If you picked up your iPhone to round out your Apple Music Replay for the year, or turned on your TV to watch a show like Pluribus, you might have noticed something odd: Neither service is working. It’s not just you: Apple Music, Apple TV, and Game Center are currently down.

That’s directly from Apple’s “System Status” website, which tracks all of Apple’s web-based services and identifies which ones may be experiencing problems. While most of Apple’s services, like the App Store, Find My, and iMessage, are all “Available,” four of these services are experiencing an outage: Apple Music, Apple TV, Apple TV Channels, and Game Center.

If you click on each, you can see the service’s full status report:

• Apple Music – Outage

  Today, 2:53 PM – ongoing

  Some users are affected

  Users may be experiencing intermittent issues with this service.

• Apple TV Channels – Outage

  Today, 2:53 PM – ongoing

  Some users are affected

  Users may be experiencing intermittent issues with this service.

• Apple TV – Outage

  Today, 2:53 PM – ongoing

  Some users are affected

  Users may be experiencing intermittent issues with this service.

• Game Center – 1 Outage, 1 Resolved Issue

  Outage: Today, 2:53 PM – ongoing

  Some users are affected

  Users may be experiencing a problem with this service. 

  Resolved Issue: Today, 8:43 AM – 9:14 AM

  Some users were affected

  Users may have experienced a problem with this service.

It’s not clear what is causing the outages, though they all went down at 2:53 p.m.. (Apple doesn’t specify, but I imagine that’s ET.) This isn’t the first time this has happened, of course. In fact, Apple Music was down earlier this year, though it was actually still working for me when Apple said the outage was active.

That appears to be the situation today, as well. Each report says “some users are affected,” not all. As it happens, Apple Music is working on my Mac, and I’m able to stream the free pilot episode of Pluribus without issue.

Apple will likely get these services back up and running for affected users. In the meantime, if your Apple Music or Apple TV won’t cooperate, this is likely the cause.

After years of suffering from a crippling TikTok addiction, I decided enough was enough: I quit the app cold turkey and deleted it from my phone. Then, I discovered Instagram Reels, and my attention span hasn’t been the same since.

TikTok’s algorithm is infamous, but we don’t give Instagram’s enough credit. This platform is addicting. I hardly use the app to keep up with friends and family anymore: Reels grabs my attention and doesn’t let go, and before I know it, it’s midnight, and I’ve done nothing with my evening. How many videos did I watch? What did I even watch? Whatever Meta has going on in that algorithm is dangerous stuff.

You can influence the algorithm, of course: The decisions you make in the app—likes, comments, watch time, sharing—tell the algorithm which videos you like, which you don’t, and inform its fraction-of-a-second decisions about what to show you next. But until now, you haven’t been able to see what’s driving those decisions. You’re kind of flying blind—you can try to steer the algorithm in a new direction, but you’ll never know exactly what direction you’re really going in.

That’s now changing. As reported by Wired, Meta is rolling out a new tab for Reels viewers that will let us see why the algorithm is delivering us these particular videos. This tab, called, appropriately, “Your Algorithm,” is now rolling out, first in the U.S., but soon to the rest of the world—at least, only to English speakers. It seems reminiscent of TikTok’s “Manage Topics” feed, which lets you adjust the content types that appear in your For You feed.

How “Your Algorithm” works on Instagram

When “Your Algorithm” hits your phone, you’ll find it in the top right corner of the Reels feed: two lines with heart icons placed on each. (I had to update the app and force quit it a couple times to get it to appear.) Once you open this tab, you’ll see a short summary of the type of content the algorithm says you’ve liked recently. In Meta’s example, it says, “Lately you’ve been into creativity, sports hype, fitness motivation, [and] skateboarding.” Mine says, “Lately you’ve been into classic video games, laughing at comedy clubs, and making beats in the studio.”

Beneath this summary, you’ll find the “What you want to see more of” section. Here, you can choose specific content categories you’d like to appear in your feed more often. Instagram will populate some choices here based on your past interests—Meta’s example from above shows things like “Sports,” “GRWM,” “Thrifting,” and “Horror movies”—but you can tap an “Add” button to contribute your own requests. You can tap any of these content types to find the option to watch Reels in that category, in case you want to test drive any before locking in your choices.

Beneath this, you’ll find “What you want to see less of.” This is the same concept, but the reverse: You can choose any content types you don’t want in your feed anymore. If you’re sick of seeing hiking videos, but Instagram continues to show them to you, here’s your chance to directly tell the algorithm to cut it out.

If you tap the three dots in the top right, you’ll find some shortcuts to existing content controls, too, like whether to suggest political content on your feed, “sensitive” content controls, and specific words and phrase filters, to name a few. You can also tap the share button to share your algorithm summary to your story. I’m not sure who would want to do that, but I guess I shared my summary here, so who am I to judge.

Meta’s changing content controls

Wired highlights how these changes come as the European Commission is pushing Meta to present more data controls to EU users: These users have so far been able to pay to not see ads, but since the European Commission didn’t think that was enough, Meta will allow users to choose whether to allow all their data to be used for personalized ads, or only a small percentage.

That’s not happening here in the U.S., but that doesn’t mean Meta is staying the same, either. “Your Algorithm” is launching as Meta is facing criticism over how it handles younger users on its platforms. Reports suggest Meta understands how addictive its apps are, especially to teens, and the company’s internal policies for chatbot interactions with minors was, frankly, appalling. The company has rolled out Teen Accounts across apps like Instagram and Facebook, which offer limits on communications and interactions, and new AI parental controls are also on their way. “Your Algorithm” seems to be the latest in a string of efforts to make it easier for users to control the experience on Meta platforms. Theoretically, you could even use these controls to make your Reels experience less addicting.

Those are all good developments as far as I’m concerned, but I fear there’s still quite a lot of work to do to make Meta’s products—as well as many other social media products—less addictive, and, overall, better for us. Case in point: I opened the app to test out “Your Algorithm,” and not only did I not find it at first, I ended up losing five minutes of my life watching the first video that appeared in my feed. I need to delete Instagram from my phone.

A conservative group yesterday urged the Federal Communications Commission to take licenses away from NPR and PBS stations and let other entities use the spectrum. The request came from the Center for American Rights (CAR), a nonprofit law firm that has played a prominent role in the news-distortion investigations spearheaded by FCC Chairman Brendan Carr.

“In the wake of the wind-down of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the end of federal funding for NPR and PBS, the Center respectfully suggests that the Commission open an inquiry that looks at the future of ‘public’ broadcasting in that new environment,” a Center for American Rights filing said.

The CPB is set to shut down after Congress approved President Trump’s request to rescind its funding. The Center for American Rights said the CPB shutdown should be used as an opportunity to reassign spectrum used by NPR and PBS stations to other entities.

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The wall-mounted Amazon Echo Show 15 has built-in Fire TV, but it also functions as a customizable family hub that keeps you on track with calendars, lists, and more. Right now, it’s $254.99 (originally $299.99), its lowest price on Amazon to date, according to price-tracking tools.

Amazon Echo Show 15

$254.99
at Amazon

$299.99
Save $45.00

$254.99
at Amazon

$299.99
Save $45.00

The newest generation Amazon Echo Show features a bright 15.6-inch display and a remote control that lets you navigate the Fire TV interface and control media playback. It’s well-suited for mounting in an office, kitchen, or living room where you need a home-organization hub that hangs easily like a picture (it also doubles as a digital picture frame). It also makes for a helpful alternative to a laptop or tablet for comfortable video calling with a wide field of view, 3.3x zoom, and a 13 MP camera.

Like all Echo Show devices, the experience is centered around Amazon’s Alexa, so it’s better for those already in the Amazon ecosystem. It comes complete with smart home controls and widgets that make it more capable as a shared household device. It also supports multiple profiles, recognizing users by voice or face using the camera. This PCMag review notes that although the Fire TV interface is capable and the speakers are louder than the previous generation, they could be clearer and more dynamic.

Still, even though sound quality isn’t perfect, the Amazon Echo Show 15 performs well as a productivity-forward, centralized smart display rather than a smart TV used solely for entertainment (unless you want to add an external speaker to the larger screen model, which is 13% off right now).

On Tuesday, French AI startup Mistral AI released Devstral 2, a 123 billion parameter open-weights coding model designed to work as part of an autonomous software engineering agent. The model achieves a 72.2 percent score on SWE-bench Verified, a benchmark that attempts to test whether AI systems can solve real GitHub issues, putting it among the top-performing open-weights models.

Perhaps more notably, Mistral didn’t just release an AI model, it released a new development app called Mistral Vibe. It’s a command line interface (CLI) similar to Claude Code, OpenAI Codex, and Gemini CLI that lets developers interact with the Devstral models directly in their terminal. The tool can scan file structures and Git status to maintain context across an entire project, make changes across multiple files, and execute shell commands autonomously. Mistral released the CLI under the Apache 2.0 license.

It’s always wise to take AI benchmarks with a large grain of salt, but we’ve heard from employees of the big AI companies that they pay very close attention to how well models do on SWE-bench Verified, which presents AI models with 500 real software engineering problems pulled from GitHub issues in popular Python repositories. The AI must read the issue description, navigate the codebase, and generate a working patch that passes unit tests. While some AI researchers have noted that around 90 percent of the tasks in the benchmark test relatively simple bug fixes that experienced engineers could complete in under an hour, it’s one of the few standardized ways to compare coding models.

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Spotify is attempting to give users more control over the music the streaming service recommends with a new playlist feature called “Prompted Playlist.” The beta feature is rolling out in New Zealand starting on December 11, and will let users write a custom prompt that Spotify can use — alongside their listening history — to create a playlist of new music.

By tapping on Prompted Playlist, Spotify subscribers participating in the beta will be presented with a prompt field where they can type exactly what they want to hear and how they want Spotify’s algorithm to respond. And while past AI features took users’ individual taste into consideration, Spotify claims Prompted Playlist “taps into your entire Spotify listening history, all the way back to day one.” 

Spotify

Prompts can be as broad or specific as users want, and Spotify says playlists can also be set to automatically update with new songs on a specific cadence. An “Ideas” tab in the Prompted Playlist setup screen can provide suggestions for users who need inspiration for their prompt. And interestingly, Spotify says each song in the playlist will be presented with a short description explaining why the algorithm chose it, which could help direct future fine-tuning.

If this all sounds familiar, it’s because Spotify has already tried AI-generated playlists in the past. The difference here, besides Spotify framing the new feature as giving users more “control,” is the detail of the prompts, the depth of user data Spotify is applying and the options users will have to keep playlists up-to-date. Prompted Playlist is only available in English for now, but Spotify says the feature will evolve as it adds more users.

Spotify isn’t the first company to offer users more direct control over how content is recommended to them. Meta has recently started experimenting with algorithm-tuning options in Threads and Instagram, and TikTok lets users completely reset their For You page to start fresh. The irony of all these features is that algorithm-driven feeds were supposed to be able to recommend good music, posts and videos without additional prompting. Now that prompting is being pitched as a feature, rather than extra work.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/music/spotifys-new-playlist-feature-gives-users-more-control-over-their-recommendation-algorithm-203237903.html?src=rss

Forgetting where you parked your car isn’t just a sitcom trope—though it does make for classic TV. Even in the age of the smartphone, it’s all too easy to walk away from your car and retain zero memory of where you left it. As it happens, Google Maps has a solution—provided you have an iPhone.

So long as you’re running the app on an Apple device, Google Maps can automatically remember where you parked and display that information on the map. There’s no need to mark the location yourself, tell the app to save your spot, or take a picture of the cross streets in case you forget: You can simply glance at the screen to find a “You parked here” label.

The thing is, while some are reporting this feature is relatively new to them, others suggest it’s been out for a while. What gives?

How Google Maps automatically saves your parking location on iOS

This feature works if you connect your iPhone to your car, whether via Bluetooth, CarPlay, or a USB cable. When you disconnect your iPhone from your car, Google Maps will assume you’ve parked, and will automatically mark that location on the map. The feature will also work if you give Google Maps permission to access your Motion & Fitness data, which allows the app to tell when you’ve started and stopped driving. (You can check on this setting from Google Maps’ in-app settings: Head to Navigation, then, under “Automatically save parking,” tap Let maps use your motion to save your parking.)

You can also choose to set Google Maps’ location permissions to “Always,” which gives the app persistent access to your location data, and also lets it figure out when you’ve stopped your car. You can change this option on your iPhone by navigating t0 Settings > Privacy & Security > Location Services > Google Maps.

Is this feature actually new?

This feature is genuinely great, and I’m happy Google Maps supports it—even if Android users are inexplicably being excluded for now. But you might also be wondering to yourself, wasn’t this already a feature? It doesn’t sound all that new. Yet you might have even seen a flurry articles like this one today, all reporting on this “new” Google Maps parking feature.

As it turns out, the answer is a bit complicated. The coverage today all references this announcement on LinkedIn from Google Maps senior product manager Rio Akasaka—only that post is, according to LinkedIn, a month old. Some of the comments are more recent, but others appear to be from the original posting date.

Potentially adding to the confusion, other navigation apps, like Apple Maps, already support automatically saving your parking spot, and while Google Maps has also had an option to save your parking spot for some time, it previously wasn’t automatic. If you wanted the app to remember where you stopped, you needed to tap your blue dot on the map and choose “Save your parking.” That’s how it still is on Android, since the automatic feature only works on iOS.

Looking through the comment sections on articles from outlets like The Verge or MacRumors, some users insist they’ve had this feature for some time—well before that month-old LinkedIn announcement. This commenter says they’ve had the feature for years, while this one claims they’ve had it for “ages.” So what gives? Have at least some iPhone users have had this feature for years? It is possible Google has been testing out the feature with smaller subsets of users and only recently rolled it out en masse, but whether or not that actually happened is unclear at this time.

I’ve reached out to Google for clarification about the timeline of this feature’s implementation, and I will update this article if I get an answer. Until then, I can only hope Google is actively working on rolling out the feature to Android, as that really would be something new.

In a surprising, and likely temporary, turn of events, the number of people paying to watch cable channels has grown.

On Monday, research analyst MoffettNathanson released its “Cord-Cutting Monitor Q3 2025: Signs of Life?” report. It found that the pay TV operators, including cable companies, satellite companies, and virtual multichannel video programming distributors (vMVPDs) like YouTube TV and Fubo, added 303,000 net subscribers in Q3 2025.

According to the report, “There are more linear video subscribers now than there were three months ago. That’s the first time we’ve been able to say that since 2017.”

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Intel will have to pay up in an antitrust case dating back to 2009, Reuters reported on Wednesday. The company has lost its challenge against a €376 million ($438.7 million) regulatory fine levied by the European Commission. However, Intel managed to get the amount reduced to 237 million euros ($276.6 million).

The case began in 2009, when mobile computing was in its infancy and netbooks (remember those?) were all the rage in the PC space. At the time, the EU ruled that Intel violated antitrust laws on multiple fronts. First, it used illegal hidden rebates to push rivals out of the PC processor market. Second, it paid manufacturers to delay or stop production of AMD-powered products.

The latter, the portion that today’s fine deals with, was classified as “naked restrictions.” It regarded anticompetitive payments Intel made to HP, Acer and Lenovo between 2002 and 2006.

As often happens in these situations, the legal process bounced back and forth through the courts for years. In 2017, Europe’s highest court ordered the case to be re-examined, citing a lack of proper economic assessment of how Intel’s behavior affected its rivals. Europe’s second-highest court then overturned the judgment from the first (hidden rebates) portion of the fine in 2022, a move confirmed by the EU Court of Justice last year. That penalty, initially set at a whopping €1.06 billion ($1.2 billion), was wiped off the books.

The second (“naked restrictions”) fine was imposed in 2023 after European courts upheld that portion. Intel’s latest challenge sought to have that one removed, too. Instead, it will have to settle for shaving one-third off the initial sum.

With today’s judgment, it’s tempting to declare the matter over and done with. But the Commission and Intel can still appeal the decision to the EU Court of Justice on points of law. Tune in next year to see if this long, strange saga has another chapter.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/intel-loses-its-latest-challenge-to-16-year-old-eu-antitrust-case-200746004.html?src=rss

You gotta love that post-Day of the Devs showcase feeling. The organization, founded by Double Fine Productions and iam8bit, consistently highlights top-tier games from independent developers across the globe, providing space for creators to share their stories in both online and in-person events. This year’s Day of the Devs: The Game Awards Digital Showcase was an hour-long celebration of 22 upcoming indie games, including six world premieres and three release date announcements.

Settle in and bask in the afterglow with us:

World Premieres

Virtue and a Sledgehammer – Deconstructeam

Deconstructeam is a small Spanish studio that’s responsible for some of the most cerebral, sexy and darkly philosophical games around, including Gods Will Be Watching, The Red Strings Club and The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood. The team’s next project is Virtue and a Sledgehammer, and it represents a new look with 3D, cel-shaded animations and a third-person perspective rather than the studio’s typical pixelated planar fare. The vibes are just as sinister and introspective as expected, though.

Virtue and a Sledgehammer is a moody coming-of-age experience set in a wooded ghost town dotted with robots and lost locals. Spend quiet moments with old friends and then swing the sledgehammer to raze your hometown and uncover memories that can help you move on. The game’s buildings and objects are highly reactive, which can only help with the catharsis of it all.

Virtue and a Sledgehammer is due to hit Steam in 2026, published by Devolver Digital.

UN:Me – Shueisha Games

Now, this is a horror game. UN:Me comes from Japanese publisher Shueisha Games and developer Historia, and it’s a creepy, mind-bending exploration of primal fear. It stars a young woman with four souls trapped inside of her body, fighting for control of her consciousness. She wanders sterile, illogical hallways and encounters grotesque horrors representing common human fears like heights, authority figures and confined spaces. The souls switch randomly, each one manifesting a specific anxiety. As she wanders, the player has to choose souls to eliminate until only one remains. Whether it’s her real soul or a fake isn’t disclosed until the very end.

UN:Me is available to wishlist now on Steam.

Scramble Knights Royale – Funktronic Labs

Funktronic Labs is mainly known as a VR studio, with games like Cosmic Trip, Fujii and The Light Brigade under its belt, but its latest project doesn’t require a headset at all. Scramble Knights Royale is coming to PC and Xbox in 2026, and it’s a battle royale with adventure game twists. You begin on a boat with 30 to 40 other online players, make your way to land on the back of a turtle, and then it’s essentially Naked and Afraid from there. Find resources, fight creatures, upgrade your gear and play your own game, only battling other players when you encounter them in the wild.

Don’t let the sweet, clay-like animations fool you, either — Funktronic says the combat mechanics are incredibly deep and finely honed. Scramble Knights Royale also supports local split-screen.

Mirria – Mografi

Mografi made a name for itself with the adorable Jenny LeClue detective game, but now it’s time for something different. Mirria is an atmospheric puzzle experience from ISLANDS: Non-Places artist Carl Burton, published by Mografi, and it looks like a delicious mix of Kentucky Route Zero and Monument Valley. In Mirria, you explore mirror worlds and attempt to make the two realities match, paying attention to small details and making minute adjustments until the unsettling environments are perfect reflections. It looks and sounds like soul-soothing stuff.

Mirria is due out in 2026 on Steam.

CorgiSpace – Finji

In recent years, Finji founder Adam Saltsman has been involved in high-profile indie games like Overlands, Night in the Woods, Tunic and Usual June, but his new project taps into his simplistic and mechanics-driven Canabalt roots. Corgispace is a collection of 8-bit games with off-kilter premises, including the soulslike Rat Dreams where you can only dodgeroll, the no-jumping platformer Skeleton Jeleton, and Prince of Prussia, an adventure where you stab Nazis “but in a fun new way,” according to Saltsman. Also, he says there are no secrets in this game, which leads us to believe there is at least one secret in this game.

Corgispace is out now (!) on Steam and Itch.io.

Frog Sqwad – Panic Stations

If the former Fall Guys developers at Panic Stations know how to do one thing, it’s make a silly-physics multiplayer game, so that’s exactly what they’re doing. Frog Sqwad is a co-op experience where you and your fellow frogs search the sewers for food in order to satiate the swamp king. You can eat food to grow bigger and become the mega frog, vomit to shrink, and use your long sticky tongue to swing, hang and slingshot your friends. The sewer levels are procedurally generated, so your froggy playground will always be different, and each run gets harder as the swamp king requires more food.

Frog Sqwad is coming to Steam in 2026, with a playtest beforehand.

Release dates

• Dogpile by Studio Folly, Toot Games and Foot: Today, like literally right now

• Big Hops by Luckhsot Games: January 12

• Demon Tides by Fabraz: February 19, 2026

And the rest

The stream featured a dozen other in-development titles, including the super spooky Lucid Falls, a 90s-grunge-band rhythm game called Rockbeasts, the soothing alien musicality of Soundgrass, an impressive-looking follow-up to The Invincible called Into the Fire, and Unshine Arcade, a creepy game about the secret lives of tamagotchis and claw machines.

The Day of the Devs: The Game Awards Digital Showcase 2025 wrapped up with a neat little announcement. The organization teamed up with the Video Game History Foundation to release Xcavator 2025, a finished version of a long-lost game from legendary programmer Chris Oberth. It was originally developed by Big Buck Hunter studio Incredible Technologies but never found a publisher. It’s been revived by Mega Cat Studios, Retrotainment Games and iam8bit, and an NES cartridge of Xcavator 2025 is available to pre-order now on iam8bit. Proceeds will benefit the Video Game History Foundation.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/the-world-premieres-and-other-hotness-from-the-game-awards-2025-day-of-the-devs-stream-200000447.html?src=rss

One of the best lessons I’ve learned across years of DIY projects is the fact that, whether powered by hand or by electricity, your tools can can serve more than the purpose for which you purchased them—provided you get creative with how you put them to use. Often, you can use two tools together to improve their performance, make them more versatile, make them easier to use, or even to to replace a tool you’re missing.

Here are 10 unexpected ways to combine your hand tools and power tools to make DIY work a little easier.

Stick an Allen wrench into your drill

Power drill and Allen wrench being used to extract eyehook
Credit: Jeff Somers

Eye hooks serve a wide range of uses, but if you’ve ever had to drive a bunch of them into wood, you know how frustrating they can be. The usual move is to either slip a screwdriver through the hook and twist, which is slow and awkward, or to clamp a wrench or pair of pliers on top and twist, which is…also slow and awkward.

This works better: Place an Allen wrench in your power drill’s chuck, slide the end of the wrench into the eyehook, and let the drill do the work. It’s faster, it saves your elbows and wrists the strain, and you’ll wonder why you never thought of it before.

Use a shop vac to inject wood glue

Wood glue can be a lifesaver when you have a damaged piece of lumber—but only if you can actually get the glue inside the crack. If you’ve ever tried, you know that you wind up with glue smeared everywhere, but only a small amount seeps into the crack, leading to a pretty quick failure.

By combining a shop vac with your gluing efforts, you can make this much more effective. Position the shop vac up close against one end of the crack and turn it on. Then apply the glue from the other end, moving toward the shop vac. The suction will pull the glue into the crack, filling it up and resulting in a stronger bond.

Use a sander to clean your putty knives

Orbital sander cleaning knife
Credit: Jeff Somers

Drywall knives and putty knives can develop a thick, lumpy buildup of drywall mud, paint, and anything else they’re used to scrape. Eventually, they’re almost useless because their flat surface has developed its own topography.

You can try cleaning them, but water will rust them and it’s often a laborious process, especially if they’re covered in cement or thinset. If you’ve got an orbital sander, however, cleaning your putty knives and drywall knives is pretty easy. Using a moderate grit (120 works well) pad, just sand down your blade with gentle pressure—don’t overdo it; just let the sandpaper do its work. You’ll have shiny, clean blades in no time.

Use a carpenter’s square and a chalk line as a makeshift level

Getting things level is surprisingly challenging—at least for me. I can measure things five times and still somehow wind up slightly off. That makes a spirit level an essential part of my toolbox for any project (and even then, I am level-challenged, somehow).

If I forget my level, I’m in trouble—unless I happen to have a carpenter’s square and a chalk line. Place the bottom of the square on the surface you’re checking, and loop your chalk line over the top at the 90° mark so it dangles down. Then adjust until the line is directly over the 45° mark on the bottom. That’s means it’s level.

Use a screwdriver and hammer to remove stubborn nails

Hammer and screwdriver extracting nail
Credit: Jeff Somers

Trying to remove a stuck nail can be an entire project in itself. Your progress freezes while you sweat and strain, and eventually you start to damage the surface as your attempts to pull that nail get wilder and more violent.

To protect a surface you don’t want to damage and give yourself a little extra leverage on the nail, place a screwdriver under your hammer. This will give your pull a little more oomph while stopping your hammer from gouging the surface beneath.

Use a vise grip with a putty knife to remove a headless nail

Got a stubborn nail and don’t have your hammer or prybar? Or dealing with a nail that’s lost its head? You can get it free with the help of a vise grip and a putty knife. Lock the vise grip onto the nail and slide a putty knife onto the surface behind the nail. Rotate the vise grips like a lever, and the nail will slowly pull free, while the putty knife blade protects the surface underneath from damage.

Combine a wrench or pliers and a screwdriver for more torque

Screwdriver and pliers extracting screw
Credit: Jeff Somers

When dealing with a screw that seems to be frozen in place, your hand screwdriver often can’t deliver enough torque, and using a power drill with a screwdriver bit is often overkill, stripping the screw in no time. To increase the torque your screwdriver can provide, combine it with a wrench or pair of adjustable pliers. Lock the pliers onto the screwdriver at a 90° angle, push down, and turn with the plier handles. Even the most stubborn screws will work themselves free.

Use locking pliers and a flat prybar to remove nails

Another way to tackle a nail that just won’t work itself free (or that’s lost its head) is to combine a vise grip and a flat prybar. Lock the grips onto the top of the nail to act as the head, then angle the prybar underneath and apply pressure. You can also slide a putty knife under the prybar blade if you want to protect the surface you’re extracting the nail from.

Use a hammer and driver bit to remove painted over screws

Hammer and drill bit cleaning screw head
Credit: Jeff Somers

When I used to rent, I was always infuriated by the “landlord special” repairs that covered screw heads with multiple layers of paint, often to the extent that I couldn’t get a screwdriver or bit to bite. That meant a lot of slow effort scraping paint out of the grooves until I got them clean enough to extract.

Instead of doing that, combine a hammer and a screwdriver bit: position the bit on the screw head and give it some solid taps with the hammer. The crusted paint will fall right out, and you can get on with your work.

Use an adjustable wrench to find the right drill bit

How much time do you think you’ve wasted trying to eyeball a drill bit when driving bolts? You estimate the bit size, you drill the hole—nope, too small. So you grab the next-largest bit and do it again. Or, worse, you estimate the drill bit and the hole is too big, and now you’ve got a problem.

If you’ve got an adjustable wrench, spare yourself the drama. Tighten the jaws of the wrench onto the bolt, then see which drill bit matches the wrench’s opening. You’ll never have to drill three times for one bolt ever again.

Sony just announced December’s Game Catalog additions for PS Plus subscribers and it’s a pretty decent lineup. All of these titles will be ready to play on December 16, except Skate Story which is already available.

Speaking of Skate Story, it’s a really weird skateboarding sim that’s set in a glass-covered world. The reviews have been positive, with many people praising the outlandish story, surreal locations and the satisfying trick mechanics. It’s made by Sam Eng, who was behind the indie shooter Zarvot. This new game is only available for PS5 subscribers.

Assassin’s Creed Mirage will be available for both PS4 and PS5 players. This is the mainline entry from 2023 and it’s actually really fun. It boasts a “back to basics” design that old-school fans of the franchise should appreciate.

Granblue Fantasy: Relink is a 3D action RPG that started its life as a mobile game. However, this particular RPG features music compositions from Nobuo Uematsu and art direction from Hideo Minaba. Both worked together on some games in a mom-and-pop franchise called Final Fantasy. This console port will be playable on PS4 and PS5

Cat Quest III is a simple action RPG starring, well, cats (and dogs.) This one brings open world tomfoolery to a land teeming with islands, so expect plenty of pirate puns. I enjoyed the first two, as the gameplay loop is pretty addictive and the quests are fun. It’ll be available on PS4 and PS5.

Other forthcoming games include Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty, Lego Horizon Adventures, Paw Patrol: Grand Prix and Planet Coaster 2. Sony is also offering a holiday promotion in which new annual PS Plus subscribers receive download credits for movies.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/playstation/ps-plus-game-catalog-additions-for-december-include-assassins-creed-mirage-193731745.html?src=rss

Android remains one of the most customizable mobile operating systems out there, despite Google’s recent efforts to rein it in. You don’t necessarily have to root your Android device to get it to do something off script, either. The fix you need might be hidden behind a system menu or Developer Options. You can personalize Android to address common frustrations with speed, battery life, privacy, and the interface as a whole. I’ve compiled ten helpful Android hacks that require no third-party apps, no ADB commands, and no rooting. All you need is the patience to dig through the operating system and tap as required.

Please note that many of these hacks require you to enable Developer Options, Android’s hidden menu of settings. To do so, head to the Settings menu, scroll to About phone, then tap Build number. Tap it seven times to unlock developer mode. (You’ll see a countdown pop-up if you did it correctly.)

Eliminate battery hogging apps

Have you ever looked at your battery usage stats and wondered what to do about a specific app that’s draining your battery? Android needs apps to run in the background, sync with the cloud, and check for updates by default. As it does this, it wakes the device and consumes battery in the background.

Android introduced a battery optimization feature in version 6.0 that’s supposed to help with apps that drain too much battery. While it’s helped shut down unused apps, it can be either too aggressive or not aggressive enough at identifying bad apps. And while you can force-close an app to kill it when you notice it’s causing issues, it will likely start up again the next time you reboot your device.

Credit: Florence Ion/Lifehacker

You can manually set an app’s background privileges to the most restrictive setting without deleting or disabling it. In Settings, under Apps, scroll down and tap to view all your apps in a list. Then, tap App battery usage. Here, you will find details about the last time the app was accessed. Tap on the app to adjust its background usage. You can choose to have it optimized by the Android system or unrestricted—something you might use on a wearable to ensure it works properly, for instance. If you want it restricted completely, use the master switch to toggle off background usage. On Samsung devices, this same option is called “sleeping apps” or “deep sleeping apps.”

Credit: Florence Ion/Lifehacker

Optionally, you can turn to Developer Options to get more robust control over background processes. Head back to Developer Options, then scroll or search for Background process limit, and from here, you can decide how many background apps fire off at a time.

Block ads and trackers without VPN

Even with an ad blocker, background apps can still track your phone use, where you shop, and which ads to show you. You could easily circumvent this by installing a VPN app to route traffic, but that relies on a third party app, and slows down performance. You are better off configuring your phone’s Private DNS settings to filter web traffic through a service of your choosing.

Private DNS seals the request your device makes to look up a website’s IP address, so your carrier can’t see the website you’re visiting. Since that browser data stays hidden, third parties don’t have the data they need to track your habits and, subsequently, target you with ads.

Credit: Florence Ion/Lifehacker

Navigate back to the Settings panel and select Network & Internet > Private DNS. Change the setting to Private DNS provider hostname. You will need to find the URL of a filtering service to link here. Options include Ad Guard, Control D, and Mullvad, which is what I use to block ads in Chrome.

Once you save, this will redirect all DNS requests from every app and browser on your Android device through this specific block list. It should help cut down on ads and tracking servers watching you without cutting down on performance or battery life. This is also a great hack if you’re a parent and your kid has access to an Android device. Use Private DNS to route them away from unsafe sites and adult content.

Unearth long-lost notifications

Sometimes, we accidentally dismiss a notification on Android. If you’re always snoozing and missing out on important pings, you can turn on notification history.

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In Settings, under Notifications, tap to turn on Notification history. Now, when you swipe to dismiss your alerts, you can peek in here to see what you forgot or accidentally swiped away. This feature is also helpful for tracking any apps that might be quietly running in the background.

Maximize (or minimize) screen real estate

I don’t know what it is about these latest versions of Android, but the text feels either too small or too big when adjusted with the built-in display size settings. You could go into the Accessibility settings to make the text smaller or larger, though it doesn’t affect the rest of the interface much. Or you could deploy Android’s display density (DPI) scaling hack.

Credit: Florence Ion / Lifehacker

This is where the developer options come in handy again. You can use the Smallest Width setting to control the DPI precisely, which scales every interface element up and down. Change the value to a higher number if you want fonts and images to shrink down within the resolution—if it starts in the 400s, for instance, try 500 and work backwards until you like what you see. To make fonts and graphics even larger, start around 300.

Adjust what happens when you plug your device in

When you plug an Android phone into a PC, it defaults to charging the device rather than turning on file transfer. You can change the option from the notification shade, though it adds a few extra steps to something that should be straightforward. Fortunately, you can tweak the USB default behavior to prioritize file transfers when the device is plugged in via USB-C.

Credit: Florence Ion/Lifehacker

In the Developer Options, look for Default USB configuration. Change the setting to File Transfer/Android Auto. Test it by plugging a USB-C cable into a PC to ensure it defaults to file transfer mode.

Get the best audio quality

When you stream music or podcasts through headphones or another external source, the audio isn’t at its best. And while you could adjust the equalizer settings in the app that’s streaming media, it won’t fix much. Your phone and the audio device default to standard codecs rather than high-fidelity ones, which is why it doesn’t sound as crisp and loud as it could.

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You can force Android to use the highest-quality codecs whenever the audio device connects in Developer Options. Search for a Bluetooth audio codec and select the highest-quality option supported by your wireless device. Note that you must be connected to the device when you look for this option, or it will appear grayed out. While you’re in the Developer Options, look for Bluetooth Audio Sample Rate and Bits Per Sample. You can adjust these to higher sampling rates if your hardware supports it.

Make Android look smooth

Even on the latest Android flagships, the interface can feel sluggish as you’re moving between screens. That’s because Android deliberately animates between every swipe and flick. But you can eliminate or shorten these animations to make the interface feel more fluid.

Credit: Florence Ion/Lifehacker

In Developer Options, look for Window animation scale, Transition animation scale, and Animator duration scale. You can adjust their defaults; the lower the number, the faster the animation. You can also choose to turn the animation off completely if it’s just too much.  

Force dark mode

I suffer from migraines, and the brightest background can trigger the pain. I figured out how to force every Android app into dark mode, regardless of whether the developer coded it in.

Credit: Florence Ion/Lifehacker

First, ensure “Dark Theme” is on in your main display settings. Then, navigate to Developer Options and search for Override force-dark. Toggle it on to save your eyes. This feature is also super helpful if you prefer to stare at the screen at night to read. Note that it may cause some apps not to display text properly, in which case, you might want to reserve this ability for when it’s most necessary.

Keep the screen on forever

Sometimes you need the display to stay on without timing out. Most Android devices tap out at 30 minutes. But in the developer settings, there is an option to keep the screen “awake” as long as the device is plugged into a power source. I’ve had this feature enabled since I started covering Android phones. It’s the best way to run benchmarks without being affected by random variables.  

Credit: Florence Ion/Lifehacker

In Developer Options, search for Stay awake, then switch it on. Note that you will need to turn off the screen when charging the device overnight. Your phone could get hot from being connected and having the screen on for too long.

Get the right device to answer the phone

This has happened to me so many times: my phone rings, I answer it, but the call is routed to my smartwatch instead of my buds. While you could manually go into the phone and select the appropriate Bluetooth device, make it easier on yourself by eliminating the devices that you never want to answer the phone.  

Credit: Florence Ion/Lifehacker

In the Settings panel, under Bluetooth, select the offending device. The easiest way to keep it from rearing its ugly head is to find the switch that completely disables phone calls. You should see an option for it at the bottom of the device’s Bluetooth settings. I’ve disabled the Pixel Watch 4 from answering any calls because there’s no instance I’d ever want to take a call from my watch. It’s too public!

The US Department of State is unwinding a 2023 decision to use san-serif Calibri font on all official communications and switching to Times New Roman instead, The New York Times reports. In a memo obtained by NYT titled “Return to Tradition: Times New Roman 14-Point Font Required for All Department Paper,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio frames the change as a way to return professionalism to the State Department.

“Switching to Calibri achieved nothing except the degradation of the department’s official correspondence,” Rubio said in the memo. That’s because the font is “informal” and clashes with the State Department’s letterhead, according to Rubio, while serif fonts like Times New Roman “connote tradition, formality and ceremony.”

Former Secretary of State Antony Blinken originally switched the State Department to Calibri in 2023 to improve the accessibility of official communications. The curvy, flourish-free lines of sans-serif fonts work better with assistive technologies like screen readers and text-to-speech tools. Serif fonts, meanwhile, are typically used in things like newspapers to make small, printed text legible.

While Rubio notes that Calibri “was not among the department’s most illegal, immoral, radical or wasteful instances of D.E.I.A.,” it seems clear that Rubio lumps the font in with those same diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility initiatives. Getting rid of it is an easy (and weirdly petty) way to follow through on the second Trump administration’s anti-DEI stance towards just about everything.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/state-department-calibri-font-was-a-dei-hire-190454957.html?src=rss