Universal Pictures and Illumination dropped a new trailer for the upcoming Super Mario Galaxy Movie, and gaming fans will no doubt be delighted at the news that Yoshi, the little green dinosaur, features prominently, along with plenty of other Easter eggs for sharp-eyed fans.
As previously reported, the first attempt at a Super Mario movie adaptation in 1993 was notoriously a dismal failure, although it still has its ’90s-nostalgic fans. But 2023’s Super Mario Bros. Movie won over gaming fans who were skeptical about another adaptation—including Ars Senior Gaming Editor Kyle Orland.
The 2023 film reintroduced Mario and Luigi, two tight-knit but struggling Brooklyn plumbers who got separated when they unexpectedly fell into the fantastical Mushroom Kingdom. Mario sought Princess Peach’s help to rescue his brother from the evil clutches of Bowser, ruler of the Dark Lands, who was keen to marry Peach and threatened to destroy the Mushroom Kingdom with a Super Star if she refused him. So Peach led Mario on a quest to recruit allies and stop Bowser for good. They succeeded, shrinking Bowser and imprisoning him in a jar. Mario and Luigi moved to the Mushroom Kingdom and continued their plumbing work there.
Anthropic has been building out support for third-party apps inside of Claude. As of today, the chatbot can now connect to platforms like Slack and Canva, fetching up files from inside those apps or performing tasks within them on a user’s behalf.
For instance, when connected to Box, Claude can now search for files, preview documents inline and answer questions about the content in front of you. Meanwhile, with a connection to Asana, it can now turn chats into projects, tasks and timelines your co-workers can then find and interact with on the project management app.
Box and Asana are just two of the platforms adding deeper integrations with Claude today. In total, there are nine launch partners, with some of the more notable ones including Canva, Figma and Slack.
As with Anthropic’s past integrations, the new functionality is powered by Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers. MCP is a technology Anthropic released in fall 2024 to make it easier for third-party platforms to connect their systems to Claude. Since then, the protocol has become an industry standard. OpenAI, for instance, adopted MCP last year, and has been building additional support since then. At the end of last year, Anthropic donated the protocol to the Linux Foundation. The company says AI platforms will be able to bring similar integrations to their own products since they’re built on a new open extension designed by Anthropic.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/claude-now-offers-deeper-integrations-with-apps-like-canva-and-slack-180000604.html?src=rss
The Trump administration is planning on using Google Gemini to draft important federal regulations, as reported by ProPublica. This is starting with the Department of Transportation, according to interviews with agency staffers. Regulations created by the DOT help keep us safe when traveling.
The plan was initially presented to DOT staffers last month, with agency attorney Daniel Cohen writing to colleagues about AI’s “potential to revolutionize the way we draft rulemakings.” Gregory Zerzan, the agency’s general counsel, has indicated that President Donald Trump is “very excited by this initiative” and that DOT will be “the first agency that is fully enabled to use AI to draft rules.” This does suggest a pilot program of sorts, with eventual plans to bring AI to other departments.
NEW: The Trump administration is planning to use AI to write federal regulations despite the risk of hallucinations.
“We don’t even need a very good rule,” @USDOT’s top lawyer said of the plan, per meeting notes reviewed by ProPublica. “We want good enough.” � pic.twitter.com/YKGvmlkMCt
Oddly, Zerzan doesn’t seem that interested in high-quality regulations. ProPublica received transcripts of a meeting in which he declared that “we don’t need the perfect rule on XYZ. We don’t even need a very good rule on XYZ.” He went on to say that “we want good enough” and that “we’re flooding the zone.”
Let me remind you that DOT regulates the safety standards of commercial aircraft, along with rules involving the transport of hazardous materials and driver qualifications. The agency’s rules touch on every aspect of transportation safety. Why would the federal government rely on a new technology that’s notorious for making mistakes?
AI “hallucinations” eg false/made-up info now becoming a problem in scientific publications. Kudos to @alexcdot et al on building an AI hallucination detector and finding that certain journals/authors have used LLMs to generate papers that also made it through peer review. Here’s… pic.twitter.com/i4Be1lS8xq
The answer is speed. Writing and revising complex federal regulations can take months, but Google Gemini can spit something out in minutes. A DOT employee giving a presentation on the program suggested that many parts of these regulations are just “word salad” anyways, so AI should be able to do just fine.
“It shouldn’t take you more than 20 minutes to get a draft rule out of Gemini,” Zerzan said. The plan is to compress the timeline in which transportation regulations are written and reviewed. The department has already used AI to draft an unpublished Federal Aviation Administration rule.
Federal agencies have used AI for years, but not to actually write regulations. It’s primarily been used for the purpose of translating documents, analyzing data and categorizing public comments. Trump, however, is a huge proponent of the technology. He has released multiple executive orders in support of AI and once shared an AI-created video in which he flew a fighter jet and dropped what appears to be feces on American citizens.
Skeptics say that large language models like Gemini shouldn’t be in charge of drafting complicated and consequential regulations that impact millions of everyday Americans. Mistakes could lead to lawsuits and even injuries and deaths.
Mike Horton, DOT’s former acting chief artificial intelligence officer, said using Gemini to draft regulations was like “having a high school intern that’s doing your rulemaking.” He also said that agency leaders under Trump “want to go fast and break things, but going fast and breaking things means people are going to get hurt.”
“Just because these tools can produce a lot of words doesn’t mean that those words add up to a high-quality government decision,” said Bridget Dooling, a professor at Ohio State University who studies administrative law. “It’s so tempting to try to figure out how to use these tools, and I think it would make sense to try. But I think it should be done with a lot of skepticism.”
DOT has experienced a net loss of more than 4,000 employees since Trump started his second term. This includes over 100 attorneys.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/trump-admin-reportedly-plans-to-use-ai-to-write-federal-regulations-175155111.html?src=rss
It’s time to jump back into the pit. Ball x Pit is one of the very best games of 2025 and there’s now even more to play around with in the brick-busting roguelite. The first major free update for the game (one of three that’s on the cards this year) just arrived on all platforms. It added a bunch more stuff to the mix, including two new characters, eight extra special balls with powerful abilities and an endless mode.
Developer Kenny Sun wrote on the PlayStation Blog that because fans demanded it so much, endless mode jumped right to the top of the to-do list. After you beat a level’s boss, you can keep going as long as you can stay alive and really put your builds to the test.
The Regal Update brought two more playable hunters to the mix as well. Opt to use The Falconer, and you’ll fire balls from two birds, one at each side of the screen. When balls return to The Carouser, they orbit around him to deal extra damage. Sun added that this character “twists ball trajectories with a personal gravity field that pulls shots off their usual paths.”
Then there are the new balls. The Stone Ball is powerful, but disintegrates as it bounces. Two of the latest balls deal spins on fire damage and the Fireworks Ball seems like it’ll add even more chaotic visual flair. The update added a trio of passives too. I enjoy creating builds around baby balls (a secondary type of ball that doesn’t have a special ability), so I’m eager to try out Iron Onesie. This passive scales up the damage of special balls depending on how many baby balls are in play.
Finally, the update introduced support for more languages. You can play Ball x Pit in Spanish (Latin America), Polish, Italian, Thai, Turkish and Ukrainian.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/ball-x-pits-first-update-brings-an-endless-mode-and-much-more-to-the-chaos-174306548.html?src=rss
If your TikTok feed has felt a little off lately, it’s not just you. TikTok says it’s working to fix its service in the US following a power outage at one of its data centers that’s caused widespread issues in the app. TikTok users have reported problems logging in and uploading videos, as well as with the app’s “for you” algorithm.
“Since yesterday we’ve been working to restore our services following a power outage at a U.S. data center impacting TikTok and other apps we operate,” the company wrote in a statement Monday. “We’re working with our data center partner to stabilize our service. We’re sorry for this disruption and hope to resolve it soon.”
Since yesterday we’ve been working to restore our services following a power outage at a U.S. data center impacting TikTok and other apps we operate. We’re working with our data center partner to stabilize our service. We’re sorry for this disruption and hope to resolve it soon.
The issues come just days after TikTok finalized a deal to spin off its US business into a separate entity largely controlled by US investors. That timing hasn’t gone unnoticed by users, many of whom are already suspicious of the company pushing a terms of service and privacy policy in the hours after the deal was finalized.
The problems affecting the app’s recommendation algorithm have also raised questions about TikTok USDS Joint Venture’s plans to “retrain” TikTok’s central feature. Since Sunday, users have reported seeing a wave of generic videos flood their feeds, which are typically hyper-personalized. Other users have reported seeing the same few videos repeated over and over again.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/tiktok-says-a-power-outage-is-causing-issues-with-the-app-in-the-us-173426617.html?src=rss
An anonymous reader shares a report: From Sandisk shareholders to vibe coders, AI is making — and breaking — fortunes at a rapid pace. One unlikely beneficiary has been the British Overseas Territory of Anguilla, which lucked into a future fortune when ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, gave the island the “.ai” top-level domain in the mid-1990s. Indeed, since ChatGPT’s launch at the end of 2022, the gold rush for websites to associate themselves with the burgeoning AI technology has seen a flood of revenue for the island of just ~15,000 people.
In 2023, Anguilla generated 87 million East Caribbean dollars (~$32 million) from domain name sales, some 22% of its total government revenue that year, with 354,000 “.ai” domains registered. As of January 2, 2026, the number of “.ai” domains surpassed 1 million, per data from Domain Name Stat — suggesting that the nation’s revenue from “.ai” has likely soared, too. This is confirmed in the government’s 2026 budget address, in which Cora Richardson Hodge, the premier of Anguilla, said, “Revenue from domain name registration continues to exceed expectations.”
The GNU Privacy Guard (GPG)
project decided to break from the OpenPGP standard for email
encryption in 2023, and instead adopted its own homegrown LibrePGP specification. The GPG 2.4
branch, the last one to adhere to OpenPGP, will be reaching the end of
life in mid-2026. The Fedora project is currently having a discussion
about how that affects the distribution, its users, and what to offer
once 2.4 is no longer receiving updates.
The Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics are coming up. (Mattia Ozbot/Getty Images)
Mattia Ozbot via Getty Images
The 2026 Winter Olympics are taking place in Italy this year, with all the action taking place in Milan and the Alpine city of Cortina. This year marks the fourth time Italy has hosted the Winter Games; most recently, Turin hosted in 2006. Of the 16 sports that will be featured at the Winter Olympics, there will be 15 returning favorites, including figure skating, Alpine skiing, curling, ice hockey, speedskating, snowboarding, freestyle skiing and ski jumping, and one entirely new sport, snow mountaineering. (Will it be as big a hit as the 2024 Summer Games’ new addition, breaking? It remains to be seen.)
Live coverage of every event at the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 will be available to stream on Peacock — though thanks to the time difference between Italy and the U.S., to watch many of the events live, you’ll have to wake up (or stay up) until 2AM or 3AM ET. Primetime replays and select live coverage will air on NBC. The games officially kick off with the opening ceremony on Feb. 6, 2026.
Here’s what else you need to know about watching the 2026 Winter Olympics.
How to watch the 2026 Winter Olympics
Dates: Feb. 6 – Feb. 22
TV channel: NBC
Streaming: Peacock
When are the 2026 Winter Olympics?
The Winter Olympics officially begin with the opening ceremony on Feb. 6, although some events will start as early as Feb. 4). The Milano Cortina 2026 games will run through Feb. 22. The closing ceremony of the 2026 Winter Olympics will take place in the Arena di Verona on Feb. 22.
Where are the Winter Olympics this year?
The 2026 Winter Olympics will be held in Northern Italy, primarily in Milan and also the Alpine mountain resort town of Cortina d’Ampezzo, where events like bobsled, skeleton, alpine skiing, curling, para snowboard, and more will take place.
What channel are the Olympics on?
The 2026 Winter Olympics will air on NBC and stream live on Peacock.
How to watch the 2026 Winter Olympics without cable
When is the Winter Olympics opening ceremony?
The Milano Cortina 2026 opening ceremony will be held on Feb. 6, 2026. Due to the time difference, the ceremony will kick off around 2PM ET/11AM PT.
Winter Olympics time difference
This year’s Olympic Games are in Italy, which is 6 hours ahead of U.S. Eastern Time. Meaning that some events will start bright and early for U.S. viewers, and live coverage will likely wrap up around 4PM ET each day. NBC will have primetime replays of the biggest moments each night.
Hockey (bronze medal games) – 1PM (Peacock – Live)
Friday, Feb. 20
Biathlon mass start – 6AM (Peacock – Live)
Speedskating final medals – 8AM (Peacock – Live)
Figure skating gala – 1PM (Peacock – Live)
Saturday, Feb. 21
Men’s hockey gold medal game – 12PM (Peacock – Live)
Women’s hockey gold medal game – 3PM (Peacock – Live)
Men’s hockey gold medal game – 8PM (NBC – Primetime)
Sunday, Feb. 22 – closing ceremony
Cross-country skiing final event – 6AM (Peacock – Live)
closing ceremony – 2PM (Peacock – Live)
closing ceremony – 8PM (NBC – Primetime)
More ways to watch the 2026 Winter Olympics on NBC
While Peacock is the best way to watch the Winter Olympics, there are other options if you restrict yourself to the NBC broadcasts. As our guide to the best live TV streaming services to cut cable notes, both YouTube TV and Hulu + Live TV are excellent options, but you’ll want to skip Fubo until and unless the service resolves its contract dispute with Comcast, as NBC channels remain unavailable for now.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/winter-olympics-how-to-watch-schedule-of-events-and-everything-else-you-need-to-know-about-the-2026-milano-cortina-games-172409424.html?src=rss
Ahead of tomorrow’s official availability of new Intel Core Ultra Series 3 “Panther Lake” laptops, the review embargo lifted on Panther Lake and its much anticipated Arc B390 graphics. There have been several Windows 11 reviews of Panther Lake out today, but what about Linux?..
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The Soundcore Boom 3i is clearly built with water-first trips in mind. It has an IP68 rating, so it’s fully resistant to dust and water, and it’s also designed to handle saltwater, which in itself is pretty rare even for outdoor speakers. That’s the kind of detail that matters if your idea of “outside” means beaches, boats, or time near the ocean. It also floats, and it does so with the speakers facing upward, which keeps the sound usable instead of muffled when it’s bobbing around. In practice, that makes it less annoying to live with than other floating speakers that constantly flip or drift sideways. The Boom 3i normally sits at $129.99, but it’s currently down to $74.99, which is the lowest price it has reached so far, according to price-trackers.
At just over three pounds, this speaker is portable enough to sling across your shoulder with the included strap, but sturdy enough not to feel cheap. It pushes out up to 50 watts of sound, which is more than enough for a beach hang or a camping trip with a small group. You won’t get floor-shaking bass, but the mid-bass hits nicely, and the overall tone stays warm. That said, there’s a BassUp button if you want to dial things up, and the companion Soundcore app has a nine-band EQ, if you want more control. Battery life hovers around 15–16 hours at moderate volume, and it keeps playing while charging over USB-C, which is useful if you’re running it off a power bank.
The Boom 3i also has a Buzz Clean mode that uses a low-frequency vibration to loosen sand and grit stuck inside the speaker. It’s surprisingly effective, though it doesn’t replace a quick rinse after a full day at the beach. You also get an emergency alarm and a voice amplifier, which won’t matter much in everyday use but could come in handy on the water or during group activities. If what you want is a speaker that shrugs off salt, sand, and splashes without interrupting playback, this one makes sense at its current price.
Curl creator Daniel Stenberg has written a blog
post explaining why the project is ending its bug-bounty
program, which started in April 2019:
The never-ending slop submissions take a serious mental toll to
manage and sometimes also a long time to debunk. Time and energy that
is completely wasted while also hampering our will to live.
I have also started to get the feeling that a lot of the security
reporters submit reports with a bad faith attitude. These “helpers”
try too hard to twist whatever they find into something horribly bad
and a critical vulnerability, but they rarely actively contribute to
actually improve curl. They can go to extreme efforts to argue and
insist on their specific current finding, but not to write a fix or
work with the team on improving curl long-term etc. I don’t think we
need more of that.
There are these three bad trends combined that makes us take this
step: the mind-numbing AI slop, humans doing worse than ever and the
apparent will to poke holes rather than to help.
Stenberg writes that he still expects “the best and our most
valued security reporters” to continue informing the project when
security vulnerabilities are discovered. The program will officially
end on January 31, 2026.
The independent coffee shops and quirky boutiques that make neighborhoods like Hayes Valley in San Francisco or Williamsburg in Brooklyn desirable are caught in a frustrating economic trap: they create value that ends up in the pockets of nearby homeowners rather than their own cash registers.
An essay in Works in Progress magazine argues that when an interesting new store or restaurant opens, commercial and residential property values rise in the surrounding area, but the retailer itself captures only a fraction of that value through its actual sales. Almost half of stores in one San Francisco shopping district shuttered within four years even as the neighborhood thrived and rents climbed.
The authors propose several fixes drawn from historical and international practice. Shopping malls and mixed-use developments solve this through unified ownership, allowing a single entity to cross-subsidize interesting tenants. Hong Kong’s Mass Transit Railway buys land around new stations before building begins, making it one of the few profitable transit systems in the world. Business Improvement Districts let businesses tax themselves for shared amenities, though they currently don’t capture value that spills over to nearby residents.
The essay suggests creating hybrid institutions — something between homeowners’ associations and business improvement districts — that could levy hyperlocal taxes to keep valued retail alive.
Shortly after Meta (then Facebook) bought WhatsApp in 2014, it promised to implement a surprisingly un-Facebooky feature: End-to-end encryption. The move was supposed to be a boon for privacy, ensuring nobody could see your messages aside from the recipient and yourself. Even now, WhatsApp’s website claims, “No one outside of the chat, not even WhatsApp, can read, listen to, or share [your messages].” However, a new lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court in San Francisco is now claiming that’s not the case.
According to reporting from Bloomberg, an international group of plaintiffs has sued Meta, saying that the app’s claims of end-to-end encryption are a lie. The lawsuit alleges that Meta and WhatsApp “store, analyze, and can access virtually all of WhatsApp user’s purportedly ‘private’ communications.”
The plaintiffs include users from Australia, Brazil, India, Mexico, and South Africa, who are being represented by attorneys from several firms. The allegations cite “whistleblowers” who helped bring this information to light, but no more is known as of yet.
When I reached out to Meta for comment, Meta strongly denied the allegations. The company called the lawsuit “frivolous,” assuring users that WhatsApp uses the open-source Signal protocol for encryption and adding that “[a]ny claim that people’s WhatsApp messages are not encrypted is categorically false and absurd.”
If the lawsuit succeeds, it could affect billions of users around the world. That’s because the plaintiffs’ lawyers are asking the court to certify a class-action lawsuit.
In the meantime, WhatApp is far from the only option for encrypted messaging apps. While it’s unclear how the lawsuit will proceed, those looking to jump ship might want to look at alternatives like Signal or Viber instead. Note that some apps, like Telegram, do offer end-to-end encryption, but don’t enable it by default. (Personally I use Line, because of the anime stickers.)
