We’re almost exactly halfway through January, but Nintendo has clearly taken a better-late-than-never approach to its 2025 year in review feature, which finally went live this week for Switch and Switch 2 users. All you need to do is head here and sign into your Nintendo account to see your 2025 breakdown.
Like most annual gaming wrap-ups, Nintendo’s shows how many games you played over the calendar year, as well as your total playtime. It also shows you your most-played titles for each month, your preferred genres by percentage, and if you scroll all the way to the bottom you can choose your favorite game of the year. You can also download a shareable image that shows off your taste, but there’s no way to directly share your results on social media through the website.
2025 was a massive year for Nintendo, with the Switch 2 launching in early June. If you bought one, the year in review site will naturally congratulate you for doing so, but it doesn’t separate your results by games you played on the original Switch versus its successor.
Nintendo’s rivals went live with their own 2025 recap features in December. First came Sony’s, which is unfortunately no longer live, and Steam followed shortly after. That one is still available to view if you want to see how your Switch 2 playtime stacks up against your Steam Deck hours. Microsoft decided to skip a 2025 wrap-up altogether, which Windows Central’s Jez Corden previously suggested could be due to a reallocation of marketing budget towards a number of significant anniversaries happening this year, including the 25th anniversary of Xbox.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/nintendo/the-nintendo-switch-2025-year-in-review-is-finally-here-145810913.html?src=rss
Good-value bikes never go out of fashion here at BikeRadar, and we’ve just discovered a hidden gem tucked away on Giant’s Chinese website.
Brought to our attention by a viewer on our YouTube channel (thanks @Jaco_ocaJ), the Giant PCR LTD is an aluminium mash-up of the Taiwanese brand’s best road bikes.
Up front, for example, is the fork and integrated front end from the Propel, while we also see the lightweight rear end from the TCR and the slim, flexible seatpost from the Defy.
Best of all, a build featuring carbon wheels, a fully integrated carbon cockpit and a Shimano Tiagra groupset is available for only CN¥6,998 – around £750, according to current conversion rates.
The catch? We likely won’t ever see it outside of Asia.
PCR, not TCR
The PCR doesn’t look to be a ‘new’ bike, but it was news to us.
The PCR LTD, Giant says, “integrates the simple and efficient ACE concepts” – these stand for Aero, Climbing and Endurance.
According to Google Translate, it’s “an all-around motorcycle designed specifically for riders”.
In terms of specifics, the frame is aluminium and made using Giant’s Aluxx SL technology.
The PCR is an all-rounder road bike. Giant It combines characteristics from Giant’s range of premium carbon road bikes. Giant
The down tube looks to be subtly aero-optimised, while the rear is borrowed from the Contend SL Disc, with slim alloy tubes, dropped seatstays and a distinctive bulge at the bottom of the seatpost for the frame’s integrated seatpost clamp.
The fork is a full-carbon affair, made using Advanced-grade fibres and a tapered steerer tube.
To my eye, it looks almost identical to that found on the Propel Advanced, save for a little less sculpting at the rear of the crown and a bump up in tyre clearance to 32mm (according to the spec sheet).
A one-piece aluminium cockpit is a rare sight in 2025, but presumably helps keep costs down. Giant The underside of the handlebar can hide a cable-to-hydraulic junction box for the disc brakes. Giant
The PCR LTD features fully integrated cable routing and even a one-piece handlebar – the latter of which is an aftermarket upgrade for even the top-spec Propel Advanced SL.
Notably, though, rather than being made from carbon fibre, the one-piece bar is made from aluminium, and is slotted to allow for easier cable routing or the integration of a cable-to-hydraulic converter junction box (on certain models).
The bike is finished with a Giant D-Fuse seatpost (carbon or aluminium, depending on the model) and a Shimano Tiagra 4700 groupset.
The PCR LTD 2+ features alloy wheels with proper hydraulic brake levers. Giant
Opting for the PCR LTD 2+ (CN¥5,698 / ~£600) nets you a build featuring proper, conversion-free hydraulic disc brakes and alloy wheels.
The slightly pricier PCR LTD 1 (CN¥6,998 / ~£750) features 50mm-deep carbon rims and cable-actuated brake levers, plus a hydraulic converter box that nestles into the integrated bar.
Why you can’t have one
The PCR doesn’t look like a cheap bike from the front end, but it’s remarkably good value. Giant
All things considered, it’s an enticing package – especially at the bargain prices quoted on Giant’s Chinese website.
In comparison, the closest equivalent model available in the UK is the Contend AR 2. A much more endurance-focused bike, it has an RRP of £1,449 – almost twice the price of the PCR LTD 1.
So why the discrepancy, and will riders ever see the PCR LTD reach Western markets?
Giant is keen to point out the PCR’s slickly integrated front end… Giant As well as its slight rear. Giant
We suspect the likely answer is that Giant – the largest bicycle manufacturer in the world – is simply so big that it can afford to make market-specific bikes and price them accordingly.
Beyond that, though, there are also increased costs involved in selling in places such as the UK, US and EU, including import duties, distribution costs, wages for local staff, local taxes and so on. These things exist in Asia, of course, but we’d imagine Giant faces higher costs for these factors in Western markets.
Will we ever see the PCR in Western markets? We hope so, but we won’t hold our breath. Giant
There may be an element of market segmentation, too. Perhaps Giant is worried that having a bike such as the PCR available in the West could eat into sales of its higher-value bikes, such as the TCR, Propel and Defy.
Of course, we put these questions to Giant and will update this article if we receive a response.
Either way, it’s a useful reminder that the UK and EU aren’t always at the centre of the bicycling world despite what the Mercator projection might suggest.
Acer has filed individual lawsuits against all three major wireless carriers in the United States, including AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon. According to Acer, the three carriers collectively infringed on half a dozen U.S. patents “covering key advancements in cellular networking,” and now it’s taken them to court after failing to reach a licensing
In preparing for the GNOME 50 Alpha release, the “50.alpha” tags just occurred for the Mutter compositor and GNOME Shell. Most notable with GNOME Mutter 50 Alpha is the X11 back-end indeed being removed to focus exclusively on the Wayland session…
After spending years pushing digital payments to combat tax evasion and money laundering, European Union ministers decided in December to ban businesses from refusing cash. The reversal comes as 12% of European businesses flatly refused cash in 2024, up from 4% three years earlier.
Over one in three cinemas in the Netherlands no longer accept notes and coins. Cash usage across the euro area dropped from 79% of in-person transactions in 2016 to just 52% in 2024. Sweden leads the digital shift where 90% of purchases now happen digitally and cash represents under 1% of GDP compared to 22% in Japan.
The policy change stems from concerns about financial inclusion for elderly and poor populations who struggle with digital systems. Resilience worries also drove the decision after Spaniards facing nationwide power cuts last spring found themselves unable to buy food. European officials worry about dependence on American payment giants Visa and MasterCard. The EU now recommends citizens store enough cash to survive a week without electricity or internet access.
DirtySixer has unveiled the MonsterEnduro, a full-suspension enduro bike built around 32in wheels and designed specifically for tall riders – but it’s not a looker, with kinked top and down tubes that are sure to divide opinion.
The current trend seems centred on XC bikes, with the MonsterEnduro being one of the first production enduro models to feature 140mm of rear-suspension travel.
The new mountain bike takes inspiration from the brand’s 36in DH prototype shown at Eurobike and raced at Megavalanche last year.
The MonsterEnduro is for tall riders. DirtySixer
The new bike comes in five sizes, with the smallest a size L, which is said to fit riders who are over 170cm, and the largest 4XL.
The MonsterEnduro is available at one build level, priced at $8,999, or around €7,708, plus shipping, as well as in rolling chassis form, complete with headset, fork and wheelset for $3,599.
While the travel figure may seem small for a conventional enduro bike, it’s one of the longest-travel 32in-wheel bikes on the market.
The brand says: “Conventional travel categories don’t really apply to bigger wheels, as they don’t need that much travel to overcome bigger bumps.”
Up front, DirtySixer is running a modified Manitou Dorado fork, complete with custom CNC-machined crowns, with the rear shock yet to be confirmed.
The geometry is yet to be confirmed. DirtySixer
The brand hasn’t listed any finalised geometry figures, but says it is targeting a 65-degree head angle, 75-degree seat tube angle and 490mm chainstays.
As with DirtySixer’s other bikes, chainstay length and crank length will increase with frame size to maintain rider proportions.
The bike uses a T47 bottom bracket with inboard bearings, paired with a narrow 186mm Q-factor, despite the use of fat-bike derived standards.
Hub spacing is 150mm front and 197mm rear. DirtySixer
A SRAM Eagle 90 drivetrain is used for shifting, while braking comes courtesy of Magura’s new four-piston Louise brakes with 200mm rotors front and rear.
The frame uses a 34.9mm seatpost and accepts dropper posts exceeding 200mm of travel.
DirtySixer has been testing several carbon rims, but says it might ultimately use its own wheels that it developed for ebikes.
The expected release of glasses from huge players like Apple and Google has industry analysts predicting sales of smart glasses will rise from six million units in 2025 to 20 million in 2026. In other words, this year is looking like an inflection point, where tech-enabled spectacles make the transformation from tech wear for early adopters to everyday gear for regular folks. Whether you’re looking for a pair of audio-first glasses, display glasses, or full augmented reality, here’s what to expect from the major players and smaller operators in the smart-glasses space.
CES’s major smart glasses announcements
This year’s Consumer Electronics Show saw a ton of companies introducing new smart glasses, including “been in the space forever” firms like XReal and “these are the first smart glasses for us” companies like XGimi. Below are four of the most notable new smart glasses announced at CES.
XReal 1S
Credit: XReal
XReal was an early player in the smart glasses space. They’ve been releasing high-end, display-first glasses like the Xreal One Pro since 2019. They’re the go-to if you want specs that put a high-def display in your pocket. At CES, the company unveiled the 1S: Glasses that promise a massive virtual display as large as 500″, 3Dof augmented reality capability, and a smooth as silk refresh rate of 120Hz, all powered by an onboard X1 chip. XReal 1S is available now for $449.
Even Reality G2
Credit: Even Reality
Even Reality is aiming for people who wanted fashionable glasses that do extraordinary things. The company followed its excellent G1 smart glasses with the G2, a new model with a bigger, sharper monochrome display, “contextual AI” that can flash helpful conversation suggestions to users, and an integrated smart ring to make all of it easier to control. They also don’t look dorky, so no one needs to know you’re wearing smart glasses. Even Reality G2 glasses are available now for $599 and up.
RayNeo Air 4 Pro
Credit: Stephen Johnson
Released in 2025, RayNeo’s impressive X3 glasses provided a glimpse into the future, where we’ll have instantly available HUDs. The Air 4 Pro, on the other hand, is more about the present. Display glasses that are for streaming games and movies instead of wearing all the time, Air 4 Pros feature dual Micro-OLEDs creating a virtual 200-inch screen, HDR10 support for high dynamic range video, a Vision 4000 custom processor for upscaling, and Bang & Olufsen-tuned audio. They’re aggressively priced at $299 and set to be released on Jan. 25.
XGimi Memomind Air Display
Credit: XGimi
XGimi is known for projectors, but its first line of smart glasses, dubbed Memomind Air Display, made waves at CES for their lightweight, stylish frames, monochrome display integrated with AI, and a battery that lasts all day. Memomind glasses are available with a dual lens display, single lens display, and audio-only. There’s no set release date for these, but the company is expecting them to hit the market around March.
Upcoming smart glasses releases
As the year rolls on, we’ll be seeing new models of smart glasses dropping from huge companies like Google and Snap, not to mention smaller companies that are likely to surprise us with something unexpected.
Google and Samsung
Google was the first company on the smart glasses scene with the release of Google Glass, and in 2026, it’s getting back in the game. Google is collaborating with Samsung, Gentle Monster, and Warby Parker to release two different Android-powered smart glasses: an audio-first pair that will allow users to access Gemini AI, and glasses with an in-lens display that displays things like directions and language translations.
Apple
After the relatively lukewarm response to Apple’s VR gear, the company is rumored to be shifting its resources into smart glasses. The company hasn’t officially announced anything, but the rumor mill says Apple’s glasses will include camera, microphone, and AI capabilities, and could be released this year.
Snap
The company behind Snapchat is planning to release some high-powered augmented reality smart glasses sometime in 2026. Snap’s Spectacles are designed to allow you to “interact with digital objects the same way you interact with the physical world, using voice, gesture, and touch.”
Amazon
If you were hoping for a consumer release of Amazon smart glasses in 2026, it’s not happening, but the company is planning to equip its army of nearly 400,000 delivery drivers with smart delivery glasses designed to help them “identify hazards, seamlessly navigate to customers’ doorsteps, and improve customer deliveries.”
Meta
All the companies above are essentially gunning for Meta, whose smart glasses make up about 73% of the total market in 2025, a dominant position it earned by making smart glasses feel normal and futuristic. Meta hasn’t announced any plans for 2026, as its Meta Display glasses and second generation of Ray-Bans and Oakleys came out in late 2025.
The end goal for smart glasses: replacing your phone
If you combined the best features from each kind of smart glasses, you’d have a wearable that essentially does everything your phone does and corrects your vision. Replacing phones is the game behind the game, and it explains the number of companies fighting for the same real estate.
Maybe a pair of smart glasses will eventually come out that’s so easy to use, cool-looking, and powerful that everyone ditches their smart phone, but probably not in 2026—the tech is not quite there and neither is the public acceptance. Still, a lot more people will be using smart glasses this year.
A Linux scheduler patch queued up into a TIP branch this past week further restrict is the preemption modes that will be advertised. With it hitting the “sched/core” branch, it will likely be submitted for the upcoming Linux 7.0 (or alternatively, what could be known as Linux 6.20 instead)…
Version
1.6.0 of the Radicle peer-to-peer, local-first code collaboration
stack has been released. Notable changes in this release include
support for systemd
credentials, use of Rust’s clap crate for
parsing command-line arguments, and more. LWN covered the project in March
2024.
The European Union published guidance on December 30 that reclassified nuclear weapons as acceptable investments under its sustainable finance framework, completing a policy change approved in November that narrowed the definition of banned armaments from “controversial” to “prohibited.”
The shift addresses earlier vagueness that the Commission said hindered efforts to raise $932 billion in defense investments over four years. Under the revised rules, only four weapon categories remain expressly outlawed by a majority of EU states: personnel mines, cluster munitions, and biological and chemical weapons. Nuclear weapons manufacturers avoided exclusion because only Austria, Ireland and Malta signed the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, though all EU members support non-proliferation under the Non-Proliferation Treaty.
The updated guidance also permits ESG labeling for companies handling depleted uranium for anti-tank ammunition and white phosphorus, which is toxic but not classified as a chemical weapon. European ESG funds currently hold minimal defense stocks, according to Jefferies data. The Commission’s notice now makes these investments eligible for funds operating under Article 8 and Article 9 sustainable investment mandates.
There have been plenty of twists and turns in NVIDIA’s ongoing efforts to resume AI chip shipments to China, the latest of which involves a de facto ban by Beijing. In what could be a move to bolster China’s bargaining power, people who are purportedly familiar matter told Reuters that Beijing has instructed customs agents not to permit NVIDIA’s
The Trump administration on Tuesday proposed a new rule aimed at speeding up and streamlining the permitting process for large energy and infrastructure projects, including oil and gas pipelines and facilities tied to artificial intelligence.
The rule, which does not require action by Congress, includes a suite of procedural changes to section 401 of the Clean Water Act—a law enacted in the 1970s that is the primary federal statute governing water pollution in the United States.
For decades, section 401 has granted states and tribes the authority to approve, impose conditions on, or reject, federal permits for projects that they determine will pollute or damage local waterways.
Customers of automated investment platform Betterment are being targeted with a cryptocurrency rewards scam following a data breach that allowed threat actors to obtain some user data and send fake emails promising huge returns on Bitcoin and Ethereum deposits.
According to a Jan. 12 security update posted on Betterment’s website (and sent to users via email), hackers gained unauthorized access on Jan. 9 to a third-party platform used for marketing and operations. Following the breach, they sent fraudulent messages to some customers with offers to triple crypto investments.
Betterment crypto rewards scam
The scam emails were sent to Betterment users on Jan. 9, soon after the data breach, with subject lines like “We’ll triple your crypto!” The message inside claimed that Betterment was “giving back” for a limited time and tripling Bitcoin and Ethereum deposits as large as $750,000 to specified wallets. Threat actors tried to create a sense of urgency with an expiration deadline for the promotion (a typical scam tactic).
The messages came from support@e.betterment.com, which is a legitimate Betterment subdomain, allowing them to appear verified in users’ inboxes. Note that this is the same email address Betterment used to send the security update to all of its customers.
A nearly identical crypto scheme targeted Grubhub users in December with emails—also sent from a real Grubhub subdomain—promoting a 10x return on $1,000 in deposited bitcoin.
Betterment data hacked
Cybercriminals were able to steal some customer information from the compromised system, including names, email addresses, mailing addresses, phone numbers, and dates of birth. Betterment has said that no passwords or credentials were included in the breach, nor did threat actors gain access to user accounts. While few official details have been published, the company is reportedly being extorted as the target of the distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack.
If you’re a Betterment customer, be wary of any unsolicited communication in the coming days and weeks about your account. Scammers will use events like this as a phishing opportunity. Know that Betterment (and other legitimate companies) will not request your password or other personal information via email, text, or phone call. If you are concerned about your account or want to update your credentials or other data, go directly to the website or app and do so there—this is generally safer than clicking links in communication, even if messages from Betterment are (or seem) legitimate.
Just a week after announcing the latest version of its image-upscaling tech at CES, NVIDIA is rolling out DLSS 4.5. The company released a beta version of the update last week. Starting today, all NVIDIA app users with a GeForce RTX GPU will be able to upgrade to the full release of DLSS 4.5.
NVIDIA says DLSS 4.5 Super Resolution (to give its full name) delivers sharper visuals and improved temporal stability. The 2nd Generation Super Resolution Transformer reduces ghosting and improves anti-aliasing in more than 400 games and apps, the company claims. “This second-generation model is our most sophisticated yet, utilizing five times the compute power of the original transformer model, having been trained on a significantly expanded, high-fidelity dataset,” NVIDIA added.
The company plans to bring an upgraded frame generation feature to DLSS 4.5 sometime this spring for those with GeForce RTX 50 Series GPUs. It says the Dynamic 6x Frame Generation feature can generate up to five extra frames for each traditionally generated one, delivering up to 4K 240Hz path traced performance.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/nvidia-rolls-out-dlss-45-to-all-rtx-gpus-140000322.html?src=rss
While Intel has been upstreaming various Panther Lake firmware bits to linux-firmware.git for pairing with their open-source kernel drivers ahead of Core Ultra Series 3 laptops shipping, one piece of the puzzle only published today is the GSC firmware for the Panther Lake graphics…
We’ve all heard of couch surfing, but Fender and Samsung have made it their 2026 mission to make couch shredding a thing. Samsung TV users will soon be able to take guitar lessons from the comfort of their living rooms, with the first TV edition of the Fender Play app set to arrive in the first half of this year.
Debuted at CES, players can choose from video-based lessons for both electric and acoustic guitar, as well as bass and — for all the wannabe Jake Shimabukuros or George Formbys (one for the Brits) among you — the ukulele. There are on-demand courses for different levels of skill, with each lesson built around a wide spectrum of well-known songs, everything from The Beatles’ “Blackbird” to Olivia Rodrigo’s “Drivers License“.
If you’re a bit more confident in your axe-wielding prowess, Jam Mode allows you to play along to genre-specific playlists. Call in the kids to watch and you’ve got your very own Woodstock.
Fender Play is already available on a variety of screens via the App Store and Google Play, but with your TV likely being the largest one you own, you won’t have to squint to make out those chord progressions. You can already use the app on a TV by pairing your iPhone or Android device to your Apple TV or Chromecast, but Samsung’s native TV app is more immediate.
Fender Play first launched way back in 2017 and has a number of virtual instructors who teach all levels of guitar players. A subscription costs $20 per month or $150 annually, and there’s a seven-day trial if you want to see what it’s all about. It will, for some reason, only be available on Samsung TVs released in 2025 or later (no word on support for older models at a later date) in the coming months.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/fenders-guitar-lessons-are-coming-to-samsung-tvs-later-this-year-134551816.html?src=rss
