Elevate your sound experience with the 2nd generation AirPods Pro with the H2 chipset, down to just $199.
Elevate your sound experience with the 2nd generation AirPods Pro with the H2 chipset, down to just $199.
The billionaire oligarch has set his sights on America’s social safety net.
Maybe, just maybe, the problem isn’t with AI, but with how we’re designing it, and perhaps more importantly, how we’re using it.
The post AI Is Not Unavoidable. Not This AI, That’s for Sure appeared first on FOSS Force.
Your new iPad is sleek, powerful and ready to tackle everything from binge-watching to serious productivity — but without the right protection, it’s also one drop away from disaster. One of the most important iPad accessories is a solid case. Whether you want something rugged to handle everyday wear and tear, a slim case that keeps things lightweight or a keyboard cover to turn your tablet into a mini laptop, there are plenty of options to suit your needs.
Some cases go beyond basic protection, offering adjustable stands for better viewing angles, built-in storage for your Apple Pencil or even added durability for clumsy moments. We’ve rounded up the best iPad accessories to keep your new iPad safe and functional.
It’s almost always a good idea to keep your iPad in a case so it’s protected against hazards and accidents. The best iPads are expensive — even the most affordable model will set you back nearly $300 — so you’ll want to safeguard your gear as much as possible.
All iPad covers are cases, but not all iPad cases are covers — yes, it’s a bit confusing, but allow us to explain. Most iPad covers are cases that surround the back of your tablet and have a flap that covers the screen, so it provides protection for the body as well as its display. Plenty of iPad cases also have screen covers, but you don’t have to get one with that feature. Instead, you could just get a case that hugs the back of the tablet and nothing else. Those accessories will be marginally thinner and lighter than their cover-toting counterparts, and give your iPad a more svelte profile.
How often you charge your iPad will depend on how often you use it. Most iPads will last at least a regular work day with frequent usage, which is one of the reasons why many have opted to use their iPads as laptop replacements. But with heavy usage, like constant video streaming or gaming, will come more rapid battery drain. A good rule of thumb is to charge your iPad when you go to sleep each night, that way you’ll have a topped-up device waiting for you in the morning.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/accessories/best-ipad-cases-to-protect-your-tablet-130033533.html?src=rss
We may earn a commission from links on this page.
I’ve pored over Netflix’s release schedule to bring you the best movies and TV shows premiering on the service this month. My must-watch of the month: The Electric State, a comedy sci-fi movie starring Millie Bobby Brown, Chris Pratt, and adorable (but maybe deadly) robots. I’m also psyched for Chaos: The Manson Murders, a new film from documentary GOAT Errol Morris (The Thin Blue Line, Mr. Death), and I’ll be checking in on Everybody’s Live, a talk show hosted by John Mulaney that’s streamed live.
Based on the acclaimed graphic novel by Simon Stålenhag, The Electric State is a sci-fi comedy set in a retro-future version of America in the years after a war between humans and robots nearly wiped out humanity. Most people, understandably, don’t trust robots, but main character Michelle, played by Millie Bobby Brown, is traveling with a pair of mysterious ‘bots, searching for her lost brother. Also on hand: a drifter named Keats, played by Chris Pratt. The Electric State‘s big stars and intriguing premise make it a must-watch.
Starts streaming March 14.
Legendary film-maker Errol Morris turns his always-revealing lens on the Manson Family murders in this provocative new documentary. Not satisfied with “official” explanations of Charles Manson’s motives and strange personal charisma, Morris ties the crimes to a larger narrative involving the CIA, LSD, Jack Ruby, The Beach Boys, and who knows what else. Chaos: The Manson Murders features interviews with experts, living witnesses, and archival footage of the Manson clan, combined by a master of the craft.
Starts streaming March 7.
Netflix is entering the talk show world with Everybody’s Live with John Mulaney, a weekly live show hosted by Mulaney, who also serves as co-showrunner, and executive producer. If his first Netflix live show, John Mulaney’s Everybody’s in LA, is the model, expect eclectic celebrity guests, phone calls with the viewing audience, and the spontaneous magic that only working live brings. At a recent press event, Mulaney promised, “We will never be relevant. We will never be your source for news. We will always be reckless. Netflix will always provide us with data that we will ignore.” Sounds promising.
Starts streaming March 12.
British comedian Peter Serafinowicz hosts this Netflix reality show in which 12 cutthroat competitors travel to an opulent mansion to try to get rich. One contestant finds a million dollars in their room. They get to keep it, but only if no one else discovers their secret. The combination of exotic locations, intricate schemes, a hilarious host, and a contest with a million dollars on the line sounds like reality-show gold to me.
Starts streaming March 26.
Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex, has her own reality show. According to Netflix, in With Love, Meghan, Markle “challenges us to pursue joy over flawlessness—to revel in the small, meaningful touches that may make a loved one’s day.” Right away, Your Grace. The show features a mix of practical how-tos and conversation with guests like chef Roy Choi and Mindy Kaling that take place in Markle’s kitchen, garden, and even her beehive. I love beehive talks!
Starts streaming March 5.
Based on the best-selling novel by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, The Leopard is set in late 19th century Sicily and tells the story of the redshirt army’s attempt to conquer the Italian island. It’s the last days of the European aristocracy, and Don Fabrizio Corbera, the Prince of Salina, realizes that his family’s lives of privilege and frivolity are at their end, so he must forge new alliances and make difficult choices so they can survive in the modern world.
Starts streaming March 5.
This Netflix original from Germany tells the story of a wealthy family unraveling during their summer vacation in Provence. After they hit a woman with their car, the family agrees to take her on as their maid. It seems like kindness, but it’s anything but: Each member of the family secretly wants something different from this beautiful young woman, leading to consequences that spin out of control and shatter the facade of their perfect lives.
Starts streaming March 7.
Who doesn’t love Plankton from Spongebob? This animated Netflix original finally gives the little copepod with big dreams a starring role. As you’d probably expect, Plankton is trying to destroy the world, but his plans are complicated when domestic problems inspire his sentient computer wife Karen to destroy the world without him. Don’t despair, Squidward fans: favorite Spongebob characters like Patrick and Sandy will appear in Plankton: The Movie, and so will the voice actors who bring them to life.
Starts streaming March 7.
Remember Osama Bin Laden? This suspenseful documentary tells the story of how he was tracked, caught, killed, and had his corpse dumped in the sea. Featuring rare archival footage and interviews with the CIA agents who were there, American Manhunt: Osama bin Laden gives viewers an inside look at one of the most complex and extensive manhunts in history.
Starts streaming March 10.
The dramatic question at the center of four-part Netflix series Adolescence is “What would you do if your teenage son was accused of murder?” Stephen Graham plays Eddie Miller, whose 13-year-old son Jamie, played by Owen Cooper, is arrested for the murder of a teenage classmate. To illustrate the provocative premise, each episode of Adolescence is presented as a single, continuous shot, so both film nerds and drama fans should put this on their watch list.
Starts streaming March 13.
Tornadoes are the most visually interesting natural disaster, and this documentary takes full advantage of their awesome cinematic power. The Twister: Caught in the Storm tells the story of the massive tornado that tore apart the town of Joplin, Missouri in 2011 through interviews with survivors and tons of harrowing footage shot by people who were right freakin’ there when disaster struck.
Starts streaming March 18.
If you like a good whodunit, check out The Residence. Uzo Aduba plays Cordelia Cupp, a brilliant but eccentric detective tasked with solving a murder that takes place during a state dinner at the White House residence. Everyone is a suspect: the staff, the guests, maybe the president himself. With a killer on the loose in the halls of power, Cupp must navigate a complex web of politics and personalities if she’s going to crack the case.
Starts streaming March 20.
Forrest Fenn was a strange old rich guy who buried a chest full of gold somewhere in the Rockies, published a poem full of cryptic clues to its location, then invited everyone on Earth to try to find it. This Netflix original documentary examines the decade-long treasure hunt that followed. As you’d probably guess, it got way out of hand: Searching for Fenn’s treasure ended up costing people their families, their jobs, and even their lives.
Starts streaming March 27.
Comedian Michelle Buteau is the co-creator and star of Survival of the Thickest, an ensemble comedy that earns high praise from critics. Season 2 of Thickest finds main character Mavis Beaumont, a large and in charge fashion stylist, in Italy, rebuilding her life, chasing her dreams, looking for love, and scoring designer swag. Series regulars Tone Bell, Tasha Smith, and Marouane Zotti will return, and we’ll meet new characters played by Anderson .Paak, Deon Cole, Sandra Bernhard, and more.
Starts streaming March 27.
If you’re in the mood for a rom com, check out The Life List. Sofia Carson stars as Alex Rose, a young woman on a quest to check off all the items on a bucket list she made when she was 13. By following through on entries like “go all out in a mosh pit” and “do stand-up comedy,” Rose opens her world, but one of the entries is “find true love,” and you know that’s gonna drive this heartfelt, emotional romantic comedy.
Starts streaming March 28.
This is the first time Robert De Niro has starred in a TV series, so Netflix is going big with Zero Day, a political drama/thriller series detailing the aftermath of a deadly cyberattack. De Niro plays respected former President George Mullen, who’s heading up the investigation of an information attack that killed thousands of Americans. Mullen must navigate a world of shady tech moguls, government power brokers, and his own past if he’s going to prevent a second, even deadlier cyber-disaster.
Starts streaming February 20.
In this Netflix original romantic comedy, comedian Amy Schumer plays Lainy, a woman who is so jealous of her pregnant friend, she straps on a fake stomach and tells everyone she has a baby on board too. Her mountain of lies grows with her fake belly, but things get really complicated when Lainy meets the man of her dreams. If you’re into Schumer’s brand of comedy or just like a little frothy rom-com action, check out Kinda Pregnant.
Starts streaming February 5.
Just in time for Valentine’s Day comes La Dolce Villa, a Netflix original rom-com set in a romantic Italian village. Scott Foley plays Eric, a businessman who’s lost his mojo, who travels to Italy to stop his daughter from wasting her money restoring a crumbling villa she bought for a Euro. Along the way, he rediscovers his lust for life, laughter, beauty, and love. I bet the old Villa actually isn’t such a dump after all. La Dolce Villa also stars Maia Reficco, Giuseppe Futia, and Violante Placido.
Starts streaming February 13.
If you’re in the mood for comforting nostalgia, you could do much worse than Tim Allen’s iconic late 90s/early aughts series; it’s the ultimate, mildly amusing, totally mindless family sit-com. Allen plays Tim Taylor, host of home improvement show-within-a-show Tool Time and patriarch of a suburban Detroit family that has all kinds of sit-com style dilemmas. The Taylors’ mix-ups and lighthearted hassles fill up eight seasons of episodes, so feel free to binge them all at once while pretending it’s 2004.
Starts streaming February 1.
Speaking of comforting nostalgia, 1996’s cartoons-meet-basketball comedy Space Jam is coming to Netflix. The movie pairs ancient sports superstars like Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, and Charles Barkley with ancient cartoon superstars like Bugs Bunny, Yosemite Sam, and Daffy Duck, and then has them play basketball on another planet. Somehow, this weird concept works and results in a movie that’s great fun and superior in every way to the recent reboot.
Starts streaming February 1.
In this reality show version of The Most Dangerous Game, professional survival guy Bear Grylls hunts a group of 12 celebrities in the jungles of Costa Rica. Sadly, the cast is made up of British celebrities like Shirley Ballas, Mel B., and Boris Becker, and losing contestants aren’t gunned down like rabid wildebeests when Grylls catches ’em; but still, Celebrity Bear Hunt puts privileged people in uncomfortable situations (always good TV), and the scenery is beautiful.
Starts streaming February 5.
In this Fox cartoon for adults, Jon Hamm voices hardboiled detective Marvin Flute. Flute has cracked some of the most complicated and dark cases in history, and now he’s returning to his home town to tackle his most puzzling mystery: his own family. Judging from the trailer, Grimsburg looks pretty funny with sharp writing and a talented voice cast, so I’m going to give this one a shot.
Starts streaming February 5.
Sweet Magnolias is the kind of feel-good, heartfelt, emotional series that never makes it past my algorithm, but enough people dig it that it’s coming back for a fourth season. In season 4, The Magnolias’ world is shaken and their bonds are tested by a town tragedy and a destructive storm. I don’t know for sure, but I have a feeling that love and hope will ultimately save the day—it seems like that kind of program.
Starts streaming February 6.
I’m not sure why icy Northern European nations make such great neo-noire murder series, but I’m glad they do. Swedish Netflix original The Åre Murders tells the story of one of Stockholm’s finest, officer Hanna Ahlander, whose vacation at a ski resort in Åre is interrupted by a missing person case. A young woman has disappeared, and the understaffed local cops need Ahlander’s skills to solve the mystery, but can they trust her enough to work together?
Starts streaming February 6.
This Netflix original documentary series tells the story of the Battle of Mogadishu made famous in Black Hawk Down. Speaking of, both that film and Surviving Black Hawk Down. were produced by Ridley Scott, who gathered survivors of the incident on both sides to tell the story of the harrowing day when two American helicopters were shot down in Somalia. If you like true-life war stories, don’t miss it.
Starts streaming February 10.
It’s probably going to be more than a year until a new Witcher game comes out, but in the meantime, check out The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep, a feature-length anime movie that continues the adventures of the famous monster hunter Geralt. Based on one of the original Witcher stories, Sirens of the Deep finds Geralt at a seaside village, investigating a series of attacks. At the risk of spoiling the story, there are monsters bedeviling the town—merpeople, mankind’s ancient, soggy enemy.
Starts streaming February 11.
This is it: the end of the Cobra Kai saga that began back in 1984 with The Karate Kid. (But since Cobra Kai never dies, it might not actually be the end.) The new version of the Karate Kid story takes place in a weird alternative universe version of the San Fernando Valley where everyone’s life revolves around youth karate, and literally everyone remembers the All Valley championship of 1984. Cobra Kai’s mix of campy, “remember the 80s?” nostalgia, fighting, and over-amped teen drama shouldn’t be as entertaining as it is.
Starts streaming February 13.
I don’t feel like Resident Alien gets enough love. The quirky, inventive comedy sci-fi series is entering its third season, and the first two were awesome. The titular alien, played by Alan Tudyk, is no longer on a quest to destroy all mankind. With the gray aliens on the way to end humanity, Harry (or more accurately, the alien wearing Harry’s skin) now wants to save the earth and thwart the invasion, all while trying to navigate the weird culture of people without blowing his cover.
Starts streaming February 13.
It’s been five years since Love is Blind launched, and to mark the anniversary, Netflix is releasing a new season of the romance-based reality show. Season 8 is set in Minneapolis and finds another crop of singles agreeing to meet and date romantic partners—and potentially get engaged—without ever seeing each other. As a life choice, waiting until the wedding to lay eyes on your fiancee seems unwise, but as a television diversion, it’s top notch.
Starts streaming February 14.
Kate Hudson stars in this basketball-based comedy series created by the always inventive Mindy Kaling. Hudson plays Isla Gordon whose family owns storied Los Angeles basketball team, the LA Waves. When her brother is forced to step down as president, Isla takes over, setting up a classic culture-clash of a woman entering a massively male-dominated space. Will she win over skeptical players, fans, investors, and her own brothers? I’d bet on “yes,” now that sports betting is allowed in the U.S.
Starts streaming February 27.
Train Sim World VR: New York confirmed a release date, and it’s heading to Quest later this month.
Co-developed by Dovetail Games and Just Add Water, we first learned about Train Sim World VR: New York back in August. Following the recent launch of Train Sim World 5 on flatscreen platforms, this latest entry adapts the realistic urban train simulation series for Quest headsets with a new VR game set across New York state. Here’s the release date announcement trailer.
During the initial announcement, the team confirmed that you can ride in officially licensed MTA M3A and M7A train cabs across the Harlem Line. At the time, the studio stated you can explore “the rails of New York; discover the stations of Manhattan and The Bronx across a recreation of the MTA Harlem Line between Grand Central Terminal and North White Plains.”
You can start as a rookie engineer in the ‘Career Mode’ and take on challenges to advance your career, being able to compete with friends across online leaderboards for the best score. There’s also a ‘Journey Mode’ that lets you explore for collectables by hopping out of the train at each station. Outside of this, the game also uses a customizable New York apartment as your hub between missions.
Train Sim World VR: New York arrives on March 27 for the wider Meta Quest platform.
At first, there were workarounds: users could continue to screenshot by using the browser Brave or by downloading extensions or third-party tools like Fireshot. But gradually, the digital-rights-management tech adapted and became more sophisticated. Today, it is nearly impossible to take a screenshot from the most popular streaming services, at least not on a Macintosh computer. The shift occurred without remark or notice to subscribers, and there’s no clear explanation as to why or what spurred the change…
For PC users, this story takes a different, and happier, turn. With the use of Snipping Tool — a utility exclusive to Microsoft Windows, users are free to screen grab content from all streaming platforms. This seems like a pointed oversight, a choice on the part of streamers to exclude Mac users (though they make up a tiny fraction of the market) because of their assumed cultural class.
“I’m not entirely sure what the technical answer to this is,” tech blogger John Gruber wrote this weekend, “but on MacOS, it seemingly involves the GPU and video decoding hardware…”
These DRM blackouts on Apple devices (you can’t capture screenshots from DRM video on iPhones or iPads either) are enabled through the deep integration between the OS and the hardware, thus enabling the blackouts to be imposed at the hardware level. And I don’t think the streaming services opt into this screenshot prohibition other than by “protecting” their video with DRM in the first place. If a video is DRM-protected, you can’t screenshot it; if it’s not, you can.
On the Mac, it used to be the case that DRM video was blacked-out from screen capture in Safari, but not in Chrome (or the dozens of various Chromium-derived browsers). But at some point a few years back, you stopped being able to capture screenshots from DRM videos in Chrome, too — by default. But in Chrome’s Settings page, under System, if you disable “Use graphics acceleration when available” and relaunch Chrome, boom, you can screenshot everything in a Chrome window, including DRM video…
What I don’t understand is why Apple bothered supporting this in the first place for hardware-accelerated video (which is all video on iOS platforms — there is no workaround like using Chrome with hardware acceleration disabled on iPhone or iPad). No one is going to create bootleg copies of DRM-protected video one screenshotted still frame at a time — and even if they tried, they’d be capturing only the images, not the sound. And it’s not like this “feature” in MacOS and iOS has put an end to bootlegging DRM-protected video content.
Gruber’s conclusion? “This ‘feature’ accomplishes nothing of value for anyone, including the streaming services, but imposes a massive (and for most people, confusing and frustrating) hindrance on honest people simply trying to easily capture high-quality (as opposed to, say, using their damn phone to take a photograph of their reflective laptop display) screenshots of the shows and movies they’re watching.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The Move fitness tracker will soon no longer be available for Meta Quest VR headsets, disappointing VR fitness fans.
The post Meta kills Move: No more fitness tracking on Quest VR headsets appeared first on MIXED Reality News.
There’s no question that AI systems have accomplished some impressive feats, mastering games, writing text, and generating convincing images and video. That’s gotten some people talking about the possibility that we’re on the cusp of AGI, or artificial general intelligence. While some of this is marketing fanfare, enough people in the field are taking the idea seriously that it warrants a closer look.
Many arguments come down to the question of how AGI is defined, which people in the field can’t seem to agree upon. This contributes to estimates of its advent that range from “it’s practically here” to “we’ll never achieve it.” Given that range, it’s impossible to provide any sort of informed perspective on how close we are.
But we do have an existing example of AGI without the “A”—the intelligence provided by the animal brain, particularly the human one. And one thing is clear: The systems being touted as evidence that AGI is just around the corner do not work at all like the brain does. That may not be a fatal flaw, or even a flaw at all. It’s entirely possible that there’s more than one way to reach intelligence, depending on how it’s defined. But at least some of the differences are likely to be functionally significant, and the fact that AI is taking a very different route from the one working example we have is likely to be meaningful.

Owlchemy Labs has been a powerhouse of top-selling VR games, so when the Google-owned studio released Dimensional Double Shift in beta last year for free, it wasn’t immediately clear why the studio behind Job Simulator (2016) was making its first stride into freemium territory. With over 500,000 downloads now though, it’s evident they saw the writing on the wall: free-to-play on Quest is more lucrative than ever thanks to Quest 3S.
Like Job Simulator and its sequel Vacation Simulator (2019), Dimensional Double Shift tasks players with jobbing around a patently wacky universe, this time running a combination garage and diner station, where you and three other players can fix up both cars and grub for alien patrons.
There’s a little more under the hood than just being essentially a free-to-play multiplayer version of Job Simulator though. While Dimensional Double Shift replicates the sort of immersive and easy to pick up mechanics of the studio’s most successful titles, also being one of the first designed exclusively for hand-tracking, the launch of Quest 3S has seen a large influx of younger users, which undoubtedly has been a big driver.
And as it goes, younger gamers typically spend more time in social games, less money on premium purchases, and more on in-app purchases—meaning free-to-play games are seeing a big boost right now.
To boot, Dimensional Double Shift’s 500,000 download milestone follows a growing trend of veterans and indie studios alike hoping to strike it big with freemium titles, ostensibly aiming to replicate the viral success of Another Axiom’s breakout hit Gorilla Tag, which generated over $100 million in gross revenue last summer.
“We’re building a social-first platform, and these younger users are more likely to spend time with friends in multiplayer experiences and social hangout apps,” Meta’s Metaverse Content chief Samantha Ryan said last month. “They’re contributing to the rise of free-to-play titles—a pattern historically common on other platforms. We’re also seeing growth of younger users in Horizon Worlds.”
And Meta knows full well it needs a Gorilla Tag—or multiple Gorilla Tags—of its own on Horizon Worlds too. Meta recently announced a $50 million fund to incentivize the creation of new and improved content in Horizon Worlds, aiming to attract developers to build on the social platform what they might otherwise launch as self-contained apps, with the fund designed to pay out bonuses to creators of worlds that drive high visits, retention and in-app purchases.
The post ‘Dimensional Double Shift’ is Owlchemy Labs’ Fastest Growing Game, Tapping Into Quest’s Latest Freemium Trend appeared first on Road to VR.

Valve’s next VR headset won’t save virtual reality in 2025, but it might hold the key to VR’s long-term future.
The post Deckard won’t sell a million units, and Valve is okay with that appeared first on MIXED Reality News.

GORN (2019), the comically violent combat game from Free Lives, is getting a sequel that aims to bring a double dose of madcap melee mayhem, coming to all major VR headsets later this year.
GORN 2 is currently being developed by Cortopia Studios, with help from the teams at Free Lives and Devolver Digital. You might know Cortopia from its rash of VR games over the years, including Down the Rabbit Hole (2020), Escaping Wonder Land (2024), and Wands Alliances (2022).
Promising to be “bigger, wilder, and stronger than ever before,” Gorn 2 is slated to introduce new weapons, a host of arena traps, and new power-ups for even more supernatural strength (and size).
Check out the announcement trailer below:
Like the original, the cartoony, physics-driven combat sim is also packing in its fair share of boss battles, this time around boasting “five sons of the God of the Afterlife” to beat across an array of heavenly realms.
“GORN 2 is everything GORN was but MORE,” Cortopia says on the game’s Steam page. “More weapons, more enemies, more arenas, more traps, more power-ups, and more hilariously over-the-top combat. If you loved the first game, but still feel a raging yearning for more, GORN 2 will sate your blood-thirst.”
And once the boss-laden arenas are vanquished with your choice of over 35 weapons, Gorn 2 also promises a Custom Mode so you can craft your own challenges, and (of course) an Endless Mode to keep the shirtless barbarians coming your way non-stop.
There’s no exact launch date yet; Cortopia Studios and Free Lives say it’s coming to the Horizon Store for Quest 2 and above, SteamVR headsets, and the PlayStation Store for PSVR 2 later this year.
To see more, check out an early hands-on from YouTuber ‘Beardo Benjo’, which shows off a good slate of gameplay across the first few stages.
The post Classic Melee Combat Game ‘GORN’ is Getting a Sequel Later This Year on Quest, PC VR & PSVR 2 appeared first on Road to VR.
Mercedes-Benz’s EV efforts aren’t exactly burning up the sales charts. Models like the EQS and EQE haven’t convinced the brand’s demanding clientele that batteries are the future, forcing the company to scale back its electric ambitions.
Scale back, but not abandon. Benz is about to launch a new generation of EVs relying on technology derived from the epically efficient EQXX. The first is the new CLA. It’s coming soon, and after getting some time behind the wheel of a prototype vehicle undergoing final testing in the snowy wilds of Sweden, I’m convinced this could be the car to change Mercedes’ electrified fortunes.
And, for anyone who isn’t convinced, there’ll be a hybrid version too.