This morning’s announcement that EA plans to sell itself to a consortium of private equity firms is one of the biggest business stories of the year. The $55 billion deal is the largest leveraged buyout in history and will send ripples through the world of high finance, both within and outside the gaming sector.

But even players who have no interest in the business side of the game industry should be paying attention to the news. Analysts who spoke to Ars Technica said that the privately owned version of Electronic Arts will likely be very different from the old public company, in ways that could directly affect the kinds of games the mega-publisher produces.

A $20 billion hole to fill

One of the biggest differences between a publicly owned EA and a privately owned version is that the latter will be saddled with roughly $20 billion of fresh debt provided by JP MorganChase, which is being used to help finance the leveraged buyout. Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter estimates the firm will be on the hook for roughly $1 billion a year in service payments on that debt after the deal closes.

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Early October Prime Day Deals are here, and some good ones are rolling in. Amazon devices have big discounts right now, and that includes Kindle readers. Right now, Amazon is offering Prime Members bundles for the Kindle, Kindle Colorsoft, Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition, Kindle Paperwhite, and Kindle Scribe, where most of them are cheaper than getting the standalone tablet, making the decision to go for the bundle an easy one. Here are the deals.

Kindle Essentials Bundle including Kindle (2024 release) – Matcha, Fabric Cover – Matcha, and Power Adapter

$117.97
at Amazon

$161.97
Save $44.00

$117.97
at Amazon

$161.97
Save $44.00

Kindle Paperwhite Essentials Bundle including All-new Kindle Paperwhite (16GB) – Black, Fabric Cover – Black, and Power Adapter

$156.97
at Amazon

$216.97
Save $60.00

$156.97
at Amazon

$216.97
Save $60.00

Kindle Paperwhite Essentials Bundle including All-new Kindle Paperwhite (16GB) – Black, Plant-Based Leather Cover – Black, and Power Adapter

$160.97
at Amazon

$222.97
Save $62.00

$160.97
at Amazon

$222.97
Save $62.00

Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition Essentials Bundle including All-new Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition (32GB) – Black, Fabric Cover – Black, and Wireless Charging Dock

$191.97
at Amazon

$276.97
Save $85.00

$191.97
at Amazon

$276.97
Save $85.00

Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition Essentials Bundle including All-new Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition (32GB) – Black, Premium Leather Cover – Walnut, and Wireless Charging Dock

$215.97
at Amazon

$304.97
Save $89.00

$215.97
at Amazon

$304.97
Save $89.00

Introducing Amazon Kindle Colorsoft Essentials Bundle including Kindle Colorsoft (16 GB) – With color display – Black, Plant-Based Leather Cover-Black and Power Adapter

$220.97
at Amazon

$312.97
Save $92.00

$220.97
at Amazon

$312.97
Save $92.00

New Amazon Kindle Scribe Essentials Bundle including New Kindle Scribe (64 GB) – Tungsten, Premium Pen, Fabric Folio-Black, and Power Adapter

$344.97
at Amazon

$529.97
Save $185.00

$344.97
at Amazon

$529.97
Save $185.00

Amazon Kindle Scribe Essentials Bundle including Kindle Scribe (32GB) – Tungsten, Premium Pen, Leather Folio-Black, and Power Adapter

$359.97
at Amazon

$539.97
Save $180.00

$359.97
at Amazon

$539.97
Save $180.00

Amazon Kindle Scribe 64GB Essentials Bundle (Metallic Jade): New Kindle Scribe, Premium Pen, Plant-Based Leather Folio-Jade, Power Adapter

$371.97
at Amazon

$549.99
Save $178.02

$371.97
at Amazon

$549.99
Save $178.02

Kindle

The Amazon Kindle is the most basic reading tablet from Amazon, and it’s the cheapest you can buy, especially after the recent discount. This is the latest model from 2024 that overtook the 2022 model, but there aren’t a lot of improvements, according to PCMag’s “good” review. Right now, you can get the bundle with a Fabric Cover and a power adapter for $117.97 (originally $161.97).

Kindle Paperwhite

The Kindle Paperwhite is the most popular reading tablet from Amazon, and it’s the best for most people, according to PCMag’s “outstanding” review. It offers many improvements over the 11th-generation version from 2021—mainly a larger seven-inch display and a much faster boost in performance. The Kindle Paperwhite Essentials Bundle is $156.97 (originally $216.97) for the fabric cover or you can pay a bit more for the leather cover, both at the lowest prices they have been, according to price-tracking tools.

If you want an ad-free experience with the charging dock, get the Signature Edition Bundle for $191.97 (originally $276.97).

Kindle Colorsoft

The Kindle Colorsoft Signature Edition is exactly what it sounds like: It’s a Kindle e-reader with color. It’s essentially the same hardware and design as the Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition, with the same dimensions, weight, and 32GB of storage. It also has the same features, like the automatically adjusting front light, the IPX8 waterproof rating, wireless charging, and an ad-free lock screen that either shows the cover for the book you’re reading, or a generic wallpaper. You can get the Essentials Bundle for $220.97 (originally $312.97).

Kindle Scribe

The latest version of the Kindle Scribe, an upgraded version of the classic e-reader designed for note-taking, came out in December 2024, offering some nice upgrades that make the device more pleasant to use. It comes with a Premium Pen and a more paper-like feel screen that gives you resistance when writing your notes. The Essential Bundle comes with a cover and a power adapter, and starts at $344.97 (originally $529.97).

An anonymous reader shares a report: OpenAI is planning to release a new version of its Sora video generator that creates videos featuring copyrighted material unless copyright holders opt out of having their work appear, according to people familiar with the matter. OpenAI began alerting talent agencies and studios about the forthcoming product and its opt-out process over the last week and plans to release the new version in the coming days, the people said.

The new opt-out process means that movie studios and other intellectual property owners would have to explicitly ask OpenAI not to include their copyrighted material in videos Sora creates. While copyrighted characters will require an opt-out, the new product won’t generate images of recognizable public figures without their permission, people familiar with OpenAI’s thinking said.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

In a development that should surprise no one, OpenAI is preparing to release a standalone social app powered by its upcoming Sora 2 video model, Wired reports. The app reportedly “closely resembles” TikTok, with a vertical video feed and swipe-to-scroll navigation. The catch? It will only feature AI-generated content; there’s apparently no option for the user to upload photos or videos from their phone’s camera roll.

Wired adds OpenAI will limit Sora 2 to generating clips that are 10 seconds long or shorter for use inside of the app. It’s unclear what the model’s limit will be outside of the app. TikTok, following an original limit of 15 seconds, allows people to upload clips that are up to 10 minutes long. The new app is also said to include an identity verification tool. Should a user take advantage of the feature, Sora 2 will be able to use their likeness in videos it generates. In turn, that means other people will be able to tag those users and use their likeness when they go to remix one of their videos. As a safety precaution, OpenAI will push a notification to users whenever their likeness is used by someone else, even in situations where someone makes a video but never posts it to the app’s feed.

According to Wired, the software will refuse to generate some videos due to copyright restrictions. However, it’s not clear just how robust these protections will be, with The Wall Street Journal reporting OpenAI will require rights holders to opt out of their content appearing in videos Sora 2 generates.

As for why OpenAI would release a social media app, Wired suggests the company saw an opportunity after President Trump repeatedly extended the deadline for ByteDance to bring TikTok’s US business under American control. By adding a social component to Sora, OpenAI may also be hoping to dissuade people from trying other models since leaving its new app would mean abandoning whatever community forms around it.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/openai-will-reportedly-release-a-tiktok-like-social-app-alongside-sora-2-205842527.html?src=rss

The UK government will underwrite a $2 billion loan guarantee to Jaguar Land Rover in a bid to support its suppliers as a cyber-attack continues to halt production at the car maker. BBC: Business Secretary Peter Kyle said the loan, from a commercial bank, would protect jobs in the West Midlands, Merseyside and across the UK. The manufacturer has been forced to suspend production for weeks after being targeted by hackers at the end of August. There have been growing concerns some suppliers, mostly small businesses, could go bust due to the prolonged shutdown.

About 30,000 people are directly employed at the company’s UK plants with about 100,000 working for firms in the supply chain. Some of these firms supply parts exclusively to JLR, while others sell components to other carmakers as well. It is believed to be the first time that a company has received government help as a result of a cyber-attack.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Reporter Marisa Kabas, founder of The Handbasket, posted on Bluesky today that more than 1.7 million subscribers canceled their paid Disney streaming plans between September 17 and September 23. The total allegedly includes subscriptions to Disney+, Hulu and ESPN. That falloff reportedly marked a 436 percent increase over the usual churn rate for the service. We’ve reached out to Disney+ for comment on this claim.

Disney also chose to increase subscription prices last week, which could prolong the wave of cancellations. Kabas’ source also claimed that Disney sped the return of the late night show because it had planned to announce the price hike last Tuesday.

In case you need a reminder of the entertainment news that dominated headlines for the past two weeks, Disney-owned ABC suspended the late night talk show Jimmy Kimmel Live on September 17 after President Donald Trump and members of his administration accused the host of making inappropriate comments regarding the assassination of right-wing influencer Charlie Kirk. Although Disney then announced on September 22 that the program would be reinstated the following night, it seems a lot of viewers were not impressed with the company’s actions. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/disney-reportedly-lost-17-million-paid-subscribers-in-the-week-after-suspending-kimmel-201615937.html?src=rss

An anonymous reader shares a report: In a preprint titled “Can LIGO Detect Daylight Savings Time?,” Reed Essick, former LIGO member and now a physicist at the University of Toronto, gives a simple answer to the paper’s title: “Yes, it can.” The paper, which has yet to be peer-reviewed, was recently uploaded to arXiv. That might seem like an odd connection. It’s true that observational astronomy must contend with noise from light pollution, satellites, and communication signals. But these are tangible sources of noise that scientists can sink their teeth into, whereas daylight savings time is considerably more nebulous and abstract as a potential problem.

To be clear, and as the paper points out, daylight savings time does not influence actual signals from merging black holes billions of light-years away — which, as far as we know, don’t operate on daylight savings time. The “detection” here refers to the “non-trivial” changes in human activity having to do with the researchers involved in this kind of work, among other work- and process-related factors tied to the sudden shift in time. The presence of individuals — whether through operational workflows or even their physical activity at the observatories — has a measurable impact on the data collected by LIGO and its sister institutions, Virgo in Italy and KAGRA in Japan, the new paper argues.

To see why this might be the case, consider again the definition of gravitational waves: ripples in space-time. A very broad interpretation of this definition implies that any object in space-time affected by gravity can cause ripples, like a researcher opening a door or the rumble of a car moving across the LIGO parking lot. Of course, these ripples are so tiny and insignificant that LIGO doesn’t register them as gravitational waves. But continued exposure to various seismic and human vibrations does have some effect on the detector — which, again, engineers and physicists have attempted to account for. What they forgot to consider, however, were the irregular shifts in daily activity as researchers moved back and forth from daylight savings time. The bi-annual time adjustment shifted LIGO’s expected sensitivity pattern by roughly 75 minutes, the paper noted. Weekends, and even the time of day, also influenced the integrity of the collected data, but these factors had been raised by the community in the past.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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When you install a major update like iOS 26, you find yourself discovering things the more you use it. You might find a new way to boost your battery life, or stop those spam calls and texts for good. For me, however, one of my favorite discoveries was a small but excellent change to group chats—which doubles as a way to discover which of your contacts have also updated to iOS 26.

Typing indicators join the group chat

Once people update their iPhones to iOS 26, group chats start supporting typing indicators, or, in other words, those tiny typing bubbles you see in one-on-one chats in Messages. The first time you’re in a group chat after updating your iPhone and see someone typing, it’s a bit jarring, since that feature has been exclusive to single chats for all of iMessage history. To me, it almost seemed like a glitch—that’s not supposed to happen.

But it’s actually a great update. Now, group chats aren’t just dead air in-between messages: You can tell when other people are working on responses to one of your messages, so you won’t be surprised the next time a host of new texts start flooding in. On the flip side, if you don’t see these chat bubbles, you’ll know no one is actually working on anything to say. Dead air means dead air.

What’s interesting, though, is that since you need to be running iOS 26 in order to get typing indicators, this new feature serves as a bit of a tell to know which of your contacts has updated to the latest OS. That’s what I’m finding after a couple weeks of iOS 26: I’ll be in group chats where messages come in without warning, as per usual, but one contact will appear as a typing bubble. I’m sure someday not that long from now, that won’t be the norm, and I’ll see most contacts typing in group texts. But for now, it’s a neat observation.

Just remember: If you’re running iOS 26, anyone else running iOS 26 can see that you’re typing in the group chat. It might require some new muscle memory. Until now, you’ve been able to take as long as you want to type and send messages in group chats without notice. But now, some (if not all) of the chat members will be able to see when you start crafting a text.

This is far from the only change Apple made to messaging in iOS 26. In fact, there’s a lot new here, including chat background, the ability to copy individual words from messages, and polls like you might find on other chat apps and social media platforms.

Google plans to begin testing its recently announced verification scheme for Android developers in the coming weeks, but there’s still precious little information on how the process will work. F-Droid, the free and open source app repository, isn’t waiting for the full rollout to take a position. In a blog post, F-Droid staff say that Google’s plan to force devs outside Google Play to register with the company threatens to kill alternative app stores like F-Droid.

F-Droid has been around for about 15 years and is the largest source of free and open source software (FOSS) for Android. Because the apps in F-Droid are not installed via the Play Store, you have to sideload each APK manually, and Google is targeting that process in the name of security.

Several weeks ago, Google announced plans to force all Android app developers to register their apps and identity with Google. Apps that have not been validated by the Big G will not be installable on any certified Android devices in the future. Since virtually every Android device outside of China runs Google services, that means Google is in control of the software we get to install on Android.

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The European way of life is being jeopardized by environmental degradation, a report has found, with EU officials warning against weakening green rules. The Guardian: The continent has made “important progress” in cutting planet-heating pollution, according to the European Environment Agency, but the death of wildlife and breakdown of the climate are ruining ecosystems that underpin the economy. The seventh edition of the report, which has been published every five years since 1995, found:

1. More than 80% of protected habitats are in a poor or bad state, with “unsustainable” consumption and production patterns driving loss of wildlife.
2. The EU’s “carbon sink” has declined by about 30% in a decade as logging, wildfires and pests damage forests.
3. Emissions from transport and food have barely budged since 2005, despite progress in other sectors.
4. Member states have failed to adapt to extreme weather as fast as risk levels have risen.
5. Water stress already affects one in three Europeans and will worsen as the climate changes.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Right now, you can get a 2nd Gen Ring Indoor Cam with a free Ring pet tag on Amazon for its lowest price ever at just $30, making this bundle ideal for pet owners who want to increase indoor surveillance. The camera itself is a mid-tier indoor security camera that offers a solid blend of affordability, features, and smart home integration with those in the Alexa ecosystem, while the pet tag makes it easier to keep track of your furry friend. You can also get a bundle with two cameras for 54% off.

Ring Indoor Cam (2nd Gen), White with Ring Pet Tag

$29.99
at Amazon

$69.98
Save $39.99

$29.99
at Amazon

$69.98
Save $39.99

This 2nd-gen indoor camera records in 1080p HD video with color night vision and allows you to access Live View via the Ring app. Its Advanced Pre-Roll feature captures footage a few seconds before motion is detected, giving you better context when you’re looking over motion alerts. It comes with two-way talk and customizable motion zones, so you’re not being notified unnecessarily. It also has a manual privacy shutter that lets you swivel or cover the camera, disabling both the lens and mic, as this PCMag review notes. The field of view is 143° diagonal, 115° horizontal, and 59° vertical.

A swivel mount allows for flexible placement, and Amazon reviewers praise how easy it is to set up, with a 5-10 minute installation time. However, it is powered via a micro USB plug-in, so unlike battery-powered Ring devices, continuous power is required for this camera to run. It also only supports 2.4 GHz wifi. Still, it’s ideal for those in the Alexa ecosystem; when motion sensors are triggered, your Echo device will light up and make an announcement, keeping you in the loop when someone is there. While it stores up to 180 days of video events, a Ring subscription is required for more extensive or permanent video storage. 

While the Ring pet tag isn’t GPS powered, it does have a custom QR code that provides information about your pet while protecting your personal information, helping anyone with the Ring app reunite you with your pet. If you’re looking for a reliable indoor monitoring camera that performs well and has useful privacy features but doesn’t require ultra-high resolution video quality or pan/tilt (and you don’t mind a wired camera), the 2nd Gen Ring Indoor Cam is a compelling option, especially with the free Ring pet tag that’s included.