On Wednesday, Micron Technology announced it will exit the consumer RAM business in 2026, ending 29 years of selling RAM and SSDs to PC builders and enthusiasts under the Crucial brand. The company cited heavy demand from AI data centers as the reason for abandoning its consumer brand, a move that will remove one of the most recognizable names in the do-it-yourself PC upgrade market.

“The AI-driven growth in the data center has led to a surge in demand for memory and storage,” Sumit Sadana, EVP and chief business officer at Micron Technology, said in a statement. “Micron has made the difficult decision to exit the Crucial consumer business in order to improve supply and support for our larger, strategic customers in faster-growing segments.”

Micron said it will continue shipping Crucial consumer products through the end of its fiscal second quarter in February 2026 and will honor warranties on existing products. The company will continue selling Micron-branded enterprise products to commercial customers and plans to redeploy affected employees to other positions within the company.

Read full article

Comments

Private astronaut Jared Isaacman returned to Congress on Wednesday for a second confirmation hearing to become NASA administrator before the US Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation in Washington, DC.

There appeared to be no showstoppers during the hearing, in which Isaacman reiterated his commitment to the space agency’s Artemis Program and defended his draft plan for NASA, “Project Athena,” which calls for an assessment of how NASA should adapt to meet the modern space age.

During his testimony, Isaacman expressed urgency as NASA faces a growing threat from China to its supremacy in spaceflight.

Read full article

Comments

Tencent has agreed to stop promoting and publicly testing Light of Motiram as a lawsuit with Sony works its way through the courts, according to a report by TheGamePost. This is Tencent’s game that looks suspiciously similar to Sony’s Horizon franchise, so much so that Sony sued the publisher.

Sony wants the court to block the game from sale entirely, but as the case continues Tencent has agreed to keep Light of Motiram out of the spotlight. The company submitted a court filing that says there will be “no new promotion of public testing” of the game as Sony’s injunction request is argued. In return, Sony will give Tencent more time to respond to the injunction.

Tencent has also issued a request to dismiss the lawsuit entirely. Both companies have jointly requested that the injunction request and the motion to dismiss be moved to the same day, which could be as early as January.

For the uninitiated, Light of Motiram is an open-world hunting game that has some obvious similarities to Horizon Zero Dawn and its sequel. The basic setup is similar, as is the visual appearance of the characters and marketing materials. This all caused Sony to refer to it as a “slavish clone” in the lawsuit.

Sony

To be fair, there are differences. The Horizon games are third-person adventures in the mold of Zelda, but Light of Motiram looks to be primarily a cooperative survival game.

Tencent is a giant multi-tentacled company that actually owns Riot Games, Supercell and Funcom. It also has investment stakes in Epic, Ubisoft, Activision and Blizzard and Larian Studios, among many others. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/tencent-agrees-to-stop-promoting-its-horizon-ripoff-during-sony-lawsuit-193043644.html?src=rss

We may earn a commission from links on this page.

Resistance bands are portable, convenient, and definitely have their uses. It’s no wonder they’re popular—but why are “booty bands” the focus of so many butt-centered workouts? Let me explain what’s going on here, and where these bands can actually help your workout routine.

What exactly are booty bands?

A “booty band” is a nickname for a type of resistance band that is a short loop, usually a few inches wide, and either made of rubber or a thick elasticized fabric. (The fabric ones are more comfortable to use.) The length makes them perfect for exercises that call for a band around your legs. This includes a lot of hip exercises that, yes, can build up your butt muscles.

I have a fabric set similar to this one. I don’t really do “booty” workouts, but I find this type of band useful for the hip warmups that I sometimes do before squats or Olympic lifts. When I was rehabbing a knee injury I remember a lot of this type of exercise at my physical therapy appointments. So they’re definitely useful for more than just booty-building.

By the way, there is a company called Booty Bands, but the term “booty bands” has also been applied to the general category of resistance bands that can go around your knees or thighs. There is no shortage of workouts that incorporate the use of these bands into squats and kickbacks and glute bridges, all while promising you major booty gains. As with many popular workouts, though, the promises are overblown.

Resistance bands come with general pros and cons

Before we delve into booty-focused bands in particular, it’s worth taking a look at the pros and cons of all resistance bands. I compared them with dumbbells here, and as you may recall, the takeaways included:

• Resistance bands can provide more total “weight” than small dumbbells.

• Resistance bands wear out over time.

• Resistance bands change in how challenging they are depending on how much you stretch them.

If your home gym items need to be small and cheap, you can get a lot further with resistance bands than with dumbbells. That’s because it’s easy to find upper-body exercises you can do with smaller dumbbells, but you have to go a good bit heavier to find challenging lower-body workouts. Your main options are resistance band exercises, and single-leg bodyweight exercises (without a resistance band) like lunges and split squats.

Easy exercises don’t do you any favors

If you are trying to build a butt, you’re trying to build muscle. And the most efficient way to build muscle is to lift heavy—not a million reps of light work (although that can work, if you are very patient).

So how do you know if you’re working hard or “heavy” enough? As I’ve mentioned before, you want to be doing smallish numbers of reps (12 or less, most of the time) that are hard enough that the last few reps feel truly challenging. If you’ve been using the same band or weight for a while, try a more challenging one from time to time to find out if you’re stronger than you think. If you are, it’s time to move up.

I mention this here because the banded portion of a “booty” workout is usually fairly easy and light. If you’re doing banded exercises and they fit my definition of heavy and they feel genuinely challenging to you, then they may well be doing what they promise. Stick with the bands for now.

But bands may not be enough for your whole workout. For many of us, actual heavy weights will be necessary to give your butt (or any body part) an appropriate workout. Champion deadlifters need a lot of strength in their butt, but you won’t see powerlifters eschewing the barbell to focus on banded YouTube workouts, you know? They will often use bands in addition to the barbell, though.

Bands are great for warmups and accessories

Put all of this together, and it’s clear that bands make the most sense as a side dish to your workout—or an appetizer, or a dessert. To build muscle, the main course should still probably be a heavier workout with weights, if you can swing that. If not, you need to make sure your banded exercises are heavy enough.

If you bring your bands to the gym, you can do banded kickbacks as part of your warmup, or as a high-rep finisher after leg day. You can use them for “activation” exercises, which is more or less a newfangled word for warmup. And then you can move on to your squats, deadlifts, weighted lunges, or hip thrusts. Which brings me to another point about using booty bands at the gym: if you’re doing squats with a band around your knees, the squats are doing the real work, with the band offering—to continue our food metaphor—perhaps a small garnish.

YouTube has launched its first-ever “Recap” for videos watched on the main platform, giving users personalized cards that showcase their top channels, interests, and a personality type based on their watch habits. The feature rolls out across North America today and globally this week. TechCrunch reports: Users can find their Recap directly on the YouTube homepage or under the “You” tab. Recaps are accessible on mobile devices and desktop. YouTube says the new feature was requested by users and that it conducted over 50 different concept tests before landing on the final product. Alongside the launch of Recap, YouTube also released trend charts showcasing the top creators, podcasts, and songs of the year.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Sony Pictures has dropped a new trailer for 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, slated for release early next year and directed by Nia DaCosta, teasing a possible cure for the zombie outbreak that has devastated human populations for three decades. It’s the sequel to this year’s critically acclaimed 28 Years Later, the third film in a franchise credited with sparking the 21st-century revival of the zombie genre.

(Some spoilers for the first three films below.)

As previously reported, in 28 Days Later, a highly contagious “Rage Virus” was accidentally released from a lab in Cambridge, England. Those infected turned into violent, mindless monsters who brutally attacked the uninfected—so-called “fast zombies”—and the virus spread rapidly, effectively collapsing society. The sequel, 28 Weeks Later, featured a new cast of characters living on the outskirts of London. But all it takes is one careless person getting infected for the virus to spread uncontrollably again. So naturally, that’s what happened.

Read full article

Comments

Micron Technology is winding down its consumer-facing Crucial brand to focus on providing RAM and other components to the AI industry, The Wall Street Journal reports. The company plans to continue shipping Crucial RAM and storage through February 2026, and will honor warranty service and support for its existing Crucial products even after it stops selling directly to consumers.

“The AI-driven growth in the data center has led to a surge in demand for memory and storage. Micron has made the difficult decision to exit the Crucial consumer business in order to improve supply and support for our larger, strategic customers in faster-growing segments,” Sumit Sadana, Micron Technology’s EVP and Chief Business Officer said in an announcement to investors. Micron Technology didn’t share how many jobs could be impacted by shuttering Crucial, but did note that it hoped to soften the blow via “redeployment opportunities into existing open positions within the company.”

The majority of generative AI products used today are supported by a growing network of data centers that train and host large language models. The rapid buildout of servers at these data centers has been a boon to PC parts makers like NVIDIA, who provide the GPUs used to power them, but also companies like Micron, who build the memory components these computers need to run. It’s not surprising the company would want to focus on where growing demand is, but it does put considerable strain on the remaining companies who continue to service both businesses and hobbyist PC-builders.

There were next to no true deals on memory or pre-built PCs for Black Friday due to how costly RAM has become now that AI companies are buying it in bulk. PC maker CyberPowerPC even went as far to say that “global memory (RAM) prices have surged by 500 percent and SSD prices have risen by 100 percent,” forcing it to raise prices on its products. Losing another source of RAM like Crucial likely won’t make things any better.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/crucial-is-a-casualty-of-ais-hunger-for-ram-185910113.html?src=rss

The US Department of Energy has approved an $8.6 million grant that will allow the nation’s first utility-led geothermal heating and cooling network to double in size.

Gas and electric utility Eversource Energy completed the first phase of its geothermal network in Framingham, Massachusetts, in 2024. Eversource is a co-recipient of the award along with the city of Framingham and HEET, a Boston-based nonprofit that focuses on geothermal energy and is the lead recipient of the funding.

Geothermal networks are widely considered among the most energy-efficient ways to heat and cool buildings. The federal money will allow Eversource to add approximately 140 new customers to the Framingham network and fund research to monitor the system’s performance.

Read full article

Comments

Microsoft has lowered sales growth targets for its AI agent products after many salespeople missed their quotas in the fiscal year ending in June, according to a report Wednesday from The Information. The adjustment is reportedly unusual for Microsoft, and it comes after the company missed a number of ambitious sales goals for its AI offerings.

AI agents are specialized implementations of AI language models designed to perform multistep tasks autonomously rather than simply responding to single prompts. So-called “agentic” features have been central to Microsoft’s 2025 sales pitch: At its Build conference in May, the company declared that it has entered “the era of AI agents.”

The company has promised customers that agents could automate complex tasks, such as generating dashboards from sales data or writing customer reports. At its Ignite conference in November, Microsoft announced new features like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint agents in Microsoft 365 Copilot, along with tools for building and deploying agents through Azure AI Foundry and Copilot Studio. But as the year draws to a close, that promise has proven harder to deliver than the company expected.

Read full article

Comments

India has withdrawn its order requiring Apple and other smartphone makers to preinstall the government’s Sanchar Saathi app after public backlash and privacy concerns. AppleInsider reports: On November 28, the India Ministry of Communication issued a secret directive to Apple and other smartphone manufacturers, requiring the preinstallation of a government-backed app. Less than a week later, the order has been rescinded. The withdrawal on Wednesday means Apple doesn’t have to preload the Sanchar Saathi app onto iPhones sold in the country, in a way that couldn’t be “disabled or restricted.” […]

In pulling back from the demand, the government insisted that the app had an “increasing acceptance” among citizens. There was a tenfold spike of new user registrations on Tuesday alone, with over 600,000 new users made aware of the app from the public debacle. India Minister of Communications Jyotiraditya Scindia took a moment to insist that concerns the app could be used for increased surveillance were unfounded. “Snooping is neither possible nor will it happen” with the app, Scindia claimed.

“This is a welcome development, but we are still awaiting the full text of the legal order that should accompany this announcement, including any revised directions under the Cyber Security Rules, 2024,” said the Internet Freedom Foundation. It is treating the news with “cautious optimism, not closure,” until formalities conclude. However, while promising, the backdown doesn’t stop India from retrying something similar or another tactic in the future.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Amazon Prime Video has scaled back an experiment that created laughable anime dubs with generative AI.

In March, Amazon announced that its streaming service would start including “AI-aided dubbing on licensed movies and series that would not have been dubbed otherwise.” In late November, some AI-generated English and Spanish dubs of anime popped up, including dubs for the Banana Fish series and the movie No Game No Life: Zero. The dubs appear to be part of a beta launch, and users have been able to select “English (AI beta)” or “Spanish (AI beta)” as an audio language option in supported titles.

“Absolutely disrespectful”

Not everyone likes dubbed content. Some people insist on watching movies and shows in their original language to experience the media more authentically, with the passion and talent of the original actors. But you don’t need to be against dubs to see what’s wrong with the ones Prime Video tested.

Read full article

Comments

Russia has blocked the popular gaming platform Roblox, according to a report by Reuters. The country’s communications watchdog Roskomnadzor accused the developers of distributing extremist materials and “LGBT propaganda.” The agency went on to say that Roblox is “rife with inappropriate content that can negatively impact the spiritual and moral development of children.”

This is just the latest move the country has taken against what it calls the “international LGBT movement.” It recently pressured the language-learning app Duolingo into deleting references to what the country calls “non-traditional sexual relations.”

Russian courts regularly issue fines to organizations that violate its “LGBT propaganda” law, which criminalizes the promotion of same-sex relationships. President Vladimir Putin has called the protection of gay and transgender rights a move “towards open satanism.”

Roblox doesn’t have a “LGBT propaganda” problem because there’s no such thing, but the platform does have plenty of issues that Russia doesn’t seem all that concerned about. It’s a noted haven for child predators, which has caused other countries like Iraq and Turkey to ban the platform. To its credit, the company has begun cracking down on user-generated content and added new age-based restrictions.

Roblox is still one of the more popular entertainment platforms in the world. It averaged over 151 million daily active users in the third quarter of this year alone.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/russia-blocks-roblox-citing-lgbt-propaganda-as-a-reason-180757267.html?src=rss

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication.

Black Friday may have passed, but there are still some serious deals out there for gamers—especially PS5 owners. This PlayStation VR2 bundle with Horizon Call of the Mountain is currently $299 on Amazon, a 25% discount off the usual $399 and its lowest price ever according to price tracking tools. 

PlayStation VR2 Horizon Call of The Mountain™ Bundle

$299.00
at Amazon

$399.99
Save $100.99

$299.00
at Amazon

$399.99
Save $100.99

The Sony PlayStation VR2 earned a PCMag Editor’s Choice Award upon its 2023 release for offering comprehensive upgrades from its predecessor, including better tracking tech, improved sound, and enhanced graphics. This model comes with the Horizon Call of the Mountain, an action-adventure game packed with immersive climbing, machine combat, and immersive world-building, allowing you to dive into the VR experience right out of the box.

The headset features 2000×2040 resolution per eye, an OLED display, 4K HDR support, and a 120 Hz refresh rate. It has a 110-degree field of view and controls with haptic feedback and adaptive triggers, as well as 3D audio and eye-tracking.

If you have a PS5 and are curious about diving into the world of VR—and want to start with a popular game that will get you hooked right away—this PlayStation VR2 bundle is one of the best console-based options on the market right now, especially at $100 off. 

Amazon’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales might be over, but the company is still running a deal on its premium music streaming service. Right now, you can get three months of Amazon Music Unlimited for free if you’re a new subscriber.

As with most offers of this nature, your subscription will auto-renew for the full price of $12 per month (or $11 for Prime members) after your three months are up. But you can cancel whenever you like and won’t be charged a penny if you do so before the trial ends.

Amazon Music Unlimited offers lossless streaming and podcasts, and as you’d expect, it works best with Amazon’s ever-swelling army of Alexa devices. It’s a bit clunky compared to the likes of Apple Music and Spotify, and not as good for music discovery and curation, but the app has made strides over the years. It even has its own Spotify Wrapped-alike now.

If you do take advantage of this deal, bear in mind that Amazon Music Unlimited is more expensive than Apple Music, YouTube Music and Tidal without a Prime subscription, after Amazon put its prices up earlier this year. A paid Spotify Premium Individual plan costs the same as Amazon’s service (sans Prime), and you can also try that for free right now, with the company offering four months without payment provided you’ve never been a Premium subscriber in the past.

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

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/you-can-get-three-months-of-amazon-music-unlimited-for-free-right-now-175508803.html?src=rss

AT&T told the Federal Communications Commission that it has eliminated DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) policies and programs, complying with demands from Chairman Brendan Carr.

The FCC boss has refused to approve mergers and other large transactions involving companies that don’t agree to drop support for DEI. On Monday, AT&T filed a letter disowning its former DEI initiatives in the FCC docket for its $1 billion purchase of US Cellular spectrum licenses.

“We have closely followed the recent Executive Orders, Supreme Court rulings, and guidance issued by the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and have adjusted our employment and business practices to ensure that they comply with all applicable laws and related requirements, including ending DEI-related policies as described below, not just in name but in substance,” AT&T’s letter to Carr said.

Read full article

Comments

China’s first attempt to land an orbital-class rocket may have ended in a fiery crash, but the company responsible for the mission had a lot to celebrate with the first flight of its new methane-fueled launcher.

LandSpace, a decade-old company based in Beijing, launched its new Zhuque-3 rocket for the first time at 11:02 pm EST Tuesday (04:02 UTC Wednesday), or just after noon local time at the Jiuquan launch site in northwestern China.

Powered by nine methane-fueled engines, the Zhuque-3 (Vermillion Bird-3) rocket climbed away from its launch pad with more than 1.7 million pounds of thrust. The 216-foot-tall (66-meter) launcher headed southeast, soaring through clear skies before releasing its first stage booster about two minutes into the flight.

Read full article

Comments

Indie studio Santa Ragione is facing more strife after claiming its latest game has been blocked on another major storefront. The developer previously said it was at risk of closure after Valve banned Horses from Steam, noting that it would be very difficult to recoup its investment without access to the world’s largest PC gaming storefront. The situation became more dire this week after Epic Games blocked Horses as well.

Santa Ragione said Epic notified the studio of its decision just 24 hours before the game was released on Tuesday, despite approving Horses for sale on the Epic Games Store weeks earlier. “Once again, no specific indication of problematic content in the game was given, only broad and demonstrably incorrect claims that it violated their content guidelines,” the studio wrote in an FAQ. “Our appeal was denied twelve hours later without further explanation.”

According to an email from Epic that Santa Ragione shared, the company banned Horses from its store due to violations of its inappropriate content and hateful or abusive content policies, the latter of which “prohibits content that promotes abuse and animal abuse.” It also determined that Horses had received an adults-only rating, and such games aren’t allowed on its store. Engadget has contacted Epic for comment.

Horses is a horror game about a college student who works on a farm during the summer. The farm’s so-called horses are actually nude human adults who wear equine masks and live as horses.

Santa Ragione said that, in its appeal to Epic, it pointed out that Horses is a “strong critique of violence and abuse in general” and that it doesn’t promote any kind of abuse. It claimed that there are no “explicit or frequent depictions of sexual behavior,” as nudity is pixelated and although the three-hour game has four “sexual sequences,” these are brief and censored, with two mainly taking place off-camera. However, Santa Ragione said Epic stuck by its decision to block the game from its store.

With Horses being banned from Steam and the Epic Games Store, that leaves GOG (where it’s currently at the top of the bestsellers chart) and Itch.io as the only storefronts on which the $5 game is available as Santa Ragione tries to recoup the $100,000 or so it spent on development. Horses was supposed to have been available via the Humble Store as well but, as Gamespot notes, the URL for the listing now redirects to the store’s homepage.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/epic-bans-indie-game-horses-from-its-storefront-24-hours-before-release-173500417.html?src=rss