In an era where we often have to twiddle our thumbs for three years before a new season of a TV show we enjoy returns to our screens, the second season of Fallout has had a relatively short turnaround. It’s set to hit Prime Video 20 months after the first batch of episodes. As it turns out, the season two premiere is going to arrive a little earlier than you may have anticipated as well. 

The first episode will now hit Prime Video at 9PM ET on December 16. That’s six hours earlier than expected. So if you’ve been looking forward to catching back up with Lucy, Maximus and The Ghoul, you won’t have to stay up as late on Tuesday night to catch the premiere as soon as it’s available. 

However, you won’t be able to binge the entire season this week. While Amazon dropped all of Fallout season one at once in April 2024, this time around it will release episodes on a weekly cadence through February 4.

Fallout was also in the news late last week when Prime Video offered up an error-ridden, AI-generated recap of season one. Amazon responded to the backlash (the Fallout fallout, if you will) by nixing AI video recaps from Prime Video entirely.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/playstation/fallout-season-2s-first-episode-will-premiere-a-little-earlier-than-expected-205018028.html?src=rss

Meta revealed that Disney+ was coming to its Quest headsets earlier this year during its Connect event. Now, the streaming app and its vast catalog are finally available to Meta’s VR users in the United States.

Meta recently overhauled the Quest’s entertainment experience with a new Horizon TV hub that brings its streaming features into one place. Horizon TV also added support for Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos sound, both of which Disney+ subscribers can now take advantage of. According to Meta, there are a”select” number of titles available to stream in Dolby Vision 4K HDR, and Disney+ Premium subscribers can stream with Dolby Atmos Sound. The company also says there are more than 100 titles in Disney’s catalog that support 4K UHD and HDR and some Marvel and Pixar titles that support IMAX’s expanded aspect ratio. 

The app is available now on the latest version of Horizon OS. Though Disney+ is for now limited to US-based Quest users, Meta says that international availability is “coming soon.” 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ar-vr/disney-is-now-available-to-stream-on-metas-quest-headsets-203622392.html?src=rss

It’s 2025, so every piece of technology now needs to have an AI component. It doesn’t matter if these AI features are useful (though some are), they just need to be there, however ham-fisted or useless they may seem—though the line between those extremes often comes down to user preference. To that end, if you’ve ever been reading a book on the Kindle app and wished that you could ask your device a question about the text, Amazon has an AI bot for you.

Last week, Amazon announced “Ask this Book,” a new AI feature for the Kindle app. Now available on the iOS version of the app, it lets you ask Amazon’s AI questions about whatever it is you’re reading, whether you bought or borrowed the title. You can highlight a selection from the text to include in you’re queries, and ask questions relating the story’s plot, characters, relationships, and theme. According to Amazon, all answers will be contextual, presumably meaning they’ll all be related to the text at hand, and importantly, all answers will be spoiler-free. That should help avoid the classic mistake of googling a question you have about a book you’re reading and spoiling a coming plot twist or character death.

Amazon says Ask this Book is currently active for “thousands” of books written in English. As noted, as of this writing the feature is only live in the iOS version of the app, but Amazon is working on bringing it to the Android app, as well as Kindle devices, next year.

Ask this Book, whether you like it or not

If this sounds like the type of feature you’d be interested in, great! If you don’t care for this feature, either as a reader who doesn’t want AI getting in the way of their books, a publisher who doesn’t want Amazon training its AI on their IP, or a teacher who might see this as a potential cheating opportunity, there’s bad news: Once Amazon makes Ask this Book available for any given title, it’s permanently available, and there’s nothing anyone can do about it. That comes directly from an Amazon spokesperson, who told Publishers Lunch, “[t]o ensure a consistent reading experience, the feature is always on, and there is no option for authors or publishers to opt titles out.”

That response bothers me for two reasons. One, it’s always frustrating when a company introduces a new feature lwithout giving users the option to turn it off. I don’t use Apple Intelligence, but I appreciate that Apple lets me turn it off. Meta, on the other hand, forces me to contend with Meta AI, even though I never use it. Amazon seems to be attending the Meta school of user design.

But what’s more, it seems wild to me that authors and publishers don’t get a say as to whether this AI bot gets to be active on their books—especially retroactively. It’d even be one thing if authors had to opt-in in order to put their books on the Kindle platform going forward. But to enable it on “thousands” of titles made available before Ask this Book was ever a thing is, to me, disrespectful to authors and publishers, to say the least.

Interestingly, Amazon dodged questions from Publishers Lunch concerning licensing rights around Ask this Book, as well as protections for users, which is troubling given generative AI has a habit of hallucinating—or, in other words, making things up completely. Sure, when it’s working as intended, the AI can help readers understand things they’re confused about, but there’s a real chance that the AI will misinterpret questions, misrepresent the text, or straight up lie, which could negatively impact a reader’s experience of the work, with potential fallout for both the author and the publisher.

How Kindle’s Ask this Book works

While you won’t see this feature yet on your Kindle, you will encounter it in the Kindle app. You can either access it from the menu in any book where the feature is available, or by highlighting text in said book. Once you do, Ask this Book will present a list of questions it thinks you might be interested in asking. If none of them do it for you, you can formulate your own questions, and ask followups after the bot answers.

Last month saw the release of Project Misriah, an ambitious modding project that tried to recreate the feel of Halo 3 inside Valve’s Counter-Strike 2. That project has now been taken down from the Steam Workshop, though, after drawing a DMCA complaint from Microsoft.

Modder Froddoyo introduced Project Misriah on November 16 as “a workshop collection of Halo ported maps and assets that aims to bring a Halo 3 multiplayer-like experience to Counter-Strike 2.” Far from just being inspired by Halo 3, the mod directly copied multiple sound effects, character models, maps, and even movement mechanics from Bungie and Microsoft’s popular series.

In the weeks since, Project Misriah drew a lot of praise from both Halo fans and those impressed by what modders could pull off with the Source 2 engine. But last Wednesday, modder Froddoyo shared a DMCA request from Microsoft citing the “unauthorized use of Halo game content in a [Steam] workshop not associated with Halo games.”

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OpenAI is facing increasing scrutiny over how it handles ChatGPT data after users die, only selectively sharing data in lawsuits over ChatGPT-linked suicides.

Last week, OpenAI was accused of hiding key ChatGPT logs from the days before a 56-year-old bodybuilder, Stein-Erik Soelberg, took his own life after “savagely” murdering his mother, 83-year-old Suzanne Adams.

According to the lawsuit—which was filed by Adams’ estate on behalf of surviving family members—Soelberg struggled with mental health problems after a divorce led him to move back into Adams’ home in 2018. But allegedly Soelberg did not turn violent until ChatGPT became his sole confidant, validating a wide range of wild conspiracies, including a dangerous delusion that his mother was part of a network of conspirators spying on him, tracking him, and making attempts on his life.

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If you open a picture in the Photos app on your iPhone, and it inexplicably starts turning red, I wouldn’t blame you for being a bit concerned. After all, that’s not supposed to happen, and out of all the colors your photos could randomly fade into, red is among the creepiest.

While you contemplate what angry and vengeful god you might have crossed recently, understand that this isn’t necessarily a problem affecting all, or even most, iPhone users and their photos. In fact, it doesn’t appear to be affecting photos taken on iPhones at all. Rather, the users reporting this issue see it when zooming in on photos taken on Android devices. It seems a new hue has been added to the iPhone/Android divide: green bubbles, red pictures.

If this isn’t happening on your own iPhone, you can see the issue play out in this Reddit post. User djenki0119 posted a screen recording of themself browsing photos on their iPhone that they had originally taken on a Samsung Galaxy S24. At first, the pictures appears totally normal. But once djenki0119 zooms in on each, it quickly turns a deep shade of red—almost as if you were looking at film developing in a dark room. This user has the same issue, only they took their photo on a Motorola Razr.

At this time, it’s unclear what is actually causing the issue to occur. It usually doesn’t matter what type of device took any particular image: Once it’s in the Photos app, it should display normally. But there must be something about Android files that the iOS Photos app isn’t reading correctly, at least when users zoom in on the image. As 9to5Mac highlights, it appears that something is adding a red filter to these images in the Photos app. Since this issue is only popping up recently, my guess is there’s a bug within iOS 26, though there could be an issue with Android instead.

For what it’s worth, I wasn’t able to replicate the problem with photos I sent from my Pixel 8 Pro over to my iPhone. But perhaps there is some strange combination of hardware and software that results in this tinting: Maybe a photo taken on a certain type of Android device running a specific version of Android turns red on a certain iPhone model running a specific version of iOS.

How to undo a photo that turned red on iPhone

Luckily, you don’t have to wait for Apple, Google, Samsung, or Motorola to issue a fix, depending on where the actual issue is coming from. To return your image to its proper color scheme, open it in the Photos app, tap “Edit,” then choose “Revert.” This restores the image to its original state, and removes the red filter that was unnecessarily overlayed on top of it.

We woke up this morning to the horrifying news that beloved actor and director Rob Reiner and his wife Michele were killed in their Brentwood home in Los Angeles last night. Both had been stabbed multiple times. Details are scarce, but the couple’s 32-year-old son, Nick—who has long struggled with addiction and recently moved back in with his parents—has been arrested in connection with the killings, with bail set at $4 million.

“It is with profound sorrow that we announce the tragic passing of Michele and Rob Reiner,” the family said in a statement confirming the deaths. “We are heartbroken by this sudden loss, and we ask for privacy during this unbelievably difficult time.”

Reiner started his career as an actor, best known for his Emmy-winning role as Meathead, son-in-law to Archie Bunker, on the 1970s sitcom All in the Family. (“I could win the Nobel Prize and they’d write ‘Meathead wins the Nobel Prize,’” Reiner once joked about the enduring popularity of the character.) Then Reiner turned to directing, although he continued to make small but memorable appearances in films such as Throw Momma from the Train, Sleepless in Seattle, The First Wives Club, and The Wolf of Wall Street, as well as TV’s The New Girl.

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The UK government reportedly will “encourage” Apple and Google to prevent phones from displaying nude images except when users verify that they are adults.

The forthcoming push for nudity-blocking systems was reported by the Financial Times today. The report said the UK won’t institute a legal requirement “for now.” But asking companies to block nude images could be the first step toward making it mandatory if the government doesn’t get what it wants.

“The UK government wants technology companies to block explicit images on phones and computers by default to protect children, with adults having to verify their age to create and access such content,” the FT report said. “Ministers want the likes of Apple and Google to incorporate nudity-detection algorithms into their device operating systems to prevent users taking photos or sharing images of genitalia unless they are verified as adults.”

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One of the most water-scarce regions on Earth is now experiencing a dramatic atmospheric shift that’s pushing moisture onto Oman’s northern coast at rates more than 1.5 times the global average, according to a Washington Post investigation of global atmospheric data [non-paywalled source]. The change has turned extreme rainfall into a recurrent source of catastrophe across the Arabian Peninsula. In the 126 years between 1881 and 2007, just six hurricane-strength storms hit Oman or came within 60 miles of the country. At least four more have made landfall in the past 15 years alone.

Research from Sultan Qaboos University analyzing 8,000 storms across 69 rainfall stations found that half of all rain in Oman falls within the first 90 minutes of a 24-hour storm. These intense bursts quickly overwhelm the desert’s ability to absorb water and send flash floods racing through wadis — normally dry riverbeds where many communities are built. In response, Dubai is constructing an $8 billion underground stormwater network spanning more than 120 miles. Oman has agreements to build 58 new dams and is studying 14 major wadis that funnel to its al-Batinah coastline.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Cloudflare’s sixth annual Year in Review report describes an internet increasingly shaped by two forces: automated traffic and government intervention, as global connectivity grew 19% year over year in 2025.

Google’s web crawler now dominates automated traffic, dwarfing other AI and indexing bots to become the single largest source of bot activity on the web. Nearly half of all major internet disruptions globally were linked to government actions, and civil society and non-profit organizations became the most attacked sector for the first time.

Post-quantum encryption crossed a significant threshold, now protecting 52% of human internet traffic observed by Cloudflare. The company also recorded more than 25 record-breaking DDoS attacks throughout the year.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Ubisoft is moving deeper into MOBAs after buying March of Giants from Amazon and acquiring the team that made the game. As part of the agreement, Amazon will help promote March of Giants on Twitch. The deal is expected to close on December 16

There’s no release date as yet for March of Giants. Amazon announced the free-to-play game back in August and there was a closed alpha playtest the following month. The next playtest will take place in 2026. The next major update for March of Giants will include “new giants, expanded competitive modes and foundational systems designed to support long-term growth.”

March of Giants is a 4v4 game in which players control giant war commanders. You’ll lead armies with thousands of soldiers and send them to attack enemy giants. Likewise, you’ll have to fend off the other team’s minions. You can also deploy reinforcements (called Battleworks) like trenches, tanks and bunkers to help you win a match.

MOBAs aren’t entirely new territory for Ubisoft. While it’s ostensibly a third-person action game, For Honor checks all the MOBA criteria too. Although it clearly sees an opportunity in the MOBA market, Ubisoft will have a job on its hands to make March of Giants succeed in a space that’s dominated by League of Legends and Dota 2.

March of Giants was in development at Amazon Games Montreal, a studio that was established five years ago. Several former Ubisoft employees are returning to that company as part of this deal. Many of them were part of the original creative team behind Rainbow Six Siege, including Amazon Games Montreal founder and March of Giants creative director Xavier Marquis.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/amazon-sells-moba-march-of-giants-to-ubisoft-183948291.html?src=rss