A US House committee with oversight of NASA unanimously passed a “reauthorization” act for the space agency on Wednesday. The legislation must still be approved by the full House before being sent to the Senate, which may take up consideration later this month.
Congress passes such reauthorization bills every couple of years, providing the space agency with a general sense of the direction legislators want to see NASA go. They are distinct from appropriations bills, which provide actual funding for specific programs, but nonetheless play an important role in establishing space policy.
There weren’t any huge surprises in the legislation, but there were some interesting amendments. Most notably among these was the Amendment No. 01, offered by the chair of the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, Rep. Brian Babin (R-Texas), as well as its ranking member, Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), and three other legislators.
Anime fans are about to feel a bit of a squeeze from your Crunchyroll subscription. For the second time in two years, the streaming service is raising prices, this time across all of its plans, including the entry-level Fan Tier. This comes shortly after the company discontinued its free, ad-supported tier on Dec. 31.
The new tiers and their pricing will be as follows:
The Fan Tier will go up from $7.99/month to $9.99/month. This tier offers basic access to the full Crunchyroll library, and the ability to download shows to a single device for offline viewing.
The Mega Fan tier will go up from $11.99/month to $13.99/month. At this tier, you can stream on up to four devices at once, download content in HD for offline viewing, and get access to the Crunchyroll Game Vault.
The Ultimate Fan Tier will go up from $15.99/month to $17.99/month. This tier adds access to Crunchyroll Manga, streaming on up to six devices at once, and a swag bag after you’ve been subscribed to this plan for a year.
The new pricing will kick in on your first billing date after March 4. If you’re not already subscribed, however, there’s still a little bit of time to sign up and get the (slightly) lower price for your first month. While existing users can’t lock in the lower price, Crunchyroll is offering a limited-time upgrade to an annual plan for the Fan Tier for $66.99/year, which comes out to $5.58/month. If you’re confident you’re still going to be subject to your anime addiction a year from now, this is going to be your best way to save money in the long run.
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In late 2025, Amazon released the Amazon Echo Show 11, designed to replace the 3rd Generation Echo Show 10. The upgraded home hub/smart speaker features a larger, sharper display; a separate static screen, Alexa+ capabilities, and other updates, and right now, it’s at its lowest price since launch.
Compared to the Echo Show 10, the 11 has a larger, thinner display (around 11 inches and 8mm thick) that PCMag (which gave it an Editors’ Choice Award) described as “crisp and colorful”. The screen appears to float above a mesh speaker base, giving the device a sleeker look. The 13MP camera is similar to its predecessor’s, but features improved zoom. It also has a faster AZ3 Pro processor and a more compact footprint, since its now-static design doesn’t require additional clearance to rotate.
The display has faster Wi-Fi 6E connectivity and broader smart home support via Zigbee, Matter, and Thread, compared with the previous model, which only supported Zigbee. While the 10 had a physical camera shutter, this one uses an electronic camera disconnect. Audio is delivered via two front-facing, full-range drivers equipped for spatial audio, providing provide what PCMag described as “loud, balanced sound.” It also includes the Alexa+ AI upgrade; the smart assistant works similarly to the original Alexa but uses generative AI to deliver more conversational responses and better handle natural language commands.
If you’re looking to upgrade to a larger smart display with capable speakers, the Amazon Echo Show 11 is a strong choice, particularly for larger rooms.
Eric Engestrom is out with another on-time Mesa release. Mesa 26.0-rc3 provides the latest week’s worth of bug fixes as we work toward the stable Mesa 26.0 release as soon as next week…
Donald Trump is so far not stepping in to help Elon Musk end a lawsuit raised by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over his 2022 Twitter takeover, a US district judge said this week.
Filed by the SEC in the final days of Joe Biden’s administration, the lawsuit seeks $150 million in disgorgement, plus interest, as well as civil penalties and an injunction blocking Musk from future wrongdoing.
The complaint alleged that Musk quietly acquired a 9 percent stake in Twitter without filing necessary timely disclosures to alert other investors of a potential change in company control. This allowed Musk to acquire over 70 million shares at an artificially lower price, the SEC alleged, causing substantial economic harm to investors selling Twitter common stock, some of whom have separately sued.
Jay Bhattacharya, director of the National Institutes of Health under the Trump administration, appeared before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Tuesday. In the wide-ranging hearing, Bhattacharya defended the chaotic and disruptive cuts at the institutes he helms while carefully wording responses related to vaccines—seemingly to avoid contradicting his boss, anti-vaccine Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
As Bhattacharya testified, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), the HELP committee’s ranking member, released a report outlining the state of the NIH. The report concluded that the Trump administration is “failing American patients,” and “destroying medical research through cuts to research grants, terminations of clinical trials, and the chaos it has created.”
Since Trump took office, the NIH has terminated or frozen hundreds of millions of dollars for research grants, including $561 million in grants to research the four leading causes of death in America, the report found.
If you’re reading this, chances are pretty solid that you’re a PC gamer. Based on Steam survey data, chances are also pretty solid that you’re an NVIDIA user. If you’ve been suffering black screens and GPU artifacts while attempting to game after installing the latest Windows updates, you’re not alone, because many users over at NVIDIA’s official
Microsoft Office is victim to a critical zero-day exploit, and Russian hacker groups are already weaponizing it in destabilizing efforts toward the Ukrainian government. While Westerners and most other readers likely have less to worry about, it’s still prudent to apply the latest security updates on Microsoft Office versions 2016, 2019, LTSC
Apple is putting significant effort into exploring new designs to spice up its long running iPhone lineup, with two foldable iPhones likely to debut sooner rather than later. Although, according to a well-known Apple leaker, future standard iPhone models will remain aesthetically similar to the most recent iterations of the devices.
Hot on the heels of AGDQ in January, Games Done Quick is hosting its second speedrunning event of the year, Back to Black 2026, starting tomorrow, February 5. The four-day event is organized by Black in a Flash and is raising money for Race Forward, a nonprofit that works across communities to address systemic racism.
Back to Black is timed to the start of Black History Month and highlights the deep bench of talent in the Black speedrunning community. A few runs, like ones for Hades II, Donkey Kong Country and Silent Hill 4, were teased when Back to Black 2026 was announced last year. The full schedule has plenty of other runs worth checking out, though, like a co-op run through Plants vs Zombies: Replantedon February 5 or an Any% run of The Barbie Diaries: High School Mystery on February 6.
Back to Black 2026 will be live on Games Done Quick’s Twitch and YouTube channels from Thursday, February 5 through Sunday February 8.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/games-done-quicks-back-to-black-2026-event-kicks-off-tomorrow-194147068.html?src=rss
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You’ve probably heard of the upstart tech brand Nothing, but if you haven’t, here’s a TLDR: The U.K.-based company aims to make products like cellphones and headphones that incorporate innovative features and designs, but come in at a lower price point than tech giants like Apple and Samsung. Last summer, the company released its newest smartwatch, the CMF Watch 3 Pro, which incorporates AI features powered by ChatGPT, and you can currently pick it up at a major discount.
Originally $99, you can get the CMF Watch 3 Pro for $44.99 at Woot—a 65% discount. The catch is that it’s only available at that price in the light green color. If you have Amazon Prime, you get free shipping; otherwise, it’ll also cost $6 to ship. (Heads up, though: Woot only ships to the 48 contiguous states.)
According to Nothing, the CMF Watch 3 Pro is designed for “everyday users and casual fitness explorers,” it quickly earned a reputation as one of the best budget smartwatch/fitness trackers of 2025. The most noteworthy feature is its direct ChatGPT integration: You can use voice prompts to ask the chatbot questions or set reminders, among other things. One neat feature is its ability to record voices and auto-transcribe conversations or notes (great for work meetings or class).
If you’ve used the CMF Watch 2 Pro, you’ll already be familiar with the design, which hasn’t changed much. It’s still got a round display with a rotating crown on the top right, though the display is a bit bigger—1.43 inches compared to the Watch 2 Pro’s 1.32 inches. Nothing has also kept the auto brightness adjustment, which is determined by a built-in sensor, and dual-band GPS support with access to five satellite systems, providing greater accuracy when tracking your outdoor activities.
The real upgrades come mainly from the software: The Watch 3 Pro has over 130 sport modes, compared to 120 on the older model. The battery now lasts 13 days on a single charge, or two days longer than before. It’s certainly in the running for the best sub-$100 fitness watch you can buy right now.
Roblox launched an open-source AI model that generates 3D objects on the fly early last year and now that toolset is getting a massive boost. The platform has introduced a model that whips up “4D” objects. I put 4D in quotes because it doesn’t actually allow access to the fourth dimension, but rather lets users make interactive 3D objects via prompts.
As suggested, these aren’t static 3D models. They are fully functional and interactive objects that move and react to players. The beta toolset can’t be used to make anything, as it’s rather limited for now. There are just two templates for users to choose from. Folks can make cars and solid 3D objects, like a box or a sculpture.
Roblox
The cars are fully driveable, however, and are made from five separate parts. The parts work independently of one another, allowing for spinning wheels and opening doors. The company says the physics should be accurate, so prepare for a whole lot of user-generated racing games.
There’s already a game on the platform that uses the 4D tools called Wish Master. It lets players generate cars, planes and all kinds of other stuff.
Roblox
As for those limited templates, Roblox says it plans to eventually let creators make their own but didn’t release a timetable for this. It also says it is developing technology that will generate 3D models based on a reference image.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/robloxs-4d-creation-toolset-is-now-available-in-open-beta-191510664.html?src=rss
In recent months Intel Linux engineers have been quite active in preparing for next-gen Nova Lake processors. That work has included initial Xe3P graphics support and enabling display support and related display/graphics functionality. The newest now is enabling Nova Lake P including the Xe3P_LPG graphics support…
A sprawling informal economy of rogue streaming devices has taken hold across the U.S., as consumers fed up with rising TV subscription costs turn to cheap Android-based boxes that promise free access to thousands of live channels, sports events, and on-demand movies for a one-time $200 to $400 purchase.
The two dominant players — SuperBox and vSeeBox — are manufactured by opaque Chinese companies and distributed through hundreds of American resellers at farmers markets, church festivals and Facebook groups, according to a report by The Verge. The hardware is generic and legal, but both devices guide users toward pirate streaming apps not available on any official app store.
vSeeBox directs users to a service called “Heat”; SuperBox points to “Blue TV.” One user estimated access to between 6,000 and 8,000 channels, including premium sports networks and hundreds of local affiliates. A 2025 Dish Network lawsuit against a SuperBox reseller alleged that some live channels on the device were being ripped directly from Dish’s Sling TV service — Sling’s logo was still visible on certain feeds. Dish has pursued resellers aggressively, winning $1.25 million in damages from a vSeeBox seller in 2024 over 500 devices and $405,000 from another over 162 devices. None of this has meaningfully slowed adoption. The market has roots in earlier Chinese-made devices like TVPad that targeted Asian expat communities and reportedly sold 3 million units before being litigated out of existence. SuperBox and vSeeBox simply broadened the audience to mainstream America.
Blizzard is running a series of showcases for several of its major franchises and on Wednesday, it was time for Overwatch to step up to the plate. That’s Overwatch, by the way, and not Overwatch 2. The studio is formally nixing the number from the game’s name.
“Overwatch is more than just a digit: it’s a living universe that keeps growing, keeps surprising, and keeps bringing players together from around the world,” the Overwatch team said in a statement. “This year marks a huge turning point in how the development team envisions the future of Overwatch, so we are officially dropping the ‘2’ and moving forward as Overwatch.”
Blizzard made a big hullabaloo about Overwatch 2 being a sequel to the original game when it went live in October 2022 as part of a shift to a free-to-play model. There were a ton of major changes, not least a format switch from 6v6 to 5v5, with one tank being dropped from each team — a contentious decision that has been walked back with the return of 6v6 modes.
The grand vision Blizzard originally had for Overwatch 2 never quite came together. The studio canceled its planned hero missions, which were going to have RPG-like talent trees and long-term progression, but it carried some of that DNA over to the Stadium mode.
We only got one round of co-op story missions as well. That paid expansion reportedly sold poorly, leading Blizzard to scrap work on the player vs. environment elements of Overwatch to focus on the competitive player vs. player modes.
Over the last couple of years, though, Blizzard really seems to have steadied the ship. Overwatch is arguably in the best shape it’s been in for a long time.
This is shaping up to be a big year for Overwatch. May will mark its 10th anniversary (I have to imagine the team has something significant planned for that). Blizzard laid out much of the roadmap for 2026 during the Overwatch Spotlight showcase. We won’t have to wait long at all to see significant changes to the game.
New heroes
Blizzard Entertainment
When the next season goes live on February 10, it will be the biggest update to Overwatch at least since the Stadium mode and perks system went live last year, and arguably since the dawn of the Overwatch 2 era. That’s partly because Blizzard is adding five new heroes to the mix all at once next week.
One of those is a character that the studio said in 2017 it had experimented with but ultimately, um, scratched. Jetpack Cat is alive after all, and is coming to Overwatch in a matter of days.
This is a support hero with a permanent flight ability who can “tow” an ally — providing a speed boost while healing them. Jetpack Cat’s ultimate ability sees the kitty diving into the ground to knock down enemies and tether the closest one to them. It’s called Catnapper, which is delightful. Also, the hero’s primary weapon is called Biotic Pawjectiles, so I adore Jetpack Cat already. It’s fun to see weird Wrecking Ball-type characters coming to Overwatch again.
Blizzard Entertainment
The other new heroes joining the fray next week are Domina (a zone-control tank with “long-range precision”), damage dealer Emre (a “fast‑paced, mobile soldier archetype with conflicting identity due to cybernetic modification”), Mizuki (a support who can throw a hat to heal allies) and Anran (a high-mobility hero who deals fire damage and can self-resurrect with their ultimate).
As with Jetpack Cat, the latter of those is aligned with the Overwatch faction. You can try Anran out starting February 5 as part of a hero trial. The other three have ties to the villainous Talon organization. Expect another hero to join the fray every couple of months this year as each new season gets under way. That means more heroes will be added to Overwatch in 2026 than in any year since the game’s debut.
A “story-driven era”
Blizzard Entertainment
The next season spells the beginning of what Blizzard is calling a “new story-driven era” for Overwatch, starting with a year-long narrative arc called The Reign of Talon. All of the lore, heroes, events and so on that emerge over the next 12 months will be tied to the rise of Talon.
The studio says this is the “the first fully connected annual storyline in Overwatch history.” A new arc will begin next year with Season 1 of 2027 (Blizzard is resetting the season counter when The Reign of Talon begins).
Elsewhere, each role will be split into sub-roles, and the heroes in each will share a passive ability. For instance, “initiator” tanks heal more while they’re in the air, several damage heroes can detect enemies that are below half health through walls after damaging them and some supports have excess ultimate charge that carries over after you use their most powerful ability.
Also on the way soon is a “meta event” called Conquest. This is billed as a faction war between Overwatch and Talon that will run for five weeks, with dozens of loot boxes and other rewards (such as some legendary Echo skins) up for grabs.
Blizzard Entertainment
Blizzard has overhauled the Overwatch interface too, with updated menus, a new hero lobby, a notification hub and the promise of faster navigation. Stadium will have some updates, such as refreshed ability icons and recommended builds based on global data that will be updated between rounds. Vendetta is joining that mode’s roster as well.
Along with all the new heroes and other updates, a Hello Kitty collaboration will run for two weeks starting on February 10 with themed cosmetics for several heroes. Lots of other cosmetics are in the pipeline, including Crimson Wolf weapon skins you can unlock using competitive points, and rainy day and Valentine’s items. Shop items from the last six seasons are going into loot boxes, while mythic cosmetics for Mercy, Juno and Mei will be available in Season 1.
Blizzard Entertainment
Looking further ahead, a Nintendo Switch 2 version of Overwatch will arrive alongside Season 2, which will start in April. Some heroes will be getting their second mythic skins, including Ana and Genji. Genji, Hanzo and Sojourn will have mythic weapon skins in the coming months. Two new maps, including a Japan Night one, for the main modes are coming, along with the return of post-match accolades.
There’s so much on the way for my go-to game. I don’t know how I’m going to be able to take a long-enough break from Overwatch to play cool indies ever again.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/overwatch-will-drop-the-2-as-jetpack-cat-and-four-other-heroes-arrive-on-february-10-184500327.html?src=rss
