United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby has harsh words for budget carriers, calling their business model “dead.”
“It’s dead. Look, it’s a crappy model. Sorry,” he said when asked about the budget airline approach. Kirby argued that budget carriers like Southwest, Spirit, and Frontier built their operations around what he characterized as customer-hostile practices, saying “The model was, screw the customer … Trick people, get them to buy, get them to come, and then charge them a whole bunch of fees that they aren’t expecting.”
He said he believes that these airlines struggle to retain customers once they reach sufficient scale to require repeat business.
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Losing your luggage might not be the end of the world, but it’s definitely the worst part of a trip. That’s where something like the SmartLock comes in, and a four-pack of these TSA-approved travel locks is going for $79.99 on StackSocial right now, which is the same price Amazon charges for a three-pack. It’s designed for Apple users, integrating directly with the Find My app, so you can track your bags on a map, ping them with sound if they’re nearby, or get alerts if you’ve walked off and left them behind.
Each lock uses a simple three-digit combination and is TSA-approved, meaning airport security can access it without cutting it open. The build feels solid, with a durable alloy shell and thick cable loop tough enough for typical travel abuse. It’s also refreshingly low-maintenance, with no constant charging needed. The built-in battery lasts about three months and is replaceable, so you’re not tossing the whole thing when it dies. You don’t need to install a separate app to manage the tracking either, if you’ve used Apple’s Find My for AirTags or devices, the setup will feel familiar and straightforward. You also get solid tracking features like Lost Mode and sound alerts.
That said, this is Apple-only. If you use Android, the Find My functionality won’t work, so you’re better off with a traditional smart tracker or lock. If you’re traveling with multiple bags or coordinating group travel, getting four in one pack makes the price easier to swallow. For frequent flyers or anyone with a track record of forgetting their carry-on at Gate 17, this is one of those travel add-ons that might actually be worth it.
Twenty-eight-year-old Nathan Laatsch was, until yesterday, a cybersecurity employee at the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). He had a Top Secret clearance and worked in the Insider Threat Division. Laatsch spent his days—you’ll understand the past tense in a moment—”enabling user monitoring on individuals with access to DIA systems,” including employees under surreptitious internal investigation.
Given that Laatsch was one of those who “watched the watchers,” he appears to have had supreme confidence in his own ability to avoid detection should he decide to go rogue. “Stupid mistakes” made by other idiots would “not be difficult for me to avoid,” he once wrote. DIA couldn’t even launch an investigation of Laatsch without him knowing that something was up.
The new contract will cover over 300 ZeniMax employees and includes “substantial across-the-board wage increases as well as new minimum salaries for workers,” the CWA says. The contract also includes language protecting workers from the impacts of AI and “a crediting policy that clearly acknowledges the QA workers’ contributions to the video games they help create.”
“Video games have been the revenue titan of the entire entertainment industry for years, and the workers who develop these games are too often exploited for their passion and creativity,” Jessee Leese, a QA tester and ZeniMax Workers United-CWA bargaining committee member shared in the CWA announcement. “Our first contract is an invitation for video game professionals everywhere to take action. We’re the ones who make these games, and we’ll be the ones to set new standards for fair treatment.”
The new contract is considered “tentative” until union members ratify it, but because existing contracts often act as a reference in ongoing negotiations, the agreements ZeniMax workers secured will likely serve as a standard for other unions going forward. ZeniMax QA testers aren’t the only video game union at Microsoft — QA workers at Raven Software, QA workers at Activision, workers at ZeniMax Online Studios and the development team behind Overwatch are all still in active negotiations with the company.
Outside of Microsoft, the CWA also announced the United Game Workers-CWA union at this year’s GDC, as a another option for representation. United Game Workers-CWA is a direct-join union, a labor organization that all workers in an industry can participate in without needing legal recognition from an employer. The idea is that currently employed workers, anyone who’s been laid off and freelancers can all still wield power together, even without a potential contract hanging in the balance.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/zenimax-qa-workers-win-tentative-union-contract-with-microsoft-194204789.html?src=rss
It’s almost that time of year again. Summer Game Fest starts on June 6. The annual kickoff stream begins at 5PM ET on that date. Yeah, we know. The time isn’t ideal for folks with regular jobs, but we’ll be in Los Angeles to cover the event in person, so you can just hit up the site for updates.
The best way to watch this is likely via the YouTube stream. After all, the event is being hosted at the YouTube Theater. There will also be a Twitch stream for the YouTube-averse.
We’re proud to welcome a record-setting 60+ partners for #SummerGameFest 2025, a global celebration of video games in Los Angeles this June. pic.twitter.com/1TZkEbKlHt
The organizers, including host Geoff Keighley, are promising “spectacular new video game announcements, surprises and reveals.” I like all three of those things. We don’t know that much about what games will be discussed during the two-hour event, but we aren’t going in totally blind.
The stream will feature a new look at Wuchang: Fallen Feathers, which is a nifty-looking Soulslike action RPG. The open-world MMORPG Chrono Odyssey (no relation to ChronoTrigger) is also making an appearance.
However, the kickoff stream is just the beginning. The weekend is host to the Day of the Devs showcase, the Devolver Direct, Wholesome Direct and really so much more.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/how-to-watch-summer-game-fests-kickoff-stream-193047735.html?src=rss
WordPress.com parent company Automattic is changing direction… again. From a report: In a blog post titled “Returning to Core” published Thursday evening, Automattic announced it will unpause its contributions to the WordPress project. This is despite having said only last month that the 6.8 WordPress release would be the final major release for all of 2025.
“After pausing our contributions to regroup, rethink, and plan strategically, we’re ready to press play again and return fully to the WordPress project,” the new blog post states. “Expect to find our contributions across all of the greatest hits — WordPress Core, Gutenberg, Playground, Openverse, and WordPress.org. This return is a moment of excitement for us as it’s about continuing the mission we’ve always believed in: democratizing publishing for everyone, everywhere,” it reads.
Automattic says it’s learned a lot from the pause in terms of the many ways WordPress is used, and that it’s now committed to helping it “grow and thrive.” The post also notes that WordPress today powers 43% of the web.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has failed to reverse a preliminary injunction currently blocking him from probing Media Matters for America (MMFA) in defense of Elon Musk’s social media platform X.
On Friday, a US appeals court upheld the injunction. In his opinion, senior Circuit Judge Harry T. Edwards wrote that there was “ample” evidence that Paxton “pursued a retaliatory campaign” against MMFA “because they published an unfavorable article about X.com.” And MMFA has standing to raise a First Amendment defense, because “the First Amendment generally ‘prohibits government officials from subjecting individuals to retaliatory actions after the fact for having engaged in protected speech,” Edwards wrote.
Edwards noted that the day after X sued MMFA over reporting on antisemitic posts appearing next to big brands’ ads on X—alleging the report fraudulently spawned an ad boycott—Paxton announced a broad probe into MMFA that, he confirmed in a press release, was directly due to X’s lawsuit.
Ever since Google started integrating its Gemini AI into all its apps, users have complained about seeing the optional AI-powered Summarize button in their Gmail threads. Now, Google is so confident about this feature that it’s enabling automatic summaries for all paying Google Workspace accounts with Gemini access. Now when you open a long email or thread, an AI Summary will be the first thing you see, right up top.
Personally, I think these summaries can be quite convenient, depending on the email. But even though Google says these automatic summaries won’t show up on every email, just the ones where the AI thinks they would be useful, I could still see them getting annoying if they start showing up a bit too often. In that case, you might want to turn them off. Luckily, you can do that, but it also means turning off Gemini in Gmail completely.
Google’s new automatic email summary cards
According to Google’s announcement, the new automatic AI Summary Cards will appear on top of certain emails for paying Workspace users, but only on mobile (both iPhone and Android) for now. Again, you won’t see summaries for every email, like delivery orders or random promotions. But if Google detects that that your email is particularly long or has a lot of replies, that’s when a Summary card might kick in. These Summary cards will be dynamic, and will change as new replies come in. Google assures that all key points from your email thread will be covered in its Summary card, too. And in case a long email isn’t summarized for you, you can still use the “Summarize this email” button to manually trigger an AI recap.
The feature is currently only available in English, and it will be gradually rolled out globally over the next two weeks. You should start to see it on the web later on.
While Gemini has come a long way, it’s important to note that it’s still based on a Large Language Model, and so it’s vulnerable to hallucinations. While an AI Summary card could be handy, you should still also manually check your emails to make sure you don’t miss anything important.
How to turn off Gemini summaries in Gmail
If you’re a paying Workspace user with Gemini and you don’t want to see automatic summaries on your emails, the only way out is to disable Gemini in Gmail entirely. Disabling Gemini in Gmail means losing access to all its features, like suggested replies, help with drafting messages, Google Calendar integration, the Gemini sidebar, all of it. And of course, you won’t be able to access the upcoming Personalized Smart Replies feature that generates complete email responses using context from your Google account, written in your style of writing. Google really should have provided a toggle for these automatic summaries, but alas, it hasn’t.
It’s up to you whether the tradeoff of losing Gemini’s other Gmail features will be worth it, but if you start seeing automatic summaries in your Gmail, it’s the only known way to get rid of them, for now. To turn off Gemini in Gmail, open Gmail and click the Settings button at the top of the page. Here, go to Seeall settings, then scroll down to the Workspace smart features section. Click or tap on Manage Workspace smart feature settings. Finally, you’ll see the toggle for Smart features in Google Workspace. Disable that, and you’re all set.
Presumably, automatic AI summaries will also come to desktop and perhaps even free users at some point, although Google hasn’t said anything about this yet.
Major broadband lobby groups have asked the Trump administration to sue states that require internet service providers to offer low-cost plans to low-income residents, following their unsuccessful court challenges against such laws. The cable, telecom, and mobile industry associations filed the request this week with the Justice Department’s new Anticompetitive Regulations Task Force, specifically targeting New York’s law that mandates $15 and $20 monthly broadband options for eligible customers.
The industry groups suffered a significant legal defeat when the Supreme Court refused to hear their challenge to New York’s affordability mandate in December 2024, after losing in federal appeals court. Now they face a potential wave of similar legislation, with California proposing $15 plans offering 100 Mbps speeds and ten other states considering comparable requirements.
Death Stranding 2: On the Beach technically launches on June 26, but you’ll be able to get an early look at the game and hear from a panel of people who worked on it thanks to a newly announced event that will close out Summer Game Fest on June 8. The “Death Stranding 2: On the Beach Game Premiere”will be hosted by Geoff Keighley and feature live gameplay of the upcoming game, alongside a panel discussion with Hideo Kojima and other talent who worked on it.
Death Stranding 2: On the Beach picks up after the events of the first Death Stranding, following Sam Porter Bridges (Norman Reedus) as he’s drawn back into the world of schlepping things by Fragile (Léa Seydoux). Based on recent trailers, the sequel appears to build on the traversal challenges of the original, with new types of terrain and weather to navigate and new tools at Sam’s disposal to make it easier.
You can attend in-person at the Orpheum Theatre on June 8 at 10PM ET / 7PM PT by registering for tickets online. The event will also stream live on YouTube for anyone who’s not able to make the trek to Los Angeles to attend.
Considering the bromance / business partnership Kojima and Keighley have maintained over the last few years, it’s not at all surprising they’re teaming up to promote the new Death Stranding. Of course, the event is just one of several livestreams that will pad out Summer Game Fest 2025, which includes the Keighley-hosted Summer Game Fest Live, and more intriguing games showcases like Day of the Devs and the Devolver Direct.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/playstation/how-to-watch-the-death-stranding-2-premiere-event-at-summer-game-fest-184514009.html?src=rss
We recently posted an article that explored the idea of serious gaming on integrated graphics. In that post, we were using an older Ryzen 5 5600G chip to prove our point, but AMD’s Ryzen 8000G processors are much faster. (We’re about to update that post with some numbers on that, if you’re keen to see the difference.) Those parts came out
Hugging Face is best known as a platform for machine learning and AI development, but it has also been dabbling in the world of robotics. This week, the company revealed two new robots it plans to bring to market—including a humanoid one that it would sell for around $3,000, far less than many of the other options that have been floated, like Unitree’s $16,000 G1.
Dubbed the HopeJR, Hugging Face’s robot has up to 66 actuated degrees of freedom. According to Hugging Face Principal Research Scientist Remi Cadene, it can walk and manipulate objects. As shown in a short X video, it has an accessible look that reminds us a bit of Bender from Futurama. (It’s the eyes.)
Co-designed with French robotics company The Robot Studio, HopeJR will be open source. “The important aspect is that these robots are open source, so anyone can assemble, rebuild, [and] understand how they work, and [they’re] affordable, so that robotics doesn’t get dominated by just a few big players with dangerous black-box systems,” Hugging Face CEO Clem Delangue told TechCrunch.
It’s no secret that Microsoft is aspiring to introduce its own handheld gaming device with their explosion in popularity in the last few years. Xbox CEO Phil Spencer has longed talk about his experiences with the current crop of available devices, and how he’d like to see an Xbox made handheld. However, it seems as if development on such a
Age verification is coming to app stores in Texas, meaning that users could soon be required to provide some form of identification in order to download anything from the Google Play and Apple App stores, regardless of the app’s content.
Earlier this week, Gov. Greg Abbott signed the Texas App Store Accountability Act, which is set to take effect at the beginning of next year. The new law, which purports to be about keeping children safer online, has significant implications for user privacy and data security.
What will be required for app store age verification in Texas?
The Texas law will require Google and Apple to verify the age of all users before they download any app through their app stores, even if the app has no sensitive or age-specific content. Parents will have to provide consent for minors to download apps or make purchases, and app stores will have to confirm that parents or guardians have the legal authority to make those decisions for their children. App stores will also have to share which age categories users fall into (child, young teen, older teen, or adult) with app developers.
While the specifics are yet to be determined, that means Google and Apple will have to collect some form of user identification, whether that’s a driver’s license, passport, or other government-issued ID, or biometric data, such as a facial scan, for anyone using their app stores in Texas. Even more documentation will be required for parents proving legal guardianship of minor users.
Utah passed a similar bill earlier this year making app stores responsible for centralizing age verification, and while its requirements are slightly less onerous, they’re not much better when it comes to your privacy.
How age verification compromises your privacy
Privacy experts—as well as both Apple and Google—have raised alarms about the implications of age verification, noting that requiring all users to turn over sensitive personal information included in data-rich documents that can prove your age is a form of digital surveillance. It creates an identifiable record of online activity and increases the risk that the data will be used, shared, or sold (unlike physical ID checks, which are momentary and impermanent).
Age verification also presents security concerns with how sensitive user data is collected and stored. Data breaches are a fact of life in 2025, and individuals may have very little (if any) knowledge about whether and how their information is used and stored without their consent, and without recourse if it is compromised.
Aaron Mackey, free speech and transparency litigation director at the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), notes that the Texas law doesn’t have any built-in protections for user data, such as minimizing what is collected and transmitted and for how long it is retained. Plus, there are risks present in the likelihood that app stores will utilize third-party verification services to comply with the requirements, meaning data is available to multiple parties.
The EFF and the ACLU also argue that online age verification requirements violate users’ First Amendment rights, as they may make protected free speech inaccessible—if adults don’t have a valid form of identification, or facial recognition inaccurately estimates age, or minors can’t get parental consent—or force people to choose between shielding their privacy and being online.
“If I have to provide this level of personal information because the government mandates it just to download an app from an app store, I’m going to be significantly worried about what happens to my data, and I might just decide to not actually download the app or even use this app store,” Mackey says.
The online incel (“involuntary celibate”) subculture is mostly known for its extreme rhetoric, primarily against women, sometimes erupting into violence. But a growing number of self-identified incels are using their ideology as an excuse for not working or studying. This could constitute a kind of coping mechanism to make sense of their failures—not just in romantic relationships but also in education and employment, according to a paper published in the journal Gender, Work, & Organization.
Contrary to how it’s often portrayed, the “manosphere,” as it is often called, is not a monolith. Those who embrace the “Redpill” ideology, for example, might insist that women control the “sexual marketplace” and are only interested in ultramasculine “Chads.” They champion self-improvement as a means to make themselves more masculine and successful, and hence (they believe) more attractive to women—or at least better able to manipulate women.
By contrast, the “Blackpilled” incel contingent is generally more nihilistic. These individuals reject the Redpill notion of alpha-male masculinity and the accompanying focus on self-improvement. They believe that dating and social success are entirely determined by one’s looks and/or genetics. Since there is nothing they can do to improve their chances with women or their lot in life, why even bother?
Looking up guides for video games might account for a higher proportion of my Google searches than any other individual activity. Just the sheer number of different quests, mechanics, stats, and even romance guides any given game can involve is staggering. That’s why I’ve come to appreciate collectibles maps even more lately. These interactive tools let you find, filter, and track all the little doodads in your games, organized by the layout of the game’s map.
There’s a good chance you’ve stumbled onto some collectible tracking sites just by searching for something like “where the heck is that last manuscript page in Alan Wake II?” Sometimes, guides with more traditional lists and screenshots will link to an interactive map where you can get a top-down view of everything you’re looking for.
While these tools are often described as tracking “collectibles,” in reality they’re often databases for the location of almost everything in a game. Whether it’s the location of certain characters, quest markers, shopkeeper locations, and upgrades, these maps will often point you to everything you need to find.
For the biggest game library: IGN’s interactive maps
If you’ve come across any collectible trackers, it’s probably one of IGN’s. You’ve probably come across a walkthrough of a particular level in a game from IGN via Google. What you might not have noticed is that, along the top of those pages, are links to interactive tools that show a lot of the same information overlaid on the game world’s map. You can click on points of interest and even check off which ones you’ve collected. That same info even syncs to the text-based guides. (Disclaimer: Ziff Davis, Lifehacker’s parent company, also owns IGN.)
Of all the collectible tracker sites I’ve seen, IGN has the most games available, with over 200 titles. It even includes some recent releases like Doom: The Dark Ages with most or all of the info available on release date. This will vary based on a game’s popularity, release date, and how complex tracking its quests and data can be, but if you’re looking for a tracker for a particular game, IGN is your best bet.
The downside is that while browsing IGN’s maps is free, you can only check off 50 items without a subscription to IGN Plus. In exchange for $30/year (or $5/month), you’ll unlock the ability to check off as many items as you want, add your own custom notes to maps, and the removal of ads. If you play a lot of sandbox games—and you don’t want to roll your own game-tracking spreadsheets—it might be a worthwhile trade-off.
For a much cheaper subscription: Map Genie
A very similar service to IGN’s interactive maps, Map Genie has almost as many games as IGN, with similar limitations, but a much cheaper subscription. Like IGN, Map Genie limits you to 50 items you can check off for free, but you can get unlimited access (and no ads) for only $10/year.
Here’s a plot twist for you, though: Map Genie is also owned by IGN. So why bother with IGN at all if Map Genie exists? Well, while Map Genie has most of the same game maps as IGN, there are several games IGN has that Map Genie doesn’t. Games like Bioshockand Cyberpunk 2077 appear in IGN’s library but not Map Genie.
On the other hand, a Map Genie subscription also includes access to in-progress game maps. At the time of writing, that includes games likeHollow Knight, Control, and The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker. In general, Map Genie is the better deal anyway, but the specific game you want to track might impact which service is better for you.
For free tracking (on fewer games): GameTrek
GameTrek has a much smaller library (with only 18 games so far at time of writing), but it has one big advantage: it’s free. At least for now, you can track every collectible, write your own notes, and filter every category of item on the map without paying a cent. You will need to create an account to track anything, but there’s no payment required.
The small library is also growing at a healthy (if not frenzied) clip. Within the last couple of months, the site has added guides for recent releases like Doom: The Dark Ages and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, as well as older-but-popular games like The Last of Us Part II. There are a lot of gaps in GameTrek’s library right now, but it’s hard to beat free.
Another free option: Enthusiast sites (like Zelda Dungeon)
Interactive collectible trackers take a lot of work and often don’t turn a profit. If you saw a $30 or even $10 per year price tag above and (perhaps understandably) scoffed, you can see why. Fortunately, there’s no shortage of excited nerds online who love obsessing over their games. Depending on the franchise, you can sometimes find whole sites dedicated to maps and trackers for just one series.
Not only do these include tracking for everything from Lightroots to Korok seeds (all 1,000 of them), but you can even mark them complete for free without an account. You’ll need to create an account and log in to save your progress across devices, but it’s the most generous of all the collectibles trackers I’ve seen.
Your mileage may vary depending on which franchise you’re looking for (or how old the game you’re playing is), but there’s always someone out there documenting their favorite games. If you find a good forum, subreddit, or fan-site dedicated to your beloved franchise, it’s worth seeing if they already have an interactive map you can use.
Europa and Enceladus are two ocean moons that scientists have concluded have liquid water oceans underneath their outer icy shells. The Europa Clipper mission should reach Europa around April of 2030. If it collects data hinting at the moon’s potential habitability, robotic lander missions could be the only way to confirm if there’s really life in there or not.
To make these lander missions happen, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory team has been working on a robot that could handle the search for life and already tested it on the Matanuska Glacier in Alaska. “At this point this is a pretty mature concept,” says Kevin Hand, a planetary scientist at JPL who led this effort.
Into the unknown
There are only a few things we know for sure about conditions on the surface of Europa, and nearly all of them don’t bode well for lander missions. First, Europa is exposed to very harsh radiation, which is a problem for electronics. The window of visibility—when a potential robotic lander could contact Earth—lasts less than half of the 85 hours it takes for the moon to complete its day-night cycle due to the Europa-Jupiter orbit. So, for more than half the mission, the robot would need to fend for itself, with no human ground teams to get it out of trouble. The lander would also need to run on non-rechargeable batteries, because the vast distance to the Sun would make solar panels prohibitively massive.
Lovable, a Swedish startup that allows users to create websites and apps through natural language prompts, failed to address a critical security vulnerability for months after being notified, according to a new report. A study by Replit employees found that 170 of 1,645 Lovable-created applications exposed sensitive user information including names, email addresses, financial data, and API keys that could allow hackers to run up charges on customers’ accounts.
The vulnerability, published this week in the National Vulnerabilities Database, stems from misconfigured Supabase databases that Lovable’s AI-generated code connects to for storing user data. Despite being alerted to the problem in March, Lovable initially dismissed concerns and only later implemented a limited security scan that checks whether database access controls are enabled but cannot determine if they are properly configured.
Wholesome Direct, an annual showcase of cute and cozy games, is coming back on Saturday, June 7 at 12PM ET. This is a live event that can be streamed via the official YouTube page or Twitch account. The organizers promise to show off “a vibrant lineup of artistic, uplifting, and emotionally resonant games from developers of all sizes from around the world.”
The YouTube stream link is already available, so feel free to bookmark this page and come back on June 7 just in time for the show. Last year’s stream was a whole lot of fun. One of the cool things about Wholesome Direct is that the organizers typically make several games available for download immediately after the event, though we don’t know which ones will get that sort of VIP treatment this year.
We only know a few of the games that will be covered during the event. There’s an adorable puzzle game called Is This Seat Taken? that tasks players with positioning cute little characters on a bus, in a waiting room or at a restaurant. This one’s actually being released by the event’s publishing arm, Wholesome Games Presents. Another title is called MakeRoom and reminds me of the indie hit Unpacking, but with a focus on designing the perfect room and sharing that creation with friends.
The mobile game Usagi Shimais coming to Steam and is getting a prime spot at Wholesome Direct. This title has players transforming a barren island to make it hospitable to lovable bunnies. Minami Laneis already out for Switch, but is also coming to Steam and will be featured during the livestream. It’s a town management sim that focuses on one street at a time. It’s also extremely easy on the eyes.
Last year’s stream discussed over 30 titles. That leaves plenty of room for cozy surprises. Also, the showcase falls right in the middle of Summer Game Fest, which hosts a group of loosely-affiliated events that begin on June 6.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/pc/how-to-watch-the-wholesome-direct-showcase-on-june-7-at-12pm-et-181249575.html?src=rss
VPN users have an unbelievable amount of choice in the market, but lots of those choices are bad. Upwards of 180 virtual private networks are available for commercial users alone. For the casual user who just wants a VPN to protect themselves online or change their virtual location, the risk of analysis paralysis is very real.
It doesn’t help that VPN providers love to make misleading claims about their own product. Read a few of their homepages and you’ll start to see some phrases repeat. “Lightning-fast.” “Bank-grade encryption.” “Zero-logs policy.” It’s designed to sound good without meaning much, and unfortunately, even the best providers love to talk like this.
Our team at Engadget started digging into the VPN world to help you cut through all this clutter and pick the provider you actually want and need. We’ve developed a rigorous testing process that combines investigative journalism, objective testing and qualitative review. This article explains how we research and test a VPN.
Update, May 28, 2025: This story has been completely overhauled to reflect the updated 2025 Engadget VPN testing methodology.
Check the table for a quick illustration of our VPN testing process.
Testing Step
What We Do
Install, configure and use the VPN on multiple platforms
Investigate how easy it is to download, install and configure the VPN
At a minimum, experience all features of the Windows, Mac, iOS and Android apps
Test speeds
Test download speeds, upload speeds and latencies on a representative sample of servers around the world
Test each location at least three times across two days and average scores
Test security
Run encryption tests using WireSharkTest for DNS and WebRTC leaks
See how the VPN handles IPv6 traffic
Check that the VPN uses up-to-date protocols
Look at pricing and deals
See what plans and discounts are available
Investigate whether long-term deals rise in cost after the first billing period
Look for free trials, coupons and other ways to save money
Look at subscription bundles
Check what other standalone apps or services are bundled with the VPN
Investigate how much those bundles cost and whether they’re worth buying
Close-read the privacy policy
Investigate the privacy policy for any loopholes
Note what information is saved, what is shared and with whom
Check the VPN’s ability to change geolocation
Make sure virtual locations match DNS locations
Test the VPN on streaming sites to see if it gets caught
Investigate the server network
Check how many server locations are physical vs. virtual and how many are owned vs. rented
Discover which users are most likely to have access to a physical server near them
Test all extra features
Explore the user interface and any features outside the VPN connection itself
Ensure features work as advertised and judge how easy they are to use
Use the customer service options
Read the help pages to see how they answer simple questions
Test the live chat, how capable the bot is and how difficult it is to reach a human
Submit an email ticket and grade response times and usefulness
Investigate the VPN’s background
Check the VPN’s history in the news
Read any published audit reports
Look into past data breaches and/or privacy violations
VPN testing: Our 11 steps
A quick note before we start — whenever we say “VPN” in this article, we’re referring to a commercial VPN, the kind any individual can download and use. Corporate VPNs like Cisco Secure Client and Perimeter81 require a different testing process.
1. Install and configure the VPN on multiple platforms
The most work you’ll likely have to do with a VPN comes when you download and install it. We run through that process on as many different platforms as possible. When we can’t hit them all, we try to get at least one in each category — desktop, mobile, smart TV and browser — plus the “big four” of Windows, Mac, iOS and Android.
Proton VPN’s app for MacOS, a typical user interface.
Sam Chapman for Engadget
We take careful notes on the whole process, trying to think from the perspective of someone who has never used a VPN before. How easy is it to find the installation file? How do you log in and out? Are there quality-of-life features, like a programmable auto-connect to save work the next time you open the VPN app?
After installing each VPN, we run through the basic tasks of connecting, disconnecting and changing server locations. If these go smoothly, 90 percent of users will face very few problems with the interface. On the other hand, any hiccups on the basic connection process bode poorly for the operability of the VPN’s more advanced features.
2. Test speeds
We take it for granted that a VPN will reduce your browsing speeds. Except in certain rare cases where your ISP has severely misconfigured your local pathways, it’s not possible for a VPN to give you faster speeds than your normal internet service. That means the “fastest VPN” is the one that drags down your normal speeds as little as possible.
We use Ookla’s speed testing software to check each VPN’s servers in three categories. Download speed describes how much data can move from a web server to your device in one second; this determines how quickly web pages load and when streaming videos need to buffer. Upload speed is the same in reverse, and matters most for torrenting, social media sharing and outbound communication from your computer.
Testing ExpressVPN’s speed using Ookla’s speedtest.net.
Sam Chapman for Engadget
The third metric is latency, measured by the length of a “ping” — the time in milliseconds that a single data packet takes to travel between your device and the web. Latency, which is highly dependent on distance, is important for anything that happens online in real time, like gaming or video chat.
All three speed stats can fluctuate as individual server loads change. To get a clear picture of performance across the entire network, we pick six server locations for each VPN, including the one the app designates as the fastest. We then test each location three times across two days, averaging each result to get a final score.
3. Test security
A VPN’s most important job is to keep your real IP address hidden. If it can’t do that, we can’t recommend it. The simplest way we test a VPN’s security is by checking our IP address while connected. If the VPN server is airtight, any IP lookup tool should show the server’s address, not our home network.
IP leaks — in which your home IP address is visible even while you’re connected through a VPN — are most often caused by VPNs using public DNS servers that make your requests visible to your internet provider. The culprit can also be a misconfiguration in real-time communication protocols (WebRTC) or a failure to properly incorporate IPv6 traffic.
Using WireShark to test whether a VPN can encrypt data in transit.
Sam Chapman for Engadget
We also check for weak, outdated VPN protocols like PPTP, or untested proprietary protocols with no available source code. We finish this step by testing the VPN’s encryption by analyzing a few data packets using Wireshark.
4. Look at pricing and deals
Next, we see how much the VPN costs. We read the fine print on multi-year deals to see if advertised savings stop after the first billing period; when VPNs offer “bonus months” for new sign-ups, it’s common for prices to go up later. We also evaluate any free plans, temporary free trials or money-back guarantees — paying special attention to the refunds, as VPNs occasionally refuse to honor their stated policies.
We close out by seeing if there are any special pricing discounts or coupons that may make the VPN more affordable. Ultimately, we try to make a call about whether the VPN gives the user enough value to justify its price.
5. Check out pricing bundles
Many of the top VPNs are expanding their offerings into larger bundles, like NordVPN Complete, Surfshark One, or ExpressVPN‘s Identity Guard suite. This can also happen from the other direction, as companies like Norton and Proton add VPNs to their existing product lines.
VPN bundles almost always come at an additional subscription cost, which they sometimes earn with added value — and sometimes don’t. Whenever we review a VPN, we check out the products associated with it and advise you on whether or not to heed the VPN’s inevitable calls to upgrade.
6. Close-read the privacy policy
The next step is to sit down with the VPN’s privacy policy and read it like a lawyer would. A VPN privacy policy is technically legally binding, in that the provider can be sued for false advertising if they violate it. Instead of lying outright, the less-trustworthy VPNs minimize their risk by hiding controversial practices behind vague language and loopholes.
Surfshark’s privacy policy on the Google Play Store
Sam Chapman for Engadget
As an example, a VPN might claim on its homepage to have a “zero-logs policy,” but it’s impossible to provide VPN service without keeping at least some logs. The honest providers lay out exactly what data they keep, how they anonymize it and what they do with it. Red flags include saving your data for longer than necessary, logging activity for non-security purposes like marketing, or claiming that the privacy policy does not apply to partners or parent companies.
7. Check the VPN’s ability to change geolocation
When a VPN changes your virtual location, it needs to do so in a way destination servers can’t see through. The sites you’d want to change your location for, like Netflix, YouTube and sports streams, block content in regions where they don’t have a licensing agreement to stream it (that’s why Netflix libraries change in every country). These sites know VPNs can circumvent their blocks, so they ban VPN access whenever they detect it.
A VPN can change your virtual location to switch up what’s available on streaming — so you can, for example, watch Friends on Netflix in the US.
Sam Chapman for Engadget
The best VPNs fight back by updating their server IP addresses quickly enough that streaming platforms can’t block them. We test a VPN’s unblocking ability by connecting to multiple streaming websites — each in several different countries — and looking for proxy errors. We check to see if content is accessible and whether speeds remain fast enough to view it.
8. Investigate the server network
A VPN’s “server network” is the selection of IP addresses it lets users connect to. Large server networks are a common selling point for VPNs, which argue that more servers means better performance and more locations means more options to circumvent blocks.
While it’s true that a larger network is a good sign, it’s easy to artificially inflate the numbers. For one thing, a VPN provider can set up virtual servers with IPs from locations where it isn’t physically present. This is helpful for getting locations in countries like China and India that ban most VPNs, but means you can’t always trust that a server which looks close to you actually is.
Sam Chapman for Engadget
It’s also common for providers to rent server space from third-party data centers to get more locations out faster. While convenient, this adds more potential failure points, since the data center operators may not follow the VPN’s security standards (this is how NordVPN was briefly compromised in 2018).
When reviewing a VPN, we investigate not just the quantity of its server network, but also its quality. If it doesn’t disclose which servers are virtual and/or rented, we check the IP addresses of suspicious locations and research whether the VPN has worked with data center providers.
9. Test all extra features
Most VPNs include features beyond the core ability to connect to a server. These extras range from vital security measures like kill switches (which cut you off from the internet if you aren’t connected to a VPN server) to tangential nice-to-haves like ad and malware blockers (which often work well but can’t replace a designated antivirus).
VPN special features can get elaborate — NordVPN Meshnet is one of the most extensive
Sam Chapman for Engadget
We test two things: whether these features work and whether they’re easy for beginners to use. The former depends on the feature — for example, for an ad-blocker, we’ll see if it blocks different types of ads. The latter is qualitative and depends on where the feature is found in the VPN app, how well it explains itself and what customization options exist.
10. Use the customer service options
No VPN client is so well designed that you’ll never need help. Good customer support starts with an up-to-date knowledge base written in clear English by a human author, with logical organization and plenty of screenshots. An active user community is a bonus, whether hosted on the VPN site or somewhere else (often Reddit).
We test each VPN’s customer support options by using them ourselves.
Sam Chapman for Engadget
Most VPNs have other tech support options, generally live chat and/or email tickets. We test both by submitting a simple question. With live chat, we determine whether it’s possible to talk with a human and how long it takes to reach that point. With email, we measure how long it takes to get a reply from the experts and how useful it is for solving the problem.
11. Investigate the VPN’s background
The first step is to find out exactly who we’re dealing with. We comb through the VPN’s history since its launch, looking for any security breaches, violations of its own privacy policy or any attempts to pull the wool over the customers’ eyes. News archives are the best source, but we also incorporate academic research by security investigators and published third-party audits of the VPNs themselves.
When we find black marks on a VPN’s record, we try to place them in context. A past security breach doesn’t necessarily disqualify a VPN from our recommendation — most of the best options have slipped up at least once. The best evidence comes from how the provider responded to the incident. Did they change anything or double down? Did their recovery produce lasting improvements, or did the same problem happen again a year later?
Privacy violations are much more serious. A VPN that breaks its agreement to not log information on its users cannot be trusted to keep its word in the future without evidence of drastic internal change. Another major red flag is a lack of transparency, like when it’s unclear where a VPN is based or who owns it.
Get started with our VPN reviews
Reviewing a VPN is a matter of patient investigation, rigorous testing and an unwillingness to take anything at face value. We’re constantly refining our process, so we’ll make sure to update this page whenever we change any of the steps above.
Now that you understand our process, you’re ready to dive into our coverage of the best VPN services (soon to get an extensive update), or head straight to our in-depth ExpressVPN review to see the process in action.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cybersecurity/vpn/how-we-test-vpns-175845189.html?src=rss
