I’ll probably never tackle every game on my ever-growing list, and I think that’s a good thing
The post The Greatness Of <i>Earthbound</i> Reminded Me Why I Never Want To Conquer My Backlog appeared first on Kotaku.
Ubisoft’s Avatar Game Is So Much Better Than Fire And Ash
Far Cry: Blue Cat People Edition isn’t as bad as I remember and in fact, kind of rules in 2026
The post Ubisoft’s <i>Avatar</i> Game Is So Much Better Than <i>Fire And Ash</i> appeared first on Kotaku.
TikTok tightens age verification across Europe
TikTok is bolstering its age-verification measures across Europe. In the coming weeks, the platform will roll out upgraded age-detection tech in the European Economic Area, as well as in the UK and Switzerland.
The systems will assess the likely age of a user based on their profile information and activity. When the tech flags an account that may belong to a user aged under 13 (the minimum age to use TikTok), a specialist moderator will assess whether it should be banned. TikTok will send users in Europe a notification to tell them about these measures and offer them a chance to learn more.
Also, if a moderator is looking at content for other reasons and thinks an account might belong to an underage user, they can flag it to a specialist for further review. Anyone can report an account they suspect is used by someone under 13 as well. TikTok says it removes about 6 million underage accounts in total from the platform every month.
Those whose accounts are banned can appeal if they think their access was wrongly terminated. Users can then provide a government-approved ID, a credit card authorization or selfie for age estimation (the latter process has not gone well for Roblox as of late, as kids found workarounds for age checks).
TikTok acknowledged that there’s no single ideal solution to the issue as things stand. “Despite best efforts, there remains no globally agreed-upon method for effectively confirming a person’s age in a way that also preserves their privacy,” it stated in a blog post. “At TikTok, we’re committed to keeping children under the age of 13 off our platform, providing teens with age-appropriate experiences and continuing to assess and implement a range of solutions. We believe that a multi-layered approach to age assurance — one in which multiple techniques are used — is essential to protecting teens and upholding safety-by-design principles.”
TikTok is rolling out these practices after a pilot in Europe over the last year. That project helped the platform to identify and remove thousands more underage accounts. It worked with the Data Protection Commission (its main privacy regulator in the EU) to help ensure it complied with the bloc’s strict data protection standards.
These measures are coming into force amid intensifying calls to keep kids off social media. A social media ban for under 16s in Australia went into effect last month. Affected platforms have collectively closed or restricted millions of accounts as a result. Reddit has filed a lawsuit over the ban.
A similar ban might be on the cards in the UK amid public pressure and cross-party support. Prime Minister Keir Starmer said “all options are on the table” and that he was watching “what is happening in Australia.”
The House of Lords is set to vote on proposals for an under-16 social media ban next week. If an amendment passes, members of parliament will hold a binding vote on the matter in the coming months.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/tiktok-tightens-age-verification-across-europe-130000847.html?src=rss
Amazon Is Buying America’s First New Copper Output In More Than a Decade
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Wall Street Journal: Amazon is turning to an Arizona mine that last year became the first new source of U.S. copper in more than a decade, to meet its data centers’ ravenous appetite for the industrial metal.
The mine was restarted as a proving ground for Rio Tinto’s new method of unlocking low-grade copper deposits. Rio signed a two-year supply pact with Amazon Web Services, a vote of confidence for its Nuton venture, which uses bacteria and acid to extract copper from ore that was previously uneconomical to process. The move by Amazon is the latest example of a technology company rushing to secure the power and critical materials necessary to build and operate artificial-intelligence data centers. The Nuton copper will satisfy only a sliver of Amazon’s needs. The biggest data centers each require tens of thousands of metric tons of copper for all the wires, busbars, circuit boards, transformers and other electrical components housed there. The 14,000 metric tons of copper cathode that Rio expects the Arizona Nuton project to yield over four years wouldn’t be enough for one of those facilities.
Rio deployed its bioleaching process in the recent restart of a mine east of Tucson and has partnerships to take the technology to several others in the Americas. The idea is to uncork the low-grade ore left behind at old mines and is key to Rio’s plans to boost output when new discoveries are harder than ever to bring online and copper demand is surging. […] “We work at the commodity level to find lower carbon solutions to drive our business growth,” said Chris Roe, Amazon’s director of worldwide carbon. “That means steel, and that means concrete, and it absolutely means copper with regard to our data centers.” Roe said the copper will be routed to companies that produce components for Amazon’s data centers. As part of the deal, Amazon is supplying Rio with cloud-computing and data analytics to optimize Nuton’s recovery rates and help the miner expand production.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Notable Zwift Events for the Weekend of January 17-18
Our top pick this weekend is everyone’s favorite sort of charity ride, where every kilometer you ride unlocks a donation for a good cause. Let’s max it out, Zwifters! See all our picks below…
Bauhaus Ride of Hope
Good Cause KM for Krona
This ride has lots of signups already, and it’s easy to see why: they’ve set it up so that, for every kilometer ridden during this event, BAUHAUS donates 10 SEK to the Swedish Childhood Cancer Foundation, up to one million SEK in total!
The ride is 60 minutes long, on Watopia’s Triple Flat Loops. Some quick math: if riders average 35 km in the hour, that means each rider can “earn” a 350 SEK donation, which means we need ~2,800 riders to max out the donation. Let’s goooo!!!
Also: visit the campaign page for a chance to win a Wahoo KICKR!
Saturday, January 17 @ 9am UTC/4am ET/1am PT
Sign up at zwift.com/events/view/5273568
Tour de Zwift, Stage 2
Popular Unlocks Race If You Want
Tour de Zwift is the biggest annual tour on the platform – a celebration of discovery across all Zwift worlds! It kicked off last week with stage 1, and now we’re on stage 2, which runs through Sunday. Hundreds (sometimes thousands) of riders are joining each event, so you’ll always have some company.
Read all about Tour de Zwift 2026 >
Each stage has three route length options. For stage 2, those are Knights of the Roundabout (54.4km, 359m), Three Musketeers (37.8km, 108m), and Hell of the North (20.1km, 241m).
Hourly events all weekend!
Sign up at zwift.com/events/tag/tourdezwift2026
Vatternrundan Group Ride Series #2
Endurance Training Progressive Series
The Vätternrundan group ride series is back for another year, and very popular! The premise of the series is simple: weekly rides increasing in duration until March 1, with the goal of preparing you to handle many hours on the bike when the IRL race day arrives in June. (The Vätternrundan Group Ride Series is part of Vätternrundan’s official training program.)
Of course, you can use this to train for any endurance ride you may have planned this Spring/Summer. This week’s ride is 90 minutes long, on France’s R.G.V., and there are two pace group options (1.8-2.2 and 1.5-1.8 W/kg).
Sunday, January 18 @ 8am UTC/3am ET/12am PT
Sign up at zwift.com/events/view/5203598
FasCat’s Sweet Spot Saturdays, #4 of 7
Sweet Spot Coach Frank Popular
Ever heard of “Sweet Spot” training? It’s a staple for many riders, since it lets you accumulate a lot of training stress in relatively little time without suffering at or above threshold.
The guy who created the sweet spot concept – coach Frank Overton of FasCat – is one of the leaders on these rides. There’s even a Discord channel so you can chat directly with him and other FasCat coaches. So cool!
This is a big ride on Watopia’s The Mega Pretzel (111km, 1659m), and the goal is for riders to do “freestyle sweetspot,” with groups naturally forming around each rider’s sweet spot zone.
Saturday, January 17 @ 2:45pm UTC/9:45am ET/6:45am PT
Sign up at zwift.com/events/view/5328743
WOW – High Speed Ride on TT bikes with draft
Fast Miles Upgrade Hack Unique Event
Want to accumulate lots of miles quickly? Join this newish and popular group ride, which puts everyone on the fastest TT bike in game (Cadex Tri) with drafting enabled. It’s 100km, but it’ll be a fast 100km!
Riders are on Tempus Fugit, the flattest route in Zwift. Three different pace groups, released so the faster groups catch the slower groups over time.
Bike upgrading hack: on rides with forced bikes, whatever bike you’re on when you join the event is the bike that accumulates the distance/elevation/time. So, for example, you could accumulate lots of distance toward a road bike upgrade, while riding the Cadex Tri in this event.
Sunday, January 18 @ 1:45pm UTC/8:45am ET/5:45am PT
Sign up at zwift.com/events/view/5352676
How We Make Our Picks
We choose each weekend’s Notable Events based on a variety of factors including:
- Is the event unique/innovative in some way?
- Are celebrities (pro riders, etc) attending/leading?
- Are signup counts already high, meaning the event is extra-popular?
- Does the ride include desirable unlocks or prizes?
- Does the event appeal to ladies on Zwift? (We like to support this under-represented group!)
- Is it for a good cause?
- Is it just plain crazy (extra long races, world record attempts, etc)?
- Is it a long-running, popular weekly event with a dedicated leader who deserves a shout out?
In the end, we want to call attention to events that are extra-special and therefore extra-appealing to Zwifters. If you think your event qualifies, comment below with a link/details and we may just include it in an upcoming post!
Windows 11’s “Chrome Moment”: Why the Desktop Monopoly is Finally Dying-And Why Linux, Android, Or The MacOS Is Likely To Replace It
In the history of technology, there is perhaps no greater cautionary tale of complacency than the death of Internet Explorer. Once the undisputed gatekeeper of the World Wide Web with a 95% market share, it now exists only as a punchline and a technical fossil. Today, we see a chillingly similar pattern emerging with the Windows operating system. As Microsoft struggles to push a reluctant user base toward Windows 11, the platform faces a growing “IE moment” a period where a dominant product becomes so disconnected from its users’ needs that it creates a vacuum for a more agile competitor to fill.
The Chrome Revolution: A Blueprint for Displacement
To understand why Windows is at risk, we must look at how Google Chrome displaced Internet Explorer. In the early 2000s, Microsoft used its OS dominance to bundle IE, effectively suffocating Netscape. However, once the competition was dead, Microsoft stopped innovating. IE became bloated, slow, and famously insecure. It ignored web standards, forcing developers to build “IE-only” sites, which frustrated the burgeoning tech community.
When Google launched Chrome in 2008, it didn’t just compete on features; it changed the paradigm. Chrome introduced the V8 JavaScript engine, which made web applications run orders of magnitude faster than they did on IE. It was minimalist, secure through sandboxing, and updated silently in the background. While Microsoft treated the browser as a static piece of the OS, Google treated it as a living service. By 2012, Chrome surpassed Internet Explorer as the world’s most popular browser. The lesson was clear: ubiquity is not a permanent defense against a superior user experience.
The Windows 11 Resistance: A Billion-Device Bottleneck
The parallels with the current state of Windows are striking. As of January 2026, Windows 11 has failed to achieve the dominance Microsoft envisioned. Despite Windows 10 officially reaching its end-of-life in late 2025, a massive portion of the user base—estimated at nearly 45% of Windows desktops—refuses to upgrade.
The resistance is not merely stubbornness; it is rooted in three distinct categories of friction:
- Artificial Hardware Barriers: Microsoft’s strict requirement for TPM 2.0 and specific CPU generations has orphaned hundreds of millions of perfectly functional PCs. Recent reports suggest there is a billion-device bottleneck, consisting of 500 million PCs that cannot upgrade and another 500 million that will not because users see no value in the transition.
- Unwanted Feature Bloat: The integration of AI tools like “Recall” (which originally drew heavy fire for privacy concerns) and the constant push for cloud-integrated Microsoft accounts have alienated privacy-conscious power users.
- The “If It Ain’t Broke” Factor: For the average user, Windows 11 feels like a cosmetic skin on Windows 10 with more advertising and less control over the user interface.
This stagnation leaves the platform vulnerable. When a dominant player stops serving its customers’ best interests—by forcing hardware refreshes or intrusive telemetry—users begin looking for the exit.
Assessing the Contenders: Who Wins the Desktop?
If Windows follows Internet Explorer into obsolescence, the replacement must be more than just a different brand; it must solve the problems Microsoft has created.
MacOS: The Premium Stronghold Apple is the most obvious beneficiary of Windows friction. MacOS has seen a steady climb to roughly 15-16% of the global desktop market. For users who want a “it just works” experience and are willing to pay the hardware premium, the Mac is a natural destination. However, the closed nature of the Apple ecosystem and the high entry cost mean it is unlikely to ever capture the 70%+ market share Windows currently enjoys.
Desktop Android and ChromeOS Flex Google’s strategy for the desktop mirrors its strategy for the browser: simplify. ChromeOS Flex allows users to turn aging, “incompatible” Windows 10 PCs into fast, cloud-centric machines. While “Desktop Android” remains niche, the convergence of Android apps with ChromeOS makes Google a formidable threat in the education and light-enterprise sectors. If the “browser is the OS” trend continues, Google is perfectly positioned to repeat its Chrome victory but they’ll need to market the result to get people to switch and Google is historically poor at staffing and funding marketing adequately and they have the attention span of a 4-year-old on sugar. They have the funding and the greatest potential, but their historically poor execution offsets both sharply.
The Rise of the Linux Desktop: Mint and Zorin OS Perhaps the most interesting development in 2025-2026 has been the surge of Linux. The Linux desktop share recently hit a record high of over 6%. Two distributions are leading the “refugee” movement:
- Linux Mint: Known for its “Cinnamon” desktop, Mint provides a UI that is nearly identical to the Windows 7/10 workflow. It is incredibly stable, respects user privacy, and runs beautifully on older hardware that Windows 11 rejects.
- Zorin OS: This distribution is designed specifically for Windows switchers. It includes a “Zorin Appearance” tool that can mimic Windows or MacOS layouts with a single click. Following the end of Windows 10 support, Zorin OS reported over one million downloads, with the vast majority coming from Windows users looking for a safe harbor.
The Verdict: The Most Likely Replacement
If Windows truly collapses, no single OS will likely hold a 90% monopoly again. Instead, we will see a fragmented landscape. MacOS will dominate the high-end and creative professional space, while ChromeOS will capture the budget and education sectors.
However, for the traditional PC power user and the “orphaned” hardware market, Linux (specifically Zorin OS and Mint) is the most likely functional successor. Unlike MacOS, Linux can run on existing hardware. Unlike Android, it offers a full-powered desktop experience. For the first time in thirty years, the “Year of the Linux Desktop” isn’t a meme; it’s a migration strategy for a billion users who feel abandoned by Redmond.
Wrapping Up
Microsoft is currently walking the same path of complacency that led to Internet Explorer’s demise. By prioritizing AI telemetry and forced hardware upgrades over user trust and compatibility, they have created the perfect conditions for a mass exodus. While Windows 11 will likely remain the corporate standard for the next few years due to legacy software, the consumer and small business markets are rapidly reaching a breaking point. Whether the future is the polished simplicity of MacOS or the privacy-focused flexibility of Linux, the era of the Windows monopoly is finally drawing to a close.
Meta is Deleting ‘Horizon Workrooms’ Next Month as Metaverse Ambitions Cool
Meta announced it’s discontinuing Horizon Workrooms next month, its productivity-focused VR platform, marking another step in the company’s ongoing restructuring of its VR and metaverse strategy.
Originally launched in 2021 on Quest 2, Workrooms was not only the company’s answer to remote work following the COVID-19 pandemic, but also a first big push to make the Quest platform into a productivity device.
The platform allows up to 50 total participants to interact in a shared space, which includes a mix of 16 Quest users (max) and users patching in through standard video calls.
Amid a drastic budget reduction in VR and metaverse though, which has seen the closure of three internal XR game studios and a reported 10 percent of Reality Labs laid off, Workrooms is also getting the boot next month.
“Workrooms showed how Meta Horizon can help bring people together to work, collaborate and connect. Meta Horizon has since developed into a social platform that supports a wide range of productivity apps and tools,” Meta says in a Horizon Workrooms help thread. “As a result, Meta has made the decision to discontinue Workrooms as a standalone app, effective February 16, 2026.”
For existing users, Meta has not announced a direct replacement for Workrooms; the company suggests users look into third-party apps such as Arthur, Microsoft Teams Immersive and Zoom Workplace.
The post Meta is Deleting ‘Horizon Workrooms’ Next Month as Metaverse Ambitions Cool appeared first on Road to VR.
Kdenlive 25.12.1 Brings Welcome Screen Polishing and Audio Fixes
Kdenlive 25.12.1, an open-source video editor, is out with stability fixes, workflow improvements, and continued polishing of the new welcome screen.
The Morning After: ASUS stops making some NVIDIA GPUs due to memory supply crunch
If you thought we were exaggerating, the hunger for memory and GPUs is making many companies reassess their priorities. YouTube channel Hardware Unboxed discovered ASUS has stopped producing the RTX 5070 Ti and 5060 Ti 16GB due to the ongoing memory crunch. Both GPUs are 16GB models, making them more expensive to manufacture in the current climate.
“Demand for GeForce RTX GPUs is strong, and memory supply is constrained. We continue to ship all GeForce SKUs and are working closely with our suppliers to maximize memory availability,” an NVIDIA spokesperson told Engadget.
At CES 2026, we saw PCs and computing in the next 12 months will have higher prices and more limited availability for consumers. At the end of 2025, RAM prices skyrocketed, driven by demand from AI data centers. That’s not stopping anytime soon.
— Mat Smith
The other big stories (and deals) this morning
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The Animal Crossing: New Horizons 3.0 expansion has arrived earlier than expected
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How to claim Verizon’s $20 credit for Wednesday’s service outage
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Valerion VisionMaster Max projector review: Near-perfect image quality comes at a price
Matthew McConaughey just trademarked himself
In the fight against AI.
Getty
Matthew McConaughey filed trademark applications to prevent AI companies from using his likeness without permission, and the US Patent and Trademark Office has approved eight so far.
Trademarks were for video and audio clips featuring the actor staring, smiling and talking. One was for an audio recording of him saying “alright, alright, alright,” his catchphrase from the movie Dazed and Confused. Under the law, it’s already prohibited for companies to steal someone’s likeness to sell products. However, given the vague rules governing the use of someone’s likeness, McConaughey is taking a proactive approach. McConaughey himself is an investor in ElevenLabs and has partnered with the AI startup to create a Spanish version of his newsletter. Está bien, está bien, está bien.
Amazon is making a Fallout competition reality TV show
Addiction! Radiation poisoning! Skeletal law enforcement?
AMAZON
The second season of Amazon’s excellent Fallout show is currently streaming, but the company is already looking to generate more revenue from its license to the well-regarded game series. Prime Video has greenlit an unscripted reality show titled Fallout Shelter. It will be a 10-episode run with Studio Lambert, the team behind reality projects including Squid Game: The Challenge and The Traitors.
X says Grok will no longer edit images of real people into bikinis
But image generation isn’t going anywhere.
Following numerous complaints and several state and national investigations, X is revising its policies on Grok’s image-editing capabilities. New safeguards will place Grok’s image-generating features behind X’s subscription offering, and it will geoblock all users’ ability to generate images of real people in… well, less clothing, in regions where it’s illegal.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta cited one analysis that found “more than half of the 20,000 images generated by xAI between Christmas and New Year depicted people in minimal clothing.” That’s been the primary use?
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/general/the-morning-after-engadget-newsletter-121506027.html?src=rss
Rocket Report: Ariane 64 to debut soon; India has a Falcon 9 clone too?
Welcome to Edition 8.25 of the Rocket Report! All eyes are on Florida this weekend as NASA rolls out the Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft to its launch site in Florida for the Artemis II mission. NASA has not announced a launch date yet, and this will depend in part on how well a “wet dress rehearsal” goes with fueling the rocket. However, it is likely the rocket has a no-earlier-than launch date of February 8. Our own Stephen Clark will be in Florida for the rollout on Saturday, so be sure and check back here for coverage.
As always, we welcome reader submissions, and if you don’t want to miss an issue, please subscribe using the box below (the form will not appear on AMP-enabled versions of the site). Each report will include information on small-, medium-, and heavy-lift rockets as well as a quick look ahead at the next three launches on the calendar.
MaiaSpace scores a major launch deal. The ArianeGroup subsidiary, created in 2022, has inked a major new launch contract with satellite operator Eutelsat, Le Monde reports. A significant portion of the 440 new satellites ordered by Eutelsat from Airbus to renew or expand its OneWeb constellation will be launched into orbit by the new Maia rocket. MaiaSpace previously signed two contracts: one with Exotrail for the launch of an orbital transfer, and the other for two satellites for the Toutatis mission, a defense system developed by U-Space.
You can now buy Ribble bikes with Skarper’s ebike conversion kit
Fresh from the announcement that Skarper’s ebike conversion kit is now available on Sonder’s gravel bike range, the British brand has announced five further partnerships, including one with Ribble.
Ribble will offer the Skarper kit online, either as a standalone product or ordered alongside any standard Ribble bike.
Skarper’s kits enable you to turn a non-assisted bike into an electric bike using a patented design to drive your bike’s rear wheel. The rotor stays on your bike, but the main unit clicks on and off in seconds, meaning it can be switched between bikes.
Ribble’s CEO, Sean Hastings, says: “We love the idea of Ribble riders being able to use their acoustic bike but have the flexibility of occasional electric assistance, without it being a permanent thing.
“The Skarper system complements our award-winning range of lightweight integrated ebikes, with the potential to bring a new lease of life to an existing bike and the benefit of being shareable across several bikes.”
Read more
Six brands on board, with the promise of more to come
As well as Sonder and Ribble, British-made titanium and steel specialist Enigma has teamed up with Skarper.
Scottish rugged frame and bike builder Shand is even incorporating the chainstay mount as a braze-on on its frames, replacing the standard band-on mount.
Fellow Scottish brand Tiger is offering the Skarper kit on its range of affordable aluminium bikes, including the value-packed junior mountain bike range and the forthcoming Gravel model.
One of Skarper’s founders, Andrew Wallis, has his own bike brand: Black Series, and will also be offering Skarper options across all models, including the world’s lightest production road bike.
Wallis says Skarper is in discussion with more bike brands, and there will be a continued focus for Skarper to make further inroads into the OEM (original equipment) market.
Skarper has also joined forces with ZyroFisher, one of the UK’s largest cycle distributors, expanding the potential network of bike shops to more than 3,000 across the UK and Europe.
Rim-brake option is coming
If you like the idea of Skarper’s ‘click-on, take off’ system but don’t have a disc-brake bike, Skarper has the answer coming soon.
A new rear hub designed for rim-brake wheels is in production, too. This enables the fitment of the Skarper disc (without disc braking surface) containing the Red Bull engineered planetary gearing. That makes the Skarper compatible with rim-brake bikes.
I like the idea of having a Skarper in conjunction with my disc-brake bike and getting a second setup (wheel and disc drive) to fit to one of my classic rim-brake road bikes, because a single Skarper unit can be used across multiple bikes.
Meta Is Shutting Down Its Quest For Business Program
Meta is shutting down its Quest for Business program in 2030, ending sales of commercial SKUs next month, and reducing existing subscriptions to $0/month.
Called Meta Horizon Managed Services since last year, the program was the latest iteration of the company’s official offering for businesses to adopt its headsets, including a business license, priority support, and mass device management (MDM).
It started as Oculus for Business, a $900 SKU of the original Oculus Rift launched in 2017. Enterprise SKUs of Oculus Go and Oculus Quest were also made available in this program, until it was replaced by Meta Quest for Business in late 2023, before being renamed to Meta Horizon Managed Services last year, a change which also made the program mandatory for enterprise use.
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Under the program, Quest headsets were sold at their regular consumer price plus a monthly subscription. There were two tiers of subscription available, Individual Mode for $15/month per headset or Shared Mode for $24/month per headset.
Individual Mode provisions the headset for one specific person, with their own Meta account, while Shared Mode shows a heavily streamlined system interface with only the apps remotely selected by the administrator available, and the settings are also pre-configured.
Administrators could manage headsets with Meta’s Admin Center, or existing enterprise user management platforms like Microsoft Intune, VMware Workspace ONE, and Ivanti UEM.
Meta Is Shutting Down Horizon Workrooms Next Month
Meta is shutting down its Horizon Workrooms VR meeting software on February 16, with no direct replacement for its online meetings functionality.
UploadVRDavid Heaney
From February 20, Meta says it will stop selling commercial SKUs of Quest headsets, stop taking new customers for the Horizon Managed Services subscription, and reduce the subscription price for existing customers to $0/month.
From January 4, 2030, four years from now, the program will be shut down, and the software will cease to function.
“On behalf of Meta, we thank you for your support and partnership”, the company tells the businesses that trusted it.
The news comes on the same week the company closed three of its acquired game studios, gutted another, stopped updates for its fitness service, canceled the sequel for Batman: Arkham Shadow, and announced the shutdown of Workrooms, all part of a wider move to shift spending from VR towards smart glasses.
Patches Positioned Ahead Of Linux 7.0 Cycle For Easy Custom Boot Logo In Place Of Tux
The Linux kernel patches talked about at the start of the year for more easily changing the boot logo of Tux are now queued into a “for-next” branch and thus expected to be submitted for the upcoming Linux 6.20~7.0 kernel cycle. Those wanting to replace the Tux icon with an alternative logo during the Linux kernel boot process could already patch the file manually but this new code allows for an easy replacement via Kconfig options…
OpenBLAS 0.3.31 Released With New Extensions, RISC-V & ARM64 Optimizations
For those looking for a speedy Basic Linear Algebra Subprograms “BLAS” library, OpenBLAS 0.3.31 is now available for this optimized open-source implementation…
Intel Releases Updated LLM-Scaler-vLLM With Continuing To Expand Its LLM Support
One of the initiatives launched by Intel in 2025 was LLM-Scaler as part of Project Battlematrix. The open-source LLM Scaler is a Docker-based solution for helping to deploy Generative AI “GenAI” workloads on Intel Battlemage graphics cards with frameworks like vLLM, ComfyUI, SGLang, and more. There continues to be routine new feature releases of LLM Scaler for broadening the large language models supported and other improvements…
Wild 0.8 Linker Adds SFrame Support, LoongArch64 & More Performance
Wild 0.8 is now available as this speedy linker focused on iterative development, a goal of incremental linking, and written in the Rust programming language…
Pinarello adds a drop handlebar to its XC hardtail to create ‘monster’ gravel bike
If you’ve paid attention to professional gravel racing in recent years, you’re probably aware that pro riders have taken to running drop handlebars on XC mountain bikes.
Now, Pinarello has fully embraced the trend, launching its new Grevil MX gravel bike at the Velofollies trade show in Belgium.
While this is an addition to the brand’s Grevil gravel range, Pinarello has gone one step further than combining gravel and cross-country tech. It says it has drawn from its road portfolio for this ‘monster’ gravel bike.
“The Grevil MX combines the aerodynamic efficiency of a road bike with the stability and control of an MTB, enabling it to excel on steep climbs, rugged trails, technical descents and long endurance routes without compromising responsiveness or stiffness on hardpack ground,” Pinarello says in its press release for the new bike.
The bike’s geometry takes the 67.75˚ head angle and 101mm trail of the Pinarello Dogma XC, but adds the Most Talon Ultra Light cockpit found on Pinarello’s top road bikes. This handlebar setup provides a “lower, more compact and faster position” than running a flat mountain bike bar.
The frame uses Toray’s ‘best-in-class’ carbon fibre and has a threaded bottom bracket. The BB area features the double-triangle design found on the Pinarello Dogma XC for added stiffness.
The rear triangle uses Pinarello’s asymmetrical design. The left-hand side is reinforced to counterbalance the forces produced on the driveside of the bike.
“This architecture creates more balanced energy transfer and improved traction and acceleration on loose or variable surfaces,” Pinarello says.
“The chainstays and seatstays have both been specifically shaped and reinforced to withstand the high torsional forces typical of aggressive gravel riding, steep off-road climbs and explosive accelerations.”
The bike can fit 50mm tyres for traction and comfort, and comfort is further aided by the 10mm suspension fork.
Elsewhere, the bike has a SRAM XX SL Eagle drivetrain with a 38-tooth aero chainring and a 10/52 cassette. Pinarello says these gear ratios provide better climbing ability than the gears you typically find on gravel bikes, while also improving on descents compared to mountain bikes.
A Pinarello spokesperson at Velofollies told BikeRadar that the Grevil MX can fit a rigid fork and that it has only made 50 of the bikes worldwide. Yet, future developments of the Grevil MX are already in the works.
More from Velofollies
Meta Is Shutting Down Horizon Workrooms Next Month
Meta is shutting down its Horizon Workrooms VR meeting software on February 16.
If you’re unaware, Workrooms is Meta’s collaborative productivity app for Quest headsets, first launched in 2021. Workrooms lets you view your PC monitor inside VR and share your screen with teammates as Meta Avatars in a virtual meeting room. People who don’t own a Quest can join via webcam through a web interface.
The app also has a solo Personal Office which gives you free extra monitors, effectively turning your laptop into a triple monitor setup.
Facebook Launches Horizon Workrooms To Power Remote Work
Facebook is moving to power remote work with a collaborative platform called Horizon Workrooms. The new service launches as an open beta testing release today free to use on the Web over video call or embodied in Oculus Quest 2, with the latter being the only entry point requiring a
UploadVRIan Hamilton
In summer 2024, Meta released an overhaul of Workrooms that streamlined the interface while removing major features, leading to significant backlash from users.
The update removed the virtual whiteboard in meeting rooms, a flagship feature of the app which the Touch Pro controllers were designed around, as well as all meeting room customization, the web-based text chat and file sharing system, and tracked keyboard support.
The main upside of the overhaul was its improvements to the solo Personal Office. But just over a year ago, Meta and Microsoft launched the official Windows 11 Remote Desktop feature for Quest’s Horizon OS, which also allows spawning virtual extra side monitors.
The official Windows 11 Remote Desktop feature runs as OS-level windows, meaning that it supports the seamless multitasking feature added to Horizon OS in 2024, letting you use your PC while inside any VR or mixed reality app.
Quest 3’s Windows 11 Remote Desktop Gets Aspect Ratio Setting & Ultrawide Mode
The official Windows 11 Remote Desktop of Horizon OS now has 21:9 and 3:4 aspect ratio options, as well as an enveloping visionOS-like Ultrawide Mode.
UploadVRDavid Heaney
Essentially, the Windows 11 integration fully supersedes the Personal Office of Workrooms. But what Meta isn’t providing a replacement for is the online multi-user meeting room functionality.
Meta officially recommends Workrooms users to switch to Arthur, Microsoft Teams Immersive, or any other virtual meetings software on the Horizon Store. An example we’d point out is Fluid, which has excellent reviews and a strong focus on sharing your screen with others in VR.
“From 16 February 2026, you will no longer be able to access Workrooms, and any data associated with Workrooms will be deleted”, Meta notes.
The news comes on the same week the company closed three of its acquired game studios, gutted another, stopped updates for its fitness service, and canceled the sequel for Batman: Arkham Shadow, a wider move to shift spending from VR towards smart glasses.
New Nukeproof Tracker is a bargain range of ‘kick-ass’ hardtails
Nukeproof has unveiled the new Tracker range of ‘kick-ass’ hardtail mountain bikes at an affordable price point.
Launched at the Velofollies trade show today, there are four bikes in the Tracker range, costing from £539 / €599 to £999 / €1,099.
Nukeproof says the Tracker name is inspired by the origins of off-road riding, when riders would modify ‘regular’ bikes with chunkier tyres and ‘cowhorn’ handlebars in a bid to improve performance and increase the fun they were having.
But the Tracker range is far removed from those bikes of the 60s and 70s. The hardtail frames use 6061-T6 aluminium, feature tapered head tubes and have clearance for 2.4in mountain bike tyres.
Elsewhere, they’re fitted with Nukeproof’s own saddles, but also Shimano disc brakes and drivetrains, and tubeless-ready rims. The frames can fit a dropper post and feature suspension forks with 100mm of travel, or 80mm on the extra-small frames.
Said to be “ideal first mountain bikes”, the Trackers also have practical details such as a removable seatstay bridge to fit mudguards. They also have rack mounts and a hidden kickstand mount. Nukeproof says this means the Trackers can “double up as everyday transportation”.
The bikes were developed in-house by the Nukeproof team, which was led by product manager Tom Bugler.
“The brief was brief: make a kick-ass range of affordable bikes that gives riders a great experience and introduces them to the Nukeproof brand,” says Bugler.
“This is a new price segment for us, but these bikes respect the heritage and quality that Nukeproof was built on, whilst opening the brand up to a new audience.”
Engineer Dale McMullen adds: “The frame design was inspired by our Scout hardcore hardtail, which has become a cult classic. We used similar geo with a relaxed head angle, tapered head tube optimised around the Tracker’s 100mm fork and a similar kink in the bottom of the seat tube for the increased tyre clearance.”
When Wiggle closed its doors in 2024, it was assumed that its house brands such as Nukeproof were destined to close, too.
However, Belgian Cycling Factory, which owns Ridley among other brands, bought Nukeproof in 2025.
In November, Nukeproof announced the release of its second-generation Reactor. The launch of the Reactor was limited, with only one carbon and one aluminium model, and it appeared to signal a cautious return from Nukeproof.
However, the new Tracker signals a more committed return for the once-troubled brand.
- You may like: 6 reasons why your next bike should be a hardtail
Nukeproof Tracker specifications
Nukeproof Tracker Sport
- Fork: Suntour XCE 28
- Drivetrain: Shimano Essa 1x 8-speed
- Wheels: Formula 6-bolt GR hubs on tubeless-ready rims
- Tyres: Kenda Booster 2.4in
- Brakes: Shimano MT200 hydraulic
- Price: £539 / €599
Nukeproof Tracker Race
- Fork: Suntour XCM 32 Lockout
- Drivetrain: Shimano Cues 1x 9-speed
- Wheels: Formula 6-bolt GR hubs on tubeless-ready rims
- Tyres: Kenda Booster 2.4in
- Brakes: Shimano MT200 hydraulic
- Price: £629 / €699
Nukeproof Tracker Comp
- Fork: RockShox Judy Coil
- Drivetrain: Shimano Cues 1x 10-speed
- Wheels: Formula 6-bolt GR hubs on tubeless-ready rims
- Tyres: Maxxis Rekon 2.4in EXO TR
- Brakes: Shimano MT200 hydraulic
- Price: £849 / €949
Nukeproof Tracker Pro
- Fork: RockShox Judy Air
- Drivetrain: Shimano Cues 1x 11-speed
- Wheels: Formula 6-bolt GR hubs on tubeless-ready rims
- Tyres: Maxxis Rekon 2.4in EXO TR
- Brakes: Shimano MT200 hydraulic
- Price: £999 / €1,099
‘Star Wars’ Boss Kathleen Kennedy Steps Down From Lucasfilm
After more than 13 years leading Lucasfilm, Kathleen Kennedy is stepping down. “When George Lucas asked me to take over Lucasfilm upon his retirement, I couldn’t have imagined what lay ahead,” said Kennedy. “It has been a true privilege to spend more than a decade working alongside the extraordinary talent at Lucasfilm.” The Associated Press reports: The Walt Disney Co. announced Thursday that it will now turn to Dave Filoni to steer “Star Wars,” as president and chief creative officer, into its sixth decade and beyond. Filoni, who served as the chief commercial officer of Lucasfilm, will inherit the mantle of one of the movies marquee franchises, alongside Lynwen Brennan, president and general manager of Lucasfilm’s businesses, who will serve as co-president.
Kennedy, Lucas’ handpicked successor, had presided over the ever-expanding science-fiction world of “Star Wars” since Disney acquired it in 2012. In announcing Thursday’s news, Bob Iger, chief executive officer of the Walt Disney Co. called her “a visionary filmmaker.” Kennedy oversaw a highly lucrative but often contentious period in “Star Wars” history that yielded a blockbuster trilogy and acclaimed streaming spinoffs such as “The Mandalorian” and “Andor,” yet found increasing frustration from longtime fans.
Under Kennedy’s stewardship, Lucasfilm amassed more than $5.6 billion in box office and helped establish Disney+ as a streaming destination — achievements that easily validated the $4.05 billion Disney plunked down for the company. But Kennedy also struggled to deliver the big-screen magic that Lucas captured in the original trilogy from the late 1970s and early 1980s, and her relationship with “Star Wars” loyalists became a saga of its own.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.