The Predator X27U
Apple and Epic Games sparred over whether the iPhone maker was obstructing access to the hit game Fortnite, the latest tussle in a long-running feud over Apple’s control of game distribution revenue. From a report: The game developer said that Apple “blocked” its latest Fortnite app submission so that it can’t be released in the US or on the third-party Epic Games Store in the EU.
“Now, sadly, Fortnite on iOS will be offline worldwide until Apple unblocks it,” the company wrote on its X account. An Apple spokesperson responded later on Friday, saying that the company “did not take any action to remove the live version of Fortnite from alternative distribution marketplaces” in the EU. Apple said that it asked the game company’s European division, Epic Sweden, to “resubmit the app update without including the US storefront of the App Store so as not to impact Fortnite in other geographies.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
How did reptilian things that looked something like crocodiles get to the Caribbean islands from South America millions of years ago? They probably walked.
The existence of any prehistoric apex predators in the islands of the Caribbean used to be doubted. While their absence would have probably made it even more of a paradise for prey animals, fossils unearthed in Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic have revealed that these islands were crawling with monster crocodyliform species called sebecids, ancient relatives of crocodiles.
While sebecids first emerged during the Cretaceous, this is the first evidence of them lurking outside South America during the Cenozoic epoch, which began 66 million years ago. An international team of researchers has found that these creatures would stalk and hunt in the Caribbean islands millions of years after similar predators went extinct on the South American mainland. Lower sea levels back then could have exposed enough land to walk across.
The European Commission (EC) has been firing on all cylinders in holding big tech to account through various fines and enforcement actions, attempting to create a more competitive landscape in a space that has become increasingly monopolized.
Microsoft has been in a years-long dispute with the EC, which opened an antitrust probe in 2023 after Slack filed a complaint in 2020 alleging that Microsoft’s bundling of Teams and Microsoft 365 was anticompetitive.
The company unbundled the two products in the EU shortly thereafter in a bid to avoid antitrust fines, but it wasn’t enough to appease the EC. In 2024, the Commission found that Microsoft did not go far enough and was still in violation of antitrust laws, risking massive fines.
This week, Microsoft responded with a more robust set of commitments. Its productivity software suites will continue to be offered without Teams in the European Economic Area (EEA) for at least seven years. Minimum price deltas will be set between versions of the suites that include Teams and those which do not.
Microsoft has also offered to align these options and pricing structures for its suites and Teams globally should the EC accept its proposal. Interoperability enhancements that make it easier to use third-party competitors to Teams were also included in the proposal.
“The proposed commitments are the result of constructive, good-faith discussions with the European Commission over several months. We believe that they represent a clear and complete resolution to the concerns raised by our competitors and will provide European customers with more choices,” said Nanna-Louise Linde, Microsoft’s VP of European Government Affairs.
The EC has begun an open feedback period, seeking comments from competitors and citizens on whether the proposed commitments by Microsoft are adequate and place the company back within the bounds of the EU’s antitrust regulations.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/microsoft-attemps-to-avoid-eu-fines-by-further-decoupling-teams-and-office-170519085.html?src=rss
Max may be adding the “HBO” back into its name, but don’t let that fool you into thinking that streaming is getting any better for classic film fans in 2025—great movies older than a few decades are still hard to come by on popular subscription services like Hulu and Netflix.
Sure, you could sign up for The Criterion Channel, the streaming service from the boutique media label dedicated to highlighting the best in classic and contemporary films (if you are any kind of film history geek, it’s practically a moral imperative). But you actually don’t need to pay anything at all to enjoy a substantial library of Criterion-approved gems: As spotted on Reddit (and possibly inspired by a Redditor and Letterboxd user who goes by the handle “Geekstache”), Tubi now has a category page collecting all the movies in the Criterion Collection that you can watch for free on the ad-supported service.
Of course, Tubi can’t come right out and say it has curated its own little Criterion corner (Criterion would probably take issue with that; plus, it’s not like it’s the blessing from Criterion that makes a movie great). Instead, it classifies these 150+ films—from old Hollywood screwball farces like Bringing Up Baby, to imported epics like Akira Kurasowa’s Ran, to recent indie darlings like Greta Gerwig’s Frances Ha—as being “For the Cinephiles.” (I’m sure it is just a coincidence all of them have been released on Blu-ray and DVD in fancy Criterion editions.)
The category includes a ton of movies I’ve long been meaning to see—and you too, probably. There are even a few I own on Criterion DVD that I haven’t gotten around to actually watching yet (It Happened One Night, All That Jazz). Of course, streaming on Tubi isn’t exactly equivalent to watching in high definition on a feature-packed disc, or even on The Criterion Channel itself—you’ll have to sit through commercial breaks, for one thing, and its unlikely Tubi will be offering up the same pristine restored prints. But you also won’t be paying for the privilege, and you can save yourself the time you’d otherwise spend endlessly scrolling for something good to watch.
MIT said Friday it can no longer stand behind a widely circulated paper on AI written by a doctoral student in its economics program. The paper said that the introduction of an AI tool in a materials-science lab led to gains in new discoveries, but had more ambiguous effects on the scientists who used it. WSJ: MIT didn’t name the student in its statement Friday, but it did name the paper. That paper, by Aidan Toner-Rodgers, was covered by The Wall Street Journal and other media outlets. In a press release, MIT said it “has no confidence in the provenance, reliability or validity of the data and has no confidence in the veracity of the research contained in the paper.”
The university said the author of the paper is no longer at MIT. The paper said that after an AI tool was implemented at a large materials-science lab, researchers discovered significantly more materials — a result that suggested that, in certain settings, AI could substantially improve worker productivity. But it also showed that most of the productivity gains went to scientists who were already highly effective, and that overall the AI tool made scientists less happy about their work.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
We’ve learned a lot about the Switch 2 since Nintendo announced it in back in January. We know how basic specs compare on paper to the original Switch; we know that many physical game carts won’t actually have the games on them; and we know what games to expect this year. While there’s still more to learn about the console before it officially launches next month, some new leaks have provided fresh insights into how the Switch 2 actually performs.
Digital Foundry reports that it can definitively confirm leaks surrounding the Switch 2’s hardware, answering many of the remaining questions that Nintendo and Nvidia have left a mystery thus far. The outlet highlights the key hardware upgrades for the company’s new console, and explains how there are some major performance boosts—especially in docked mode.
Digital Foundry highlights that Nintendo calls the SoC (system on a chip) in both the Switch 2 and OG Switch “custom,” but notes that the original Switch’s SoC was really a “vanilla” chip. The Switch 2’s hardware, on the other hand, really is made solely with Nintendo’s console in mind. That means it should be better optimized for the company’s unique situation of needing to offer console-quality game play that can adapt to handheld mode.
The new custom Nvidia T239 has an eight-core ARM Cortext A87C CPU, compared to the four-core ARM Cortext A57 in the Switch 1. Digital Foundry reports that the original Switch reserved one CPU core for operating system features and left the other three open to developers, while the Switch 2 reserves six of its cores for developers, and uses two for OS tasks.
CPU specs are still unclear: The original Switch had a fixed CPU clock speed (the processing rate of the CPU) of 1020MHz whether it was docked or in handheld mode. The new Switch runs at 1101MHz in handheld, but 998MHz when docked. Digital Foundry isn’t sure why this is the case, though it does speculate it has something to do with memory bandwidth drops that would have an impact on CPU performance. The maximum theoretical clock speed here is 1.7GHz, compared to 1.785GHz on the Switch.
GPU specs make more sense at this time. The new Ampere GPU has a typical clock speed of 1007MHz when docked, and 561MHz in handheld mode, with a maximum clock speed of 1.4GHz. The original Switch’s Maxwell GPU ran at 768MHz when docked and up to 460MHz in handheld mode, with a maximum of 921MHz. An important metric to note here is TFLOPS, which measures the rate of performance for a GPU. When docked, the Switch 2’s GPU is rated for 3.072 TFLOPs, but drops to 1.71 TFLOPs in handheld mode. Digital Foundry makes the point that you can’t necessarily evaluate a GPU’s potential from TFLOPs alone, and that it’ll be up to developers to show us how well games can perform.
We already knew that the Switch 2 offers 12GB of RAM (102GBps when docked and 68GBps in handheld). Digital Foundry now says it can confirm how Nintendo is allocating that memory: The OS uses 3GB of RAM, which leaves 9GB for running games. It’s a stark comparison with the Switch 1, which only shipped with 4GB of RAM, with 3.2GB of that allocated to developers. That means the Switch 2 nearly triples the amount of memory game makers can use.
GameChat is one on Nintendo’s “big” new features for the Switch 2. Coming to market a mere 22 years after Xbox Live popularized online console chat, the feature offers in-game communication features like audio and video chat and screen sharing. However, it appears that innovation comes at cost to performance.
Digital Foundry says GameChat affects system resources to such a degree that Nintendo is offering developers a “Game Chat testing tool.” This tool replicates the resources Game Chat takes up while running, so developers can understand how that might impact their games, without actually needing to run Game Chat itself during development.
This should be no surprise to anyone who watched Nintendo’s Switch 2 demos. Game Chat looks choppy, especially when sharing your screen or making video calls. (Is that 5 fps?) I suppose it’s refreshing to see Nintendo so transparent about how laggy these features are, but the fact that it looks this bad in the official advertisement doesn’t bode well for Game Chat’s real-world performance.
Taken purely on paper, the Switch 2 has a big performance advantage when plugged into its dock. We already knew that the Switch 2 is capable of 4K 60 fps and 1440p 120 fps output in docked mode, compared to 1080p 120 fps output in handheld. It makes sense, then, for the Switch 2 to have an active cooling fan built into the dock to maintain that higher performance. (The Switch 1 does not have a fan in its dock, even though it is able to output a higher resolution in docked mode than handheld.)
However, we’ll have to see how the performance translates into real-world use. As with any piece of hardware, on-paper specs can only tell you so much. The true test is in how developers can optimize and push that hardware with their software. If devs can take advantage of the more advanced Switch 2 hardware to pull off more impressive graphics and performance, we’ll naturally see that for ourselves in the gameplay. For now, it’s a waiting game.
Ahead of Google I/O 2025, which starts on May 20, the company has announced a few big accessibility focused features for Android and Google Chrome. Among these are improvements to the Android screen reader, more expressive captions, and easier to read text in Chrome for Android. This follows Apple’s recent accessibility focused announcements, with both companies’ posts timed to mark Global Accessibility Awareness Day (May 15). Here are the best new accessibility features coming to Android and Chrome.
TalkBack is Android’s screen reader, and while it’s had Gemini AI integration for a while now, it’s getting a few updates. Previously, the AI could generate descriptions of onscreen images even if they didn’t have alt text (which is what normally allows screen readers to describe images). Now, Google is expanding its feature set to include question and answer support for images. This should help users learn more about whatever’s pictured, such as the make and model of a product, if discounts are available for it, and what else is in the photo. You could even use TalkBack to ask Gemini to look at clothes on a shopping website and recommend the best pick for a certain occasion, Google suggests.
When you’re watching a sports game with captions enabled, the text doesn’t always convey the emotion behind the commentary. If a player scores an unbelievable goal, the commentator may say, “Gooooooooooaaaaaalllll,” but the captions will often turn that into a much more stoic “Goal (cheering).” Google is aiming to address that with Expressive Captions, which uses AI to capture how someone is speaking, and not just what they’re saying. The company also says that Expressive Captions will display more labels for sounds, including whistles and throat clearing. This feature is rolling out to devices running Android 15 or newer, and will work for English captions in four regions—Australia, Canada, UK, and the US.
Google is trying to make it easier to read text in Chrome for Android. If you find the default font size too small, Chrome’s new Page Zoom feature will allow you to increase the font size without zooming in on the rest of the website. Google says you’ll be able to customize your adjustments and save your preferences for all websites.
In Chrome for desktop, Google is adding the ability to use a screen reader to interact with scanned PDFs. Chrome will use OCR (Optical Character Recognition) to identify scanned pages and let you use a screen reader to select, highlight, copy, and search text.
Third-party support was a big theme of the Switch 2 reveal earlier this year, with many publishers seemingly keen to capitalize on both the popularity of the outgoing Switch and the significantly increased horsepower of its imminent successor. And if you’re looking to get third-party games on your new system, they don’t come much much bigger than Red Dead Redemption 2, which could be making its way to Nintendo’s new console later this year.
Gamereactor says it has heard from sources close to Rockstar (which it then corroborated with other sources) that the enormous open-world Western that first released in 2018 is bound for Switch 2, and could arrive either at the same time, or after, a long-rumored next-gen update for the PS5 and Xbox Series X. Red Dead Redemption 2 is of course currently playable on both of those platforms, but unlike GTA 5, it’s never been patched to support the higher frame rates and fidelity afforded by the newer hardware.
This should by no means be taken as an official announcement, but Rockstar has supported the current Switch pretty well throughout its life cycle, releasing ports of L.A. Noire, the original 3D Grand Theft Auto trilogy, and most recently the first Red Dead Redemption. If the Switch 2 can run its sequel, it’s a pretty safe bet to assume that Rockstar would want to do it, and the console is likely to be roughly equivalent in power to the base model PS4, according to Digital Foundry. It goes without saying that we’ll know a lot more about how the Switch 2 performs when the console is in the wild and put through its paces.
Both a Nintendo Switch 2 port and current-gen patch for Red Dead Redemption 2 would be a good way for Rockstar to bridge the gap between now and the release of GTA 6, which was recently delayed until May 2026. With a 97 percent score on Metacritic, RDR2 is one of the developer’s most acclaimed titles to date, and you can be sure that a lot of people would happily hop back into the cowboy boots of Arthur Morgan while they wait to return to Vice City.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/red-dead-redemption-2-could-be-coming-to-switch-2-this-year-161043422.html?src=rss
Meta thinks there’s no reason to carry on with its defense after the Federal Trade Commission closed its monopoly case, and the company has moved to end the trial early by claiming that the FTC utterly failed to prove its case.
“The FTC has no proof that Meta has monopoly power,” Meta’s motion for judgment filed Thursday said, “and therefore the court should rule in favor of Meta.”
According to Meta, the FTC failed to show evidence that “the overall quality of Meta’s apps has declined” or that the company shows too many ads to users. Meta says that’s “fatal” to the FTC’s case that the company wielded monopoly power to pursue more ad revenue while degrading user experience over time (an Internet trend known as “enshittification”). And on top of allegedly showing no evidence of “ad load, privacy, integrity, and features” degradation on Meta apps, Meta argued there’s no precedent for an antitrust claim rooted in this alleged harm.
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If you’re in the market for a mini laser projector, the Hisense C2 Portable Laser Projector is at its lowest price yet, according to price-tracking tools, down from $1,999.99 to $1,699.99. A compact setup for small living spaces or trips, this impressive projector boasts quality comparable to that of a high-quality TV. While it doesn’t have the same quality as pricier models like the Hisense C2 Ultra, it’s a space-saving projector for casual viewing or a lag-free gaming experience.
The Hisense C2 can project up to a 300-inch movie screen, and it has an adjustable viewing angle to align with screens, walls, and ceilings precisely for a more flexible setup. It features a sharp 4K image and 2000 ANSI Lumens brightness for maximum vibrancy. The unique 4K AI Upscaler feature transforms lower-quality videos, such as classic films and home movies, into crystal-clear 4K quality, complete with vivid and accurate colors. This is achieved through the projector’s innovative MCL38 Laser design, which harnesses the power of 4 LEDs.
The Ultra model comes with additional bells and whistles; it has a greater ANSI Lumens and is a stronger choice for brighter rooms and home theaters. It also features a stronger audio quality that doesn’t require any external speakers for superior sound. However, the price tag is also significantly heftier with a nearly $800 difference. They both feature the same resolution, projection size, and display technology. If you don’t plan on using this projector in very bright rooms or are hoping to replace a high-quality TV, this mini projector could hit the sweet spot.
Early adopters of Apple’s $3,500 Vision Pro mixed-reality headset report widespread disappointment a year after its February 2024 launch, with many devices now unused due to physical discomfort and social awkwardness, according to customers who spoke with WSJ.
“It’s just collecting dust,” said Dustin Fox, a Virginia realtor who has used his headset only four times in the past year. “It’s way too heavy. I can’t wear it for more than 20 or 30 minutes without it hurting my neck.” Customers told the paper that the device’s one-pound weight causes neck strain. The device is also reeling from limited app selection and negative public reactions as primary complaints.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
In the modern era, cars keep getting bigger and bigger between generations. Or at least, they’re certainly not getting smaller. That’s especially true in America, where bigger is always better and the vehicles in the current crop of “compact” crossovers are now nearly as large as full-size SUVs from a decade ago. Don’t ask about curb weights, either, as more powerful drivetrains, including widespread adoption of hybrid-electric components, add significant mass, as highlighted by the new BMW M5 “sport sedan.”
Within that fray, however, the new Volkswagen Tiguan stands apart. VW purposefully refined the third-gen Tiguan to cater better to American consumer needs, which meant dropping the third row to create more interior volume for the front and rear seats. The wheelbase still measures the same length at 109.9 inches (2,791 mm), but shorter overhangs mean the overall length actually shrinks by nearly two inches. Yet more efficient packaging on the inside also results in a marginal passenger volume increase of about two percent.
To help keep pricing attractive at below $30,000 to start, VW also decided to skip out on a hybrid variant, but the new EA888evo5 2.0 L turbocharged-four nonetheless delivers more power and improved fuel economy. And all of the above actually contributes to the Tiguan losing weight while evolving from the second to third generation, shaving about 160 lbs (72.5 kg), depending on trim.
Like the iPhone, Samsung Galaxy handsets come loaded with a bunch of preinstalled Samsung apps that you don’t necessarily need and might never use—especially as there are Google-made equivalents for a lot of them that you’ll also find on your phone.
As these Samsung apps come preinstalled, you might think that removing them might break something on your device, but you can safely uninstall most of them without worrying (and find them again on the Galaxy Store, if you ever need to get them back).
Clearing out the apps you’re not using regularly means your phone won’t need to download updates for them, and you’ll free up some storage space too. It’s well worth taking a few minutes to delete any apps you don’t need, and that includes the ones Samsung has helpfully installed for you.
You can delete any app on your Samsung phone from the app drawer: Just press and hold on an app icon, then choose Uninstall > OK. These are the ones that One UI lets you get rid of, quickly and safely:
Calculator: For doing sums on your phone, courtesy of Samsung.
Calendar: Samsung’s alternative to Google Calendar.
Clock: Samsung’s own app for checking times and setting alarms.
Galaxy Shop: For buying everything from TVs to watches from Samsung.
Galaxy Wearable: If you need to manage Galaxy smartwatches.
Gaming Hub: A hub for launching your games and finding new ones.
Global Goals: Samsung’s app for supporting charities and causes.
Notes: For creating notes with text, drawings, images, and more.
Penup: Samsung’s app for creating and sharing drawings.
Samsung Find: Locates your family and friends, and your Samsung devices.
Samsung Health: For tracking your fitness stats and other health metrics.
Samsung Internet: Samsung’s own mobile web browser.
Samsung Members: Shows special offers and benefits with your Samsung account.
Samsung TV Plus: Free streaming TV channels from Samsung.
Samsung Wallet: Samsung’s take on mobile payments and passes.
SmartThings: For controlling smart home kit supporting Samsung’s standard.
Tips: Get to know the key features on your Samsung phone.
Voice Recorder: For audio recordings and transcriptions on your phone.
That’s list constitutes the majority of the Samsung apps that come bundled with One UI, but it’s not all of them. You can’t uninstall Bixby, Camera, Contacts, the Galaxy Store, Gallery, My Files, or Smart Switch as you look to declutter your phone.
Depending on where in the world you are, you might also see a range of third-party apps (not made by Samsung) on your Galaxy handset. These can all be safely uninstalled, and may include Facebook, Netflix, and Spotify.
You might also come across various Google and Microsoft apps. These are the ones you can get rid of to free up some space:
Google Drive: For accessing your Google Drive files in the cloud.
Google TV: Streaming shows and movies across various platforms.
LinkedIn: The professional social network owned by Microsoft.
Microsoft Copilot: The AI assistant from Microsoft.
Outlook: Microsoft’s email client for desktop, mobile, and the web.
YouTube Music: Google’s music streaming service.
For some preinstalled apps, including Google Chrome and Microsoft OneDrive, you won’t see an Uninstall option, but you will see a Disable option. Disabling an app hides it from view and stops automatic updates for it, but it doesn’t actually remove it from your phone. You can enable these apps again by opening up Settings and navigating to the Apps.
Challenge
When Nintendo took the wraps off the Switch 2 in early April, it announced that around a dozen first-party Switch games would be getting free updates that would add some Switch 2-specific benefits to older games running on the new console. We could safely assume that these updates wouldn’t be as extensive as the $10 and $20 paid upgrade packs for games like Breath of the Wild or Kirby and the Forgotten Land, but Nintendo’s page didn’t initially provide any game-specific details.
Earlier this week, Nintendo updated its support page with more game-by-game details about what players of these older games can expect on the new hardware. The baseline improvement for most games is “improved image quality” and optimizations for the Switch 2’s built-in display, but others include support for GameShare multiplayer, support for the new Joy-Cons’ mouse controls, support for HDR TVs, and other tweaks.
The most significant of the announced updates are frame rate improvements for Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, the main-series Pokémon games released in late 2022. Most latter-day Switch games suffered from frame rate dips here and there, as newer games outstripped the capabilities of a low-power tablet processor that had already been a couple of years old when the Switch launched in 2017. But the Pokémon performance problems were so pervasive and widely commented-upon that Nintendo released a rare apology promising to improve the game post-release. Subsequent patches helped somewhat but could never deliver a consistently smooth frame rate; perhaps new hardware will finally deliver what software patches couldn’t.
You can pick up a pair of Blink Mini 2 security cameras for just $38. This is a discount of 46 percent, as the typical price is $70. The discount is available for both the black and white models. This deal is part of an early Memorial Day sale.
The Blink Mini 2 made our list of the best security cameras, and we gave it kudos for being a great option for the budget-conscious. These are small cameras that are easy to place just about anywhere. You can adjust the head to accommodate a wide variety of angles and we found the setup to be painless and quick.
The image quality is decent, though not astounding. The bright spots can get a bit blown out, but the camera gets the job done. We found that it was particularly useful at night, thanks to the infrared view and the spotlight. This model also offers the ability to set privacy zones and it can double as a doorbell chime if you happen to have a Blink Video Doorbell installed.
The camera is weather resistant, so it works outside. It also integrates with Alexa, which makes sense as Amazon owns Blink. Alexa can be used to adjust settings, arm the camera and more.
There’s no location detection here, so it can’t automatically arm the device when you leave the house. This has to be done manually. Also, it doesn’t offer any cloud storage unless you pony up for a Blink subscription. A basic subscription for one camera costs $3 per month.
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This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/two-blink-mini-2-security-cameras-are-on-sale-for-38-152339616.html?src=rss
Broadcom employees have had their personal data compromised following a September 2024 ransomware attack on Business Systems House (BSH), a Middle Eastern subsidiary of payroll company ADP.
The breach, claimed by the Russian-speaking El Dorado ransomware group, wasn’t fully identified until December when stolen data appeared online, according to The Register. Broadcom only received details of affected employees on May 12, 2025. Compromised information potentially includes national ID numbers, financial account numbers, health insurance details, dates of birth, salary information, and contact details.
Five employee accounts were initially compromised, ultimately affecting 560 users. ADP has distanced itself from the incident, stating only “a small subset of ADP clients” in “certain countries in the Middle East” were affected.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
On Wednesday, the world was a bit perplexed by the Grok LLM’s sudden insistence on turning practically every response toward the topic of alleged “white genocide” in South Africa. xAI now says that odd behavior was the result of “an unauthorized modification” to the Grok system prompt—the core set of directions for how the LLM should behave.
That prompt modification “directed Grok to provide a specific response on a political topic” and “violated xAI’s internal policies and core values,” xAI wrote on social media. The code review process in place for such changes was “circumvented in this incident,” it continued, without providing further details on how such circumvention could occur.
To prevent similar problems from happening in the future, xAI says it has now implemented “additional checks and measures to ensure that xAI employees can’t modify the prompt without review” as well as putting in place “a 24/7 monitoring team” to respond to any widespread issues with Grok’s responses.
