Bitcoin has fallen roughly 44% from its October peak, and while the drawdown isn’t crypto’s deepest ever on a percentage basis, Bloomberg’s Odd Lots newsletter lays out a case that this is the industry’s worst winter yet. The macro backdrop was supposed to favor Bitcoin: public confidence in the dollar is shaky, the Trump administration has been crypto-friendly, and fiat currencies are under perceived stress globally. Yet gold, not Bitcoin, has been the safe haven of choice.

The “we’re so early” narrative is dead — crypto ETFs exist, barriers to entry are zero, and the online community that once rallied holders through downturns has largely hollowed out. Institutional adoption arrived but hasn’t lifted existing tokens like ETH or SOL; Wall Street cares about stablecoins and tokenization, not the coins themselves. AI is pulling both talent and miners toward data centers. Quantum computing advances threaten Bitcoin’s encryption. And MicroStrategy and other Bitcoin treasury companies, once steady buyers during the bull run, are now large holders who may eventually become forced sellers.

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The CIA has shut down The World Factbook, one of its oldest and most recognizable public-facing intelligence publications, ending a run that began as a classified reference document in 1962 and evolved into a freely accessible digital resource that drew millions of views each year.

The agency offered no explanation for the decision. Originally titled The National Basic Intelligence Factbook, the publication first went unclassified in 1971, was renamed a decade later, and moved online at CIA.gov in 1997. It served researchers, news organizations, teachers, students and international travelers. The site hosted more than 5,000 copyright-free photographs, some donated by CIA officers from their personal travel. Every page now redirects to a farewell announcement.

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Google’s Quick Share-AirDrop interoperability, which has been exclusive to the Pixel 10 series since its surprise launch last year, is headed to a much broader set of Android devices in 2026.

Eric Kay, Google’s Vice President of Engineering for the Android platform, confirmed the expansion during a press briefing at the company’s Taipei office, saying Google is “working with our partners to expand it into the rest of the ecosystem” and that announcements are coming “very soon.” Nothing is the only OEM to have publicly confirmed it’s working on support, though Qualcomm has also hinted at enabling the feature on Snapdragon-powered phones.

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The European Commission is preparing to trial a communications platform built on Matrix, the open source messaging protocol already used by the French government, German healthcare providers and European armed forces, as a sovereign backup to Microsoft Teams.

Signal currently serves as the backup tool but has proven too inflexible for an organization the Commission’s size, it said. The Matrix-based solution could also eventually connect the Commission to other EU bodies like the Parliament.

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A federal court in California has ruled that YouTube creators who use stream-ripping tools to download clips for reaction and commentary videos may face liability under the DMCA’s anti-circumvention provisions — a decision that could reshape how one of the platform’s most popular content genres operates.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Virginia K. DeMarchi of the Northern District of California denied a motion to dismiss in Cordova v. Huneault, a creator-versus-creator dispute, finding that YouTube’s “rolling cipher” technology qualifies as an access control measure under section 1201(a) even though the underlying videos are freely viewable by the public. The distinction matters because it separates the act of watching a video from the act of downloading it.

The defense had argued that no ripping tools were actually used and that screen recording could account for the copied footage. Judge DeMarchi allowed the claim to proceed to discovery regardless, noting that the plaintiff had adequately pled the circumvention allegation. The ruling opens a legal avenue beyond standard copyright infringement for creators who want to go after rivals. Reaction channels have long leaned on fair use as a blanket defense, but plaintiff’s attorney Randall S. Newman told TorrentFreak that circumventing copy protections under section 1201 is a separate violation unaffected by any fair use finding.

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This is the helmetcam footage from motocrosser Colby Raha as he sets the world record for longest jump on a v-twin dirt bike, with a very respectable 275-footer across the length of a surf pool. He then follows it up with a 90-foot vertical launch off a quarter pipe. Gnarly! Based on the landing though I think he could have gone for an even longer jump. But what do I know? I’m just a man who got nauseous watching before he even got to the jump.

On Thursday, Anthropic and OpenAI shipped products built around the same idea: instead of chatting with a single AI assistant, users should be managing teams of AI agents that divide up work and run in parallel. The simultaneous releases are part of a gradual shift across the industry, from AI as a conversation partner to AI as a delegated workforce, and they arrive during a week when that very concept reportedly helped wipe $285 billion off software stocks.

Whether that supervisory model works in practice remains an open question. Current AI agents still require heavy human intervention to catch errors, and no independent evaluation has confirmed that these multi-agent tools reliably outperform a single developer working alone.

Even so, the companies are going all-in on agents. Anthropic’s contribution is Claude Opus 4.6, a new version of its most capable AI model, paired with a feature called “agent teams” in Claude Code. Agent teams let developers spin up multiple AI agents that split a task into independent pieces, coordinate autonomously, and run concurrently.

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TCL makes incredible budget QLED TVs. I’ve been using TCL’s QM6K since its release last year, and I frequently recommend it to anyone looking for a QLED TV for a great price. Right now, Best Buy has the 65-inch TCL QM5K (a slightly less expensive model than the one I have) for $449.99 (originally $899.99) after a 50% discount.

TCL 65″ Class QM5K

4K UHD QD-Mini LED Smart TV with Google TV (2025)

$449.99
at Best Buy

$899.99
Save $450.00

$449.99
at Best Buy

$899.99
Save $450.00

The QM5K is an exclusive model made for Best Buy that’s nearly identical to the QM6K, but it has fewer gaming-centric features. The QM5K caps at a refresh rate of 60Hz at the native 4K resolution—it’s still great for casual gamers, but hardcore players who want top-of-the-line specs might want shell out $80 for the next model up. opt for the QM6K.

This TV supports Dolby Vision HDR and HDR10+, making streaming movies or shows with HDR formats look great. The blacks on the TV are deep because of the Mini LED technology, giving it a picture quality that belies its low price. It’s also very bright in SDR, making it great to watch broadcast TV. If you’re going to watch HDR for movies and shows, the brightness might not be as strong.

In 2018, we lamented as Nintendo officially replaced the Virtual Console—its long-running line of downloadable classic games on the Wii and Wii U—with time-limited access to a set of games through a paid Nintendo Switch Online subscription. Now, Hamster Corporation is doing what Nintendo no longer will, by offering downloadable versions of retro console games for direct individual purchase on the Switch 2.

As part of today’s Nintendo Direct Partner Showcase, Hamster announced a new Console Archives line of emulated classics available for download starting today on the Switch 2 and next week on the PlayStation 5 (sorry, Xbox and OG Switch fans). So far that lineup only includes the original PlayStation snowboarding title Cool Boarders for $12 and the NES action platformer Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos for $8, but Hamster promises more obscure games, including Doraemon and Sonic Wings Special, will be available in the future.

If the name Hamster Corporation sounds familiar, it’s because the company is behind the Arcade Archive series, which has repackaged individual arcade games for purchase and emulated play on modern consoles since 2014. That effort, which celebrated its 500th release in December, even includes some of Nintendo’s classic arcade titles, which the Switch-maker never officially released on the original Virtual Console.

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If you’re like most people in 2026, you don’t have cable and only miss it occasionally—mostly when there’s a specific live sporting event taking place and you need a way to catch it. What if you could get cable for a single day, then ditch it? That’s the basic idea behind Sling’s 1 Day Pass. For $5, you can get a day’s access to ESPN, ESPN2, TNT, and a few more channels besides. That array will cover quite a few nationally broadcast sporting events.

Unfortunately, like most everything related to watching live television in the age of streaming, this is more complicated than I’d like. A 1 Day Pass is only available for Sling Orange, which includes just a subset of Sling’s overall offers. On top of that, Sling has always been a little bit confusing—an attribute it shares with the legacy cable companies still standing. But if you need one of the channels offered on Sling Orange, it’s theoretically a good deal.

Credit: Sling

Given it’s February, and you might be wondering whether you can use a 1 Day Pass to watch the Super Bowl without cable. Sadly, the answer is no: The big game is on NBC this year, and while Sling does offer NBC in a few markets, local channels aren’t covered by Sling Orange The same goes for the winter Olympics, which will air on NBC and USA; you’ll have to make a different plan to watch the Winter Games.

But March Madness is coming up too, and quite a few of those games are going to be available via a 1 Day Pass, so keep this service in mind if there’s a single sporting event you want to watch, especially if you notice it’s on ESPN, TBS, or TNT.

Now, could one argue that it’s easier to install an ad blocker and search the internet for a pirated stream than it is to figure out how to legally watch something? Yes. Yes one could. But a Sling 1 Day Pass can save you from that temptation (not to mention accidentally downloading malware) for just $5.

Today, OpenAI announced GPT-5.3-Codex, a new version of its frontier coding model that will be available via the command line, IDE extension, web interface, and the new macOS desktop app. (No API access yet, but it’s coming.)

GPT-5.3-Codex outperforms GPT-5.2-Codex and GPT-5.2 in SWE-Bench Pro, Terminal-Bench 2.0, and other benchmarks, according to the company’s testing.

There are already a few headlines out there saying “Codex built itself,” but let’s reality-check that, as that’s an overstatement. The domains OpenAI described using it for here are similar to the ones you see in some other enterprise software development firms now: managing deployments, debugging, and handling test results and evaluations. There is no claim here that GPT-5.3-Codex built itself.

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Android Auto users are reporting a bug that is making their cars disappear from the road—ok, not literally, but within Google Maps. On both Reddit and Google’s own support forums, drivers now say their car icons are sporadically disappearing from their navigation screens while using the Google Maps app through Android Auto. Some users have discovered workarounds, but the fixes don’t appear to be consistent for everyone. Here’s what’s happening, and what you can do to try to fix it.

Why are car icons disappearing in Google Maps in Android Auto?

The news first started popping up six days ago, on a Reddit thread where multiple users reported problems with their car icons disappearing while using the Google Maps app through Android Auto. According to these drivers, when the bug was triggered, the map would move around normally, and traffic data and navigation instructions continued to display as expected. However, the icon indicating their car’s position would suddenly disappear from their screen, making it difficult to know where exactly they were in comparison to the road. That’s not ideal if you’re trying to judge when your next turn is coming up.

According to the thread’s original poster, the issue popped up for them on the Android Auto version 16.1 release, although others mentioned the issue occurring as far back as version 15.9. The bug doesn’t appear to happen all the time, but “reliably” appears when leaving Google Maps, opening another app in fullscreen, and either returning to Google Maps in fullscreen or pulling it up alongside the new app in a splitscreen view. To get their icon back, the original poster had to force quit Google Maps on their phone, but this wouldn’t stop the bug from occurring again in the future. Google itself has not yet offered public comment on the issue, although I’ve reached out to the company and will update this post when I hear back.

How to fix Google Maps in Android Auto

If you’re encountering a disappearing car icon while using Google Maps through Android Auto, there are a few fixes that have worked for community members, although whether they’ll work for everyone appears to be inconsistent.

Try updating or downgrading your Android Auto version

The timing of this bug appears to line up with the Android Auto v16.1 release, which launched last week. While the bug has been reported appearing on older versions of the app, like Android Auto v15.9, it could be worth trying out another version of Android Auto to see if it clears up the issue. For instance, one user mentioned that installing Android Auto V16.0.66 fixed the issue for them. If you’re on an older version, you can update to a newest one from the Android Auto listing on the Play Store. If you’re on a newest version and want to try an older one, though, you’ll need to uninstall your Android Auto app and manually sideload the older version using a trusted APK file. Because these can be tricky to verify, this might not be the best option for most people.

Try changing your Android Auto car icon

Multiple users in the original Reddit thread, including the original poster, pointed out that the bug only seems to affect them when using a non-default car icon. Until Google issues a fix, one solution might be to change your car icon back to the standard white arrow within a blue circle. To change your car icon in Google Maps, open the app on your phone while not connected to Android Auto. Start navigating to a location. Tap on your car icon, and swipe left or right to adjust the icon until you land on the default white arrow within a blue circle. The next time you connect your Google Maps app to Android Auto, your car’s icon should be updated. Note that this isn’t a guaranteed fix. One user on a Google support forum, for instance, said that their arrow icon also disappeared from Google Maps in Android Auto when returning from another app.

Avoid triggering the bug, or use an alternative navigation app

If there is one saving grace to this bug, it’s that the circumstances for triggering it seem to be pretty consistent. That means you can largely avoid it if you simply don’t leave the Google Maps app once you open it. But while that might be OK for short trips, it’s not ideal for longer ones, where you might want to adjust a podcast or playlist during your drive. You can manually restart your Google Maps app on your phone every time the bug pops up, but not only is that annoying, it’s possibly dangerous if you’re in the middle of a drive.

If none of the above fixes work for you and you want to retain the ability to exit your fullscreen navigation app without losing your car icon, it might be worth putting Google Maps to bed for now and using an alternative navigation app. Google’s own Waze app, for instance, works with Android Auto and does not seem to have this bug right now. Alternative navigation apps do have their own pros and cons, as Waze focuses less on comprehensive mapping and more on real-time crowdsourced traffic information when determining routes. However, it might be worth a shot. If Waze doesn’t work for you, other popular navigation apps compatible with Android Auto include Sygic GPS and TomTom – Maps & Traffic (formerly TomTom AmiGo).