Disney+ subscribers in some European countries have lost access to advanced HDR features like Dolby Vision and HDR10+, TechRadar and FlatpanelsHD report. The issue was first spotted by German Disney+ subscribers on Reddit, but currently also impacts subscribers in Portugal, Poland, France and the Netherlands, according to FlatpanelsHD.

“Dolby Vision support for content on Disney+ is currently unavailable in several European countries due to technical challenges,” Disney said in a statement. “We are actively working to restore access to Dolby Vision and will provide an update as soon as possible. 4K UHD and HDR support remain available on supported devices.”

If the issue is in fact a technical one, it seems like it could be around for the long-term. Disney has removed any reference to Dolby Vision from its Disney+ video quality support page in Germany. As of now, the company lists HDR10 as its default HDR format, despite Dolby Vision support being a feature of Disney+ for several years now. 

FlatpanelsHD writes that the real issue might be legal, rather than technological. A company called InterDigital won an injunction in a German court against Disney in November 2025 because it violated at least one of the company’s patents on streaming video technology. The injunction specifically requires Disney to stop violating InterDigital’s patent on “a method for dynamically overlaying a first video stream with a second video stream comprising, for example, subtitles.” It’s not entirely clear how that plays into the company offering Dolby Vision and HDR10+ in Europe, but it would explain why subscribers in Germany were some of the first people to notice Dolby Vision’s absence.

Engadget has contacted Disney for more information about Disney+’s missing HDR support and whether InterDigital’s injunction played a role. We’ll update this article if we hear back.

Mentions of Dolby Vision and HDR10+ were also stripped out of the US version of Disney+’s video quality support page. InterDigital hasn’t won an injunction in the US, but the company is pursuing a patent case against Disney in the United States District Court for the Central District of California. That doesn’t necessarily mean Dolby Vision support will be taken from US subscribers next, but it does suggest there’s more happening here than just technical challenges.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/disney-loses-access-to-dolby-vision-and-hdr10-in-some-european-countries-193930091.html?src=rss

Engineers at Blue Origin have been grappling with a seemingly eternal debate that involves the New Glenn rocket and the economics of flying it.

The debate goes back at least 15 years, to the early discussions around the design of the heavy lift rocket. The first stage, of course, would be fully reusable. But what about the upper stage of New Glenn, powered by two large BE-3U engines?

Around the same time, in the early 2010s, SpaceX was also trading the economics of reusing the second stage of its Falcon 9 rocket. Eventually SpaceX founder Elon Musk abandoned his goal of a fully reusable Falcon 9, choosing instead to recover payload fairings and push down manufacturing costs of the upper stage as much as possible. This strategy worked, as SpaceX has lowered its internal launch costs of a Falcon 9, even with a new second stage, to about $15 million. The company is now focused on making the larger Starship rocket fully reusable.

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When you sign up for a subscription on Substack, you’re thinking you’ll receive newsletters and posts from online creators, not lose the data you share with the platform. But like any digital service, the data you provide when signing up is at the mercy of Substack, or anyone who happens to gain access to that data. Unfortunately, that’s now the case.

Substack may have lost nearly 700,000 user records

As reported by BleepingComputer, Substack recently disclosed a significant data breach. The company’s CEO, Chris Best, sent users a notice of the breach this week, sharing that email addresses, phone numbers, and “other internal metadata” were shared from Substack accounts without their permission. The company reportedly discovered the breach on Feb. 3, even though hackers accessed the data itself in October of 2025. That means the data was in unauthorized hands for roughly four months before Substack identified the breach.

Best explained that Substack has since fixed the problem with the system that allowed an unauthorized third party to access this data. The company is launching an investigation and is reportedly taking steps to prevent this type of breach from happening going forward. On the bright side, Best claims that credit card numbers, passwords, and financial information were not accessed in the breach.

What Best doesn’t share is the scope of the breach. For that, we have to turn to BleepingComputer, which found a post from a “threat actor” on the hacking forum BreachForums. The actor posted a database of 697,313 Substack records, sharing that the Substack user base is much larger, but the scraping method was “noisy and patched fast.” This actor says the data compromised includes email addresses, phone numbers, names, user IDs, Stripe IDs, profile pictures, and bios—a bit more detailed than the report from Substack’s CEO.

700,000 records isn’t the same as 700,000 users: Each record is something like an email address or a phone number, which means one Substack user could have lost multiple records in the breach. Still, it’s a large number of data points, and is little consolation to the users who have lost information here.

What Substack can do after this breach

Unfortunately, there’s not much users can do to mitigate a data breach once it’s happened. The data stolen from Substack is already lost, and you won’t be able to undo that. However, there are some steps you can take to protect yourself in the wake of the breach, and to prevent this data loss in the future.

First, closely monitor your incoming texts and emails. Hackers will take advantage of the data here to target Substack users in phishing schemes. If you receive messages from strangers, or even suspicious messages claiming to come from Substack, exercise caution. As per usual, never click on links in messages from senders you don’t know, and, even more importantly, never download files or applications if instructed.

You may also want to consider masking your email address going forward. Use a service like Apple’s “Hide My Email” or DuckDuckGo’s email protection to generate a “burner” address each time you need to share your email with a service. The service will send messages to the burner address, which gets forwarded to your real address. That way, the service doesn’t know your real address, and, if hacked, won’t compromise it. Hackers will only get the burner, which you can shut down at any time.

The long wait for The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is nearly over, as the film hits theaters on April 1. To keep the hype train rolling, Illumination and Universal Pictures have dropped a short new teaser. It’s exactly 30 seconds long, so you’ll probably be seeing it again on TV this Sunday during the Super Bowl.

It does feature some nifty footage that we haven’t seen before, including a hungry Yoshi absolutely devouring a Magikoopa. There are also shots highlighting the star cannons from The Super Mario Galaxy games and one shot that shows Rosalina bodying Bowser Jr.

There seems to be a plot point in which Princess Peach and Toad head to some sort of sci-fi mega-city, which should be fun. There’s an Octoomba living there, another shout-out to the OG Wii game.

As previously stated, the hotly-anticipated sequel arrives on April 1. The Super Mario Bros. Movie was a total smash, grossing nearly $1.4 billion and becoming one of the most successful animated films ever made. We found the original to be a fun, but safe, trip to the Mushroom Kingdom.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/the-new-trailer-for-the-super-mario-galaxy-movie-shows-yoshi-absolutely-devouring-a-magikoopa-191807037.html?src=rss

Noble Audio has announced the Sceptre, a pocket-sized USB-C Bluetooth transmitter meant to boost wireless audio quality from phones, laptops and tablets. The device is intended to exceed the quality offered by a device’s existing hardware.

Sceptre is powered by Qualcomm’s QCC5181 Bluetooth chipset and supports LDAC, aptX Adaptive, AAC and SBC codecs. Of course, to take advantage of the high quality codecs you’ll need a pair of headphones that support them. The dongle has a reported wireless range of roughly 66 feet.

Listeners use the Noble app for initial pairing and can then move the dongle between compatible USB-C devices. It also supports pass-through charging with USB-C so users can charge their devices while listening. The company says Sceptre is compatible with iOS, Android and Windows, and the company confirmed with Engadget that iPhones 15 and newer are supported.

We’ve been pleased in the past with Noble Audio products, like the FoKus Apollo headphones, or the FoKus Rex5 earbuds. The Sceptre from Noble Audio is available for $70.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/audio/noble-audio-has-released-a-usb-c-bluetooth-dongle-for-high-fidelity-transmission-191655786.html?src=rss

I’m just a humble immigrant, but as a mere (legal!) guest in the U.S., I can’t help but notice that the country is rather, shall we say, politically divided these days (sorry if pointing that out seems rude). It seems international scammers have also noticed—and are taking advantage in subtle ways.

Recently, investor Fred Benenson blogged about a sophisticated phishing campaign targeting SendGrid users. Phishers sent emails claiming the company was going to add a large “Support ICE” button at the bottom of every outgoing email unless users opted out. The emails also featured a large blue button promising to help you disable the message, which, when clicked, naturally led to a fake version of SendGrid that would allow the scammers to steal login information.

As scams go, it’s not a bad play: Phishing emails work best when they induce a sense of panic—that way you’re less likely to think critically about them, and just act. It’s not hard to imagine this particular email being effective, given the political climate right now. Say you’re running a fair trade coffee company—you wouldn’t want a giant “Support ICE” button below your signature at this moment in history.

But the trick didn’t just target left-wing organizations: Variations on the theme claimed the company was going to add pro-LGBT+ and Black Lives Matter banners as well. The differing political messages aren’t really the point of the scam, you see—the point is to get business owners to panic about projecting the “wrong” values so that they will click the link and give away their login information. Scammers rely on psychological tricks to rope in their victims, all of them designed to get you to stop thinking rationally. Exploiting America’s political divide seems to be an excellent way to do that.

Political phishing schemes are nothing new

This is just the latest example of a scam that uses politics as a tool. Back in 2020, a fake Black Lives Matter voting campaign spread malware by pretending to be from a county official looking for feedback on the then-exploding political movement. People on both side of the partisan divide ended up clicking through and getting infected.

And then there are the campaigns where people pretend to be politicians and beg for donations: Back in 2024 Lifehacker reported on a rash of political donation scams that popped up during the presidential election cycle. That trend is still growing, according to Stacey Wood, a fraud expert writing for Psychology Today. “What is especially challenging for consumers and voters is that legitimate campaign operatives use many of the same common persuasion techniques employed by scammers,” she writes.

All of which is to say that international scammers have equal access to American media outlets, are aware of our political divides, and are effective at using them to exploit your emotions in order to steal your money.

How to spot a political phishing scam

What can you do to protect yourself? First, be aware of the tricks that scammers use, and always approach your email inbox with skepticism. Before you click any link from an unfamiliar sender or in an unsolicited email, hover over it to see if it’s going to a website that looks legit. Even better: Avoid clicking links altogether, and head to the website for a given service directly by typing it into your browser.

Remember, it’s easier to fall for a scam than you think, so it pays to be skeptical, especially when you encounter a call to action designed to get you to react in a panic.

Kris Marszalek, the co-founder and CEO of cryptocurrency exchange Crypto.com, has paid $70 million for the domain AI.com — the highest price ever publicly disclosed for a website name, according to the deal’s broker Larry Fischer of GetYourDomain.com.

The entire sum was paid in cryptocurrency to an undisclosed seller. Marszalek plans to debut the site during a Super Bowl ad this weekend, offering a personal “AI agent” that lets consumers send messages, use apps and trade stocks. The previous domain sale record was nearly $50 million for Carinsurance.com, per GoDaddy.

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An anonymous reader shares a report: Amazon, Google, and Microsoft each reported hundreds of billions in RPO (remaining performance obligations) — signed contracts for cloud computing services that can’t yet be filled and haven’t yet hit the books. Collectively, the big three cloud providers reported a $1.1 trillion backlog of revenue.

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While mainstream vehicles usually get comprehensive updates every few years, low-volume exotics tend evolve more gradually. Supercar platforms often remain unchanged for a decade or more, with manufacturers instead focusing on what can be tuned, massaged, added, or subtracted to keep their lineups fresh. Every once in a while, though, a performance car debuts that truly earns the label “all-new,” and the Lamborghini Temerario is one of them.

As the replacement for the Huracán, Lamborghini’s best-selling sports car to date, the Temerario has big shoes to fill. At first glance, it might seem like a more subdued affair than its predecessor, but the Huracán debuted in a similar fashion before wilder iterations like the STO and Sterrato were introduced to the lineup.

During a technical briefing late last year, Lamborghini sales chief Frederick Foschini noted that the Temerario’s streamlined look is intentional. The team sought to increase downforce by more than 100 percent compared with the Huracán Evo through the car’s core design, rather than relying on big wings, splitters, and other racy aerodynamic bits. Designers were also tasked with creating an all-new car that was distinctive yet instantly recognizable as a Lamborghini. Judging by the number of heads this car turned during my time with it, I’d say the company was successful.

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Spotify is rolling out a feature called About the Song which lets fans learn a bit more about their favorite tunes. This “brings stories and context” into the listening experience, sort of like that old VH1 show Pop Up Video.

How does it work? The Now Playing View houses short, swipeable story cards that “explore the meaning” behind the music. This information is sourced from third parties and the company promises “interesting details and behind-the-scenes moments.” All you have to do is scroll down until you see the card and then swipe.

This is rolling out right now to Premium users on both iOS and Android, but it’s not everywhere just yet. The beta tool is currently available in the US, UK, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand and Australia.

Spotify has been busy lately, as this is just the latest new feature. The platform recently introduced a group messaging feature and prompt-based playlists.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/audio/spotify-now-lets-you-swipe-on-songs-to-learn-more-about-them-164558366.html?src=rss

Good deals on Apple products aren’t as frequent as we’d like them to be, but if there’s one of the company’s products that does seem to enjoy pretty regular price cuts, it’s the AirTag. Right now you can pick up a four-pack of Apple’s diminutive first-generation Bluetooth trackers for $64, which translates to 35 percent off and a near record low price.

Bear in mind that this deal brings the price per AirTag down to about $16 if you were to buy them individually, and when not on sale they usually cost $29. The single first-gen AirTags are also on sale right now, and you can pick one up for 41 percent off at $17.

If you use Apple devices and consider yourself to be a serial thing-misplacer, AirTags are extremely useful. Adding one to your account takes a single tap, and with Apple’s Find My network so well established, locating missing items has never been easier.

Using your iPhone you can trigger a sound from the AirTag’s built-in speaker, or alternatively Precision Finding can be used to pinpoint its location via Find My. You just follow the instructions on your iPhone, paying attention to the vibrations that signal you’re getting closer.

A reminder again that the above deals apply to the first-generation AirTag only. Apple introduced a refreshed tracker with greater range and a louder speaker last month, which retails at the same price as its predecessor. For deals on the new AirTag, you may have to wait a bit.

Follow @EngadgetDeals on X for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/get-a-four-pack-of-first-gen-airtags-for-only-64-163619159.html?src=rss

An anonymous reader shares a report: KPMG, one of the world’s largest auditors of public and private companies, negotiated lower fees from its own accountant by arguing that AI will make it cheaper to do the work, according to people familiar with the matter. The Big Four firm told its auditor, Grant Thornton UK, it should pass on cost savings from the rollout of AI and threatened to find a new accountant if it did not agree to a significant fee reduction, the people said.

The discussions last year came amid an industry-wide debate about the impact of new technology on audit firms’ business and traditional pricing models. Firms have invested heavily in AI to speed up the planning of audits and automate routine tasks, but it is not yet clear if this will generate savings that are passed on to clients.

Grant Thornton is auditor to KPMG International, the UK-based umbrella organisation that co-ordinates the work of KPMG’s independent, locally owned partnerships around the world. Talks with Grant Thornton were led by Michaela Peisger, a longtime audit partner and executive from KPMG’s German member firm, who became KPMG International’s chief financial officer at the beginning of 2025.

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