Avowed’s fiery Last Light of Day isn’t just the best one-handed sword in the game, it’s arguably the best weapon you can find period, thanks to its high damage, fire accumulation, and fantastic enchantment that restores your health upon killing enemies. The fact that it can be obtained so early in the game makes it…
Apple’s slow trickle of early 2025 product announcements is apparently set to continue this week, following the introduction of the iPhone 16e a couple of weeks ago. According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, the company plans to refresh its 13- and 15-inch MacBook Air laptops “as early as this coming week,” adding the M4 processor that Apple put in the iMac, Mac mini, and MacBook Pro lineups last fall.
An M4 refresh for the MacBook Air was always likely, but Apple has kept us guessing about the timing. Usually, the MacBook Airs are among the first devices to get new M-series processors from Apple, but Apple surprised us by bringing the M4 to the iPad Pro just a few months after introducing the M3. In mid-December, concrete references to the M4 MacBook Air appeared in the macOS 15.2 update, suggesting that the laptops were in testing, even if they weren’t ready for a public launch yet.
The laptops are unlikely to look too different from the current M2 or M3 MacBook Airs, which got an “update” of sorts last fall when Apple discontinued the versions with 8GB of RAM in favor of 16GB versions that kept the same prices.
The UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has announced it’s investigating how TikTok, Reddit and Imgur protect children on their platforms.
The probe into TikTok is looking at how the platform uses it young users’ (13 to 17 year olds) personal data for recommendations and suggested content, while the investigation into Reddit and Imgur focuses on both how the platforms are using children’s personal information and how they’re using measures that estimate or confirm a child’s age.
“If social media and video sharing platforms want to benefit from operating in the UK they must comply with data protection law,” UK Information Commissioner John Edwards stated. “The responsibility to keep children safe online lies firmly at the door of the companies offering these services and my office is steadfast in its commitment to hold them to account.” The UK doesn’t yet know if these companies have infringed on personal data protections.
In 2023, the ICO handed down a £12.7 million ($16.1 million) fine to TikTok. The platform had allowed up to 1.4 million children under 13 on it in 2020, and used their data without parental consent. The ByteDance-owned company has also faced backlash in the US around young users, with mixed results.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/uk-watchdog-investigates-chidrens-safety-on-tiktok-and-reddit-153052793.html?src=rss
Monster Hunter Wilds continued its massive launch into the weekend with the second-most players on Steam, helping propel the Valve-owned storefront to a new record-breaking 40 million concurrent users. The action-RPG’s performance on PC, however, has remained somewhere between less than stellar and pretty bad, devolvin…
Unlike the motorized ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 expected in June, the Flip uses the display’s flexibility to fold behind itself, eliminating motors while gaining 0.4 inches of additional screen space. Users can mirror content on the rear-facing portion when folded or enjoy the full 2000×2664 resolution display in vertical orientation. The concept also features a SmartForcePad trackpad with LED-illuminated shortcut layers. While still in prototype phase, Lenovo has specs in mind: Intel Ultra 7 processor, 32GB RAM, PCIe SSD storage, and Thunderbolt 4 connectivity.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Mobile World Congress 2025 has officially kicked off in Barcelona. Google is on the ground previewing two AI features that will begin rolling out to Android devices starting later this month.
The first is Live Video, which Google first showed at I/O 2024 last May. The tool takes advantage of Gemini’s multi-modal capabilities to allow users to show the chatbot what their phone’s camera sees. As you can see from the demo Google shared, Gemini is able to answer a question about mid-century modern decor and offer a suggestion when it comes how to apply that knowledge to pottery.
The other new feature, screensharing, works exactly as you would imagine. You can share your screen with Gemini to ask questions about what you see in front of you on a website or app. Google isn’t exactly pushing the envelope with either feature. ChatGPT’s Advanced Voice Mode has offered both live video and screensharing since the end of last year, but the nice thing here is you won’t need to jump into a separate app to take advantage of Gemini’s new capabilities.
As mentioned, Google will begin rolling out live video and screensharing to Gemini Advanced subscribers starting later this month. Gemini Advanced is included in the company’s $20 per month Google One AI Premium plan. If you’re a Verizon customer, the carrier recently added the subscription as a perk for some plans.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/gemini-live-video-and-screensharing-arrive-on-android-devices-later-this-month-151743457.html?src=rss
The Trump Pump briefly sent the prices of five cryptocurrencies soaring, but they’re already coming back down to Earth.
Save $24 on your TurboTax Deluxe 2024 software license for federal and state tax returns.
Anora swept the proceedings at the 2025 Oscars with five wins across the biggest categories of the night.
If you’re trying to get your finances back on track—and who isn’t?—you’re sure to see “no-buy months” and “low-buy years” all across social media. No-buy challenges ask participants to eliminate all non-essential purchases for a set period. While the concept seems straightforward, these challenges often fail because they don’t address the psychological aspects of spending or provide realistic frameworks for long-term financial habits.
I’ve written before that sticking to a budget can feel a lot like sticking to a diet. A strict approach is not only too difficult to maintain, but it can backfire. The all-or-nothing mentality is frustrating and demoralizing, and you might wind up abandoning your financial goals. And like trying to cut out all carbs on a random Tuesday, it’s sure to lead to some sort of binge. The solution? Some sort of moderation.
Let’s take a look at several alternative saving strategies that offer more sustainable paths to financial wellness without requiring complete, all-or-nothing spending freezes.
This method involves dividing physical cash into different envelopes or containers for specific spending categories. Common categories for cash stuffing include groceries, entertainment, restaurants, gas, rent, etc. The key here is you can only spend money in a certain category from its designated envelope. Once the envelope is empty, that’s that for the month.
Cash stuffing works because it forces you to be more intentional (deciding how much money gets allocated into your envelopes) and more disciplined (you can’t put more money into the envelope once it runs out). I also love how it eliminates the abstract nature of transactions. It’s always helpful to see immediate visual feedback on your remaining budget.
Instead of cutting all discretionary spending, focus on reducing expenditures in one problematic area, such as dining out or clothing purchases.
How to implement:
Identify your highest unnecessary spending category.
Set a specific, reasonable reduction goal (like cutting restaurant visits in half).
Track your progress without eliminating the category entirely.
This approach emphasizes thoughtful consumption rather than impulsive buying or complete abstinence.
Key principles:
Implement a mandatory waiting period (24-72 hours) before making non-essential purchases.
Research alternatives, compare prices, and consider second-hand options.
Ask yourself meaningful questions about each potential purchase’s value and necessity.
Rather than focusing on restriction, the values-based budget aligns spending with your personal values and priorities.
Some steps to follow:
Identify what truly matters most to you (family experiences, health, education, etc.).
Allocate more resources to high-value categories.
Naturally reduce spending in areas that don’t align with your core values.
The most effective saving strategy is one you can maintain consistently. Experiment with different approaches to discover which creates sustainable financial habits without triggering feelings of deprivation or eventual spending rebounds.
Remember that financial wellness isn’t about never spending money—it’s about spending intentionally on what truly matters while building security for the future.
This week, you can expand your Playstation VR 2 game library at a bargain price. Sony is giving you up to 60% off.
The post Playstation VR 2 Sale: Don’t miss out on these 5 VR games appeared first on MIXED Reality News.
At the same time, some shows never get good. Recently, I started a spy series called The Agency, which could best be characterized as premium mediocre (at least so far). There are big-name actors (Michael Fassbender, Jeffrey Wright, Richard Gere), expensive sets, and glossy camerawork — but after a few installments, I’m trapped in a liminal space between engaged and listless. At the end of each episode, I’m left with the same thought: “Maybe the next one will get good.”
Committing to a mediocre program or continuing with a floundering series elicits a state of (mildly) torturous ambiguity. Should you cut your losses, or is this show some late-blooming classic like Breaking Bad? What is the optimal number of episodes one should watch before cleansing a subpar series from their life? Surely, a universal number must exist! Like 42, but for television. So today, we’ll explore how long it takes a new show to reach its full potential and how many lackluster episodes you should grant an established series before cutting ties. His analysis reveals that viewers should watch six episodes before quitting TV shows. The study, based on IMDb user ratings, found most series require six to seven episodes before early ratings match or exceed the show’s long-term average. After six consecutive subpar episodes, the likelihood of permanent decline exceeds 50%, making it the optimal point to abandon disappointing series.
Several acclaimed shows including Breaking Bad, Friends, and Seinfeld required multiple episodes before reaching their quality potential, with Seinfeld needing 16 episodes to match its series average. The research also identified a pattern where long-running shows typically experience quality decline around seasons five and six, with ratings dropping below first-season averages and continuing to fall.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Apple’s iPad mini 7 (A17 Pro) from 2024 is currently on sale for $399, a record low for this compact iPad. It’s perfect for those who find a full-sized iPad too large for their needs, but make no mistake this tablet can punch above its weight.
The iPad mini 7 runs on the same Apple A17 Pro chip found in iPhone 15 Pro series devices. It’s not the most powerful chipset available, but it’s enough for daily tasks, light gaming, reading and streaming content. Apple claims that the iPad mini 7’s battery can last 10 hours, but our tests revealed that the number was usually closer to eight, depending on the apps you’re running.
If you have an Apple Pencil Pro (sold separately), this iPad mini supports it. You can quickly start writing notes with the tap of a button, which calls up a blank document. It’s the perfect tool for artists or those who prefer a tablet stylus.
Despite the absence of features like Face ID or refresh rates above 60Hz, the iPad mini 7 is a convenient yet powerful device you can bring anywhere. That’s why it’s on our best iPads list.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/the-ipad-mini-7-is-back-on-sale-for-100-off-143830970.html?src=rss
Leading artificial intelligence firms including OpenAI, Microsoft, and Meta are turning to a process called “distillation” in the global race to create AI models that are cheaper for consumers and businesses to adopt.
The technique caught widespread attention after China’s DeepSeek used it to build powerful and efficient AI models based on open source systems released by competitors Meta and Alibaba. The breakthrough rocked confidence in Silicon Valley’s AI leadership, leading Wall Street investors to wipe billions of dollars of value from US Big Tech stocks.
Through distillation, companies take a large language model—dubbed a “teacher” model—which generates the next likely word in a sentence. The teacher model generates data which then trains a smaller “student” model, helping to quickly transfer knowledge and predictions of the bigger model to the smaller one.
The price of PlayStation VR2 has now been cut to $400, and this includes Horizon Call of the Mountain.
The price cut was announced on Thursday, and has now gone live in the US, nine days after the headset’s two-year anniversary. In the UK the new price will soon be £400, in the EU it will be €450, and in Japan it will be ¥66,980.
The new price applies to both the regular package and the bundle that includes Horizon Call of the Mountain, so you should always grab the latter if it’s available.
Originally, since the headset launched in February 2023, these were priced at $550 and $600 respectively. For a week in summer the headset was on sale for $350, and for six weeks over the holidays the bundle with Horizon Call of the Mountain was on sale for $350.
With the new price, you can get a PS5 and PlayStation VR2 together for $800, or a PS5 Pro with it for $1100.
Henry Stockdale
At $550, we had been cautioning against buying a PlayStation VR2 for use with a PS5 at full price, as Sony’s content commitment to the platform is questionable at best.
While Sony delivered strong launch content with AAA titles like Horizon Call of the Mountain and Gran Turismo 7, the company has failed to deliver anything like this since. Two years in, the only new first-party games Sony released are My First Gran Turismo and Firewall Ultra, the latter of which was received so poorly it led to the studio’s closure.
Still, the platform has seen a steady stream of the top indie VR titles ported from Quest and SteamVR, and this season benefited from the launch of AAA cross-platform VR titles, including Metro Awakening, Alien: Rogue Incursion and Skydance’s Behemoth. Further, IO Interactive plans to bring the Hitman: World of Assassination trilogy to PS VR2 in March.
Also, since summer PlayStation VR2 is no longer confined to PS5. If you have a gaming PC, you can pick up the PC adapter for around $60 and access a plethora of new content on SteamVR.
David Heaney
At $400, whether it be for use on PS5 or on PC, PlayStation VR2 is a significantly more attractive proposition than it was before.
This article, originally published on Thursday to cover the price cut’s announcement, has been updated to reflect the new price going live in the US.