According to CFO Sarah Friar, OpenAI’s annualized revenue surpassed $20 billion in 2025, up from $6 billion a year earlier with growth closely tracking an expansion in computing capacity. Reuters reports: OpenAI’s computing capacity rose to 1.9 gigawatts (GW) in 2025 from 0.6 GW in 2024, Friar said in the blog, adding that Microsoft-backed OpenAI’s weekly and daily active users figures continue to produce all-time highs. OpenAI last week said it would start showing ads in ChatGPT to some U.S. users, ramping up efforts to generate revenue from the AI chatbot to fund the high costs of developing the technology. Separately, Axios reported on Monday that OpenAI’s policy chief Chris Lehane said that the company is “on track” to unveil its first device in the second half of 2026.
Friar said OpenAI’s platform spans text, images, voice, code and APIs, and the next phase will focus on agents and workflow automation that run continuously, carry context over time, and take action across tools. For 2026, the company will prioritize “practical adoption,” particularly in health, science and enterprise, she said. Friar said the company is keeping a “light” balance sheet by partnering rather than owning and structuring contracts with flexibility across providers and hardware types.
Pioneering mathematician Dr. Gladys West has passed away at the age of 95. Her name may not be familiar to you, but her contributions certainly are; West’s work laid the foundation for the global positioning system. As you likely know from experience, GPS is now an essential component of industries ranging from aviation and emergency response, as well as ensuring that you get to that dinner date or job interview on time.
This morning the world lost a pioneer in Dr Gladys West, she passed peacefully alongside her family and friends and is now in heaven with her loved ones. We thank you in advance for all of the love and prayers you have and will continue to provide pic.twitter.com/FJ3aGfEiHP
West was born in 1930 in Virginia. Despite the oppression of Jim Crow laws in the south, she was able to pursue higher education at Virginia State College (now named Virginia State University), obtaining bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mathematics. In 1956, West was hired at what is now called the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Dahlgren, VA. Her focus during the 1970s and 1980s was creating accurate models of the Earth’s shape based on satellite data, a complex task requiring the type of mathematical gymnastics that would make the average person dizzy. Those models later became the backbone for GPS. West worked at the Dahlgren center for 42 years, retiring in 1998.
As has been the case with so many of the women, particularly those of color, behind tech and science breakthroughs in the US, West’s work went largely uncelebrated for decades. After submitting a short biography of her accomplishments to a sorority function in 2018, members of Alpha Kappa Alpha helped West to receive belated recognition for her contributions. She was inducted into the US Air Force Space and Missiles Pioneers Hall of Fame and honored as Female Alumna of the Year by the Historically Black Colleges and Universities Awards in that same year. The Guardian published an interview with West in 2020 that shared some insights on her journey, including a note that when West was out and about, she favored paper maps over the technology she indirectly helped create.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/science/dr-gladys-west-whose-mathematical-models-inspired-gps-dies-at-95-234605023.html?src=rss
New data from Similarweb shows Threads has overtaken X in daily mobile users. However, X still dominates on the web with around 150 million daily web visits compared to Threads’ 8.5 million daily visits. TechCrunch reports: Similarweb’s data shows that Threads had 141.5 million daily active users on iOS and Android as of January 7, 2026, after months of growth, while X has 125 million daily active users on mobile devices. This appears to be the result of longer-term trends, rather than a reaction to the recent X controversies […]. Instead, Threads’ boost in daily mobile usage may be driven by other factors, including cross-promotions from Meta’s larger social apps like Facebook and Instagram (where Threads is regularly advertised to existing users), its focus on creators, and the rapid rollout of new features.
Over the past year, Threads has added features like interest-based communities, better filters, DMs, long-form text, disappearing posts, and has recently been spotted testing games. Combined, the daily active user increases suggest that more people are using Threads on mobile as a more regular habit. Further reading: Threads Now Has More Than 400 Million Monthly Active Users
This is a video of LEGO experimenter Brick Technology (previously) pitting LEGO cars against increasingly larger loopty loops. It was a fun watch with surprisingly high production value, and this is the exact sort of experimenting I wish I spent my weekends doing. But nooooo, I spent the entirety of last weekend running experiments to find out what will make a toilet stop leaking. Do you know how many trips to Home Depot I took? Four, and on the fourth I was *this close* to fixing the toilet and the rest of my home improvement projects with a new gas can.
Billed as a large-scale VR sci-fi action game inspired by Starship Troopers, a title called Hivefall is available in Early Access through the Patreon of Memoreum’s director.
Access is granted via a Patreon page and SideQuest from Wim Buytaert, the director of Memoreum. Hivefall is the latest creation from the director focused around the concept of base defense. Each mission lets players prepare before a massive assault of alien bugs tears down their walls, culminating in a bombastic final wave with large bosses.
This early build is specifically made with the Quest 3 in mind, with a downloadable file sent to paying subscribers on Google Drive and installable by sideloading through the SideQuest app. The developer mentioned that the sci-fi action shooter is “inspired by everything I always wanted from Starship Troopers in VR.”
As the commander of an Earth-based military corporation, your terraforming efforts to colonize new planets end up waking up an alien organism hellbent on infecting other solar systems. The current build provides access to the first three missions of Hivefall and a fully functional progression tier system with skins. The solo developer aims to update the project every month with new content.
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The first level of Hivefall, set on a colorful purple planet riddled with bugs.
After spending some time with this early build and going through the hassle of setting up SideQuest and uploading the files needed to work correctly, we’ll be curious to see how many people are willing to go through the sideloading process. Hivefall’s dev is basically investigating that very prospect with his offering. Distributing work in VR via Patreon is not unheard of, with Davigo’s flat PC vs. VR game running a campaign. I can confirm the game runs in an early alpha state on Quest 3, but a considerable number of the planned pieces are still work in progress or missing. The bugs are still looking pretty pixelated to my eyes in the first build distributed for the game.
“This project may realistically be my final venture in the VR industry if it does not become financially sustainable. That said, VR remains my true passion and the space where I most want to create and innovate,” the developer wrote over email. “This project represents not only a game, but years of experience, dedication, and belief in immersive technology.”
Last year’s survival horror Memoreum from the dev received praise for its ambitious goals while falling short of expectations in other areas, as we said in our review, “there’s going to be someone out there who will love Memoreum, even with its rough spots, and they’ll have a sizable experience to dig into.”
Regular episodic campaigns and the possibility of an online co-op mode may be in the cards for the game depending on the support it receives.
Hivefall is available now for Quest 3 via Patreon.
I’m sharing a KDE Plasma desktop customization inspired by cozy sunset tones.The setup focuses on warm yellow–orange colors, a transparent panel, and a playful chibi astronaut wallpaper, creating a calm and comfortable desktop for daily use.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF): Lawmakers in Washington are once again focusing on kids, screens, and mental health. But according to Congress, Big Tech is somehow both the problem and the solution. The Senate Commerce Committee held a hearing [Friday] on “examining the effect of technology on America’s youth.” Witnesses warned about “addictive” online content, mental health, and kids spending too much time buried in screen. At the center of the debate is a bill from Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Brian Schatz (D-HI) called the Kids Off Social Media Act (KOSMA), which they say will protect children and “empower parents.”
That’s a reasonable goal, especially at a time when many parents feel overwhelmed and nervous about how much time their kids spend on screens. But while the bill’s press release contains soothing language, KOSMA doesn’t actually give parents more control. Instead of respecting how most parents guide their kids towards healthy and educational content, KOSMA hands the control panel to Big Tech. That’s right — this bill would take power away from parents, and hand it over to the companies that lawmakers say are the problem. […] This bill doesn’t just set an age rule. It creates a legal duty for platforms to police families. Section 103(b) of the bill is blunt: if a platform knows a user is under 13, it “shall terminate any existing account or profile” belonging to that user. And “knows” doesn’t just mean someone admits their age. The bill defines knowledge to include what is “fairly implied on the basis of objective circumstances” — in other words, what a reasonable person would conclude from how the account is being used. The reality of how services would comply with KOSMA is clear: rather than risk liability for how they should have known a user was under 13, they will require all users to prove their age to ensure that they block anyone under 13.
KOSMA contains no exceptions for parental consent, for family accounts, or for educational or supervised use. The vast majority of people policed by this bill won’t be kids sneaking around — it will be minors who are following their parents’ guidance, and the parents themselves. Imagine a child using their parent’s YouTube account to watch science videos about how a volcano works. If they were to leave a comment saying, “Cool video — I’ll show this to my 6th grade teacher!” and YouTube becomes aware of the comment, the platform now has clear signals that a child is using that account. It doesn’t matter whether the parent gave permission. Under KOSMA, the company is legally required to act. To avoid violating KOSMA, it would likely lock, suspend, or terminate the account, or demand proof it belongs to an adult. That proof would likely mean asking for a scan of a government ID, biometric data, or some other form of intrusive verification, all to keep what is essentially a “family” account from being shut down.
Violations of KOSMA are enforced by the FTC and state attorneys general. That’s more than enough legal risk to make platforms err on the side of cutting people off. Platforms have no way to remove “just the kid” from a shared account. Their tools are blunt: freeze it, verify it, or delete it. Which means that even when a parent has explicitly approved and supervised their child’s use, KOSMA forces Big Tech to override that family decision. […] These companies don’t know your family or your rules. They only know what their algorithms infer. Under KOSMA, those inferences carry the force of law. Rather than parents or teachers, decisions about who can be online, and for what purpose, will be made by corporate compliance teams and automated detection systems.
Palmer Luckey thinks Meta closing its VR game studios is “a good thing for the long-term health of the industry”, and that the narrative of it “abandoning” VR is “obviously false”.
If you somehow missed it: last week Meta shut down three of its acquired studios – Twisted Pixel Games (Deadpool VR), Sanzaru Games (Asgard’s Wrath), and Armature Studio (Resident Evil 4 VR) – and conducted significant layoffs at a fourth: Camouflaj (Batman: Arkham Shadow).
The closures are part of Meta’s wider strategy of, in its own words, “shifting some of our investment from Metaverse toward AI glasses and Wearables”, and the layoffs have affected around 10% of Meta’s Reality Labs division, around 1500 people.
This strategy shift has led some in the industry to speculate that Meta is abandoning VR entirely. But Oculus founder Palmer Luckey doesn’t agree.
In a post on X, Luckey argued that last week’s events were “not a disaster”, pointing out that Meta still employs more people working on VR than any other company “by about an order of magnitude”.
Further, Luckey explains that “crowding out the rest of the entire ecosystem” by forcing third-party developers to compete with blockbusters like Batman and Deadpool games that cost more to make than they would ever return “doesn’t make sense”, suggesting that the end of this strategy will be “a good thing for the long-term health of the industry”.
He further notes that while some of these titles are received well, others fail, revealing that Rock Band VR, a 2017 Oculus Rift exclusive, sold just 700 copies.
Here’s Palmer Luckey’s full statement:
“I have an opinion on the Meta layoffs that is contrary with most of the VR industry and much of the media, but strongly held.
This is not a disaster. They still employ the largest team working on VR by about an order of magnitude. Nobody else is even close. The “Meta is abandoning VR” narrative is obviously false, 10% layoffs is basically six months of normal churn concentrated into 60 days, strictly numbers wise.
The majority of the 1,500 jobs cut in Reality Labs (out of 15,000) were roles working on first-party content, internally developed games that competed directly with third party developers. I think this is a good decision, and I thought the same back when I was still at Oculus.
Change always sucks because people lose their jobs in the process, but in a world of limited resources, Meta heavily subsidizing their own (with money, marketing, placement, etc) at the expense of core technical progress and platform stability doesn’t make sense. Crowding out the rest of the entire ecosystem, even less so. Every developer big and small, even the hyper-efficient ones, have had an extremely hard time competing with games developed by Meta-owned teams with budgets and teams that spend vastly in excess of earning potential. People will point out that these teams did an awesome job and got awesome reviews from critics and customers alike – yes, and fucked up though it is, that makes the problem even worse!
Some people will say “they should have just funded those developers as external studios rather than acquiring them, then!”. Yes, I agree, but hindsight is 20/20. Do you think Oculus expected to only sell 700 copies of Rock Band VR after spending eight figures to make sure it was ready and awesome for Rift CV1 launch, to the point of bundling the guitar adapter with every single headset? Of course not, but sometimes you learn what the world actually wants from you the hard way.
TL;DR, I feel really bad for the people impacted, but this is a good thing thing for the long-term health of the industry, especially the ongoing incentives.
After being fired from Oculus by Facebook in 2017, Luckey founded Anduril, a defense firm that makes and sells drones, loitering munitions, interceptors, cruise missiles, sentry towers, and even unmanned submarines, as well as a software system that integrates them and other assets into a unified view of the battlespace. It was most recently valued at over $30 billion.
In 2024, Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth publicly apologized to Luckey, an apology which he also publicly accepted. And last year, Anduril and Meta announced a partnership to build XR products for US and allied militaries, starting with the EagleEye AR/VR helmet.
“The people acting like I am some stooge who will obviously agree with everything Meta does need to read a history book or something, jfc
Oculus had a strong internal mandate to NOT be Nintendo and instead build things that build the ecosystem. Returning to that is good.”
In response to the idea that he was “stooge who will obviously agree with everything Meta does”, Luckey suggests those under that belief read a history book.
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Florida—Preparations for the first human spaceflight to the Moon in more than 50 years took a big step forward this weekend with the rollout of the Artemis II rocket to its launch pad.
The rocket reached a top speed of just 1 mph on the four-mile, 12-hour journey from the Vehicle Assembly Building to Launch Complex 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. At the end of its nearly 10-day tour through cislunar space, the Orion capsule on top of the rocket will exceed 25,000 mph as it plunges into the atmosphere to bring its four-person crew back to Earth.
“This is the start of a very long journey,” said NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman. “We ended our last human exploration of the moon on Apollo 17.”
OzLabs is a collection of Australian
free-software developers that was, for most of its history, associated with
IBM. Members of OzLabs have included Hugh Blemings, Michael Ellerman, Ben
Herrenschmidt, Greg Lehey, Paul Mackerras, Martin Pool, Stephen Rothwell,
Rusty Russell, and Andrew Tridgell, among others. The OzLabs “about” page notes that, as
of January 2026, the last remaining OzLabs members have departed IBM.
“This brought to a close the Ozlabs association with IBM“. Thus
ends a quarter-century of development history.
ASUS appears to be shifting its business operations away from smartphones. According to translations of recent quotes from Chairman Jonney Shih, the company does not plan to release new phone models in the future. The chairman did not confirm whether smartphones would be completely phased out, but he did acknowledge that possibility. Whatever direction ASUS takes, its existing phones will continue to receive software updates and warranty assistance. Shih suggested that its future plans may include a shift into AI-related projects such as robotics or smartglasses.
Previous reports hinted that ASUS would not introduce any smartphones in 2026, but Shih’s recent comments indicate that the pause may stretch longer than a year. We’ve reached out to ASUS for additional comment and will update if the company shares any further information.
ASUS had plenty of other updates emerging from CES at the start of the month unrelated to smartphones, such as dual-screenlaptops and a pair of gaming smartglasses. So if it does decide to leave that product segment, there will still be other ASUS-branded gear on the market.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/asus-will-not-release-any-new-smartphones-this-year-213043832.html?src=rss
Last year Valve contractor Timur Kristóf managed to improve the AMDGPU driver enough for old GCN 1.0 Southern Islands and GCN 1.1 Sea Islands GPUs that with Linux 6.19 AMDGPU is now the default for those GPUs with better performance, RADV Vulkan out-of-the-box, and other benefits. He isn’t done though improving the old GCN 1.0/1.1 era GPU support on this modern AMDGPU kernel driver – a new patch series posted today brings some power management fixes…
It’s been nearly three years now since Destiny maker (and Sony subsidiary) Bungie formally announced a revival of the storied Marathon FPS franchise. And it has been about seven months since the game’s original announced release date of September 23, 2025 was pushed back indefinitely after a reportedly poor response to the game’s first Alpha test.
But today, in a post on the PlayStation Blog, Bungie revealed that the new Marathon would finally be hitting PS5, Windows, and Xbox Series X|S on March 5, narrowing down the month-long March release window announced back in December.
Today’s pre-rder trailer revealing the Marathon release date.
Unlike Destiny 2, which transitioned to a free-to-play model in 2019, the new Marathon sells for $40 in a Standard Edition or a $60 Deluxe Edition that includes some digital rewards and cosmetics. That mirrors the pricing of the somewhat similar Arc Raiders, which recently hit 12 million sales in less than 12 weeks.
With the spring approaching, it’s time to start thinking about how you’ll file your taxes. Unfortunately, with the recent demise of Direct File, there isn’t a free, government-provided alternative to TurboTax in 2026, and you’ll need to look to other federal programs, including IRS Free File, to file your paperwork. If you don’t qualify for Free File, chances are you’ll need to dish out cash for Intuit’s software. And while we hate to suggest you give money to a company that has spent decades lobbying to ensure America’s tax system remains a nightmare, we can at least save you some money if TurboTax is your only option.
Right now, Amazon has discounted the deluxe desktop edition of TurboTax by 44 percent. That gets you $35 off software that normally costs $80, which you can use to file both your individual state and federal taxes. For most Americans, that should cover their needs, though if you’re self-employed, you’ll need to pony up for the more expensive Business version of TurboTax, which is currently 42 percent off, or $54 off. One last thing to note: you’ll need a PC with either Windows 11 or macOS Sonoma to run the software, so an older machine won’t do, unfortunately.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/turbotax-deluxe-is-on-sale-for-45-ahead-of-tax-season-204848571.html?src=rss
The American monoculture — the era when three television networks, seven movie studios, and a handful of record labels determined virtually everything the country watched and heard — is collapsing under the weight of algorithmic recommendation engines and infinite streaming options. An estimated 200 million tickets were sold for “Gone With the Wind” in 1939 when the U.S. population was 130 million; more than 100 million people watched the MAS*H finale in 1983.
Only three American productions grossed more than $1 billion in 2025, down from nine in 2019. “That broad experience has become a more difficult thing for us studio people to manufacture,” said Donna Langley, chairman of NBCUniversal Entertainment. “The audience wants a much better value for their money.”
YouTube became the most popular video platform on televisions not by having the hottest shows but by having something for everyone. The internet broke Hollywood’s hold on distribution; anyone can now stream to the same devices Disney and Netflix use.
Asus won’t release any new smartphones this year, and that may signal the brand’s exit from the Android space altogether. From a report: Asus Chairman Jonney Shih confirmed the news at an event in Taiwan on Jan. 16. According to a machine-translated version of quotes reported by Inside, Shih said, “Asus will no longer add new mobile phone models in the future.”
Shih said Asus will continue to support existing smartphone users with software updates and warranty assistance. This matches a previous report from DigiTimes earlier this month that said Asus wouldn’t introduce new models in 2026. The big question is whether that means stepping back altogether or a temporary pause. In his speech, Shih alluded to the possibility that Asus may return to smartphones, but did not confirm it.
When it rains it pours, and Ubisoft, one of the world’s largest video game publishers, is currently enduring a deluge. The company’s latest releases, which include its long running Assassin’s Creed franchise and tie-ins with popular IP such as Star Wars, have failed to make the splash it hoped for. Now, Ubisoft is facing a legal battle with
Mac power users waiting on new high-end MacBook Pro models may have been disappointed last fall, when Apple released an M5 upgrade for the low-end 14-inch MacBook Pro without touching the M4 Pro or Max versions of the laptop. But the wait for M5 Pro and M5 Max models may be nearing its end.
The tea-leaf readers at MacRumors noticed that shipping times for a handful of high-end MacBook Pro configurations have slipped into mid-to-late February, rather than being available immediately as most Mac models are. This is often, though not always, a sign that Apple has slowed down or stopped production of an existing product in anticipation of an update.
Currently, the shipping delays affect the M4 Max versions of both the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros. If you order them today, these models will arrive sometime between February 3 and February 24, depending on the configuration you choose; many M4 Pro versions are still available for same-day shipping, though adding a nano-texture display or upgrading RAM can still add a week or so to the shipping time.
Over on Overclock.net, user OC_Beer posted what appear to be the first leaked overclocking results for AMD’s upcoming Ryzen 7 9850X3D. The chip isn’t even on shelves yet, as AMD only announced it at CES 2026 less than two weeks ago, but if these images are real, someone out there is already pushing it past its limits—5748 MHz on all eight
