Currently, Microsoft’s long-running Cloud Gaming service is limited to players that have a Microsoft’s Game Pass subscription. Now, new reporting suggests Microsoft is planning to offer non-subscribers access to game streams paid for by advertising in the near future, but only in extremely limited circumstances.
Don’t get your hopes up for easy, free, ad-supported access to the entire Xbox Cloud Gaming library, though. Windows Central now reports that Microsoft will be using ads merely to slightly expand access to its “Stream your own game” program. That program currently offers subscribers to the Xbox Game Pass Essentials tier (or higher) the privilege of streaming versions of some of the Xbox games they’ve already purchased digitally. Windows Central’s unnamed sources suggest a “session-based ad-supported access tier” to stream those purchased games will be offered to non-subscribers as soon as “this year.”
Netflix has begun asking filmmakers to adjust their storytelling approach to account for viewers who are scrolling through their phones while watching, according to Matt Damon. The traditional action movie formula involves three major set pieces distributed across the first, second, and third acts. Netflix now wants a large action sequence in the opening five minutes to hook viewers.
The streamer has also suggested that filmmakers reiterate plot points “three or four times in the dialogue” to accommodate distracted audiences, he said. “It’s going to really start to infringe on how we’re telling these stories,” Damon said.
I have been writing about the Giant Magellan Telescope for a long time. Nearly two decades ago, for example, I wrote that time was “running out” in the race to build the next great optical telescope on the ground.
At the time the proposed telescope was one of three contenders to make a giant leap in mirror size from the roughly 10-meter diameter instruments that existed then, to approximately 30 meters. This represented a huge increase in light-gathering potential, allowing astronomers to see much further into the universe—and therefore back into time—with far greater clarity.
Since then the projects have advanced at various rates. An international consortium to build the Thirty Meter Telescope in Hawaii ran into local protests that have bogged down development. Its future came further into question when the US National Science Foundation dropped support for the project in favor of the Giant Magellan Telescope. Meanwhile the European Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) has advanced on a faster schedule, and this 39.5-meter telescope could observe its first light in 2029.
The growing enthusiasm among Gen Z for ditching smartphones in favor of basic “dumbphones” may be overlooking a significant cognitive reality, according to a WIRED essay that draws on the 1998 “extended mind hypothesis” by philosophers Andy Clark and David Chalmers. The hypothesis argues that external tools can extend the biological brain in an all but physical way, meaning your phone isn’t just a device — it’s part of a single cognitive system composed of both the tool and your brain.
“Interference with my phone is like giving me some brain damage,” Clark told Wired. He expressed concern about the dumbphone movement, calling it “generally a retrograde step” and warning that as smartphone enmeshment becomes the societal norm, those who opt out risk becoming “effectively disabled within that society.” Clark described this as “the creation of a disempowered class.”
98% of Americans between 18 and 29 own a smartphone, dropping only to 97% for those aged 30 to 49. Even committed dumbphone users struggle. One user profiled in the piece still carries an “emergency iPhone” for work requirements and admits long-distance friendships have become “nearly impossible to maintain.”
SolidRun has introduced the Bedrock RAI300, a fanless industrial PC built around one of AMD’s latest Ryzen AI 300 series processors. The system is SolidRun’s first industrial platform based on Zen 5, combining high-performance x86 compute, integrated AI acceleration, and modular I/O for long-term industrial deployment. The Bedrock RAI300 is powered by the AMD Ryzen […]
PostgreSQL contributor Robert Haas has published
a blog post that breaks down code contributions to PostgreSQL in
2025.
I calculate that, in 2025, there were 266 people who were the
principal author of at least one PostgreSQL commit. 66% of the new
lines of code where contributed by one of 26 people, and 90% of the
lines of new code were contributed by one of 67 people.
Contributions to the project seem to be on the upswing; in his analysis
of development in 2024, there were 229 people who were the primary
authors of a commit, and 66% of new lines of code were contributed by
one of 18 people. The raw
data is also available.
In late 2023 Mozilla began providing Debian packages of Firefox Nightly builds complete with an APT repository. Those on Debian/Ubuntu distributions have a much easier path for enjoying Firefox Nightly since then and now Mozilla engineers are providing similar RPM builds of Firefox nightly too…
In light of Reality Labs’ reorganization, which has seen recent internal studio closures and layoffs, Oculus founder Palmer Luckey calls the doomer narrative “obviously false.”
The News
Luckey literally kickstarted consumer VR more than a decade ago with the founding of Oculus, which in 2014 was acquired by Meta (ex-Facebook) for $2 billion.
Having departed the company in 2017, Luckey still maintains close ties to the industry; his defense company Anduril is working with Meta to build “the world’s best AR and VR systems for the US military.” So when Luckey voices his opinion, it’s usually from an insiders perspective:
“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,” Luckey says in a recent X post.
“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.”
Palmer Luckey demoing Meta Orion AR prototype | Image courtesy Palmer Luckey
Luckey argues that while Meta’s VR layoffs are regrettable, they’re an overall positive since Meta-funded internal games crowded out third-party developers and diverted resources from core platform and technical progress.
“Some people will say ‘they should have just funded those developers as external studios rather than acquiring them, then!’ Yes, I agree,” Luckey says, admitting that 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.”
My Take
The takes are still very hot at the moment, as it’s been less than a week since Meta closed three first-party studios: Armature Studio (Resident Evil 4 Quest port), Twisted Pixel (Deadpool VR), and Sanzaru Games (Asgard’s Wrath).
Maybe this eventually proves healthy for the ecosystem. But right now, it’s hard to call it a clear win when we don’t yet know how far Meta’s pullback goes, or what the ‘plan B’ really is for Quest.
A brief counter to Luckey’s optimism: what if Nintendo announced it was cancelling a bunch of first-party games for Switch 2, and would instead focus on non-gaming platforms? Even if third-party developers benefited in theory, the signal to the market would be unmistakable.
Or maybe the more apt comparison is PSVR 2, where Sony’s quiet pullback from first and third-party funding didn’t “free” the ecosystem so much as signal exhaustion, reinforcing the perception of VR as a medium unable to scale beyond its niche.
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If you want a tablet and a laptop but can’t justify buying two separate devices, there’s no need to choose—there are plenty of two-in-one designs out there like the Samsung Galaxy Book5 Pro 360, a lightweight laptop that flips back 360 degrees and combines the perks of both. Right now, the Samsung Galaxy Book5 Pro 360 laptop and tablet is $1,549.99 (originally $ 1,999.99), bringing it to 23% off and its lowest price ever, according to price-trackers.
This laptop-tablet hybrid is a shining example of how versatile a PC can be and is a smart option for students, frequent travelers, or people who only need a keyboard occasionally. In laptop mode, it works like a standard clamshell for typing, but can be folded back flat and used with the included S Pen in tablet mode. It also has in-between tent and stand modes, which let you prop it up to watch movies in bed or on a plane or for presentations where you don’t want the keyboard in the way.
It comes with 32 GB RAM and 1 TB SSD and uses an Intel Core Ultra 7 Processor 258V that’s designed for effective everyday performance and AI tasks. The 8-core Lunar Lake chip is built for thin, lightweight laptops and 2-in-1s, and this Windows Pro 11 model is rated for up to 24 hours of battery life. The 16-inch 3K AMOLED touchscreen boasts a high resolution and accurate, vivid colors, though some reviewers note that the keyboard is a little softer and less “clicky” than they’d like.
Its durable aluminum design weighs just 3.72 pounds and is 12.7mm thick, rivaling the weight of the 15-inch MacBook Air (around 3.3 lbs). AI-optimized Copilot+ enhancements add functionality as a business laptop, depending on how much you use AI in your day-to-day. You can also sync a Galaxy phone to access features like call, text, and AI tools. With a 120Hz refresh rate, it also delivers smooth scrolling, video playback, and casual gaming.
Ultimately, if you’re looking for a premium and ultra-portable 2-in-1 PC laptop with seamless performance, a vibrant high-res touch screen, and lots of memory and storage, the Samsung Galaxy Book5 Pro 360 is a versatile workhorse works well for both business and creative tasks, especially if you’re already part of the Samsung Galaxy ecosystem and can grab it at its current $450 discount.
The io_uring
subsystem is more than an asynchronous I/O interface for Linux; it is,
for all practical purposes, an independent system-call API. It has enabled
high-performance applications, but it also brings challenges for code built
around classic, Unix-style system calls. For example, the seccomp()
sandboxing mechanism does not work with it, causing applications using seccomp() to disable io_uring outright. Io_uring maintainer Jens
Axboe is seeking to improve that situation with a rapidly evolving patch
series adding a new restrictive mechanism to that subsystem.
Far Side fans might recall a classic 1982 cartoon called “Cow Tools,” featuring a cow standing next to a jumble of strange objects—the joke being that cows don’t use tools. That’s why a pet Swiss brown cow in Austria named Veronika has caused a bit of a sensation: she likes to pick up random sticks and use them to scratch herself. According to a new paper published in the journal Current Biology, this is a form of multipurpose tool use and suggests that the cognitive capabilities of cows have been underestimated by scientists.
As previously reported, tool use was once thought to be one of the defining features of humans, but examples of it were eventually observed in primates and other mammals. Dolphins can toss objects as a form of play which some scientists consider to be a type of tool use, particularly when it involves another member of the same species. Potential purposes include a means of communication, social bonding, or aggressiveness. (Octopuses have also been observed engaging in similar throwing behavior.)
But the biggest surprise came when birds were observed using tools in the wild. After all, birds are the only surviving dinosaurs, and mammals and dinosaurs hadn’t shared a common ancestor for hundreds of millions of years. In the wild, observed tool use has been limited to the corvids (crows and jays), which show a variety of other complex behaviors—they’ll remember your face and recognize the passing of their dead.
Supernatural continues to rank at or near number one on the Meta Quest charts in the wake of Meta’s decision to pause content updates and lay off much of the team behind one of VR’s most effective fitness apps.
Many in the VR fitness community have been looking into their options.
Supernatural has always been positioned as a premium experience. Access as of this writing is subscription-only, with users paying either $9.99 per month or $99 per year. That recurring revenue, combined with strong engagement and brand recognition, made Supernatural feel like a rare success story in consumer VR fitness.
Meta says the existing library, which spans thousands of workouts, will stay accessible. Current subscribers can continue paying for full access and new users are still able to sign up. In the short term, that keeps Supernatural viable, especially for users already invested in its structure and coaching. What happens to the mainstream music used in the project if licenses expire?
What makes Supernatural’s situation so disruptive is not just the pause in new content, but the loss of certainty. VR fitness depends on habit, trust, and long-term commitment. When a chart-topping, subscription-only app can be upended overnight, the entire health journey some people are may see potential disruption down the line.
In that context, ownership models, studio independence, and transparency do actually matter to many more than production value alone. At a moment when VR fitness is proving its ability to retain paying users and drive real behavior change, Meta appears to be stepping back from one of its strongest examples.
For users navigating this moment, the good news is that the ecosystem is deeper than it once was. The harder question is which platforms feel stable enough to earn long-term trust.
I’ve tried a number of VR fitness options besides Supernatural to check out what the latest options offer.
FunFitLand
Photo: FunFitLand
I have spent a meaningful amount of time inside FunFitLand, starting back in its early alpha period. Early on, it leaned heavily on Supernatural’s blueprint, with real coaches in 3D as well as beautiful real-world and imaginary scenes for workouts. Over time, it moved past that influence and developed its own identity.
That evolution is most visible in the community and coaching. The tone is supportive and motivational without feeling performative. Coaches have sharpened their virtual instruction skills, with clearer cues, tighter pacing, and better movement guidance. On the workout side, the platform has expanded its movement set with additions like side steps and hammer strikes, giving sessions more physical range.
DanceFit has since evolved into GrooveFit, favoring looser, more expressive routines. The addition of FlowFit has been especially meaningful. It introduces a meditative, tai chi-inspired experience focused on balance, breath, and intentional movement. It reinforces the idea that VR fitness does not need to be all intensity to be effective.
FunFitLand also improved its music selection. The library now spans a wider range of genres, including cinematic tracks and some heavy metal. That added variety helps reduce repetition and gives different workout modes a clearer identity.
FunFitLand mirrors Supernatural’s pricing structure, offering both monthly and annual subscriptions. At the time of writing, a first-year annual discount of $69.99 appears to still be available for new subscribers, undercutting Supernatural’s standard annual fee. The app, which also supports hand tracking, has also launched on Apple Vision Pro, signaling ambition at a time when others are pulling back.
FitXR
Photo: FitXR
FitXR began life as BoxVR in 2017 and has since grown into one of the most feature-rich VR fitness platforms available. It operates on a subscription model priced at $12.99 per month or $108.99 per year.
The platform, which also supports hand tracking, currently offers seven workout types: Box, Combat, HIIT, Sculpt, Dance, Zumba, and the newer mixed-reality SLAM mode. Workouts span multiple intensity levels and are supported by a progression and rewards system designed to encourage consistency. Regular content updates and monthly themed challenges keep the experience from feeling static.
FitXR uses recognizable fitness personalities as coaches, though in some modes, particularly Sculpt, Dance and Zumba, those coaches appear as stylized cartoon avatars. Choreography across disciplines is strong, and the workouts are fully capable of delivering a serious sweat.
Where FitXR falls slightly behind Supernatural and FunFitLand is in environmental range and polish. There are fewer workout environments, and those that do exist are not as breathtakingly beautiful – think functional rather than awe-inspiring. Hit feedback in the boxing and combat modes also lacks the satisfying auditory impact found in FunFitLand, which remains best in class in this area. Even so, FitXR’s breadth, progression systems, and consistent update cadence make it a strong long-term subscription for users who value variety and structure.
FitXR is also expanding beyond Meta’s ecosystem. The app is now available on Samsung’s Galaxy XR headset, running Android XR, marking an early move to support next-generation mixed reality hardware outside the Quest platform.
Les Mills XR Bodycombat
Photo: Les Mills XR Bodycombat
Les Mills XR Bodycombat takes a fundamentally different approach. It is sold as a one-time purchase priced at $29.99, with optional DLC packs typically around $9.99. For users wary of subscriptions, that alone makes it appealing.
The workouts are demanding and efficient. Sessions are designed to escalate intensity quickly, and it does not take long to work up a sweat. Real-life Les Mills coaches Dan Cohen and Rachael Newsham appear briefly at the start of sessions as holograms, then transition to voice-only guidance for the remainder of the workout.
The workouts share a familiar structure, and for people who train often, that repetition becomes noticeable over time. Even so, the effectiveness is hard to argue with. The sessions move quickly, the combinations stay demanding, and by the end you feel the work you put in. This is not a gentle program, and that intensity is what many users seek.
PowerBeats VR
Photo: PowerBeatsVR
PowerBeats VR has been a fixture in VR fitness since launching on SteamVR in 2019 and arriving on Meta Quest in 2021. On Quest, it retails for $22.99, with DLC packs typically priced between $2.99 and $5.99.
Its defining feature is customizability. PowerBeats VR allows users to upload their own music and fully customize workouts, sidestepping licensing concerns entirely. That level of control is uncommon and will appeal to users with established playlists or specific training goals.
The experience itself is less refined than many competitors. Visuals are straightforward, presentation is functional, and there is less emphasis on coaching personality or community. Even so, it remains enjoyable and effective at getting users moving when workouts are tuned to personal preferences.
The one-time purchase model combined with deep customization makes PowerBeats VR compelling for a specific audience. It does not sit in my personal top tier, but it fills a niche for many users.
XR Workout
Photo: XR Workout
XR Workout takes a different approach from most VR fitness platforms by prioritizing open movement and functional, full-body training over scripted classes and cinematic presentation. The app is free to download and use, with the free tier limited to eight minutes per day. A paid Pro membership unlocks the full feature set, including extended workout time, expanded modes, deeper customization tools, and multiplayer functionality.
One of its defining characteristics is controller-free movement through hand tracking, allowing users to exercise without holding controllers for extended sessions. Workouts rely heavily on bodyweight movements such as squats, jumps, running in place, and target-based striking that engages both upper and lower body at the same time. The result feels closer to an open training circuit than a guided class.
XR Workout also supports mixed reality, blending the user’s physical space into the workout environment so surroundings remain visible during sessions. Multiplayer workouts, playlist selection, and the ability to build or customize routines give the app a level of flexibility that most top platforms do not attempt.
XR Workout feels very different from most VR fitness apps. There is little hand-holding, and very little emphasis on presentation. You load in, start moving, and manage your own pace. If you are looking for coaching, structure, or personality, it will likely feel bare. If you are comfortable setting your own rhythm and just want a space to move hard for a few minutes, it does exactly that.
Starwave
Photo: Starewave
Starwave sits closer to the dance rhythm game end of the VR fitness spectrum, but it overlaps in interesting ways with Supernatural’s Flow workouts. Movement is driven by techno and electronic tracks, with players slashing incoming notes using glowing, cosmic batons. The emphasis is on rhythm, timing, and continuous motion rather than precision or scoring.
There are no coaches, no guided programs, and no overt fitness framing. You load in, follow the beat, and keep moving. In practice, the experience can feel meditative in the same way Flow sessions do, especially during longer play sessions where movement becomes more fluid and less deliberate.
I have found Starwave to be an enjoyable and consistent addition to my weekly fitness rotation. It is not a replacement for structured workouts, but it works well as a lighter, movement-focused session that still gets the heart rate up.
Starwave is a one-time purchase, priced at $19.99 on the Meta Quest store. Additional content is offered through an optional DLC pack at $4.99. There is no subscription model.
Other Fitness Experiences
The platforms I picked here represent what I would consider the top tier VR fitness experiences available in VR headsets right now. They combine polish, consistency, ongoing development, and enough depth to support long-term use. There are plenty of other VR fitness apps on the Quest platform, but many are less refined or narrower in scope, but they are still fun and fully capable of working up a sweat. For users experimenting with VR fitness for the first time, those options can still be worthwhile.
I certainly haven’t covered everything, so please share your favorite ways to get fit in VR in the comments below too. If you’re the developer behind an app building something new in this space, you can also email UploadVR via tips@uploadVR.com.
Queued into the Linux networking subsystem’s “net-next” branch ahead of the Linux 6.20~7.0 merge window next month is cake_mq as a multi-queue aware variant of the sch_cake network scheduler. The intent with cake_mq is to better scale the network traffic rate shaper across multiple CPU cores…
The current hardware landscape is a tough one for gamers, as even more price increases are likely to come this year. This challenging environment has meant that cloud gaming services have become a more enticing option, and it looks as if Microsoft is going to attempt to tap into this market by opening up its Xbox Cloud Gaming service to more
BrianFagioli writes: The New York Stock Exchange, owned by Intercontinental Exchange, is developing a platform for trading tokenized versions of U.S. listed stocks and ETFs around the clock, pending regulatory approval. The system would combine the NYSE’s existing matching engine with blockchain-based settlement, enabling 24×7 trading, instant settlement, and fractional share purchases priced in dollar amounts. Shares would remain fully regulated securities, with dividends and voting rights intact, rather than cryptocurrencies, even though the backend would run on blockchain-style infrastructure.
Life can be wildly unfair and at times immensely sad, but in a gracious act of kindness, Take-Two Interactive may be putting pieces in motion to allow a terminally ill gamer stricken with cancer to playtest Grand Theft Auto VI long before it comes out. While nothing has been confirmed, the latest update to a now-deleted LinkedIn post on behalf
