation” told the journalists that they’ve seen people nude, using the toilet and engaging in sexual activity, along with credit card numbers and other sensitive information.

With Meta’s Ray-Ban Display and other glasses with AI capabilities, users can record what they’re looking at or get answers to questions via a Meta AI assistant. If a wearer wants to make use of that AI, though, they must agree to Meta’s terms of service that allow any data captured to be reviewed by humans. That’s because Meta’s large language models (LLMs) often require people to annotate visual data so that the AI can understand it and build its training models.

This data can end up in places like Nairobi, Kenya, often moderated by underpaid workers. Such actions are subject to Europe’s GDPR rules that require transparency about how personal data is processed, according to a data protection lawyer cited in the report. However, Svenska Dagbladet’s reporters said they needed to jump through some hoops to see Meta’s privacy policy for its wearable products. That policy states that either humans or automated systems may review sensitive data, and puts the onus on the user to not share sensitive information.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

During today’s Nintendo Indie World presentation, we got a narrower time frame for when and where we’ll be able to play the next project from Drinkbox Studios. The team announced that Blighted will be coming out in this fall for both the Nintendo Switch 2 and for PC. It’ll arrive on the same date for both platforms, but we don’t have any more specific timeline than the season.

We first heard about Blighted during last year’s Summer Games Fest. With past credits such as Guacamelee!, Guacamelee! 2 and Severed, the studio is now turning its eye toward a 3D Metroidvania-RPG. It may be a new direction in genre, but Drinkbox’s signature moody, eerie vibes do seem to be returning in heaps for Blighted. The core premise of the game revolves around the player regaining lost communal memories and also eating brains, so it’s definitely heavy on the surreal and slightly macabre. Blighted will also have options for both solo and co-op play of its story.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/drinkbox-studios-blighted-will-be-out-for-switch-2-and-pc-this-fall-203638261.html?src=rss

If you’re tired of X and Threads, it might be time to move to greener, or perhaps bluer, pastures. Lifehacker’s own Joel Cunningham moved to Bluesky way back in 2024, and since then, a lot of our writers and editors have followed suit and are living it up over on the butterfly site. It turns out that, with the right platform, it’s possible to like social media again.

Bluesky is quite unlike most other social media networks. You have a lot of control over who sees your posts and how they reply to them, plus you can block and mute users en masse and tweak moderation settings just so. If you’re new to Bluesky, or if you’ve just been using the default settings, it’s time to dig deeper into all the ways you can customize your experience.

Use starter packs to find people to follow

Credit: Khamosh Pathak

If you’ve just started using Bluesky, your feed will feel quite light, especially if you want to venture outside of the algorithmically driven Discover feed and look at what makes the app unique.

But there are ways to get past this issue. Bluesky calls them Starter Packs, and anyone can create and share them. Starter Packs are essentially lists of profiles that you can follow with just one click. A website like Bluesky Starter Pack is a great place to discover these packs, since it lets you search and filter based on your interests or even which accounts are the most popular. Open a Starter Pack and click the Follow All button if you want to follow everyone in the list. Or, you can open a Starter Pick and pick and choose people to follow individually.

Find and pin feeds

Credit: Khamosh Pathak

Bluesky really encourages you to go outside of your typical network of mutuals, and that’s why there’s a Feeds section in the sidebar. Anyone in the community can build a custom feed, and you can subscribe to it with just a click. That means you don’t have to stick to the usual defaults, like your Following feed, and can instead browse through posts however you wish.

Bluesky has a few algorithmically generated feeds like Discover and Popular with Friends, but the vast majority of feeds are custom-made. You can search for any topic, and when you like what you see, you can click Pin Feed to add it to the top of your scrolling window. Then, all you need to do is tap or click on a pinned feed to swap to it.

Try AT Protocol apps like Flashes and Deck Blue

Credit: Pranay Parab

Just like Mastodon, Bluesky encourages third-party apps. Developers can directly plug in to the underlying AT Protocol and create their own apps on top of Bluesky.

This means, yes, there is a TweetDeck alternative for Bluesky, in both a website form and as a Mac app (I prefer the Mac app, honestly). If you’re more into photos, you can also try out Flashes or Pinksky, which recreate the Instagram experience by focusing on photos and videos.

Securely sign up for third-party apps using app passwords

Credit: Khamosh Pathak

Bluesky doesn’t have a traditional authentication system where you can sign into third-party apps by simply connecting them to your Bluesky account (like you can using your Google or Apple accounts). So how do you use all those third-party apps built on the AT Protocol? Simple: uniquely generated app passwords. Each Bluesky service or app will ask you for a unique app password that will only work for that particular service, and isn’t the same as your main Bluesky password. This way, your Bluesky account won’t be compromised even if the app has a leak, and you can quickly change the password or revoke access if you no longer want to use that service.

Go to Settings > Privacy and Security > App Passwords > Add App Password to create a new app password. Make sure to give it a unique name, so you can easily find it. You can delete an app password using the Delete button next to the service name.

Choose who gets to reply to you, and how

Credit: Khamosh Pathak

As social media platforms go, Bluesky offers perhaps the best moderation tools in the business. A prime example is how you can restrict replies to your posts.

Go to Settings > Moderation > Interaction Settings, and you’ll find a plethora of options. You can open up replies to everyone, or you can even go nuclear and block anyone from replying to your posts.

Then there are the granular options. You can restrict replies to just your followers, people you follow, people you mention, or you can create a list of people who are allowed to reply to you.

While you’re here, you can also disable the “Allow Quote Posts” feature, so others on the platform can’t repost your posts directly on their pages.

Take control of your posts, even after they’re in the wild

Credit: Bluesky

If someone has quoted your post and you would rather they didn’t, you can quickly fix that. Go to the post, click the three-dots menu, and choose the Detach quote option. The post will remain as is, but your quote wll be removed.

Similarly, you can quickly hide replies to a post. Choose a reply, click the three-dots menu, and from here, you can choose to hide the reply for you, or for everyone.

Note that this won’t prevent people who can see your posts from screenshotting them to share as images.

Use community-created mute and block lists

Credit: Khamosh Pathak

Bluesky has community lists to help you subscribe to new accounts, and also to block accounts en masse. You’ll find many moderation lists for different types of posters online, either by searching on Bluesky or looking at third-party websites like ClearSky. This way, you can quickly block brands, grifters, or whoever else you might not want to see in one click. This is a great way to sort out at least the more infamous or nefarious profiles. To use a moderation list, open it, click Subscribe, and then choose either Mute accounts or Block accounts.

Follow any profile using RSS

Credit: Khamosh Pathak

We say it often at Lifehacker: you really should be using RSS. Just like Bluesky, it’s another way to find or read new blogs and news without relying on an algorithm. And you can even follow Bluesky profiles in your RSS reader of choice, no setup required. Go to a Bluesky profile and add ‘/rss’ to the end of the URL. Then, copy it and add it as a source in your RSS reader of choice. Easy peasy.

Repeat this for as many profiles as you want, sort them in easy to access folders, and you can now read posts and links from your favorite Bluesky profiles right in your RSS reader, so you can easily mix them in with your articles and blogs.

Use your own domain name as your username

Credit: Khamosh Pathak

This is one of my favorite features. Bluesky lets users and organizations change their handles to their own, custom domain addresses. A handle like “@lifehacker.bsky.social,” which is written in the default format, can be changed to just say “lifehacker.com”.

This works through a form of simplified self-verification (though Bluesky now also offers a traditional verification system). You’ll need access to your domain manager to pull it off.

Go to Settings > Account > Handle and choose I have my own domain. Then, input your domain address. Bluesky will show you the DNS records that you need to update using your domain manager. Once that’s done, click Verify DNS Record and wait for the handle to update automatically.

Post to Bluesky, Threads, and Mastodon at the same time

Credit: Justin Pot

Even if you’re on Bluesky, that doesn’t mean you only have to use Bluesky. You can treat Bluesky as your home base, and still post your content to other networks like Threads and Mastodon at the same time, using an app like Croissant. It’s a simple app that lets you connect your Bluesky, Threads, and Mastodon accounts all at once, taking advantage of their fediverse connectivity. You can then use Croissant to draft your posts, and send them out to all three networks at once. You can schedule posts, too, which is helpful if you’re using Bluesky in a professional capacity. Croissant costs $2.99/month, or $19.99/year.

Forget “eye of newt and toe of frog/wool of bat and tongue of dog.” People in the 16th century were more akin to DIY scientists than Macbeth’s three witches when it came to concocting home remedies for everything from hair loss and toothache, to kidney stones and fungal infections. Medical manuals targeted to the layperson were hugely popular at the time, according to Stefan Hanss, an early modern historian at the University of Manchester in the UK. “Reader-practitioners” would tinker with the various recipes, tweaking them as needed and making personalized notes in the margins. And they left telltale protein traces behind as they did so.

Hanss is part of an interdisciplinary team of archaeologists, chemists, historians, conservators, and materials scientists who have analyzed trace proteins from the fingerprints of Renaissance people rifling through the pages of medical manuals. The team reported their findings in a paper published in The American Historical Review. It’s the first time researchers have used proteomics to analyze Renaissance recipes, enhanced further by in-depth archival research to place the scientific results in the proper historical context.

“We have so many recipes of that time, [including] cosmetic, medical, and culinary recipes, as well as handwritten recipes passed down for generations,” Hanss told Ars. “It’s really a key element of Renaissance culture, and [the manuscripts] are all covered with scribbled marginalia of [past] users. Experimentation was everywhere. It’s not only about book-learned knowledge but hands-on practical knowledge. It’s a key change in the way people constructed knowledge at that time.”

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The next time you check your internet speed or whether your favorite site is down, another company may be profiting. On Tuesday, Ziff Davis announced that it sold its Connectivity division, which includes Ookla’s Speedtest and Downdetector, to Accenture. The deal is worth $1.2 billion in cash.

According to Reuters, the deal will allow Ziff Davis to focus on its core brands, including IGN, Mashable and Everyday Health. Brand consolidation appears to be the name of the game, as the company recently laid off some of Eurogamer‘s most experienced editors and its entire video team. That followed a rotation of editorial staff among Ziff Davis’s other gaming publications, which reduced VG247 to a small, two-person gaming guides site.

Ziff Davis bought Ookla for $15 million in 2014. Reuters notes that the division seized on the 5G rollout and a surge in pandemic-driven bandwidth demand to boost its impressive return on the investment. (Connectivity generated a whopping $231 million in 2025.)

Accenture is a global technology consulting company headquartered in Dublin. The company views the acquisition as a key step in building “end-to-end network intelligence services essential for AI-based transformation.” (Can someone who speaks corporate translate, please?) The deal may take a few months to be finalized, and Ziff Davis will continue to operate Speedtest and Downdetector in the meantime.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cybersecurity/downdetector-and-speedtest-have-been-sold-for-over-1-billion-201741894.html?src=rss

Time to dust off your boomboxes and your walkmans: musical coming-of-age game Mixtape is due out this spring. At its reveal, this next title from game developer Beethoven and Dinosaur was targeting a 2025 release, but as happens to the best laid plans, the game’s arrival got pushed back. Today’s trailer announced that the new launch date for the narrative- and music-focused adventure game is May 7, 2026. Despite the new date, Mixtape will still be coming to the usual array of current gaming platforms: Steam and the Epic Games Store, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and the Nintendo Switch 2. 

Johnny Galvatron, game director for the project, spoke with Engadget recently about the process of conveying that familiar feeling of restless teenage ennui in this medium. “Idleness is hard to explore as a video game, and one of the interesting things about being a teenager is you just hang out a lot, and sometimes it just sucks,” Galvatron said. “So I love that we made a game that shows that idleness.”

As the name suggests, the soundtrack is core to the experience of this game about three friends at the end of high school. Expect to hear tracks by iconic punk and alternative artists such as DEVO, Joy Division, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Smashing Pumpkins and Iggy Pop.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/musical-adventure-game-mixtape-will-be-ready-to-rock-out-on-may-7-200500458.html?src=rss

OpenAI is amending its Pentagon contract after CEO Sam Altman acknowledged it appeared “opportunistic and sloppy.” On Monday night, Altman said the company would explicitly restrict its technology from being used by intelligence agencies and for mass domestic surveillance. The Guardian reports: OpenAI, which has more than 900 million users of ChatGPT, made the deal almost immediately after the Pentagon’s existing AI contractor, Anthropic, was dropped. […] The deal prompted an online backlash against OpenAI, with users of X and Reddit encouraging a “delete ChatGPT” campaign. One post read: “You’re now training a war machine. Let’s see proof of cancellation.”

In a message to employees reposted on X, the OpenAI CEO said the original deal announced on Friday had been struck too quickly after Anthropic was dropped. “We shouldn’t have rushed to get this out on Friday,” Altman wrote. “The issues are super complex, and demand clear communication. We were genuinely trying to de-escalate things and avoid a much worse outcome, but I think it just looked opportunistic and sloppy.” Upon announcing the deal, OpenAI had said the contract had “more guardrails than any previous agreement for classified AI deployments, including Anthropic’s.”

[…] However, observers including OpenAI’s former head of policy research, Miles Brundage, have queried how OpenAI has managed to secure a deal that assuages ethical concerns Anthropic believed were insurmountable. Posting on X, he wrote: “OpenAI employees’ default assumption here should unfortunately be that OpenAI caved + framed it as not caving, and screwed Anthropic while framing it as helping them.” Brundage added: “To be clear, OAI is a complex org, and I think many people involved in this worked hard for what they consider a fair outcome. Some others I do not trust at all, particularly as it relates to dealings with government and politics.”

In his X post, he also wrote that he would “rather go to jail” than follow an unconstitutional order from the government. “We want to work through democratic processes,” Brundage wrote. “It should be the government making the key decisions about society. We want to have a voice, and a seat at the table where we can share our expertise, and to fight for principles of liberty.”

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Last time we looked at the used electric vehicle market, it was to see what the options are if you’re spending $10,000 or less. Two solid choices emerged quickly: a BMW i3 if you don’t need much range, and a Chevrolet Bolt if you do. Lots of earlier Nissan Leafs made the list, too, but these had limited range and air-cooled batteries to contend with; we also included an assortment of compliance cars and, perhaps for the very brave, a Tesla. But what happens when you grow the budget by 50 percent? What EVs make sense when there’s $15,000 burning a hole in your pocket?

As it turns out, at this price point the planet starts looking a lot more like your own personal bivalve. For starters, the cars that looked good at $10,000 look a lot better in the next bracket up, generally newer model years or with lower mileage than the cheaper alternatives. Which means you can afford the facelifted i3. For model-year 2018 onwards, BMW fitted its electric city car with a larger-capacity battery, which means up to 114 miles (183 km) of range on a full charge, or about 150 miles (241 km) if it’s the one with the two-cylinder range-extender engine. Apple CarPlay and Android Auto might also be built into these i3s, although there are aftermarket solutions now, too.

No aftermarket is required to get CarPlay or Android Auto on any of the Bolts you might buy for under $15,000, which include a mix of pre- and post-facelift (model-year 2022 onwards) cars, although few of the slightly more spacious Bolt EUVs. Like the i3s, expect lower mileage examples, plus all the usual caveats: slow DC charging and seats that can get a bit hard on long drives.

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Elgato’s Stream Deck helped popularize using a macro pad among aspiring livestreamers and regular desk jockeys, so it’s only natural for the brand to continue to expand on its lineup. After announcing a suite of new Stream Deck devices last year, Elgato is kicking off 2026 with the Stream Deck + XL, a larger version of the already big Stream Deck XL, and a collection of new audio accessories that should help improve sound mixing in and out of livestreams.

The Stream Deck + XL not only expands on the number of buttons on the regular Stream Deck XL (from 32 customizable buttons to 36 customizable buttons), but also introduces multiple new control options, including a touch strip and six dials. All the controls on the new Stream Deck are customizable, and the presence of the touch strip means you can receive visual feedback about adjustments you’re making while you’re making them. The new macro pad should still work well as a way to quickly end a live stream or queue up a transition, and Elgato says that paired with its new Wave XLR Pro audio interface, the Stream Deck + XL could also become a straightforward tool for sound mixing, too.

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The Wave XLR Pro “integrates two fully independent XLR inputs with 80 dB of clean gain each,” Elgato says, along with multiple headphone outputs and “a built-in Maximizer effect” that can maintain consistent loudness. When you’re livestreaming, Elgato’s says the Wave XLR Pro’s “per-channel ducking” can also automatically lower other audio sources when you speak. The XLR Pro is one of several Wave audio products Elgato is announcing alongside the Stream Deck + XL, a lineup which also includes a new condenser microphone and a new way to connect XLR microphones to the company’s smaller Stream Deck. The XLR Dock MK. 2, exclusively compatible with the Stream Deck +, lets you connect professional XLR audio devices directly to your Stream Deck. The Dock “adds 80 dB of clean gain, 48V phantom power, onboard DSP effects, and low-latency VST Insert support,” and can be entirely managed through the Stream Deck’s buttons and dials.

Elgato says both the Stream Deck + XL and the XLR Dock MK. 2 are available to pre-order today for $350 and $130, respectively. The Wave XLR Pro will cost $350 when it launches at some point in Q2 2026.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/elgatos-stream-deck–xl-adds-a-touch-strip-and-dials-to-an-already-massive-array-of-buttons-195200129.html?src=rss