It’s
You’ve got to keep an eye on your property more than ever.
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Flush door handles have been quite the automotive design trend of late. Stylists like them because they don’t add visual noise to the side of a car. And aerodynamicists like them because they make a vehicle more slippery through the air. When Tesla designed its Model S, it needed a car that was both desirable and as efficient as possible, so flush door handles were a no-brainer. Since then, as electric vehicles have proliferated, so too have flush door handles. But as of next year, China says no.
Just like pop-up headlights, despite the aesthetic and aerodynamic advantages, there are safety downsides. Tesla’s handles are an extreme example: In the event of a crash and a loss of 12 V power, there is no way for first responders to open the door from the outside, which has resulted in at least 15 deaths.
Those deaths prompted the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to open an investigation last year, but China is being a little more proactive. It has been looking at whether retractable car door handles are safe since mid-2024, according to Bloomberg, and has concluded that no, they are not.
The producer left Rockstar Games in 2016
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Another Google tool is biting the dust: The company’s dark web monitoring tool, launched in March 2023, will be shut down on Feb. 16. According to Google, feedback on the feature suggested it “didn’t provide helpful next steps”—so while it alerted users when their data was out in the wild, it wasn’t clear what to do about it. Now, Google is shifting its focus from the dark web monitoring tool to features like its online Security Check-Up and passkey protection. In other words, instead of flagging when your account credentials appear in a data breach, Google wants to make sure that your accounts stay safe even if a breach has occurred.
There are reasons why you should be keeping an eye on dark web chatter, however—and there are tools to take over the monitoring job now Google has backed out.
Essentially, the dark web is made up of online spaces that you can’t get to just by pointing your browser at a web address. You need specialist software and a little bit of technical know-how to find your way into the dark web and to navigate around it. It’s largely hidden from the world at large via encryption and rerouting. Why all the secrecy? The dark web is used to evade both law enforcement and ruling powers, so it’s the perfect place to carry out somewhat illicit activities as well as get around the machinations of oppressive surveillance states. It’s a place where hackers and whistleblowers alike can gather.
Speaking of hackers, dumps of information from data breaches will often find their way on to the dark web, to be traded or given away for free. Whether it’s your email address, phone number, social security number, or passwords, if this data has been exposed by a hack, you’re much more likely to find it on the dark web than on Reddit.
Dark web monitoring tools, like the one Google just shut down, are intended to give you a heads up if your details have appeared in a data dump. You can then do something about it, whether it’s getting in touch with your bank to check for any signs of identity theft, or changing the password for your email service.
Having a dedicated tool for the task saves you from having to trawl the dark web yourself—which isn’t particularly easy or pleasant—and while Google might be closing down its monitoring service, you’ve got several alternatives you can turn to instead.
Proton is a favorite among privacy enthusiasts, and the privacy-focused company also has a Dark Web Monitoring tool of its own. You do need a paid plan to access it though, from $12.99 a month or $119.88 a year, which includes multiple perks across all Proton’s products. You can find it from the Security and privacy side panel in the Proton Mail app.
Proton uses a variety of intelligence datasets in its dark web sweep, and looks out for details including email addresses, usernames, dates of birth, physical addresses, and government IDs. The leaks will be categorized in terms of how urgently action needs to be taken, and Proton doesn’t give your data to third parties.
Trend Micro has a Data Leak Checker that covers the dark web, which you can use without paying anything or even signing up for an account—though you can only check for mentions of your email address or phone number in leaks. For more comprehensive scans and alerts, you can sign up for a premium account, from $9.99 a month or $49.99 a year—and there’s lots more included besides dark web monitoring.
Keeper Security takes the same approach with BreachWatch: You can run a quick scan for breaches including your email address without paying or signing up, but if you want anything more advanced (including proactive notifications) then you need to sign up for $24.99 a year. The feature can be added to any of Keeper’s other paid-for plans too.
If you currently pay for a security product, such as a password manager or a VPN, you may well find that dark web monitoring is included—so check through your existing subscriptions. For example, the Surfshark Alert dark web monitoring tool comes as part of the Surfshark One VPN bundle, with pricing from $17.95 a month or $40.68 a year.
Last year, the creator of Notepad++ rolled out an update for the text and source code editor after security experts reported that bad actors were hijacking its update mechanism to redirect traffic to malicious servers. It led to users downloading compromised executables that could infect their devices. Now, Don Ho has revealed that multiple security experts investigated the breach and determined that the threat actor “is likely a Chinese state-sponsored group.” He said it explained why experts observed highly selective targeting during the campaign and why only traffic from certain users were redirected so that they would download malicious files. It’s not clear what kind of users were specifically targeted and what the files did to their devices.
The attackers started redirecting traffic from Notepad++ to their servers sometime in June 2025, and that went on until December 2. Their method involved compromising the system at the hosting provider level, though the exact technical mechanism that allowed them to intercept traffic remains under investigation. In addition to releasing a security patch, Notepad++ also migrated to a new hosting provider with much stronger security practices. Ho now encourages anyone who wants to install the app to download version 8.9.1, which comes with the security update, and running the installer manually.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/notepad-says-it-was-hijacked-by-chinese-state-sponsored-hackers-153000268.html?src=rss
Spain will join the growing list of countries banning access to social media for children, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced Tuesday. The law will apply to users under 16 years of age amidst a broader push to hold social media companies accountable for hate speech, social division and illegal content.
Speaking at the World Governments Summit in Dubai, Prime Minister Sanchez excoriated social media, calling it a “failed state” where “laws are ignored and crime is endured.” He spoke to the importance of digital governance for these platforms, highlighting recent incidents like X’s AI chatbot Grok generating sexualized images of children, Meta “spying” on Android users and the myriad election interference campaigns that have taken place on Facebook.
In light of what Sanchez called the “integral” role social media plays in the lives of young users, he said the best way to help them is to “take back control.” Next week, his government will enact a slew of new regulations, with a ban on users under 16 years of age among them. Social media companies will be required to implement what he calls “effective age verification systems” and “not just checkboxes.” A specific timeline on enforcement of the coming ban has not been announced.
Spain will also make “algorithmic manipulation and amplification of illegal content” into a new criminal offense and Sanchez says tech CEOs will face criminal liability for hateful or illegal content on their platforms. The Prime Minister further announced that Spain has formed a coalition with five other unnamed European nations to enact stricter governance over social media platforms.
Sanchez said children have been “exposed to a space they were never meant to navigate alone,” and that it’s the government’s job to intervene. He added social media has fallen from its promise to be a “tool for global understanding and cooperation.”
Australia enacted an under-16s ban on social media last year, which has prompted many nations to follow suit. It is under active consideration in the UK, while Denmark and Malaysia have announced plans to enact similar bans.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/spain-set-to-ban-social-media-for-children-under-16-151546884.html?src=rss
For those that have been very eager to hear about the Intel Core Ultra Series 3 “Panther Lake” performance on Linux, today’s the day! Last Thursday the MSI Prestige 14 Flip AI+ Evo laptop arrived that is powered by the Core Ultra X7 358H. Here is a look at how that Intel Core Ultra X7 358H competes for performance and power efficiency against a wide range of other laptops on an up-to-date Linux software stack in with around 300 benchmarks.
Save 33% on the PDP Riffmaster wireless guitar controller, designed for Xbox Series, PlayStation 5, and Nintendo Switch.
The post This RIFFMASTER Wireless Guitar Controller for Xbox Drops to All-Time Low, Officially Licensed by Microsoft appeared first on Kotaku.
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The 65-inch TCL QM7K is currently selling for $797.99, down from $999.99, and price-trackers show this is the lowest it has dropped so far. The QM7K isn’t a stripped-down budget model—it’s a mini-LED TV with full-array local dimming, wide HDR format support, and brightness levels that push past 2,000 nits. In practice, that means HDR highlights pop, contrast stays controlled, and the screen remains usable even in rooms with a lot of daylight. It doesn’t reach the extreme peak brightness of TCL’s higher-end QM8, but for most living rooms, the difference is negligible. And if you’re also shopping for a solid gaming and streaming setup without dropping over a grand, the QM7K fits the bill.
TCL has packed this one with gamer-friendly specs: a native 144Hz refresh rate, AMD FreeSync Premium Pro, and input lag under 5ms for 1080p at high frame rates. Even at 4K60, input lag stays under 14 milliseconds, keeping it comfortably below the one-frame delay PCMag uses as a benchmark for solid gaming performance in a TV. Connectivity is solid, too, with four HDMI ports in total, including two that support 144Hz signals and one with eARC for audio passthrough, plus USB, Ethernet, and optical audio. Google TV handles the smarts, with support for Apple AirPlay, Chromecast, hands-free Google Assistant, and all the big-name streaming apps. The included remote is backlit, easy to use, and comes with shortcut buttons for popular apps. And the interface is easy to navigate.
That said, there are some trade-offs. Color tuning leans warm out of the box and may need adjustment, and the panel doesn’t support ATSC 3.0, so you’re missing out on the newer over-the-air broadcast standard. Also, like most LED TVs, you’ll lose some color saturation and contrast when watching from sharp side angles. But those compromises are minor for most people using it as a living room centerpiece or gaming display. PCMag gave the QM7K “excellent” rating, and our own writer, Daniel Oropeza named the 65-inch model one of the best budget QLED TVs to buy.
Amazon is running a sale on two of its newest devices. First, there’s the Echo Show 8, which is down to $150 from $180 — a 17 percent discount. Next up is the Echo Show 11, which is more or less the same device, just bigger. This model has dropped 18 percent to $180 from $220. Both deals bring the Echo Shows down to new all-time low prices.
The Echo Show 8 and 11 came out in mid-November with the main difference being screen size. The Echo Show 8 has an 8.7-inch HD screen that Amazon claims is 15 percent larger than its predecessor. Meanwhile, the Echo Show 11 is, you guessed it, an 11-inch Full-HD display that has 60 percent more viewing area than the Echo Show 8.
Both of the devices come with an AZ23 Pro chip and Omnisense technology, which Amazon describes as “our custom sensor platform designed for ambient AI.” They also have Prime Video and Netflix apps, while other streamers can be reached through the browser. Each comes with spatial audio, dual full-range drivers and a 2.8-inch woofer. Plus, they have a 13MP camera with auto-framing.
Follow @EngadgetDeals on X for the latest tech deals and buying advice.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/amazons-echo-show-8-and-11-are-down-to-new-all-time-lows-150021328.html?src=rss
Adobe has emailed users of Adobe Animate to let them know the popular animation and game development program will be discontinued on March 1, an abrupt decision that has angered animators and game developers who say the tool remains an industry standard in television and game production.
Animate, the successor to the once-popular Flash, is widely used for graphic creation, animation and building games in HTML5. The company has not offered a reason for the shutdown. On BlueSky, artist and animator Julia Glassman wrote that many television productions, games, and animated media still rely on Animate and Flash pipelines and cannot simply pivot to entirely new software.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
The
team behind
Tyr started 2025 with little to show in our quest to
produce a Rust GPU driver for Arm Mali hardware, and by the end of the
year, we were able to play SuperTuxKart (a 3D open-source racing
game) at the Linux Plumbers Conference (LPC). Our prototype was a joint
effort between Arm, Collabora, and Google; it ran well for the duration
of the event, and the performance was more than adequate for players.
Thankfully, we picked up steam at precisely the right moment: Dave
Airlie just
announced in the Maintainers Summit that the DRM subsystem
is only “about a year away
” from disallowing new drivers written in C
and requiring the use of Rust. Now it is time to lay out a
possible roadmap for 2026 in order to upstream all of this work.
The Utah NeuroRobotics Lab is exploring Meta’s Neural Band as an accessibility tool instead of relying on chin joysticks, head switches, and sip-and-puff controls.
Surface electromyography (sEMG) is already being used to interpret intended hand and finger movements for people with limited mobility, but the technology currently used for research can be bulky, awkward, and relatively expensive. The Neural Band is a slim, stylish mass-produced sEMG wristband bundled with the Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses, making it a great option for future research.
Neural signals captured at the wrist can often be detected even when physical movement is limited or impossible. The research includes participants with spinal cord injuries and motor impairments, exploring how reliably those signals can be translated into digital input across different users. It’s early-stage work, but it targets a long-standing problem in human-computer interaction.
The Utah NeuroRobotics Lab develops assistive technologies for people with neuromuscular impairments such as stroke, spinal cord injury, traumatic brain injury, ALS, and limb loss. The possible solutions are quite diverse, ranging from robotics and prosthetic limbs, exoskeletons, adaptive wheelchairs, and adaptive skiing systems that restore mobility or sensation.
The benefits could be substantial. Rather than chin joysticks, head switches, and sip-and-puff controls, the Neural Band could decode a person’s motor intention from nerve and muscle signals to control this technology intuitively. The goal is to leverage the Neural Band to control computers, smart devices, and physical devices, greatly expanding ease and functionality.
The University of Utah partnership is focused on understanding signal quality, consistency, and long-term viability. It’s unclear when or if Meta’s Neural Band will launch as a standalone accessory to connect to computers and assistive devices. However, the data gathered here could influence multiple categories of assistive and adaptive technology in the near future.
Testing this technology with users who have atypical neuromuscular signals could increase adaptability. That kind of robustness benefits accessibility first, but it also improves the experience for everyone else.
We recently covered how Meta’s Neural Band can translate subtle signals into text input, effectively enabling handwriting-style interaction without a physical keyboard. Neural Band handwriting recognition focuses on productivity and AR use cases, but the accessibility implications are already clear.
If a system can detect intent rather than completed physical motion, it could enable users to access a variety of devices to type, navigate menus, and interact with interfaces without touchscreens, controllers, or large hand-waving gestures. Neural input offers a silent, private alternative to voice control, which is important in shared and public spaces.
Improve productivity on the go.
The post Amazon Slashes 16.1″ Portable Gaming Monitor to 15.6″ Pricing, Hitting Lowest Price and Selling Fast appeared first on Kotaku.
Developer Teravision Games announced through an official statement that Orcs Must Die: By The Blade will now release on February 12, after a brief delay in late January.
Originally set to release on January 22, developer Teravision Games announced Orcs Must Die: By The Blade’s new release date. With the game now launching on February 12, the statement goes on to explain that they had to postpone the original launch due to an issue found during certification. Made for Quest systems, the Quest 2 version had unexpected crashes that made the decision to delay it inevitable. The Quest 3/3S version will now release on that new date, while the older model’s version will be available at a later unspecified date.
Orcs Must Die: By The Blade is a VR reimagining of the famous tower defense series created by Robot Entertainment. Now featuring from-the-ground-up virtual reality mechanics like physically swinging a sword and timed parries, the medieval campaign will last 12 missions across three chapters. It will also be fully playable in online co-op. Well-placed traps and its trademark comedy will be staples of the experience, with magic, 15 different traps, and 15 weapons at players’ disposal to make short work of the dangerous orcs.
VR veterans Teravision Games had formerly worked on Captain ToonHead vs. The Punks from Outer Space, most recently ported to PlayStation VR2 in 2024. Orcs Must Die: By The Blade launches February 12 on Meta Quest 3/3S, with a Quest 2 version in the works.
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For a lot of people, the appeal of a streaming stick is simple: You have an older TV that still works, but the software is dated or missing entirely. The Roku Streaming Stick HD (2025) fits that exact situation, and right now it’s selling for $15.99 on Amazon. Marked down from $29.99, it’s just a buck over its all-time low (according to price-trackers), and that makes it a tempting plug-and-play upgrade if you’re tired of fiddling with HDMI cables or watching Netflix on a laptop screen. PCMag gave this streaming hub an “excellent” rating, largely because it sticks to the basics and executes them well.
It runs Roku OS, a refreshingly simple interface compared to the ad-packed chaos of some other platforms. It’s compatible with most major streaming services and even supports Apple AirPlay, meaning you can cast content straight from your iPhone or Mac without any workarounds. That said, there’s no HDR or 4K support here, but that won’t matter much on most 1080p TVs anyway. Power draw is only about 2.2 watts, which means it can likely run off your TV’s USB port with no separate power adapter. That makes cable clutter easier to manage, especially behind smaller sets.
You get the standard Roku Voice Remote with shortcut buttons, volume control, and a built-in mic for voice search. That voice search is fine for pulling up shows, but it won’t let you dim your lights or ask the weather—it’s not Alexa or Google Assistant. This deal makes sense for a second TV, a bedroom setup, or for someone who just wants to stream The Bear without upgrading their entire setup.
