Today, during Summer Game Fest, Mortal Shell 2 was announced with a trailer that made me miss the days of E3 circa 2008 or 2010. The dark and twisted souls-like is coming to PC and consoles in 2026.
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If you’re looking for a last-minute Father’s Day gift, this bespoke Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 is currently 38% off and priced right at $200. Available in multiple colors, it combines a sleek aesthetic with high-tech AI-enabled features, including comprehensive trackers that monitor various health metrics, such as heart rate, sleep, and blood oxygen levels. It has over 100 workout modes and can detect sleep apnea via tracking breathing disruptions. The Wellness Tips and AI-powered Energy Score features collect data, translating it into customized, personalized recommendations to help you optimize your daily activities, making this device a helpful accessory for wellness junkies and fitness lovers alike.
With a 40mm screen (you can upgrade to 44mm for an estra $29.99), the face of the watch features AMOLED tech, ensuring visibility even in direct sunlight. Most users find the watch easy to set up and connect to a compatible smartphone. However, it’s worth noting that it’s specifically designed for Samsung devices. Multiple Amazon reviewers mention that it doesn’t function properly with iPhones and Android phones.
The battery life receives mixed reviews, and since it lacks a charging port, it requires a magnetic charger. This PCMag review tested the watch and found that it lasts 22 hours, so if longer battery life is a priority (for instance, during camping trips), you may want to opt for the Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra instead, which is powered with up to 100 hours on a single charge.
With an average of 4.5 stars and over 2,500 reviews on Amazon, this watch is a well-reviewed choice for fitness enthusiasts or those wanting to live a healthy, balanced life. It combines multiple health trackers while blending aesthetics with functionality, and it doesn’t have the bulky look of many smartwatches. If you’re a Samsung owner, this discounted Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 might be worth the splurge.
At I/O, Google presented its vision of Android XR. But the “Android XR” that runs on headsets is not the “Android XR” that runs on smart glasses.
The name Android XR was actually first reported by Business Insider’s Hugh Langley 18 months before Google officially revealed it. According to that report, Google internally called an operating system for headsets “Android XR”, and a much simpler OS for glasses “Android micro XR”.
I bring this up because since officially revealing the two platforms in December, Google has instead referred to them as one “Android XR”. Samsung’s device is an “Android XR headset”, while the prototype smart glasses with a small HUD it showed at TED and I/O were “Android XR glasses”.
This is both confusing and misleading. Because in reality, these are two completely different software platforms.
The Android XR that runs on headsets is an extension of the Android experience you have on your phone or tablet, fully standalone, with access to the Play Store and a full-fledged developer SDK.
The Android XR that runs on smart glasses, on the other hand, is a highly cut-down version of Android that Google has not announced any SDK or platform for, where your phone handles a lot of the computing, similar to the Ray-Ban Meta glasses.
Sure these two platforms both have the same AOSP at the core, and sure you’ll find some of the same Google services on both. But the similarities end there.
Imagine if Apple had presented the Apple Watch as running iOS, or if Meta described the Ray-Ban Meta glasses as running Horizon OS. That’s the equivalent of Google describing these smart glasses as running Android XR.
I suspect Google’s decision here may be driven by the success of Ray-Ban Meta, the major hype around Meta’s Orion prototype, and the poor public reception to the first-generation Apple Vision Pro. Essentially, I suspect the company is intentionally trying to present its headsets and glasses work under one hype banner, rather than disclosing the distinction between these two platforms.
UploadVRDavid Heaney
You could argue that the words “headset” and “glasses” will make the distinction obvious for consumers. But the distinction between these device categories became blurred with the reveal of Xreal’s Project Aura. Aura is designed to resemble sunglasses from certain angles, but powered by a tethered compute puck running the headset version of Android XR.
This means that there are two completely different meanings of “Android XR glasses”. There are Android XR glasses, of the kind that will take on Ray-Ban Meta, and there are Android XR glasses, of the kind that Meta and Apple will take on with their next headsets.
Why does this matter? From a consumer and developer perspective, naming two completely different software platforms for wearable technology the same thing will obviously lead to confusion.
When a developer releases an interesting app “for Android XR”. Will consumers with no understanding of the difference between “Android XR glasses” and Xreal Aura understand that buying Warby Parker glasses won’t give them access to this app? Do all developers understand that the Android XR apps they might build will not run on the simple smart glasses?
As a reader of UploadVR, these distinctions may seem obvious to you. But the nature and limitations of XR headsets and smart glasses are not widely known by the general public.
UploadVRDavid Heaney
The solution here is to give the operating system for smart glasses its own name. It could repurpose the “Glass OS” name it used for Google Glass, for example, or use “Glasses OS”, akin to how it calls its smartwatch platform Wear OS.
Of course, no hardware company has actually launched any “Android XR” product yet, and it’s possible the marketing and PR around these products will make the distinction I bring up clear. But given Google’s messaging so far, I worry that clear positioning is not the company’s priority.
Troy Baker will don the cartoon fedora and play the lead role in Mouse: P.I. For Hire. The game has garnered buzz for its unique blending of genres. Imagine a film noir-infused cross between Cuphead and Doom.
Baker will play Private Investigator Jack Pepper, the game’s protagonist. He’s a war hero turned detective who begins his journey responding to a cliché damsel in distress. Pepper’s investigation then peels back the layers of the city’s dark underbelly. It sounds like developer Fumi Games ticked all the items off the noir checklist.
Oh, and don’t forget the minor detail that he’s a rodent. Expect plenty of cheesy (meaning puns about cheese) one-liners.
Being a first-person shooter, Mouse: P.I. For Hire has plenty of Rambo-style room-clearing. Pepper’s weapons range from conventional (shotgun) to comically ludicrous (turpentine cleanser). There’s even an ode to Popeye: Down a can of spinach to beat your foes to smithereens.
The game’s animation draws inspiration from the same 1930s cartoons as Cuphead. Like that game, Mouse: P.I. For Hire‘s monochromatic visuals are all hand-drawn. (But whether it’s as punishingly difficult as the 2017 classic remains to be seen.) Watching the delightfully wacky trailers, it’s easy to see why gamers are keeping an eye on this one.
It sounds like a wild ride. But that doesn’t necessarily point to a game in need of an industry titan like Baker. So, perhaps there’s more to the game’s narrative than you might expect. Or, maybe The Last of Us actor is merely checking “played rodent” off his bucket list. (Couldn’t blame him!)
Baker said he’s been following the game’s development from its first teaser. “Its art style, gameplay and 1930s film-noir aesthetic continue to win me over. I cannot wait to keep working with the team to bring Jack Pepper to life and hope to have some exciting things to share as we get closer to launch!”
You can check out the game’s new trailer here. Mouse: P.I. for Hire arrives later this year. It will be available on all major platforms, including Switch 2.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/troy-baker-is-the-big-cheese-in-mouse-pi-for-hire-220033867.html?src=rss
On Thursday, Anthropic unveiled specialized AI models designed for US national security customers. The company released “Claude Gov” models that were built in response to direct feedback from government clients to handle operations such as strategic planning, intelligence analysis, and operational support. The custom models reportedly already serve US national security agencies, with access restricted to those working in classified environments.
The Claude Gov models differ from Anthropic’s consumer and enterprise offerings, also called Claude, in several ways. They reportedly handle classified material, “refuse less” when engaging with classified information, and are customized to handle intelligence and defense documents. The models also feature what Anthropic calls “enhanced proficiency” in languages and dialects critical to national security operations.
Anthropic says the new models underwent the same “safety testing” as all Claude models. The company has been pursuing government contracts as it seeks reliable revenue sources, partnering with Palantir and Amazon Web Services in November to sell AI tools to defense customers.
Mirnotoriety shares a report from the Independent: Downing Street is exploring a proposal to introduce digital ID cards for every adult in Britain in a move to tackle the UK’s illegal migration crisis, according to reports. The new “BritCard” would be used to check on an individual’s right to live and work in Britain, with senior No 10 figures examining the proposal, The Times has reported.
The card, stored on a smartphone, would reportedly be linked to government records and could check entitlements to benefits and monitor welfare fraud. […] … it would cost up to 400 million pounds to build the system and around 10 million pounds a year to administer as a free-to-use phone app.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Garmin’s Forerunner line contains some of my favorite watches—the 265, which is arguably still the best of the bunch; the 570, which newly replaced it and has some snazzy new features, and the 955, which is a heck of a deal for something so feature-rich despite its age. If these numbers mean nothing to you, read on—they’re actually pretty easy to understand once you know the two rules Garmin uses to pick what number goes with which watch.
Both of the watches released this year end in -70. The watches that came out in 2023-2024 all end in -65. They were preceded by a generation that ended in -55, and before that was -45, and so on. Could Garmin have just made the last two numbers reference a year, like 23 or 24? Sure, but at least there seems to be some internal logic here. (Go back too far, and the naming scheme gets a little less predictable, but this rule will help you understand pretty much everything released in this line in the last 10 years or so.)
Here’s another important rule of thumb: everything from -65 on up (so, for now -65 and -70) has an AMOLED screen, where it’s glowy like your smartwatch. The older models, up to and including -55, have MIP screens that are reflective and always “on,” but aren’t as sharp or bright. I have a rundown on MIP vs AMOLED here.
Take a look at the first number in the watch name, and think of it as being on a scale of 0 to 9. The higher the number, the nicer the watch. This tells you that the 965 has more features and a higher price tag than the 265; likewise, the 970 has more going for it than the 570. The exact feature set changes from generation to generation, but here’s an important fact to remember: the 9xx watches are the ones with maps. The 570, 265, and so on have breadcrumb navigation but no maps.
With this background, we can now understand why the newest Forerunner line includes a 570. The previous lineup had a 165, 265, and 965, with nothing in between the “2” and “9” levels. Meanwhile, the 165 and 265 were pretty different in terms of features, with the 265 boasting dual-band GPS and compatibility with power meters, to name a few. Garmin apparently wanted to signal that its mid-range watch was truly in the middle of the range, so they added a few extra features the 265 didn’t have—like heat acclimation, which used to only be on the 9xx series—and bumped it up to a “5” rather than a “2”—with an upgraded price to match.
ChickenDog was the first person to get a Switch 2 at launch in New York City, and Nintendo promises he’ll be far from the last. Even as the new system starts selling out at most retailers, the company says it believes it will be able to meet demand through the rest of 2025, avoiding the scarcity issues that plagued…
I’m still waiting to get my Switch 2 because my system is getting shipped to my home in New York City while I’m in Los Angeles. The only way in which I can experience the whimsical antics of Mario Kart World is through clips of the lucky bastards who have their systems already. I don’t usually think of Nintendo’s kart…
New AMD code merged today to the mainline Linux 6.16 kernel that’s in-development is the introduction of the AMD-SBI driver/subsystem for primarily benefiting EPYC server platforms. AMD-SBI is for their Side-Band Interface also known as the Advanced Platform Management Link (APML)…
An anonymous reader quotes a report from BleepingComputer: The FBI is warning that the BADBOX 2.0 malware campaign has infected over 1 million home Internet-connected devices, converting consumer electronics into residential proxies that are used for malicious activity. The BADBOX botnet is commonly found on Chinese Android-based smart TVs, streaming boxes, projectors, tablets, and other Internet of Things (IoT) devices. “The BADBOX 2.0 botnet consists of millions of infected devices and maintains numerous backdoors to proxy services that cyber criminal actors exploit by either selling or providing free access to compromised home networks to be used for various criminal activity,” warns the FBI.
These devices come preloaded with the BADBOX 2.0 malware botnet or become infected after installing firmware updates and through malicious Android applications that sneak onto Google Play and third-party app stores. “Cyber criminals gain unauthorized access to home networks by either configuring the product with malicious software prior to the users purchase or infecting the device as it downloads required applications that contain backdoors, usually during the set-up process,” explains the FBI. “Once these compromised IoT devices are connected to home networks, the infected devices are susceptible to becoming part of the BADBOX 2.0 botnet and residential proxy services4 known to be used for malicious activity.”
Once infected, the devices connect to the attacker’s command and control (C2) servers, where they receive commands to execute on the compromised devices, such as [routing malicious traffic through residential IPs to obscure cybercriminal activity, performing background ad fraud to generate revenue, and launching credential-stuffing attacks using stolen login data]. Over the years, the malware botnet continued expanding until 2024, when Germany’s cybersecurity agency disrupted the botnet in the country by sinkholing the communication between infected devices and the attacker’s infrastructure, effectively rendering the malware useless. However, that did not stop the threat actors, with researchers saying they found the malware installed on 192,000 devices a week later. Even more concerning, the malware was found on more mainstream brands, like Yandex TVs and Hisense smartphones. Unfortunately, despite the previous disruption, the botnet continued to grow, with HUMAN’s Satori Threat Intelligence stating that over 1 million consumer devices had become infected by March 2025. This new larger botnet is now being called BADBOX 2.0 to indicate a new tracking of the malware campaign. “This scheme impacted more than 1 million consumer devices. Devices connected to the BADBOX 2.0 operation included lower-price-point, ‘off brand,’ uncertified tablets, connected TV (CTV) boxes, digital projectors, and more,” explains HUMAN.
“The infected devices are Android Open Source Project devices, not Android TV OS devices or Play Protect certified Android devices. All of these devices are manufactured in mainland China and shipped globally; indeed, HUMAN observed BADBOX 2.0-associated traffic from 222 countries and territories worldwide.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
The Nintendo Switch 2 is launching with a handful of new games, but for many of the people getting one this week, the main thing to play on it is software made for the original Switch.
We’ve known for months that the Switch 2 would maintain backward compatibility with the vast majority of Switch games, but one major question was whether the Switch 2’s improved hardware would benefit older Switch games in some way. Especially in recent years, first- and third-party Switch games have struggled with the original system’s aging Nvidia chipset, which was already a bit dated when the system came out in 2017.
After a day or so of testing various Switch games on the Switch 2, we can report firsthand that Switch games can look dramatically better on the new system. For games that Nintendo has taken the trouble to update—those with Switch 2 upgrade packs and those with free updates—players can expect higher resolutions, better frame rates, less texture and character pop-in, and smoother animations all around. Even games that haven’t been updated for the Switch 2 can run a bit more consistently on the new systems, though games without Switch 2-specific updates don’t improve as much as games with updates.
Your smartphone has ruined your life. You’re hopelessly addicted to the empty dopamine drip doled out by apps and algorithms that know you better than you know yourself. You recognize this. But also, you’re no hermit: You need to be able to keep in touch with friends and family with phone calls and text messages, just minus the baggage that comes with a modern iPhone or Android. A dumbphone might seem to be the answer to all your problems, but it’s probably not.
I am often inundated with articles and videos trying to convince me that switching to a dumbphone is the key to living a balance, fruitful life—so much so that I really considered getting one. I still might, someday, but the more I’ve thought about the matter, I’ve come to the conclusion that a dumbphone solves a few problems while introducing many more.
Switching might free me from endlessly scrolling my social media accounts, but I’d lose access to a high-quality camera that’s always with me. I wouldn’t need to deal with notifications from apps that only care about maximizing my screen time, but I’d lose my personal GPS. And I’d still be able to call and text, but I’d miss tools like iMessage and FaceTime that are critical for staying connected. I’m not ready to give all that up.
It’s true that the dumbphone market is adapting take care of some of these weaknesses, offering devices with features like cameras, navigation apps, note-taking apps, and more. But why bother dropping a considerable amount of money for a device like that when I already have a device I can make adjustments to instead?
So, that’s what I did—I took my very smart, very addicting) iPhone, and made it dumber. Here are the steps I took, plus some extra tips you can try yourself (while the instructions may vary, these tips will apply to Android phones as well):
Apps accumulate on my phone like cables in a junk drawer. I really only use a handful of them, but after testing apps on my phone for years, they’ve really added up. Making my phone dumber provided an opportunity to go through and clean house.
My advice is to be as brutal as possible here. The first app on my list, AdGuard, stays, because I need an ad blocker to make the modern internet usable. (Yes, I want a working internet on my dumb iPhone, and one that blocks predatory apps to boot.) But Amazon? Bye. Bluesky? Adios. ChatGPT? Lol.
The priority is to eliminate apps that distract you or suck you in for hours of meaningless activity. Social media is a prime target, but even that gets dicey. Can you really ditch all social media on your smartphone? Some can, but others will find that extreme, or borderline impossible. (More on that in the next section.)
Here’s a helpful tip: If you can access a social media site in a web browser, do that instead, and delete the app. Don’t keep Facebook’s predatory app on your iPhone, and if you must visit Meta’s flagship platform, do so on Safari. That way, yu’ll have better privacy protections against Meta’s tracking, and you’ll have a worse experience, since the Facebook web app is terrible. Good—that means you’ll spend less time on it.
As much as it wastes my time, I can’t delete Instagram. While 90% of my use involves mindless scrolling, the other 10% is legitimate socializing that I would very much miss should I ditch the app entirely. There are other apps on my iPhone I feel similarly about, and it’s been a daily battle to use them responsibly.
If you have a similar crop of apps you can’t part with, I highly recommend setting up Screen Time limits. It’s easy to do, and lets you choose the amount of time you can use an app each day. For example, I have Instagram set to 35 minutes of daily use, but I could choose to give myself more time on weekends, or any day that I feel like. You can also enable this feature for websites, so if you are accessing Instagram via Safari instead of the app, you can set limits for there too.
With this App Limit set, Instagram will run like it usually does until that 35th minute. Once the time limit is up, the app is replaced by a blank screen, letting me know that I’ve used my time allotment for the day. Hopefully, I then decide to do something else with my time (maybe put away my phone?), but I don’t have to: The feature gives you the option to extend the time limit by one or 15 minutes, or disable it for the rest of the day. It’s not the best solution for anyone lacking willpower, and I’ve definitely been guilty of extending my time limits again and again. But more often than not, the lock-out screen gets me to leave Instagram for the day. If I only burn 35 minutes watching reels instead of two hours, that’s fine by me.
You can get started setting Scrren Time limits via Settings > Screen Time > App Limits.
Smartphone notifications are out of control. These alerts should tell me whether I have a new message or when some critical update needs my attention. If you use system notifications to let me know your app has an amazing sale going on, I’m instantly deleting it.
But even when notifications are appropriate, they’re too much. Likely part of what you hate about your iPhone are the constant distractions and disruptions from system alerts—not only are the unnecessary ones annoying, the legitimate ones steal your attention too. Before you know it, you’ve wasted another hour scrolling on Instagram just because someone replied to a message with a thumbs-up.
You don’t need a dumbphone to eliminate these distractions, though: just disable as many notifications as you can. Any time you download a new app—which you should do sparingly on your new dumb iPhone—don’t allow any notifications. For apps already on your phone, go to Settings > Notifications and disable notifications en masse. You can also attack them as the notifications come in: Swipe left on alerts in Notification Center, tap “Options,” then choose “Turn Off All Notifications.”
This too is challenging. I keep notifications on for my chat apps, since I don’t want to miss important (or funny) updates from friends and family. I did manage to disable Instagram notifications, which has its pros and cons. I’m not sucked into each and every alert I get, but I frequently miss DMs from friends. There are always tradeoffs when prioritizing your time.
Apple has made it easy to make your Lock Screen look awesome. The consequence, however, is that your iPhone looks a bit too inviting each time you pick it up. There’s an easy solution to that: Make it look boring AF.
I set my Lock Screen wallpaper to black, so no graphics or colors catch my eye. I allowed myself to add some Weather widgets, including current conditions, UV index, and sunrise/sunset, as I figure having the weather on my Lock Screen means one less reason to unlock my iPhone. (I used to have a News widget there instead, by it often caused me to open my phone in reaction to crazy headlines, which are in no short supply in 2025.)
Following suit, my Home Screen is also as bland as possible. I use the same black wallpaper, and I’ve abstained from widgets. As much as I like the aesthetics of the calendar and clock widgets, I don’t want to spend any more time on this page than I have to.
As such, I’ve strategically placed the apps I use most (and which, notably, aren’t brain rot traps) on the Home Screen. I could keep this page totally blank, but why not keep the boring, useful apps at easy reach? That way, my brain doesn’t have extra time to think, “Wait, maybe we should just open YouTube instead” as I swipe to the App Library.
In my dock live my Phone, Messages, Camera, and Music apps. In two layers above it live Notes, Reminders, Maps, and Libby. (My hope is that keeping Libby in sight at all time will encourage me to read more, rather than scroll, scroll, scroll.) For all other apps, I rely on the App Library, which is only a swipe away.
You can really get creative with this. Through different apps or hacks, you can emulate the experience of dumbphones like the Light Phone, which simply shows you a list of app titles to choose from instead of wowing you with graphics and animations. Dumb Phone is one such app: After installing it, you select a group of apps you want to see on your Home Screen, and Dumb Phone lists those in a widget one-by-one. Change the color of your wallpaper to match the widget, adjust a few settings, and presto—you own faux Light Phone.
This isn’t really my cup of tea—I still enjoy a traditional home screen/app icons experience—but if you think you’d prefer the look, give it a try. (Just make sure to hit the “X” in the top right corner during setup if you don’t want to pay for the subscription.)
If there’s one tip to take away from this piece, it’s that you should turn your phone to grayscale. This color filter makes everything on your smartphone, well, gray, wiping away all of the bright, fun colors that make it engaging and welcoming to use.
This has been common advice for combating smartphone addiction for years, and while it’s certainly not a cure-all, it does really help. Scrolling on Instagram isn’t nearly as addicting when everything looks washed out, and it certainly doesn’t make me want to spend time watching shows or movies on my phone. If you’ve eliminated notifications entirely, you won’t notice the benefit in how a gray notification badge is far less intriguing than its bright red counterpart—but then, you’ve won that battle already.
As always, a caveat: I like my dumb iPhone, but I don’t want to punish myself. If someone sends me a video, or if I see something cool online that deserves to be seen in color, I’ll switch off grayscale temporarily. Does that defeat the purpose of my dumb iPhone? Possibly, but I’m making my own rules here.
The best compromise I’ve found is to assign the grayscale filter to the power button’s accessibility shortcut. You’ll find this under Settings > Accessibility > Accessibility Shortcut. Choose “Color Filters,” then triple-click the power button any time you want to toggle grayscale on or off.
The above is what I’ve done to make my iPhone less addicting, and, overall, it’s helped. I’m not sure if it’s the changes themselves, or how the changes constantly remind me to use my device with intention, but, either way, I’ve been reducing my screen time, and making what remains more productive. That’s a win-win.
There are other ways you can make your iPhone less appealing to use, and, thus, reclaim your screen time as well. Here are some suggestions:
Use a matte screen protector: These screen protectors cut down on glare, but also emulate the experience of an e-ink screen. That might help any other Libby users out there who want a more soothing reading experience.
Disable Face ID/Touch ID: Remember the days of punching in your passcode each and every time you unlocked your iPhone? It sucked. Force yourself to do it again. Knowing that you’ll need to enter your passcode any time you want to check your phone might break the habit of mindless pickups. (Better yet, set an alphanumeric password. That’ll show you.)
Keep Low Battery Mode on at all times: If you have a Pro iPhone, your display has a buttery-smooth 120Hz refresh rate. Turning on Low Power Mode drops it down to 60Hz, which, while standard for many iPhone users, looks choppy after you’re used to 120Hz.
Am I committed to my new dumber iPhone lifestyle? I’m not sure. If I could wager a guess, I think what’s going to happen is this: I’ll eventually switch off grayscale, add a nice Lock Screen and a well-curated Home Screen, but keep my minimal notifications and limited app selection. I like the idea of maintaining a “normal” iPhone experience, but without many of the things that make it a distraction—even if that means ditching some of the more extreme dumbphone-like measures.
Knowing that, I’m thus far happy I did not spend hundreds of dollars on a dedicated dumbphone. Something tells me that I would be itching to switch back to my iPhone in a heartbeat.
Merged today to Mesa 25.2 is an adjustment for the Intel “ANV” open-source Vulkan driver to help with Direct3D games running under Linux with Valve’s Steam Play via Proton + VKD3D…
Some Quest buyers of Alien: Rogue Incursion are seeking refunds after developer Survios announced it won’t be able to work on new updates for VR “in the near term”.
The refund requests came after a Survios administrator posted on the company’s Discord “we won’t be able to work on new VR updates in the near term” as they focus instead on a flatscreen version due out in September for PS5 and PC players. The update raises questions about Survios’ ability to deliver further improvements to the VR versions of the existing game as well as a promised Part 2. A Survios representative said over a phone call work on Rogue Incursion Part 2 would continue and that a longer statement would be made soon. We’ll update this article as we learn more.
Alien: Rogue Incursion had a promising debut on PC VR and PS VR 2 platforms late last year, but launched with an unexpected end to its narrative cutting harshly to a promise of a Part 2 to come. In February, what was already an unfinished game finally made its promised release on the Quest platform, where we noted dramatic downgrades to the standalone version.
It’s looking like Survios’ release of Rogue Incursion, where the studio essentially targeted the most number of people in standalone VR with a poorer performing unfinished game a couple months after the holiday rush, has become a devastating example of a studio picking the wrong strategy during Meta’s transition from Quest to Horizon. Will flatscreens help? Seven middle fingers on the screenshot embedded below from Discord below don’t seem to think so.
In what is perhaps the most telling sign of the times in VR, a modder just released a tracked hand controller update for 2014’s fully realized and incredibly terrifying Alien: Isolation on PC.
Put another way, we have a report of Meta refunding $39.99 to Quest Cash for at least one buyer of a VR-only game released on their platform in February of this year. This title featured much poorer graphics and performance than its counterparts on wired systems, and this game promised a part 2 at some point in the future, while a flatscreen version has since taken precedence. Meanwhile, more than a decade after release, the $39.99 title Alien: Isolation can be bought on Steam and the game is so well-loved that a modder enabled VR use on PC for those curious to take that immersive leap with a single terrifying xenomorph hunting them.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) wants to enforce a 10-year moratorium on AI regulation by making states ineligible for broadband funding if they try to impose any limits on development of artificial intelligence.
The House previously approved a budget bill that contained a fairly straightforward provision to ban state AI regulation for 10 years. Cruz, chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, yesterday released budget reconciliation text that takes a different approach to preventing states from regulating AI.
Cruz’s approach may be an attempt to get around the Senate’s Byrd Rule, which limits the inclusion of “extraneous matter” in budget reconciliation legislation. He wants to make it impossible for states to receive money from the $42 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program if they try to regulate AI. Cruz released a summary that says his bill “forbids states collecting BEAD money from strangling AI deployment with EU-style regulation.”
President Donald Trump plans to extend the pause on enforcing the TikTok ban once again, The Wall Street Journal reports. Trump previously extended the pause on April 4 to give TikTok, its potential US buyers and the Chinese government more time to reach an agreement, but the deal has made little progress since then.
The current pause on enforcement is supposed to end on June 19. Given the state of the negotiations between the US and China, the odds of a deal being reached before then seem highly unlikely. The issue hasn’t been helped by the fluctuating tariffs the Trump administration has attempted to levy on goods manufactured outside of the US, which started on April 2 and at one point included a 125 percent tariff on everything shipped from China.
The two countries are expected to restart trade negotiations at some point in the near-future, according to The New York Times, but there’s been no public mention of a TikTok sale being a key part of the discussion. A number of investors are still looking to own a piece of the US version of the app, including the software company Oracle, which has a pre-existing relationship with TikTok as a cloud provider.
The TikTok ban went into effect on January 19. TikTok tried to appeal the ban beforehand, but the Supreme Court ultimately decided to uphold it, prompting Trump’s first executive order pausing the ban on January 20, 2025.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/trump-reportedly-plans-to-extend-the-pause-on-the-tiktok-ban-yet-again-200408397.html?src=rss
Linux system administrators have seen remarkable salary growth leading into 2025, with the increasing reliance on Linux in enterprise IT and emerging technologies driving up demand significantly. The current average salary of $80,000 annually represents not just a number, but a reflection of how critical Linux expertise has become in today’s technology landscape. This growth trajectory has been consistent and purposeful, supported by the fundamental role Linux plays in cloud computing, containerization, and modern DevOps practices.
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Garmin’s Forerunner 265 was the first modern running watch I spent a lot of time with—you can read my review here about how it drew me back into tracking all my run data, for better or for worse. But there are some things that, in hindsight, I wish I had understood better at the start of the journey. Here are the biggest ones that you might like to know about.
The 265 (and other recent Forerunners) seem to have too many buttons. What do we need five of them for, when we’re doing most things from the touchscreen anyway? Garmin’s Vivoactive line gets away with having just two, as do the Coros Pace 3 and Pace Pro, which have all the same main functions as the 265.
But as soon as I saw the previous generation—the Forerunner 255—I understood. The 265 stands on the shoulders of giants, as the Forerunner 2xx series has long been beloved by runners—before the 265 was the 255, and before that the 245, and before that the 235. (Remember when Strava reported that the 235, then an eight-year-old watch, was the most popular running watch worldwide?)
The 255 and its ancestors did not have a touchscreen, nor did they have AMOLED displays. They used a “light” button in the top left to turn on the backlight so you could read the screen in the dark, and two buttons below that (“up” and “down”) to scroll through menu options. And once you have five buttons, why not use them for more? Long pressing the light button now brings up a shortcut menu, long pressing the “up” button brings up settings, and long pressing the bottom button can bring up your music controls.
Once you know what the buttons are used for—or assign your own shortcuts, which you can do in settings—they’re pretty handy.
After each workout, the 265 (and many other Garmins) will tell you how many hours of recovery it thinks you need. That makes it sound like you should rest until time is up—so if I have a 24-hour recovery time, I should wait until tomorrow for my next workout. Makes sense, since I was probably going to do that anyway.
But sometimes, after a hard effort, the watch will give me a recovery time of, say, 78 hours. I’m really not supposed to run again for that long? Not even an easy run?
That’s not what it means, of course. As Garmin explains, recovery time is the amount of time until you will maximally benefit from another similarly hard workout. So if I just did an hour’s worth of brutal track intervals, I won’t get much benefit from doing the same workout tomorrow. I could go ahead and do an easy run tomorrow, and schedule another track session a few days from now.
In other words, the “recovery” time is just how long you should wait before doing another very hard workout, not until you can work out at all.
Daily suggested workouts are a great feature of the Forerunner 265 and several other Garmin watches. DSW, as I call them, live on the watch and can’t be accessed directly from the Garmin Connect app—at least in theory.
There is a “Garmin coach” feature that you can set up in the app, which works the same way as the DSW, giving you a workout each day based on what it thinks you need. The factors that go into this include how recovered you are, and what races you have on your calendar.
I love the DSW when I’m not sure what run to do on a given day, or if I know I want a certain type of workout but don’t want to have to design it myself. But I don’t follow them slavishly, for two reasons.
One is that you can’t plan for DSW. You might see that tomorrow is a seven-mile long run, but then you wake up to find it’s been switched to a two-mile recovery run because you didn’t sleep so well. On these days, just go run the seven-miler anyway, and don’t worry about what Garmin says. Or preview the upcoming workouts (under Training > Workouts > Daily Suggestions) and pick a future workout that speaks to you.
The other problem is that, without long-term planning, you don’t know if the DSW will actually get you ready for the race you’re training for. Garmin forums and subreddits are full of people who are getting unsettlingly close to their marathon date and haven’t yet had any seriously long runs. You need mileage to be ready for a long-distance race, both in terms of your long runs and your total weekly workload.
If you want to use Garmin workouts to train you for a long race, do yourself a favor and grab a tried-and-true marathon plan, like one of these from Hal Higdon. Make sure you get in a similar amount of mileage each week, whether your Garmin tells you to or not.
I’m not sure why I spent so long using the stock watch faces, even though I found them kind of boring. The 265 doesn’t have as many color options for them as later watches like the 570, so there are only a handful of designs and a handful of (mostly neon) color options to choose from.
But if you’re willing to venture into the Connect IQ store, you have more options. It feels a bit sketchy if you’re purchasing a watch face—payment isn’t handled through the platform directly—but there are some real gems in there, including some that are made by Garmin and some that are free or have a free version. Around Christmas time I went for this cheesy wreath, and my everyday favorite is Big Easy with the blue theme. It’s the one you can see in the photo above, and unlike most third-party faces, it can show all my favorite complications, including weekly running mileage, which I have at the bottom.
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