1Password is increasing prices for its individual and family plans. The individual rate is increasing from nearly $36 a year to $48, while the family option will cost $72 instead of $60. In emails sent to users, the business announced that the new rates will take effect for users at their next subscription renewal after March 27.
It’s a sizable price hike, but 1Password hasn’t been incrementally inching its fees higher every couple years like we see so often for streaming subscriptions. This is the biggest bump we’ve seen to its rates in several years, even though the company has been adding ever-more tools for cybersecurity, such as new phishing protections that rolled out last month. Even at the higher cost, it’s still one of the best options out there for password management.
Fortunately for those on a budget, we have seen 1Password offer pretty substantial discounts on its plans at times, often cutting the rates by as much as half. The company usually participates in the big deal sprees like Black Friday, but keep an eye out for standalone sales that might pop up year-round.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cybersecurity/1password-plans-are-getting-more-expensive-soon-213236400.html?src=rss
DJI, the most popular consumer drone maker, is suing over the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)’s import ban against new, foreign-made drones, which has been in effect since December 23, 2025.
On Tuesday, the Shenzhen-headquartered company filed a petition [PDF] with the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit that seeks to overturn the FCC’s decision to list DJI on its Covered List. The Covered List includes communications equipment and services that are “deemed to pose an unacceptable risk to the national security of the United States or the security and safety of United States persons,” per the FCC.
In its petition dated February 20, 2026, DJI said:
As Lifehacker has previously argued, YouTube Premium is probably the best streaming service for most people. Ads can eat into your free time faster than you might realize, and because YouTube’s user-generated videos can be quite short, they’re especially annoying there—and blocking them without a paid subscription is tough.
YouTube Premium is also a bit pricey as streaming services go, at $14/month. Fortunately, the company also offers a “Premium Lite” plan that’s much cheaper—and thanks to the recent addition of a few key features, it no longer pales in comparison to a full subscription. In fact, the $8/month YouTube Premium Lite may now be the best paid YouTube tier for most people.
YouTube Premium Lite is getting two of the more expensive tier’s best features
Starting today, YouTube Premium Lite now offers both background play and download options on most videos, features that were previously exclusive to a full YouTube Premium plan. The update is currently rolling out, so it might take a little bit for it to reach you, but the change essentially gives you parity with a full YouTube Premium plan on the vast majority of YouTube content. According to YouTube, the company has “heard feedback about wanting these additional features included in the service,” which prompted the change.
Now, for the same $8/month price, you can get most of the full YouTube Premium experience, normally a $14/month value. The only catch? You’ll still get ads when streaming music and music videos, hence the “most videos” disclaimer. Ads also “may appear when you search or browse,” but as for interruptions while watching non-music content? You should be in the clear.
Credit: YouTube
A full YouTube Premium account no longer makes sense for most users
Essentially, unless you’re a big YouTube Music user, getting YouTube Premium Lite instead of a full-cost subscription is now a no-brainer. There are a few smaller bonuses you’ll be leaving behind, like the ability to “Jump Ahead” (instantly skip frequently skipped parts of a video, usually ad reads), but your subscription will also be around half the price. You win some, you lose some.
The only real gap now, at least for me, is for households with lots of different YouTube viewers YouTube Premium Lite still only applies to one profile at a time, so if everyone in your household wants to have their own separate algorithms instead of sharing a profile, you’ll need to get YouTube Premium Family, which costs $23/month, giving six people in the same household the benefits of a full YouTube Premium subscription. My husband and I have pretty different viewing habits, so we’re unlikely to switch to this cheaper tier any time soon. But if you live alone or you’re OK sharing a profile, you might as well save yourself some moolah.
Alternatively, you can also still get a YouTube Music Premium plan for $11/month. That removes ads and allows background play and downloads, but only for music and music videos. It’s essentially the opposite of YouTube Premium Lite, and faces stiff competition from the likes of Spotify and Apple Music. Personally, I’d just pay the extra for a full YouTube Premium subscription, which has all the same benefits of YouTube Music Premium, but also works for non-music content and only costs $3/month more.
Still, while adding new features to Premium Lite is ultimately a discount, it does follow a move from YouTube to block people from accessing background play for free. Perhaps this is Google’s attempt at a compromise?
The amount of power being sought by new datacentre projects in Great Britain would exceed the national current peak electricity consumption, according to an industry watchdog. From a report: Ofgem said about 140 proposed datacentre schemes, driven by use of artificial intelligence, could require 50 gigawatts of electricity — 5GW more than the country’s current peak demand.
The figure was revealed in an Ofgem consultation on demand for new connections to the power grid. It pointed to a “surge in demand” for connection applications between November 2024 and June last year, with a significant number coming from datacentres. This has exceeded even the most ambitious forecasts.
Meanwhile, new renewable energy projects are not being connected to the grid at the pace they are being built to help meet the government’s clean energy targets by the end of the decade. Ofgem said the work required to connect surging numbers of datacentres could mean delays for other projects that are “critical for decarbonisation and economic growth.” Datacentres are the central nervous system of AI tools such as chatbots and image generators, playing a vital role in training and operating products such as ChatGPT and Gemini.
Earlier this month, Discord said it would be enacting an age verification policy. The platform faced some initial concerns from users about turning over their IDs and personal information, particularly given how poorly similar policies have been going elsewhere. Discord announced today it will delay and make some changes to its plans in response to the ongoing backlash.
The first change is that Discord is postponing the global rollout of its age verification plans until the second half of 2026. The company noted that it would meet its legal obligations in places where they exist, likely in those countries that have national laws requiring protections for younger users. But it will not begin the global rollout until it makes some amendments to the offerings.
Discord will offer more alternatives to how users can confirm their ages, including verification by credit card. That should allow people to access age-gated content without sharing an ID or performing a face scan. “If you’re among the less than 10 percent of users who do need to verify, we’ll give you options, designed to tell us only your age and never your identity,” according to a blog post credited to co-founder and CTO Stanislav Vishnevskiy.
The company is also promising more transparency about its vendors for these verification services and their practices. Discord said that it will not work with any partners for face scans unless the tests are performed completely on-device. The blog post noted that Persona, one of the common vendors for facial age estimation services, does not meet that standard and Discord has opted not to work with the brand.
Finally, Discord is also building a new spoiler channel option so that servers with select age-restricted channels won’t have to require all members to verify their ages. It will also publish a technical explainer on its own automatic age determination systems.
We at Engadget have own worries about the wave of age verification laws happening both within the US and globally, but it’s somewhat encouraging to see a digital platform at least trying to continue to deliver anonymity while still creating effective protections for teens.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/discord-delays-age-verification-to-address-user-concerns-205500482.html?src=rss
The KDE Project released today KDE Plasma 6.6.1 as the first maintenance update to the latest KDE Plasma 6.6 desktop environment series with an initial batch of improvements and bug fixes.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth will reportedly give Anthropic until Friday to drop certain guardrails for military use, as reported by Axios. The outlet also reported that CEO Dario Amodei met with Hegseth yesterday as the Pentagon ratcheted up pressure on the AI company to give in to its demands.
The makers of Claude have reportedly been offered an ultimatum: Either yield to the government’s demands to remove limits for certain military applications, or potentially be forced to tailor its AI model to the government’s needs under the Defense Production Act.
Anthropic, for its part, has said that while it was willing to adopt certain policies for the Pentagon, it would not allow its model to be used for mass surveillance of Americans or for the development of autonomous weapons.
Claude is currently the only AI model employed in some of the government’s most sensitive work. “The only reason we’re still talking to these people is we need them and we need them now. The problem for these guys is they are that good,” a defense official told Axios.
The Pentagon is reportedly ramping up conversations with OpenAI and Google about using their models for classified work. ChatGPT and Gemini are already approved for unclassified government use. Elon Musk’s xAI also recently signed with the DoD to use Grok in classified systems.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/the-pentagon-has-reportedly-given-anthropic-until-friday-to-let-it-use-claude-as-it-sees-fit-203549467.html?src=rss
Samsung Unpacked 2026 is nearly upon us. On Wednesday, Feb. 25, Samsung will take the stage in San Francisco to make some pretty major product and feature announcements. Unlike some other big tech companies, however, Samsung isn’t being 100% secretive here. The company has already told us that it will reveal the next Galaxy S Series, and while they haven’t said exactly what it will be called, it’s pretty safe to assume this will be the Galaxy S26 series. The rumors suggest Samsung has plenty of other updates up its sleeve, too, including the new Galaxy Buds 4 and Galaxy AI announcements.
Based on the leaks and rumors, it seems the S26 series will likely be a small year-over-year update to the S25 series, which is largely to be expected from a smartphone OEM as big as Samsung. While there may not be too much incentive to update from the S25 series, users of older Galaxy devices, or older smartphones in general, may find the processor and camera upgrades worthwhile. There may also be unique features, like Privacy Display, which can make it more difficult for others to see your screen when they’re not looking at it head-on. We’ll have to see exactly which rumors pan out to know for sure.
You don’t need to be seated in San Francisco in order to keep up with all the Samsung news, though. We’ll be covering the event live as it happens, posting to this live blog throughout the day. That means we’ll be reporting when Samsung reveals the Galaxy S26, S26+, and S26 Ultra; all the new features those devices come with; and any new accessories and AI advancements you can expect from the Samsung ecosystem. For all the latest Samsung Unpacked 2026 news, keep checking this live blog throughout Wednesday.
An anonymous reader shares a report: Cyberattacks reached victims faster and came from a wider range of threat groups than ever last year, CrowdStrike said in its annual global threat report released Tuesday, adding that cybercriminals and nation-states increasingly relied on predictable tactics to evade detection by exploiting trusted systems.
The average breakout time — how long it took financially-motivated attackers to move from initial intrusion to other network systems — dropped to 29 minutes in 2025, a 65% increase in speed from the year prior. “The fastest breakout time a year ago was 51 seconds. This year it’s 27 seconds,” Adam Meyers, head of counter adversary operations at CrowdStrike, told CyberScoop. Defenders are falling behind because attackers are refining their techniques, using social engineering to access high-privilege systems faster and move through victims’ cloud infrastructure undetected.
Google sent out an AI-generated news alert that included the N-word, according to reporting by Deadline. The push notification featured a link to a story by The Hollywood Reporter regarding an incident at the recent BAFTA Film Awards. The word appeared in the notification under the link.
This was first spotted by Instagram user Danny Price, who accompanied a screengrab with a caption reading “what an interesting Black History Month this has turned out to be.” Google has since apologized and said that it has “removed the offensive notification” and is “working to prevent this from happening again.”
This story follows the aforementioned BAFTA incident, in which an audience member with Tourette syndrome shouted the N-word when Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo took to the stage to present an award. Tourette syndrome activist John Davidson, who made the comment, said he was “deeply mortified if anyone considers my involuntary tics to be intention or to carry any meaning.” The incident has sparked outrage and a renewed discussion on the realities of living with vocal tics.
Asking for more grace for the person who shouted a racist slur instead of for Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo, who had to push through being embarrassed in front of their peers.
But that’s often the expectation — that Black people are just supposed to be ok with being… https://t.co/MqHbC8XwsA
AI makes lots of high-profile errors and this isn’t the first time it has ruined a news alert. Apple actually scrapped its own AI push notifications last year when the tool made a series of embarrassing mistakes, including wrongly telling readers that the man accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, Luigi Mangione, had shot himself.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/google-sent-an-ai-generated-push-alert-that-included-a-racial-slur-195951493.html?src=rss
A UK regulator today fined Reddit £14.5 million ($19.6 million) for not verifying the ages of users. The UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) alleged that the failure to check ages resulted in Reddit illegally using children’s personal information.
“Our investigation found that Reddit failed to apply any robust age assurance mechanism and therefore did not have a lawful basis for processing the personal information of children under the age of 13… These failures meant Reddit was using children’s data unlawfully, potentially exposing them to inappropriate and harmful content,” an ICO press release said.
The ICO findings are based on Reddit’s actions prior to its July 2025 rollout of a system that verifies UK users’ ages before letting them view adult content. But the ICO said it is still concerned about Reddit’s post-July 2025 system because the company relies on users to declare their ages when opening an account.
GOG (formerly known as Good Old Games) has been fighting an uphill battle for some time, despite being generally well-received, in a battle to stay relevant amid Steam’s unapologetic market dominance. Despite gamers’ widespread hatred of DRM (Digital Rights Management) copy protection software, Steam’s relatively lax DRM has long been allowed
While System76 has been hard at work on a redesigned Thelio desktop chassis design, this hasn’t slowed down their software work. Today they shipped COSMIC Epoch 1.0.8 as the newest work on their open-source, Rust-based desktop environment used by their in-house Pop!_OS Linux distribution as well as found in other Linux distributions too…
Drawing from its comic book origins, Empire City offers a promising glimpse into one of 2026’s most anticipated VR titles.
After an early look into the sewer lair of the eponymous turtles, Cortopia Studios, recently known for Gorn 2 and Escaping Wonderland, have released a limited-time PC VR demo as part of Steam Next Fest. The new demo is roughly 15-20 minutes long and functions as an extended tutorial that introduces the combat and parkour mechanics.
The Facts
What is it?: A hack and slash adventure Platforms: Steam (played on Quest 3 via Virtual Desktop) Release Date: February 24, 2026 (part of Steam Next Fest) Developer: Cortopia Studios Publisher: Beyond Frames Price: free (demo only)
The demo goes through each turtle in turn, starting with Leonardo, then Michelangelo, Donatello, and ending with Raphael before a final section where you can choose your preferred character. The four brothers are infiltrating a building while encountering numerous Foot clan soldiers. Each turtle has their signature weapon and most of the enemies can be put down without too much difficulty. Each successive hit or parry of an enemy’s attack builds up a focus meter that, when maxed, activates a signature trait. Depending on which turtle is selected, this can be anything from increased focus gain to more damage landed per attack.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Empire City screenshots captured by UploadVR
It should be noted that the combat is not physics based, more akin to something like Deadpool VR than Blade and Sorcery. Weapons do not have any weight and can be swung with the lightest flick of the wrist. This is not a complaint and it absolutely fits with the IP, but those who prefer more ‘realistic’ combat may bump into what’s on offer here.
The demo breaks down into each character introducing a part of the gameplay. Leonardo gives movement and combat basics, Donatello has to hack locked doors by solving a couple of simple puzzles, Michelangelo parkours across the rooftops, and Raphael is forced to work on his parrying technique by the turtles’ sensei, Master Splinter. Each section plays out in just a few minutes, long enough to get familiar with how to play the game, then this section of the demo ends with a boss fight I won’t spoil, except to say I promptly lost.
PC Specs
This demo was played on Steam using a Meta Quest 3 and Virtual Desktop on the Ultra preset. The game itself was played on the default graphics settings.
My PC has an RTX 5070 Ti with 16GB of VRAM, a Ryzen 5 5600X processor, and 64GB of DDR4 RAM.
Everything here just works. The combat and parkour is fluid and intuitive, the voice acting is spot on for each turtle, and though weapons have no weight, they still feel distinct from one another and coupled with the focus meter traits, offer a reason to try different turtles depending on playstyle. I could’ve stood on that roof twirling Michelangelo’s nunchucks for hours.
After this, the demo moves to the aforementioned sewer lair. From what I can tell, this is the same as the earlier hands-on demo from months back. Seeing it for the first time, there’s a clear attention to detail, with each room instantly recognizable as to its inhabitant. This is also the first time Master Splinter and April O’Neil are shown.
Comfort
Empire City uses stick-based movement with options for snap and smooth turning. Both turn options have modifiers for angle and speed respectively.
Between the lack of a teleport movement option and the parkour elements, we do not recommend this game for new VR users who are not yet acclimated to artificial movement.
Aesthetically, Empire City utilizes a cel-shaded art style similar to Deadpool VR that fits the turtles’ comic book origins. Everything is sharp and detailed with no visible performance issues to speak of.
Overall, this demo does exactly what a great demo is supposed to: make me want to play the full game. There’s very little in the way of story to pick up on here other than the involvement of the Foot clan. It is simply an introduction to the world and masterfully serves its purpose.
0:00
/0:44
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Empire City can be wishlisted on Steam, Meta Quest, and Pico now and is listed as coming in Spring 2026. The demo is playable as part of Steam Next Fest until March 2 at 10am PST.
Three years after announcing plans to produce a film based on the viral YouTube short, The Backrooms (Found Footage) in 2023, A24 has released the first teaser for its adaptation. Backrooms, as the film is now called, is directed by the short’s original creator, Kane Parsons, and will be released on May 29, 2026.
The teaser offers little to go on for anyone who hasn’t watched the original short or the series of videos Parsons made after it, but it is replete with The Backrooms‘ hallmark: ominous liminal spaces. Layered over footage of stranger and stranger rooms (or perhaps one room becoming the platonic empty retail spaces popularized by short), the voice of Chiwetel Ejiofor tells the film’s other star, Renate Reinsve, about a “place” he discovered that’s full of rooms.
Parsons’ original video is inspired by a creepypasta called “The Backrooms” that originated on the forum 4chan in 2019. The YouTube series expanded on the basic concept of a liminal space that exists outside reality with monsters and a mysterious company researching The Backrooms. It’s unclear how much of that larger lore will be incorporated into the feature film adaptation, but since the teaser is missing the digital video filter that gave the YouTube short its distinct look, it seems possible Parsons could be going for something a bit different. Well that, and the fact the film stars two Oscar-nominated actors.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/heres-the-first-teaser-for-a24s-adaptation-of-the-backrooms-194300513.html?src=rss
This is going to be a big week for Samsung. The company is making some major announcements at Galaxy Unpacked 2026 on Wednesday, revealing the next generation Galaxy S Series devices (which almost assuredly means the Galaxy S26), as well as some new AI updates. In the lead up to this event, Samsung is also now rolling out its latest security updates for its Galaxy devices—at least, some of its devices.
What’s new with Samsung’s February security update
Samsung’s February security update contains 37 patches for issues the company discovered since the January update. This time, there are no critical patches, but there are plenty of fixes for “High” severity issues. According to SamMobile, 25 of these patches were provided by Google, which fix issues with Android in general, while the other 12 were specific to Samsung to patch issues within its own ecosystem. That includes issues for Emergency Sharing, Knox Guard Manager, Samsung Dialer, Samsung’s Settings app, face and fingerprint authentication systems, and the PACM module—things that only apply to Samsung’s own OS.
Not all Galaxy phones are getting this update right away. Samsung is kicking things off with its Galaxy S25 series, meaning the Galaxy S25, S25+, and S25 Ultra. It also appears to be rolling out to its latest foldable devices as well, including the Galaxy Z Fold 7, Z Flip 7, and Z TriFold. If you bought Samsung’s latest and greatest—at least until the S26 series launches—you’ll likely see the update in your Settings app imminently. If your Galaxy device is on the older side (or even one year older than the S25 series), you may need to wait a bit before the patches appear.
Speaking of waiting, Samsung started rolling this update out to Korean users first, so if you’re in another region, you might not see it right away. But it does seem evident the patch is on its way, especially with Unpacked airing Wednesday.
How to install Samsung’s February security update
Once the security update hits your device, open the Settings app, then choose either Software update or System updates. (This may differ depending on your device.) From here, depending on your carrier, tap either Download and install, Check for system updates, or Check for software updates. The latest update may begin downloading automatically, but if it doesn’t, tap Download now. Finally, follow the on-screen instructions to install the update.
Waymo had set out some big plans for expanding its autonomous vehicle taxi program across the US in 2025 and it appears to be continuing that pace into 2026. Today, the company announced that the first public riders can begin using its fully autonomous ride-hailing service in Dallas, Houston, San Antonio and Orlando.
To start, these robotaxi rides will only be available for a small number of people with the Waymo app in those cities. “We will be inviting new riders on a rolling basis to ensure a seamless experience across our initial service areas, as we meaningfully scale our operations ahead of opening our service to everyone later this year,” the company said in the blog post announcing the expansion.
Google-owned Waymo is now operating in ten commercial metro areas. It announced its plans to start testing its vehicles in these four US cities in November. The company also began a test phase in Miami at that time, and Waymo’s robotaxi service began accepting riders in that locale in January.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/waymo-will-start-offering-robotaxi-rides-in-four-more-cities-192841871.html?src=rss
