An anonymous reader shares a report: The use of AI in the latest Call of Duty has prompted a US lawmaker to call for regulations to prevent artificial intelligence from taking jobs away from human workers. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), who represents a large swathe of Silicon Valley, took aim at Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 after buyers noticed the popular shooter contains a significant amount of AI-generated icons, posters, and achievements. Gamers are criticizing it as filled with “AI slop.”

On Friday, Khanna tweeted: “We need regulations that prevent companies from using AI to eliminate jobs to extract greater profits.” He added, “Artists at these companies need to have a say in how AI is deployed. They should share in the profits. And there should be a tax on mass displacement.”

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You may be doing everything you can to protect your privacy online—using tools like multi-factor authentication, a secure password manager, and a VPN—but unfortunately, not all privacy-focused apps and services are actually doing what they promise. In its November fraud and scam advisory, Google is warning users about VPN apps and extensions that appear legitimate but are actually vectors for malware.

VPNs may actually be spyware

A VPN, or virtual private network, makes your internet activity much more difficult to track by routing your traffic through a different connection rather than your regular internet service provider (ISP). This allows you to hide your IP address and location, obscure your browsing data, and protect your information and devices from bad actors.

According to Google, malicious VPNs (posing as real ones) are delivering infostealers, remote access trojans, and banking trojans to user devices once installed, allowing hackers to access sensitive personal data like browsing history, financial credentials, and cryptocurrency wallet information. This means that an app you rely on to keep your information private could be doing the exact opposite. Cybercriminals are capitalizing on user trust in these services, creating apps that look and feel like legitimate VPNs but are actually dangerous spyware.

How to ensure your VPN app is safe

As with any app or extension, only download or install a VPN from an official source like the Google Play store. While malicious programs do sometimes sneak through, it’s typically safer and more reliable than sideloading through a messaging app or other unvetted site.

In January 2025, Google launched a VPN verification process to help users identify trustworthy VPN apps in the Google Play store. To earn a “verified” badge, VPN apps have to undergo a Mobile Application Security Assessment (MASA) Level 2 validation and opt into independent security reviews. Badges are awarded only to VPNs that have been published for at least 90 days and reach 10,000 installs and 250 user reviews.

Of course, this system isn’t perfect either: As TechRadar reported earlier this year, a popular (free) Chrome VPN extension earned a badge and was later discovered to be spying on users. That’s why you should rely on a reputable VPN service—which means you’ll likely have to pay for it. Free VPNs are far more likely to a privacy nightmare, and any app that sounds too good to be true probably is. You aren’t going to get unlimited traffic at no cost without sacrificing something.

Finally, review VPN permissions carefully, and allow the minimum access possible for the app or extension to function. (You should do this with any app you download, and you should audit apps regularly to remove unnecessary permissions.) You can check your VPN service’s support pages to find out which permissions are essential—this should not include access to your contacts, camera, microphone, or photos, for example.

Generally speaking, there are two ideal periods to buy a TV: the late spring stretch when new models are announced and last year’s sets are heavily discounted to clear out inventory, and the holiday shopping season, right around Black Friday. We’re firmly in the latter now, so if you’ve been thinking about making that big living room upgrade, it’s OK to take the plunge.

To help you out, we’ve sorted through the many sales already floating around the web and picked out the best Black Friday TV deals we could find below. The current selection includes several well-reviewed sets from Samsung, LG, TCL and Hisense, but we’ll update this post through Black Friday itself as more deals pop up.

Best Black Friday TV deals: Under $500

Hisense U65QF (55-inch) for $428 at Amazon ($372 off MSRP): The U65QF is another entry-level LED TV with generally positive reviews. Most feedback around the web suggests that it can’t match the QM6K in terms of contrast, gaming features and overall accuracy, so TCL’s model should be a better buy for most. This iteration also uses Amazon’s Fire TV platform instead of the cleaner Google TV. It can achieve a higher peak brightness, however, so it’s worth considering if you get particularly bad glare in your living room. This is the lowest price we’ve seen for the 55-inch model, but the 65-inch ($548), 75-inch ($748) and 85-inch ($998) models are also at all-time lows. Also at Best Buy.

Best Black Friday TV deals: Between $500 and $1,000

LG B5 (55-inch) for $897 at Amazon ($100 off): The B5 is LG’s entry-level OLED TV for 2025. It gets you the core benefits of any OLED TV — excellent contrast, wide viewing angles, smooth motion and so on — but it can’t get as bright as the higher-end LG C5, so it doesn’t look as colorful. (The C5 isn’t significantly discounted as of this writing.) It’s technically limited to a 120Hz refresh rate instead of 144Hz, too, though that isn’t a big deal unless you plan to play PC games on your TV. While not huge discount, this matches the lowest price we’ve seen for the 55-inch model. Also at Best Buy and LG.

TCL QM7K (65-inch) for $800 at Amazon ($200 off): The TCL QM7K is a fairly sizable step-up over the QM6K, with noticeably improved contrast, brightness and color volume. It has a 144Hz refresh rate with 288Hz@1080p support as well, though like the budget model it’s limited to two HDMI 2.1 ports. And like most LED TVs, it can’t compete with a good OLED set when it comes to colors and viewing angles. This deal matches the all-time low for the 65-inch model. The 55-inch version is $30 above its previous best at $598. Also at Best Buy and Walmart.

Best Black Friday TV deals: $1,000 and up

Samsung S95F (65-inch) for $2,298 at Amazon ($700 off): The S95F is a premium model that has received almost universally stellar reviews for being especially bright among OLED TVs while keeping the bold colors and contrast expected from a QD-OLED panel. That brightness, combined with the display’s matte finish, means it’s especially adept at fending off glare in a bright room. It also has a 165Hz refresh rate for gaming. That said, there’s still no Dolby Vision HDR, and the matte coating means that black tones won’t look as deep in a well-lit room. It’s not cheap, but this is the lowest price we’ve seen for the 65-inch model. Also at Samsung and Best Buy.

TCL QM8K (75-inch) for $1,400 at Amazon ($600 off): If you’re willing to pay an OLED-level price but want the increased brightness of a high-end LED TV, the TCL QM8K is worth a look. It won’t be as good in a dark room as something like the Samsung S90F or LG C5, as its contrast isn’t as deep and black tones aren’t as uniformly dark. Its viewing angles are clearly worse, too. But reviews say it still performs excellently compared to other LED sets, and since it gets way brighter than most OLED alternatives (especially with non-HDR content), it can better withstand glare. It also has a 144Hz refresh rate with support for 288Hz at 1080p, though it only comes with two HDMI 2.1 ports, and it’s not available in a size smaller than 65 inches. This is the best price we’ve seen for the 75-inch variant. Also at Walmart.

Best Black Friday streaming device deals

Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Plus for $25 at Amazon ($25 off): The newly rebranded Fire TV Stick 4K Plus offers the same core experience as the more expensive Fire TV Stick 4K Max, only it has a slightly slower processor, half the storage space (8GB) and Wi-Fi 6 support instead of Wi-Fi 6E. For most people who just want to stream casually, those shouldn’t be huge losses. Just keep in mind that its Fire OS interface is still fairly ad-heavy and prioritizes Amazon’s own apps over everything else. This deal is $3 more than the device’s all-time low but ties the best price we’ve seen in the past year. Also at Best Buy.

Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Max for $35 at Amazon ($25 off): If you want the best Amazon streaming stick possible, the 4K Max gets you faster hardware than the Plus model and may be worthwhile if you have a Wi-Fi 6E router at home. This deal isn’t an all-time low, but it matches the best price we’ve seen over the past year.

Amazon Fire TV Stick HD for $18 at Amazon ($17 off): The Fire TV Stick HD is the budget pick in our guide to the best streaming devices. It only streams up to 1080p and runs a bit choppier than Amazon’s 4K models since it has a slower chip and a meager 1GB of RAM. The usual complaints with Fire OS still apply, too. But if you just want to add streaming apps to an aging TV for as little as possible, it’ll work well enough. This discount matches the best price we’ve tracked. Also at Best Buy and Target.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/the-best-black-friday-tv-deals-we-can-find-so-far-samsung-lg-tcl-and-more-181143919.html?src=rss

Strauss Zelnick, CEO of Take-Two Interactive, which operates publishing labels including GTA-maker Rockstar Games and 2K, said on Monday that although gaming consoles are not going away, the industry is moving toward PCs in the next decade. From a report: “I think it’s moving towards PC and business is moving towards open rather than closed,” Zelnick told CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”

“But if you define console as the property, not the system, then the notion of a very rich game that you engage in for many hours that you play on a big screen — that’s never going away.” Zelnick said the current split between console and mobile is about even in the market, but mobile is growing more rapidly than consoles.

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If you own a home or just like to maintain your stuff, you probably own a bunch of tools that help you do stuff that would be impossible otherwise. (Unless you’ve had more success than I have at hammering a nail into a block of wood with your fists). But tools themselves can often be augmented with accessories that make them a little easier to use, more effective, and safer—think of these accessories as tools for your tools.

Even the best-stocked tool chest can be improved with the addition of a few simple, low-cost accessories. Here are eight that every DIYer should pick up to make their next project a little easier.

Bucket organizers

My DIY process used to involve several trips back and forth between the project site and my tool closet, because I can only carry so much stuff at one time. Stuffing tools and loose screws into your pockets might get the job done, but it isn’t pretty, especially when the clawtooth hammer gets stuck in your pocket and you rip your pants open while standing on your roof in full view of the neighborhood, which is definitely not something that has ever happened to me. That’s why a bucket organizer (like the Bucketeer) is a must-have. It’s so simple it’s ridiculous: These organizers slide into the bucket and act as a tool belt around the exterior. You can still use the bucket as a bucket, while also easily transporting your gear.

Depth stop collars

One lesson I’ve learned in my DIY journey is that I’m never as in control of my power tools as I think I am. The evidence for this is all the times I’ve drilled way too deep for what I need. Whether you need a series of holes drilled to a precise depth, or you want to avoid overdrilling through the back of something, you quickly learn that eyeballing stuff and drilling by “feel” is an easy way to screw everything up. Having a set of depth collars like these is the answer. They clamp onto your bit and prevent you from over- or under-drilling. Aside from the precision, they also allow you to put full force behind the drill, because you don’t have to worry about losing control at the critical moment and over-drilling.

Anti-vibration pads

DIY projects can be pretty noisy. An anti-vibration pad like this one is an essential tool accessory. It reduces the noise from vibration and helps to protect the surface under your tools or materials so you can work safely. You can buy these in pre-sized versions, but buying a roll allows you to cut it up to fit your needs, so you can create pads for use under appliances (like the washing machine) to reduce noise and vibration, to use under portable saws and other tools, and to slide under materials that you’re working on. It’s a simple fix that makes DIY projects a lot more pleasant.

Dust collectors

Dust is a byproduct of just about every project you’ll ever do around the house. You can try hanging plastic sheets or using tape and/or envelopes to catch dust, but in my experience, neither really works—dust still gets everywhere. That’s why this dust collector from DeWalt is a genius tool accessory: It suctions to the wall and connects to your wet/dry shopvac, effortlessly capturing all that dust from drilling and sanding.

Anti-vibration gloves or wraps

If you’ve ever used a power tool for a long stretch of time, you know how tired your hands and arms can get. You can reduce that stress on your body by reducing the vibrations you absorb from your tools with either anti-vibration gloves or an anti-vibration wrap that you can apply to hand tools (like hammers). These accessories absorb those vibrations, not only making them more comfortable to use but also increasing your control, because the tool won’t vibrate right out of your hands.

Magnetic wristbands

If you’ve ever wasted an hour of your life trying to find a dropped screw because you had no spares (I can neither confirm nor deny I’ve done this), you need a simple magnetic wristband like this one. It gives you a hands-free way to hang onto screws, bolts, nails, drill bits, or anything else metallic that you’re working with.

Flexible drill bits

Inevitably you’ll find yourself pondering how you can drill or screw something around a corner, or in a very tight space where no power tool could possibly fit. The answer is this amazing tool accessory: A flexible bit holder. With one of these, you can drill around corners or inside tight spots where a traditional bit can’t go, thus removing one more obstacle to getting your project finished.

Laser saw guide

If you use a miter saw or any kind of circular saw, you know that even when you carefully measure and mark your materials, you can still mess up the cut. Undercut by the slightest margin and you’ll waste time sanding ends down or trying to make impossibly small extra cuts. Overcut, and you just wasted your time, effort, and materials.

Adding a laser guide to your blade eliminates this risk. It clearly and accurately shows you exactly where your blade is going to bite, so you’ll know immediately if you’re a fraction of a millimeter off. You’ll be able to adjust before you cut, preventing frustration and waste.

Apple’s Power Mac and Mac Pro towers used to be the company’s primary workstations, but it has been years since they were updated with the same regularity as the MacBook Air or MacBook Pro. The Mac Pro has seen just four hardware updates in the last 15 years, and that’s counting a 2012 refresh that was mostly identical to the 2010 version.

Long-suffering Mac Pro buyers may have taken heart when Apple finally added an M2 Ultra processor to the tower in mid-2023, making it one of the very last Macs to switch from Intel to Apple Silicon—surely this would mean that the computer would at least be updated once every year or two, like the Mac Studio has been? But Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman says that Mac Pro buyers shouldn’t get their hopes up for new hardware in 2026.

Gurman says that the tower is “on the back burner” at Apple and that the company is “focused on a new Mac Studio” for the next-generation M5 Ultra chip that is in the works. As we reported earlier this year, Apple doesn’t have plans to design or release an M4 Ultra, and the Mac Studio refresh from this spring included an M3 Ultra alongside the M4 Max.

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Google’s DeepMind just released WeatherNext 2, a new version of its AI weather prediction model. The company promises that it “delivers more efficient, more accurate and higher-resolution global weather predictions.” To that end, it should be able to provide accurate forecasts up to two weeks out, including information on temperature, pressure and wind.

It should also be able to better predict tropical storm tracks, according to researchers. This means that predictions of a hurricane’s path should be accurate up to three days out. The previous model only predicted things up to two days ahead of the storm.

The model also brings hourly forecasts into the mix. All told, Google says this new model is eight times faster than the previous iteration. This should help businesses like energy traders make more precise decisions, according to a report by Bloomberg.

“It gives you a more granular forecast,” DeepMind AI researcher Akib Uddin said. “Many other industries are quite interested in these one-hour steps. It helps them make more precise decisions. Their goal is, how can they make their business more resilient to weather?”

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The improvements here stem from a new approach to weather models, as explained in this recently-published research paper. Older methods demanded the use of machine learning models that were built for image and video generation. This required repeated processing to ensure an accurate result. The new model only requires a single processing step, which also reduces reliance on costly AI computing systems.

AI may not be great at everything, despite what proponents want you to believe, but it is great at predicting the weather. Newer models typically outperform traditional prediction methods, even those that rely on supercomputers.

These models aren’t perfect, however, as even Google has acknowledged that WeatherNext 2 will likely struggle to predict outlier rain and snow events. This is due to gaps in the training data. “It’s one limitation of our forecast, but one that we are working on improving,” DeepMind research scientist Ferran Alet told Bloomberg.

AI weather prediction is becoming a crowded field. Companies like NVIDIA, Microsoft, AccuWeather and Huawei are all throwing their hats in the ring in one way or another.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/deepmind-releases-a-new-weather-forecasting-model-for-more-accurate-predictions-175451228.html?src=rss

Nothing says it’s holiday season quite like a new installment of Rian Johnson’s delightful Knives Out mystery series. The final trailer for Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery was just released, featuring Daniel Craig’s Benoit Blanc in all his Southern gentleman detective glory. This time, he’s tackling the strange death of a parish priest in a spookily Gothic small-town setting.

As we’ve previously reported, the original Knives Out was a masterfully plotted winning mashup of Clue and Murder on the Orient Express—or any number of adaptations of novels by the grande dame of murder mysteries, Agatha Christie—along with other classics like Deathtrap, Gosford Park, and Murder by Death. Craig clearly found Blanc a refreshing counter to the 007 franchise, and he and Johnson soon committed to filming a sequel: 2022’s Glass Onion, inspired particularly by the Christie-based “tropical getaway” whodunnit Evil Under the Sun (1982) and an under-appreciated 1973 gem called The Last of Sheila.

And now we have Wake Up Dead Man. With this franchise, the less one knows going in, the better. But Johnson has assembled yet another winning all-star cast. Josh Brolin plays the victim, the fire-and-brimstone-spewing Monseigneur Jefferson Wicks; Josh O’Connor plays a young priest named Rev. Jud Duplenticy; Glenn Close plays a devout churchgoer named Martha Delacroix, Wick’s loyal helper; Mila Kunis plays local police chief Geraldine Scott; Jeremy Renner plays town doctor Nat Sharp; Kerry Washington plays uptight lawyer Vera Draven; Daryl McCormack plays aspiring politician Cy Draven; Thomas Haden Church plays groundskeeper Samson Holt; Andrew Scott plays bestselling author Lee Ross; and Cailee Spaeny plays Simone Vivane, a disabled former classical cellist.

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We won’t have to wait too much longer to find out which game will follow the wonderful Astro Bot‘s triumph at last year’s edition of The Game Awards. The 2025 ceremony takes place on December 11 at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles. In between a cavalcade of video game trailers and announcements, the show will squeeze in some actual awards. We now know what the contenders for The Game Awards 2025 are after Monday’s announcement of the nominees.

Those vying for the top prize of game of the year are:

• Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 – Sandfall Interactive/Kepler Interactive

• Death Stranding 2: On The Beach – Kojima Productions/Sony Interactive Entertainment

• Donkey Kong Bananza – Nintendo EPD/Nintendo

• Hades II – Supergiant Games

• Hollow Knight: Silksong – Team Cherry

• Kingdom Come: Deliverance II – Warhorse Studios/Deep Silver

Half of those are also up for game of the year at the Indie Game Awards. Those three games (Clair Obscur, Hades II and Hollow Knight: Silksong) are up for the best independent game award at this ceremony as well, alongside Absolum, Ball x Pit and Blue Prince.

With 12 nods in total — including three in the best performance category — Clair Obscur isn’t just the most-nominated game this year. It’s the most-nominated game in the 12-year history of the ceremony. Death Stranding 2 and Ghost of Yōtei have eight nods each, Hades II has seven and Silksong has five. Sony Interactive Entertainment leads the way among publishers with 19 nominations.

A whole bunch of high-profile games missed out on nominations for the main award. However, the likes of Arc Raiders, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, Mario Kart World, Assassin’s Creed Shadows, Elden Ring: Nightreign, Battlefield 6, Split Fiction, Monster Hunter Wilds and Silent Hill f have picked up nods in other categories. It’s neat to see games like Consume Me, Despelote, Rematch and Dispatch pick up nominations this year too. Meanwhile, Marvel’s Deadpool VR, a game that isn’t even out until tomorrow, picked up a nod.

Fan voting for this year’s edition of The Game Awards starts today on the TGA website and social platforms. Public ballots account for 10 percent of the final vote, with a jury comprising dozens of media outlets accounting for the remaining 90 percent. The nominees for the players’ voice award — the only one determined entirely by fans — will be announced on December 1.

The Game Awards (which is under fire over its handling of the discontinued Future Class program) will be streaming across a wide variety of platforms, including Prime Video for the first time. As ever, we’ll be on top of all of the big news from the event, so stay tuned to Engadget for all the juicy details. Place your bets now on what will be announced. Maybe, just maybe, we’ll get a glimpse of Half-Life 3?

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/the-game-awards-2025-nominees-include-clair-obscur-hollow-knight-silksong-and-hades-2-173626649.html?src=rss

A group of dedicated coders has managed to partially revive online gameplay for the PC version of Concord, the team-based shooter that Sony famously shut down just two weeks after its launch last summer. Now, though, the team behind that fan server effort is closing off new access after Sony started issuing DMCA takedown requests of sample gameplay videos.

The Game Post was among the first to publicize the “Concord Delta” project, which reverse-engineered the game’s now-defunct server API to get a functional multiplayer match running over the weekend. “The project is still [a work in progress], it’s playable, but buggy,” developer Red posted in the game’s Discord channel, as reported by The Game Post. “Once our servers are fully set up, we’ll begin doing some private playtesting.”

Accessing the “Concord Delta” servers reportedly requires a legitimate PC copy of the game, which is relatively hard to come by these days. Concord only sold an estimated 25,000 copies across PC and PS5 before being shut down last year. And that number doesn’t account for the players who accepted a full refund for their $40 purchase after the official servers shut down.

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The UK government has been warned that its plan to ban operators of critical national infrastructure from paying ransoms to hackers is unlikely to stop cyber attacks and could result in essential services collapsing. From a report: The proposal, announced by the Home Office in July, is designed to deter cyber criminals by making it clear any attempt to blackmail regulated companies such as hospitals, airports and telecoms groups will not succeed. If enacted, the UK would be the first country to implement such a ban.

But companies and cyber groups have told government officials that making paying ransoms illegal would remove a valuable tool in negotiations where highly sensitive data or essential services could be compromised, according to two people familiar with the matter. “An outright ban on payments sounds tough on crime, but in reality it could turn a solvable crisis into a catastrophic one,” said Greg Palmer, a partner at law firm Linklaters.

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Google has introduced some new tools in AI Mode alongside the expansion of others. The beta for Flight Deals, the AI-powered search tool that operates within Google Flights, is expanding globally. The tool works to find the best deals on flights in response to natural-language prompts from the user. The company is also expanding AI Mode’s agentic capabilities to more users across the US, helping to book restaurants, event tickets and beauty or wellness appointments.

The search giant is also adding a new feature to AI Mode called Canvas. This tool offers an organized space for users to build plans or projects. It can also help plan trips. Within the Canvas environment, users can describe the kind of trip they want to book, and the various tools will suggest destinations, hotels and bookings.

Last week, Google also added a host of new AI-powered shopping features, including an agentic checkout that helps find and buy an item at a specific price. Shoppers can have Google track the price of an item and give the AI permission to purchase it once it hits the desired discount.

Google has been rolling out a slew of AI features across its product suite, including Google Photos, Google Messages and Android.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/google-expands-ai-modes-flight-and-event-booking-features-170017656.html?src=rss