Disappointed fans are reporting that they saw no signs of superheroes before James Cameron’s latest
The post Some Midnight Screenings Of <em>Avatar</em> Were Missing <em>Avengers: Doomsday</em> Teasers And Fans Aren’t Happy: ‘We’ve Been Super Baited, Chat’ appeared first on Kotaku.
You’ll save some money and time without having to sit at home and game with this machine.
The post Lenovo Slashes Its Ryzen 5 Gaming Laptop (16RAM, 1TB SSD) by 65% as Year-End Clearance Expands appeared first on Kotaku.
James Cameron’s latest installment in the Avatar franchise isn’t scoring as well as SpongeBob with critics
The post These 12 Movies Have A Higher RT Score Than <i>Avatar 3</i> appeared first on Kotaku.
I really like my Pixel 9a, but there’s one glaring issue with my Pixel that stares at me every time I unlock my phone. And it’s the At a Glance widget on top the screen that Google just won’t let me remove. I like a clean lock screen, and eventually, I got so frustrated looking at this totally uncustomizable widget that shows the time and the weather that I gave up and switched to Niagara Launcher. And if you think that this is just my own pickiness, I can confidently say it’s not just me; Reddit is filled with people complaining about this.
But seems like after 10 iterations of Pixels, Google is finally letting people get rid of this widget, clearing space for something, anything better than this. The new option will be part of Android 16’s QPR 3 update, which will be out sometime in March 2026. But if you install the beta, you can try it now.
Android’s QPR betas are refreshed every quarter, and anyone with a compatible Pixel device can enroll. Visit the Android Beta Program website and enroll your device. Reboot, and you’ll be on the beta channel. It’s really easy to hop on, and it won’t require a factory reset. But getting rid of an installed beta is not so easy. Once you install the latest QPR 3 beta, you’re in for the long haul, at least until Android 16 ships the stable version in March. If something goes wrong, or if you’re facing battery issues, the only way to downgrade would be to wipe your device. So before you start, make sure you have a full backup.
At a Glance is an interesting idea, but it’s rarely helpful. It’s supposed to show you relevant information like the weather, your next appointment, alerts, air quality, and even suggestions from fitness apps and delivery updates. But instead, what it shows is unpredictable and pretty barebones, and it takes up valuable screen real estate. Worse, you can’t customize it to make it better. I’m excited to get rid of it once and for all.
Once you’re running the latest software, it’s quite straightforward. Long press the At a Glance widget and choose the Settings option.
Here, disable the new Show on home screen option below the Use At a Glance toggle. This will disable the home screen widget instantly, but you’ll still have access to it on the lock screen. Disable the Use At a Glance toggle as well to get rid of it from everywhere.
And there you have it. Your home screen is free at last. You can leave the space empty if you wish, or, like me, you can add a big old clock right up there instead.
If you want to bring the At a Glance widget back, tap and hold on an empty part of the home screen and choose Home settings, then tap the Gear icon next to the At a Glance option. From here, you can re-enable the widget using the Show on home screen toggle.
The UK Met Office projects that 2026 will see global temperatures rise between 1.34C and 1.58C above preindustrial levels, placing it among the four hottest years since records began in 1850 and continuing a streak of extreme warming that has pushed the planet into unprecedented territory. The central forecast is slightly cooler than the 1.55C recorded in 2024, the warmest year on record. But climate scientist Adam Scaife, who led the forecast, noted that “the last three years are all likely to have exceeded 1.4C” and 2026 would be the fourth consecutive year to do so. “Prior to this surge, the previous global temperature had not exceeded 1.3C,” he said.
The forecast suggests another temporary exceedance of the 1.5C threshold set by the Paris Agreement is possible in 2026, following the first such breach in 2024. The 1.5C target is measured as a 30-year average, so it remains technically achievable even as individual years cross the line. EU scientists said last week that 2025 is “virtually certain” to rank as the second or third-hottest year on record.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
NVIDIA has promoted their R590 driver series to stable with the release today of the NVIDIA 590.48.01 Linux driver as their latest new feature branch version…
You never know when you might run into a power-centric emergency, so stay ready with this discount.
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Meta has made virtual reality accessible to many more people, offering good VR headsets for much cheaper than the competition. Right now, the 128GB Meta Quest 3S Gorilla Tag Bundle is on sale for $249.99 (originally $299.99) and comes with a $50 Amazon gift card by hitting the “redeem” button or using the code “QUEST3S50” at checkout. This is the lowest price it has been, according to price-tracking tools, and the gift card makes it an even better deal. You can also double the storage with the Meta Quest 3s Batman: Arkham Shadow bundle for $349 (originally $399.99), which comes with a $49.01 Amazon credit.
The Meta Quest 3 has better graphics, but it costs substantially more (currently $499.99) than the 3S version. Lifehacker staff writer Stephen Johnson tested both VR headsets to decide which of the two is better, and the Meta Quest 3S was his winner—you can read a more in-depth review of the Quest 3S here. There isn’t enough of a difference between the two models to justify the additional cost, with the Quest 3S’s graphics looking very close to the 3 and running the same games and apps.
The Meta Quest 3S has a Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 processor, 8GB of RAM, a display resolution of 1,832 by 1,920 (per eye), and a refresh rate of 120Hz. Once you put them on, the horizontal field of view is 96 degrees, and the vertical view is 90 degrees. The audio is stereo, which is nice, and the speakers are compatible with 3D spatial audio. When it comes to battery life, expect up to two and a half hours of juice before having to recharge (it takes about two hours for a full charge).
What makes the Meta Quest 3S special is how cheap it is to jump into the VR world, with other headsets going for much more (Apple’s Vision Pro is still $3,499). The bundle deal and gift cards make these deals even better.
See zwiftinsider.com/tiny for current Tiny Race details.
Cycling and sponsors have a history almost as long as the sport itself.
In fact, the biggest events on the annual calendar were created as a form of advertisement, with newspapers L’Auto, La Gazzetta dello Sport and Informaciones responsible for founding the Tour de France, Giro d’Italia and La Vuelta a España, respectively.
Bike brands followed, setting up their own teams from the 1920s.
Companies from outside of cycling got in on the act in the 1950s, and today, the professional peloton’s team names are a smorgasbord of supermarket chains, bike brands, gambling companies and a couple of caffeine-filled concoctions (one of which you put on your hair…).
But, unlike most sports, team names change as sponsors come and go, with most big-money switches made during the off-season.
As big news as the signings of the transfer window, they determine the team-name tongue-twisters that fans and commentators will have to contend with the following season, while providing outfits with injections of cash that are more important to the future of a team than any rider.
From mergers and swaps to complete rebrands, here is a summary of the key sponsor swaps to get your head around before the 2026 road cycling season.
The Belgian outfit behind Mathieu van der Poel and Jasper Philipsen embarks on its fourth WorldTour season with German caffeine-containing shampoo Alpecin joined by new co-title sponsor, Premier Tech.
It takes over from the Belgian window and door company, Deceuninck.
The Canadian machinery and equipment manufacturer had been a co-title sponsor of Israel – Premier Tech, but stepped away after the negative publicity surrounding the team’s Israeli identity, relentless protests at 2025’s La Vuelta, and the war in Gaza.
After almost three decades in the sport, insurance company AG2R La Mondiale is stepping down as co-title sponsor of France’s biggest team.
It’s set to be replaced by another French company – shipping and logistics specialist CMA CGM.
Decathlon remains the driving force behind the team, which has competed on the brand’s Van Rysel range since the retail-park behemoth came on board in 2024.
The other big French team of the WorldTour peloton, Groupama – FDJ, gets a minor name change for 2026, adding ‘United’ to its title after France’s national lottery rebranded to FDJ United in 2025.
The beleaguered Israel – Premier Tech team has new title sponsors, a new registered location and a fresh look to its rider line-up for 2026, with Biniam Girmay the biggest signing of the off-season.
While you may have never heard of NSN Cycling, it’s the cycling arm of NSN (the ‘international sports and entertainment company’ co-founded by Spanish football World Cup winner, Andreas Iniesta).
The team is backed by Swiss-Spanish investment platform Stoneweg and will ride Scott bikes in the pro peloton.
The involvement of the controversial former team owner, Sylvan Adams, remains unclear.
Belgian team Lotto returns to the WorldTour in 2026 with a new co-title sponsor, the French supermarket chain Intermarché.
The company had previously sponsored Girmay’s old team, Intermarché – Wanty, but made the switch with the merging of the teams at the end of the 2025 season.
Although not in the WorldTour, Tom Pidcock’s Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team is getting an additional co-title sponsor for the 2026 season, with Italian bike manufacturer Pinarello stepping up as a key backer and replacing Scott as the team’s bike supplier.
Both Pinarello and Q36.5 are owned by South African billionaire and former mining firm boss Ivan Glasenberg, who co-owns the Swiss team alongside Q36.5 co-founder Luigi Bergamo and manager Doug Ryder.
With a raft of signings including Fred Wright, Sam Bennett and Thomas Gloag, expect the team to be knocking on the door of the WorldTour very soon.
Beat Saber gets the Coldplay Music Pack, featuring 12 songs covering the band’s wider history.
Out now on Quest and Steam, Beat Saber’s Coldplay Music Pack covers the band’s wider discography from the last three decades. It features songs such as ‘Yellow’ from debut album Parachutes, all the way to ‘feelslikeimfallinginlove’ from 2024’s Moon Music. This also adds a new environment that Meta confirmed “draws inspiration from the band’s vibrant live shows, music videos, and album artwork.”
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The Coldplay Music Pack comes with all twelve new songs for $14.99, or you can pay $1.99 for individual tracks. Here is the full track list:
This latest music pack was previously revealed during last week’s announcement for a free, upcoming Coldplay concert in Meta Horizon. Meta confirmed it’s partnering with iHeartMedia to bring the band’s Music of the Spheres concert tour to Meta Horizon, using 180-degree VR. That’s based on the band’s stint at Wembley Stadium and goes live on December 30.
There’s still more to come for the band’s collaboration with Meta. Last week also confirmed that Coldplay is returning to fitness app Supernatural in the US and Canada, following its original appearance in 2022. This will introduce three new workouts, and that begins on December 29.
Beat Saber – Coldplay Music Pack is out now on Quest and Steam.
UploadVRHenry Stockdale
Apple has announced a sweeping set of changes to iOS in Japan that will allow alternative app marketplaces, third-party payment processing, and non-WebKit browser engines — all to comply with Japan’s Mobile Software Competition Act, which takes effect December 18. The changes, now available in iOS 26.2, bear a strong resemblance to Apple’s compliance measures for the European Union’s Digital Markets Act but differ in key ways.
Japanese developers who want to offer alternative payment options must display them alongside Apple’s in-app purchase system, giving users a choice at checkout rather than replacing Apple’s option entirely. Apps cannot be distributed directly from websites as they can in the EU; they must go through an authorized marketplace.
Apple has established a tiered fee structure for the new arrangements. Apps distributed through the App Store using in-app purchase will pay between 15 and 26% depending on whether developers qualify for the Small Business Program. Alternative payment processing drops the 5% payment fee but keeps the base commission. Apps distributed outside the App Store pay a flat 5% Core Technology Commission on digital goods and services.
The company introduced several user-facing changes beyond app distribution. iPhone users in Japan will see browser and search engine choice screens during device setup, can assign third-party voice assistants to the side button, and can select alternative default navigation apps. Apple said it worked closely with Japanese regulators on protections for younger users. Apps in the Kids category cannot link to external websites for purchases, and users under 13 cannot access web links for transactions in any app.
An Apple spokesperson told Bloomberg that the company has no plans to extend these changes to other markets.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Stephen Rothwell, who has maintained the kernel’s linux-next integration
tree from its inception, has announced his
retirement from that role:
I will be stepping down as Linux-Next maintainer on Jan 16, 2026.
Mark Brown has generously volunteered to take up the challenge. He
has helped in the past filling in when I have been unavailable, so
hopefully knows what he is getting in to. I hope you will all
treat him with the same (or better) level of respect that I have
received.It has been a long but mostly interesting task and I hope it has
been helpful to others. It seems a long time since I read Andrew
Morton’s “I have a dream” email and decided that I could help out
there – little did I know what I was heading for.
Over the last two decades or so, the kernel’s development process has evolved
from an unorganized mess with irregular releases to a smooth machine with a
new release every nine or ten weeks. That would not have happened without
linux-next; thanks are due to Stephen for helping to make the current
process possible.
Just Dance 2026 Edition Sees a 50% discount before we’ve even reached its titular calendar year.
The post Nintendo Switch Party Game (Just Dance 2026 Edition) Is 50% Off After 80K+ Sold, Still Arrives Before Christmas appeared first on Kotaku.
Security boffins warn flaw is now being used for ransomware attacks against live networksMicrosoft says attackers have already compromised “several hundred machines across a diverse set of organizations” via the React2Shell flaw, using the access to execute code, deploy malware, and, in some cases, deliver ransomware.…
Amazon just introduced a new feature for Alexa+ called Greetings. This lets Alexa+ answer the doorbell and converse with visitors, which certainly sounds futuristic in a “gated community as dystopia” kind of way.
There are several caveats here. First of all, it only works with certain newer Ring video doorbell models. Customers also have to pony up for a Ring Premium Plan and have access to the Alexa+ early access build. It’s available in the US and Canada and only in English.
If you meet those criteria, this could be a fairly useful little feature. Amazon says it “transforms your Ring doorbell into an intelligent assistant capable of determining who’s at your door, understanding what they need and responding conversationally.” The company promises that the tool operates whether people or home or out doing errands.
How does this work? It’s an AI algorithm that “determines who’s there based on what they’re wearing, holding or their actions.” It will use “visual context, any information the visitor shares and the instructions it’s been given to help manage interactions on your behalf.”
Amazon says that it can, for instance, distinguish if a person is wearing a delivery uniform and tell them to leave the package at the back door. Most of my delivery drivers don’t come to the door in full uniforms because it’s winter and that would be ridiculous. I don’t even expect that during the summer. In other words, this is modern AI and mistakes will happen.
The company gives other examples of how this could be used, like gathering messages from friends who stop by and telling door-to-door salespeople to (politely) bug off. Amazon also says Alexa+ will be able to direct visitors to water and snacks that have previously been laid out. Finally, there’s a way to avoid those pesky cute kids on Halloween while still providing them with treats.
Everything can be reviewed later on via the Ring app, which should provide context as to who has been hanging around the porch. Alexa+ Greetings are rolling out today.
For the uninitiated, Alexa+ is Amazon’s updated chatbot. It’s more conversational than the old Alexa, which could be useful or annoying depending on what you use it for. I use Alexa primarily as an alarm, so I don’t necessarily want a gabfest.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/alexa-can-now-answer-your-ring-doorbell-and-talk-to-people-162712774.html?src=rss
Valve’s annual blowout features deals on Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, Expedition 33, Assassin’s Creed and more
The post Steam’s Massive Winter Sale Includes A Bunch Of 2025’s Best Games appeared first on Kotaku.
In the past few weeks on Phoronix we have explored a fresh look at the open-source Nouveau/NVK performance compared to the NVIDIA 580 packaged Linux driver as well as a multi-generation Nouveau vs. NVIDIA comparison from the GeForce GTX 980 to RTX 5080 since the forthcoming NVIDIA R590 driver series is ending the GTX 900/1000 series support. Today’s article provides another round of fresh open-source NVIDIA Linuc graphics performance data using the upstream open-source Nouveau and Mesa NVK/Zink drivers compared not only to the current NVIDIA packaged driver but also competitively for how the GeForce RTX 50 line-up compares to the current AMD Radeon RX 9000 series graphics cards.
It redefines what responsive gameplay actually feels like.
The post LG Clears This 32″ Ultragear Gaming Monitor (240Hz, OLED, 3ms, 4K), Now Cheaper Than 27″ Model appeared first on Kotaku.
The world’s best-performing stock is turning into a cautionary tale for investors chasing outsized returns from the AI boom. From a report: Little-known until recently even within its home market of India, RRP Semiconductor Ltd. became a social-media obsession as its shares surged more than 55,000% in the 20 months through Dec. 17 — by far the biggest gain worldwide among companies with a market value above $1 billion.
That’s despite posting negative revenue in its latest financial results, reporting just two full-time employees in its latest annual report, and boasting only a tenuous link to the semiconductor spending boom after shifting away from real estate in early 2024. A mix of online hype, a tiny free float and India’s swelling base of retail investors drove 149 straight limit-up sessions, even as exchange officials and the company itself cautioned investors.
The rally is now showing signs of strain — and regulators are taking a closer look. The Securities and Exchange Board of India has begun examining the surge in RRP’s shares for potential wrongdoing, according to a person familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified discussing confidential information. The $1.7 billion stock, recently restricted by its exchange to trading just once a week, has fallen by 6% from its Nov. 7 peak.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.