“Next time Amazon hypes its Prime Days savings, remember this: The prices during the sale aren’t always better,” writes a Washington Post technology columnist. “I’ve got the receipts to prove it.”

I would have saved, on average, almost nothing during Amazon’s recent fall “Prime Big Deal Days” — and for some big-ticket purchases, I would have actually paid amore. For the sale that took place Oct. 7 and 8, my family went in prepared. We had a shopping list with prices we’d been tracking… A TV stand he’d been watching jumped 38 percent to $379, from $275 on Oct. 2. Same story for a few other big-ticket items on his list — another console went up from $219.99 to $299. Those products weren’t listed as “big deals” on the site, but we certainly didn’t expect their prices to spike during Prime Days.

And in other cases, Amazon marketed discounts that turned out to be the exact price it had charged in recent weeks. One example: an Oral-B electric toothbrush was listed as 39 percent off, but actually the same price as in August… Other consumer advocates have warned one common trick is for Amazon to feature artificially inflated “before” prices to make discounts appear larger than they are. Ahead of Amazon’s 2017 Prime Day, the nonprofit Consumer Watchdog reported that 61 percent of reference prices on Amazon were higher than any price the company had charged for those items in the prior 90 days… I found products listed as Prime Day discounts that cost the same as I’d paid less than a month earlier. For example, a pack of coronavirus tests I bought on Sept. 12 was the same price on Oct. 8, but listed as “39 percent off.” Amazon said I’d gotten a particularly good deal in September, and the Prime Big Deal Days price offers “meaningful savings compared to the typical price customers have paid on Amazon over the last 90 days….”

To actually get a good deal on Amazon, go in with a plan. I use a free website called CamelCamelCamel, which tracks Amazon’s historical prices. You can see what’s really a discount — and set alerts when prices drop to your target.

The reporter checked every non-grocery purchase they’d made on Amazon for six months. Purchasing the same products on Amazon’s “Big Deal Days” would have brought savings of just 0.6%. “And that doesn’t include the $139 annual fee to be a member of Amazon Prime.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

“OpenAI is staffing up to expand ChatGPT’s marketing reach and build on-platform marketing tools,” reports Adweek:

A recent job listing shows the company is hiring a Growth Paid Marketing Platform Engineer to develop internal tools for ad platform integration, campaign management, and real-time attribution. The position is part of a newly formed “ChatGPT Growth team,” and tasked with “building the technical infrastructure behind OpenAI’s paid marketing platform….” This job listing is a rare signal of OpenAI’s plans for an in-house marketing platform within ChatGPT, and part of the AI company’s broader growth plans…

This adds to recent reporting showing that OpenAI is quickly ramping up its advertising ambitions… Alex Heath of Sources reported that OpenAI’s CEO of Applications, Fidji Simo, was meeting with candidates to “lead a new team that will be tasked with bringing ads to ChatGPT….” OpenAI did not respond to requests for comment…

Critically, this job listing would support building backend infrastructure — APIs, data pipelines, and services — to manage campaigns, measure attribution, and optimize ad spend. This internal infrastructure would give OpenAI the ability to run marketing at scale without relying on external agencies, two industry insiders said, adding that successfully doing so for itself could lay the foundation for a broader product that lets other brands run campaigns through ChatGPT… [Jacob Bourne, an analyst at eMarketer] added that while it may be striking to see a company that began as a nonprofit research lab make this kind of move, it reflects OpenAI’s for-profit pivot and broader push into revenue generation.

“In a new Stratechery interview, Altman admitted Instagram changed his mind about ads,” the site Search Engine Land reported Wednesday, citing these two quotes from the interview:

– “I love Instagram ads, they’ve added value to me, I found stuff I never would’ve found, I bought a bunch of stuff, I actively like Instagram ads. I think there’s many things I respect about Meta, but getting that so right was a surprisingly cool thing for me. Other than that, I viewed ads on the Internet as sort of like a tax.”
– “I believe there probably is some cool ad product we can do that is a net win to the user and a sort of positive to our relationship with the user. I don’t know what it is yet, I’m not like, ‘Here is our ad model’ already.”
Their article also cites a tweet from an ad industry director who says OpenAI’s own revenue projections now show “free-user monetization”…

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

One of the most affordable EVs in America, the Chevrolet Bolt, has made its long-awaited comeback. After discontinuing the Bolt in 2023, the American automaker has refreshed the popular EV with a 2027 model that has some key upgrades. Chevy said the new Bolt will be available at dealerships in the first quarter of 2026, starting with a comfort trim that goes for at least $29,990. The updated Bolt will get even cheaper in the coming months when Chevy releases an LT base model that starts at $28,995.

That price tag offers an upgraded EV with an estimated range of 255 miles and peak charging speeds of up to 150kW. According to Chevy, the new Bolt can charge 2.5x faster than the previous model, which often saw complaints about charging speed. Now with a new LFP battery, the 2027 Bolt can charge from 10 to 80 percent in 26 minutes and has access to both DC fast charging and Tesla’s Supercharger network thanks to a native NACS port. Along with an 11-inch driver display, the Chevy Bolt is built with an 11.3-inch infotainment display that can handle navigation, music, and entertainment with Google built-in. Notably, the refreshed Bolt doesn’t have Apple CarPlay compatibility, even though previous models did.

Chevrolet

While Chevy revived the Bolt, it returns as a “limited run model.” The carmaker said in a statement that it “moved quickly to retain the nameplate in our portfolio for a little longer, after hearing feedback from ending production,” and added that the “Bolt will be available for a limited time…as one of our highest volume EVs at Chevrolet.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/evs/the-beloved-chevrolet-bolt-is-back-but-only-for-a-limited-run-161552328.html?src=rss

I uploaded a photo on my phone to Microsoft’s “OneDrive” file-hosting app — and there was a surprise waiting under Privacy and Permissions. “OneDrive uses AI to recognize faces in your photos…”
And…
“You can only turn off this setting 3 times a year.”

If I moved the slidebar for that setting to the left (for “No”), it moved back to the right, and said “Something went wrong while updating this setting.” (Apparently it’s not one of those three times of the year.)

The feature is already rolling out to a limited number of users in a preview, a Microsoft publicist confirmed to Slashdot. (For the record, I don’t remember signing up for this face-recognizing “preview”.) But there’s a link at the bottom of the screen for a “Microsoft Privacy Statement” that leads to a Microsoft support page, which says instead that “This feature is coming soon and is yet to be released.” And in the next sentence it’s been saying “Stay tuned for more updates” for almost two years…

A Microsoft publicist agreed to answer Slashdot’s questions…

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

“A 29-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of starting the Pacific Palisades fire in Los Angeles that killed 12 people and destroyed more than 6,000 homes in January,” reports the BBC.
“Evidence collected from Jonathan Rinderknecht’s digital devices included an image he generated on ChatGPT depicting a burning city, justice department officials said.”

Mr Rinderknecht had been living and working in California, and moved to Florida shortly after the fire, according to authorities. The initial blaze Mr Rinderknecht allegedly started on New Year’s Day was called the Lachman fire. Although it was quickly suppressed by firefighters, it continued to smoulder underground in the root structure of dense vegetation, according to investigators, before it flared up again above ground in a windstorm [nearly a week later]… He lit it with an open flame after he completed a ride as an Uber driver on New Year’s Eve, according to the indictment.

Two passengers rode with Mr Rinderknecht earlier on New Year’s Eve. One passenger told investigators he remembered the driver had appeared agitated and angry. Officials said they had used his phone data to pinpoint his location when the fire initially started on 1 January, but when they pressed him on details he allegedly lied to investigators, claiming he was near the bottom of the trail… The phone also showed that he repeatedly called 911 just after midnight on New Year’s day, but could not get through because of patchy mobile reception on the trailhead. There was a screen recording of him trying to call emergency services and at one point being connected with a dispatcher. Mr Rinderknecht also asked ChatGPT: “Are you at fault if a fire is lift [sic] because of your cigarettes?”
Investigators said the suspect wanted to “preserve evidence of himself trying to assist in the suppression of the fire”. “He wanted to create evidence regarding a more innocent explanation for the cause of the fire,” the indictment said… In July 2024, five months before he allegedly set the fire, Mr Rinderknecht asked ChatGPT to create an image of a “dystopian painting” that included a burning forest and a crowd of people running away from a fire, according to investigators.
The announcement from officials suggests they retrieved data about Rinderknecht’s iPhone. It says after walking up the trailer Rinderknecht “listened to a rap song — to which he had listened repeatedly in previous days — whose music video included things being lit on fire.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from CBC News: The study by a team from Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children (also known as Sick Kids) and St. Michael’s Hospital was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. It found that children who spent more time on screens before age eight scored lower on standardized tests. Child psychiatry researchers say handing kids digital devices, like iPads, every time they have a tantrum could lead to future issues. One new study links too much screen time to emotional and anger management problems.

The study followed more than 3,000 kids in Ontario over a 15 year span from 2008 to 2023, tracking how much time they spent watching TV or DVDs, playing video games, using the computer or playing on handheld devices like iPads, as reported by their parents. That data was compared to their EQAO standardized test scores, which are used to assess the reading and math skills of kids across Ontario in grades 3 and 6. The findings point to a “significant association,” between screen use and lower test scores, according to Dr. Catherine Birken, a pediatrician and senior scientist at Sick Kids and lead author of the study.

“For each additional hour of screen use, there was approximately a 10 percent lower odds of meeting standards in both reading and mathematics … in Grade 3 and mathematics in Grade 6,” said Dr. Catherine Birken, a pediatrician and senior scientist at Sick Kids and lead author of the study, in an interview with CBC News. The study didn’t differentiate between different types of screen time — for example, whether a child was playing a game on their iPad versus FaceTiming a relative in another city, or watching an educational video. It was also an observational study that relied on parents answering questionnaires about how much time their kids spent in front of screens. The study authors note that this means the research can’t be taken as definitive proof that screen time causes lower grades, just that the two things tend to go hand in hand.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

You’ve known it for a while: Microsoft has determined that it’s moving Windows 10 to “end of life” status starting on October 14. That means while Windows 10 PCs will continue to work after that date, they’ll stop getting important security updates by default. That leaves you with three choices if you want to make sure your computer remains secure:

1. You can choose to upgrade to Windows 11 for free if your computer is compatible.

2. You can buy a new PC that already has Windows 11 pre-installed (or opt for an alternative, like a Mac or a Chromebook).

3. Forget about Windows 11 right now and sign up for the Extended Security Updates (ESU), which lets you kick the can down the road for a year.

Since the last one is easy — and can now be done for free in many cases — that’s what we’re focusing on here. We’ll walk you through the steps of keeping Windows 10 on your PC… for now, at least.

How to sign up for Windows 10 Extended Security Updates on your computer

We can question Microsoft’s motives for killing off Windows 10, even though it works perfectly well on most older PCs. But without those periodic security updates, your PC will become increasingly susceptible to malware with each passing week. To that end, enrolling in Extended Security Updates (ESU) will give you another year of using Windows 10 securely.

At one point, Microsoft suggested the 12-month extension would require a $30 fee. While that’s still an option, there’s now a free path for Windows 10 users in the US. Here’s how to make it happen.

Step 1: Make sure your PC is up to date

You can find out if your computer is up-to-date by going into your Settings > System > About, then scroll down to see what version you’re running. If not, you’ll want to make sure you also install all the Windows 10 updates available.

Step 2: Make sure you’re using an administrator account

If you share a computer with multiple people in your household, make sure you’re signed in to the administrator account. Typically, it’s the first account created on the computer. You’ll know it’s the right one when you see “Administrator” under the name. (You can double-check under Settings > Your Info.)

Step 3: Verify if your PC is eligible to upgrade to Windows 11 (or not)

If you see an option to upgrade to Windows 11, just do that. It’s free and it keeps you in the Windows loop. Otherwise, continue following the steps below so you can keep your computer safe with security updates.

Step 4: Enroll in Extended Security Updates

Sign up for ESU by selecting Update & Security from the Settings menu. Click the “Enroll Now” sign-up link, as pictured below. Again, you may see an option to download Windows 11 if your computer meets the requirements (again, definitely do that if you see it).

If you’re not seeing the “Enroll now” link, you probably need to update and install the latest Windows 10 updates (as noted above).

Step 5: Choose your upgrade method

Next up is choosing how you want to enroll, and you have a few options. The easiest way is to back up your PC settings. It’s free, but it takes a little bit of time since you’ll need to back up your data. Again, you’ll need to be using your administrator account to get started.

That said, the free option here comes with two catches, at least for users in the US. (European users will get the free option with no strings attached.) The first is that you’ll be linking your Windows login to Microsoft’s cloud-based online service. Most users have likely already done this (if they’re using CoPilot, Office 365, GamePass, OneDrive or one of Microsoft’s other various online services). But if you’ve specifically opted for a local login to Windows, the price you’re paying for this “free” extension is joining the cloud-connected Microsoft universe.

The other potential issue is that the free backup only applies to the first 5 GB of storage. Anything more, and you’ll need to pay up for Microsoft’s OneDrive services. But thankfully, you can turn off anything you don’t want to back up by going to Settings > OneDrive and toggling off options like Documents, Pictures and Videos to get in under the free threshold to start.

Once you’re signed in, a window will pop up that says “Add this device to receive Extended Security Updates.” Click Add Device to enroll it. Click Done.

That’s it, you’re done! (Until next year)

You’ve got 12 more months to figure out an alternative upgrade path to Windows 11. If anything changes next year, we’ll update this story with what your next steps are.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/windows-10-support-ends-october-14-but-heres-how-to-get-an-extra-year-for-free-125118616.html?src=rss

Cards Against Humanity (CAH) this week announced its newest stunt: a “Cards Against Humanity Explains the Joke” edition that ditches the game’s rules and adds explanatory notes to each card in the box. This makes the project “informational material” rather than a “game,” and therefore CAH can avoid import tariffs. All profits from the one-off project will be donated to the American Library Association to fight censorship.

While a clever way to stick it to Trump, this week’s news did raise a question I’ve heard from several readers: If CAH is this upset about the whiplash-inducing tariff rates, which are added and then removed with almost no warning, why doesn’t it print the game in the US? I mean, it’s just a box of cards! How hard can it be?

In the board game space, designers have wrestled with this question for years. While many US-based designers would like to work with local manufacturers, in reality, it’s often not possible. Complex board games today may feature cardboard creations like constructible dice towers, custom-shaped and painted wooden markers, multicolored jewel pieces, plastic bits of nearly every possible variety, custom-printed component bags, molded miniatures, cards in multiple sizes, metallic coins, dry-erase boards, fancy box inserts, massive dual-sided playing boards, and long manuals. The only manufacturers capable of doing all this work are generally in China or central Europe (Germany still has good manufacturing, and there are also sites in Poland and the Czech Republic).

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Since launching its bug bounty program nearly a decade ago, Apple has always touted notable maximum payouts—$200,000 in 2016 and $1 million in 2019. Now the company is upping the stakes again. At the Hexacon offensive security conference in Paris on Friday, Apple vice president of security engineering and architecture Ivan Krstić announced a new maximum payout of $2 million for a chain of software exploits that could be abused for spyware.

The move reflects how valuable exploitable vulnerabilities can be within Apple’s highly protected mobile environment—and the lengths the company will go to to keep such discoveries from falling into the wrong hands. In addition to individual payouts, the company’s bug bounty also includes a bonus structure, adding additional awards for exploits that can bypass its extra secure Lockdown Mode as well as those discovered while Apple software is still in its beta testing phase. Taken together, the maximum award for what would otherwise be a potentially catastrophic exploit chain will now be $5 million. The changes take effect next month.

“We are lining up to pay many millions of dollars here, and there’s a reason,” Krstić tells WIRED. “We want to make sure that for the hardest categories, the hardest problems, the things that most closely mirror the kinds of attacks that we see with mercenary spyware—that the researchers who have those skills and abilities and put in that effort and time can get a tremendous reward.”

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Welcome to our latest roundup of what’s going on in the indie game space. Some gorgeous new games arrived this week, and we’ve got some demos and reveals from upcoming projects to take a look at. 

Later this month, Lorelai and the Laser Eyes studio Simogo is going to celebrate its 15th anniversary with some news and surprises. Perhaps the developer is porting some of its earlier games to more platforms. I’m hoping that we’ll learn about Simogo’s next game as well.

I’m not holding out hope for a sequel to Sayonara Wild Hearts, which is my favorite game of all time depending on the day you ask me (on other days, it’s The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, FYI). However, if Simogo announces a live concert of music from the game, I’m going to do my damndest to be there. I’ll be tuning in on October 28 to learn what the studio has for me us in any case.

Speaking of showcases, Entalto Publishing and developer GGTech ran one of their own this week. The Out of Bounds event shone a spotlight on a dozen indie games, spanning a breadth of genres. 

Also, a quick reminder that the latest Steam Next Fest starts at 1PM ET on Monday, October 13. As always, the week-long event will have tons of demos for you to check out. It’s always worth trying a bunch of them. You never know, you might end up being one of the first few folks to play the next Balatro, Manor Lords or Deep Rock Galactic Survivor.

New releases

Absolum is a beat-’em-up from the folks behind Streets of Rage 4. It’s the first original IP from Dotemu, which has found success with the likes of the terrific Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge. It co-developed this game with Guard Crush Games and Supamonks. The art and animation from the latter looks absolutely divine.

You can play Absolum solo or with a friend. Since it’s a roguelite, you’ll gain upgrades to bolster your character on each run while earning experience that goes toward permanent progression. There are multiple paths to explore, so the replayability factor seems strong here. Engadget senior reporter Igor Bonifacic spent some time with Absolum this summer and was impressed by it. The game received strong reviews this week too.

Absolum is out now on Steam, Nintendo Switch, PS4 and PS5. Dotemu also has another beat-’em-up, Marvel Cosmic Invasion, coming soon.

A few reviews I’ve read for Bye Sweet Carole (which are fairly mixed) dinged it for having clunky controls and some other quality-of-life problems, such as getting softlocked while trying to complete puzzles. I hope Little Sewing Machine can iron out those issues since the presentation of this game is quite something. It looks like an early-’90s animated movie, with hand-drawn animations and, seemingly, a soundtrack to match. 

Bye Sweet Carole is a 2D horror-platformer from publisher Maximum Entertainment in which you play as a young girl trying to find her best friend, who disappeared from an orphanage. It’s out now on PC, PS5, Nintendo Switch and Xbox Series X/S.

Want to see another new game with a unique look that makes it stand out from the crowd? Of course you do. 

Exploration action game Dreams of Another — which landed on PS5, PS VR2 and Steam this week — sees you creating the environment in a dream-like world by shooting at it. Director Baiyon (PixelJunk Eden) and the team at Q-Games used point cloud rendering technology to create the unusual, but captivating visuals. Dunno why they felt the need to put a clown in this game though. Clowns are rotten things.

Dreams of Another arrived on the same day that Q-Games’ PixelJunk Eden 2 hit PS4, PS5 and Steam (it’s coming to Epic Games Store as well). That game debuted on Nintendo Switch in 2020.

Here’s yet another lovely-looking project, and this time it’s a pixel-art game from Teenage Astronauts and publisher No More Robots. In Little Rocket Lab, you play as aspiring engineer Morgan, who sets out to build factories with the aim of achieving her family’s dream of making a rocket ship. It’s more build a rocket, girl, than Build A Rocket Boy.

This is a blend of a factory builder and life sim, and it looks rather charming. Little Rocket Lab has touched down on Steam and Xbox. It’s on Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass.

On the subject of pixel-art games, I couldn’t not include one that came out this week from a developer based in my hometown. Cairn: Mathair’s Curse is a turn-based RPG. It’s set in the early 2000s in the Scottish Highlands and it sees a young lad and his mates dealing with the aftermath of a cult casting an ancient curse on their home. 

Solo developer Ross McRitchie spent five years making Cairn: Mathair’s Curse and his partner, Christine, composed the Celtic soundtrack. It’s said to have plenty of Scottish humor, which speaks to me. The game, which Steam reviews have likened to EarthBound, is out on Steam now.

Upcoming 

I’m looking forward to checking out Blackwood, which is slated to hit Steam in the second half of 2026. It has a pretty great pitch:

By day, you run a DVD store in 2012 New York. By night, you’re a ruthless assassin. Blackwood is a cinematic third-person shooter with grounded melee combat, brutal takedowns, responsive gunplay and a double life to manage.

The facial animations look a little rough in the reveal trailer, but it’s alpha footage and there’s plenty of time to polish it. I’m hoping the team at Bangladesh-based AttritoM7 Productions manages to do that, because otherwise this game is looking quite nifty with its John Wick-style combat.

I do love a game with a great name, and I’ve got a couple to tell you about. Action RPG Bittersweet Birthday has hand-drawn pixel art and nothing but boss battles when it comes to combat. 

Bittersweet Birthday — from World Eater Games and publisher Dangen Entertainment — is set to land on Steam, GOG, Humble and Itch on November 11. It’s coming to consoles later.

Here’s a pinball-themed precision platformer in the mold of games like Baby Steps and Getting Over It. Fittingly, it’s called A Pinball Game That Makes You Mad and you can control it with a single button.

There’s no release date as yet for this project from Azimuth Studios. However, a demo is available on Steam now. Like a good teenage cousin, it’s fun and annoying in equal measure.

Another pre-Next Fest demo I’ve had a chance to check out is for Don’t Stop, Girlypop!, a fast-paced arena shooter with an anti-capitalist bent. I’ve been looking forward to this one since I found out about it late last year. The demo, with its Y2K girly-pop aesthetics and Doom Eternal/Ultrakill-style gameplay, does not disappoint. 

I’m glad the team trimmed the first word from the original name — Incolatus: Don’t Stop, Girlypop! — since the shorter version is much punchier and more memorable. Funny Fintan Softworks and publisher Kwalee haven’t revealed a release date as yet, but I’ll be checking my T9 flip phone impatiently in the meantime.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/stylish-beat-em-ups-platformers-and-rpgs-and-other-new-indie-games-worth-checking-out-110000184.html?src=rss

Every few weeks, it seems, yet another lab proclaims yet another breakthrough in the race to perfect solid-state batteries: next-generation power packs that promise to give us electric vehicles (EVs) so problem-free that we’ll have no reason left to buy gas-guzzlers.

These new solid-state cells are designed to be lighter and more compact than the lithium-ion batteries used in today’s EVs. They should also be much safer, with nothing inside that can burn like those rare but hard-to-extinguish lithium-ion fires. They should hold a lot more energy, turning range anxiety into a distant memory with consumer EVs able to go four, five, six hundred miles on a single charge.

And forget about those “fast” recharges lasting half an hour or more: Solid-state batteries promise EV fill-ups in minutes—almost as fast as any standard car gets with gasoline.

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