One of the things that’s long irked me about Meta’s smart glasses is how often you have to say “hey Meta.” Even though the company’s AI assistant has gotten significantly more capable, there’s something a little cringey about using its voice commands in public spaces. 

Now, the company has rolled out an update that makes you a little less dependent on voice commands for all its glasses. A new “quick connect” feature allows you to create a one-touch shortcut for “frequently used communication actions,” like making a phone call or sending a text to a specific contact. The update is out now as part of the 19.2 software update.

The idea of “quick connect” is similar to the functionality of the “action button” on the Oakley Meta Vanguard glasses, though it’s more limited in scope. The feature allows you to designate a specific contact that you can message, text or call just by holding down on the touchpad on the right side of the glasses. The Meta AI app will even let you choose your preferred method of reaching them, whether it’s WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger or your phone’s native calling or messaging app. The same one-touch press and hold shortcut can also be used to send photos and videos shot on the glasses right after you take them (also via your chosen app). 

During its Connect event, Meta previewed some updates for third-party apps that appear to allow developers to set their own wake words for the glasses when using their services. So there is some hope that eventually the company will offer a bit more flexibility with its voice commands. Even so, it’s unlikely you’ll be able to get away with never having to say “hey Meta,” but the quick connect update is a handy way to make messaging a bit more discreet.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/wearables/metas-smart-glasses-have-a-new-shortcut-to-call-and-text-without-saying-hey-meta-213303178.html?src=rss

The FBI is targeting a popular website for snapshotting websites on request, and may soon make it harder to get past paywalls online. The domain registrar of the site Archive.Today has reportedly been subpoenaed in an attempt to uncover the archive’s owner, as first reported by 404 Media. A PDF of the subpoena posted to the Archive.Today X account late last week.

The site is similar to the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine, but is intended more for immediate short term access rather than maintaining a longterm record. As opposed to the Internet Archive’s methodical web crawlers, Archive.Today’s work quickly in response to user requests, but don’t make any promises to keep website snapshots around in the future. Essentially, while the Wayback Machine is intended as a way to see how a website used to look like, Archive.Today is more about seeing how a website looks right now.

A popular option for avoiding paywalls

The obvious use case is to get past paywalls or other blocks that would prevent users from just going to a website directly. Alternatively, you could use an Archive.Today snapshot to be able to read an article without supporting the site hosting it. I have had others tell me they do use Archive.Today to check historical versions of websites and articles too, although I’ve found it to be a little less reliable than the Internet Archive for this purpose.

It’s unclear why the site is being targeted

While the FBI’s subpoena doesn’t reveal the exact reason for the request, it does say it “relates to a federal criminal investigation being conducted by the FBI.” Given Archive.Today’s potential to skirt paywalls, and similar crackdowns on tools like 12ft.io, it’s possible the investigation has to do with copyright infringement.

Not much is known about Archive.Today’s owner, aside from the original site domain being registered in 2012 under the name of a Denis Petrov from Prague, Czech Republic. It seems the name is either common enough to throw a wrench in the FBI’s investigation, or is a pseudonym. In the subpoena, the organization requests the Archive.Today owner’s “name, address of service, and billing address” as well as numerous other details, including length of service and telephone records. The web registrar hosting the site had until November 29 to comply.

The site is still up, for now

In the meantime, Archive.Today (as well as mirrors like Archive.is) remains operational, and has not made a statement on the matter aside from posting the subpoena PDF to X, alongside the word “canary.” Previously, the site’s owner has said that they doesn’t give guarantees that it will remain operational indefinitely, and that “it is an overly optimistic assumption that there will be no risks [to the archive] before I die.” Perhaps the idea is that the subpoena is a canary in a coal mine?

For now, it seems like the best users can do is wait and see. Archive.Today is notably not open source, meaning that any threat to individual running it could see the site and its mirrors shut down with no immediate successor.

The subpoena follows news that Google has delisted 749 million URLs for literary piracy website Anna’s Archive. Together, they point to an internet that might be about to get far more strict about respecting copyright.

Google has announced new features in the popular Google Finance platform, and it leans heavily on Google’s tried-and-true strategy of more AI in more places. This builds on Google’s last Finance update, which added a Gemini-based chatbot. Now, Google is adding Gemini Deep Research to the site, which will allow users to ask much more complex questions. You can also ask questions about the future, backed by new betting market data sources.

The update, which is rolling out over the next several weeks, will add a Deep Research option to the Finance chatbot. The company claims that with the more powerful AI, users will be able to generate “fully cited” research reports on a given topic in just a few minutes. So you can expect an experience similar to Deep Research in the Gemini app—you give it a prompt, and then you come back later to see the result.

You probably won’t want to bother with Deep Research on simple queries—there are faster, easier ways to get that done. Google suggests using Deep Research on more complex things, like the doozy below.

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Square Enix is laying off developers in the UK and US as it reworks its game development structure to focus on its studios in Japan, Video Games Chronicle reports. The mass restructuring follows the publishers’ 2024 announcement that it planned to “aggressively” apply AI to its development process.

The total number of employees being laid off isn’t yet public, but Video Games Chronicle writes that over 100 developers in the UK could be impacted, possibly up to 140. The number of US developers caught in the layoffs is still unknown. In a slide deck for investors spotted by IGN, Square Enix characterizes its “Overseas Structural Reform” as part of its goal of “consolidating development functions in Japan.” The deck also notes that Square Enix is particularly interested in automating “70 percent of QA and debugging tasks in game development by the end of 2027” with artificial intelligence, which could be one reason it’s trying to eliminate roles.

Engadget has contacted Square Enix to confirm its restructuring plans. We’ll update this article if we hear back.

Square Enix has made an ongoing number of attempts to pull out of Western game development in the last decade. The publisher appeared to play some kind of role in project cancellations at developer People Can Fly earlier this year, and before that, it initiated mass layoffs in 2024. Even earlier in 2013, Square Enix made large cuts to its US and European divisions, including selling studios like Eidos-Montréal, Square Enix Montréal and Crystal Dynamics to Embracer Group.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/square-enix-is-laying-off-more-developers-in-the-uk-and-us-as-it-refocuses-on-japan-201907305.html?src=rss

The FBI has subpoenaed popular Canadian domain registrar Tucows, demanding information about the owner of archive[dot]today, a popular archiving site used to bypass paywalls and avoid sending traffic to original publishers. The subpoena states it relates to a federal criminal investigation but provides no details about the alleged crime.

Archive.today posted the document on X the same day. The site, also known as archive.is and archive.ph, started in the early 2010s and rose to prominence during GamerGate when users took snapshots of articles to avoid sending traffic to websites. It now has hundreds of millions of saved pages. The FBI requested the customer name, address, billing information, telephone connection records, payment methods, internet connectivity session times, and device identifiers.

Very little is known about who operates the site. A 2013 analysis by Gyrovague suggested it is “a one-person labor of love, operated by a Russian of considerable talent and access to Europe.” A 2013 FAQ states the site is privately funded. A 2021 blog post said “it is doomed to die at any moment.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

AT&T has been told to stop running ads that falsely promise all customers a free iPhone. The rebuke came from the advertising industry’s official watchdog just a week after AT&T sued the organization over a different advertising dispute.

BBB National Programs’ National Advertising Review Board (NARB) “has recommended that AT&T Services, Inc. modify its advertising to avoid conveying a false message regarding eligibility for an iPhone device offer,” the group, which runs the ad industry’s self-regulatory system, said today.

Verizon initiated the case by challenging AT&T’s “Learn how everyone gets iPhone 16 Pro on us” claim. BBB National Programs’ National Advertising Division (NAD) ruled in favor of Verizon in September 2025. AT&T appealed but lost the challenge in the NARB decision announced today.

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Venture capitalist David Sacks, who is serving as President Donald Trump’s AI and crypto czar, said Thursday that there will be “no federal bailout for AI.” From a report: “The U.S. has at least 5 major frontier model companies. If one fails, others will take its place,” Sacks wrote in a post on X. Sacks’ comments came after OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar said Wednesday that the startup wants to establish an ecosystem of private equity, banks and a federal “backstop” or “guarantee” that could help the company finance its infrastructure investments.

She softened her stance later in a LinkedIn post and said OpenAI is not seeking a government backstop for its infrastructure commitments. She said her use of the word “backstop” clouded her point. […] Sacks said the Trump administration does want to make permitting and power generation easier, and that the goal is to facilitate rapid infrastructure buildouts without raising residential electricity rates. “To give benefit of the doubt, I don’t think anyone was actually asking for a bailout. (That would be ridiculous.),” he wrote.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Internal documents have revealed that Meta has projected it earns billions from ignoring scam ads that its platforms then targeted to users most likely to click on them.

In a lengthy report, Reuters exposed five years of Meta practices and failures that allowed scammers to take advantage of users of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.

Documents showed that internally, Meta was hesitant to abruptly remove accounts, even those considered some of the “scammiest scammers,” out of concern that a drop in revenue could diminish resources needed for artificial intelligence growth.

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CRKD is expanding its lineup of rhythm game controllers. The gaming accessory maker previously released guitar controllers that are compatible with games like Fortnite Festival and open-source projects like Clone Hero, and based on a recent teaser video, it looks like it’s doing a drum kit controller next.

The teaser is brief, but CRKD appears to be covering all the basics that old Rock Band and Guitar Hero controllers did, with four separate colored pads, a pedal and cymbals. In a blog post, the company says that it plans to incorporate “the good lessons (and the bad)” from its previous controllers, mix them with customer feedback and hopefully make an even better controller when the drum controller is formally introduced in Q1 2026.

While rhythm games aren’t as big as they used to be, they never fully left the indie scene, and they could be primed for a bit of a comeback in 2026. Nintendo plans to release a new entry in its Rhythm Heaven series, Rhythm Heaven Groove, in 2026, and Epic Games continues to support Fortnite Festival with new songs. CRKD also happens to be owned by Embracer Freemode, the same parent company of the revived RedOctane Games, which is working on new rhythm games after helping to popularize the genre with the original Guitar Hero.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/crkd-is-making-a-drum-controller-for-rhythm-games-190154673.html?src=rss