Microsoft also showed off new games from Double Fine and from Pokémon developer Game Freak
The post <i>Fable</i>, <i>Forza Horizon 6</i>, And More: Everything We Saw In The First Xbox Showcase Of 2026 appeared first on Kotaku.
Tiny Race Series – January 24 Routes – A Fresh Mix
See zwiftinsider.com/tiny for current Tiny Race details.
Lovecraftian Horror Dread Meridian Struggles With Combat
Dread Meridian is an H.P. Lovecraft-inspired survival horror with a moody atmosphere held back by janky combat at launch.
Scary scenes such as the ones vividly described in H.P. Lovecraft’s “At the Mountains of Madness” can leave readers in a disconcerting mood. Dread Meridian features all the elements of this winning formula, but technical drawbacks ultimately prove its undoing.
It all starts with the story as straightforward as can be. As Daniela, you begin your journey on a boat, narrating your missing sister’s letter indicating she went on a research expedition because of mysterious artifacts they found. A poster of a Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde movie can be seen on the walls of Dani’s room, as well as several books to interact with.
Her one-track mind allows for the game to explore narrative set pieces without much explanation as to why you are there other than to search for your sister. Eventually crashing into a frozen wasteland, a gorgeous aurora borealis lights up the night sky over what is otherwise hell on Earth.
Each of the game’s five chapters is short enough to be finished in about an hour or less. Showing varied environments like a seemingly abandoned research base, a cabin in the woods with a horrifying secret, and the infested cave where mutated monsters abound, the frantic search stays unpredictable throughout. Turns out messing with eldritch horrors beyond human comprehension can mess with researchers’ minds.
The levels are easy to understand for survival horror enthusiasts, with simple puzzles where the solutions can be logically solved or found close by. In that regard, Dread Meridian seems to do everything well, but the crux of the matter is how it plays, and that is where it squanders any goodwill thus far.
Comfort
Dread Meridian has two main preset comfort settings: Immersive and Comfortable. Immersive has smooth turning, faster rotation speed, and movement direction set to the controller. Comfortable features are snap turning, slower movements in general, and movement direction set to Head.
The motion overlay, or tunnel vision, is also a part of the mode. Everything can be customized in the settings. That said, even if you turn off the overlay, when climbing, it always seems to briefly activate. No dedicated seated or standing options are available, though there is a way to readjust height.
Wiggle Fest
A well-known term within VR communities that comes to mind when describing this game’s combat is a “wiggle fest.” While it is possible to use a gun, an SMG, and more firearms, these weapons are flimsy, not to mention the lack of ammo. That leads to only being able to use a knife, which, although extremely effective, has you hacking away at the air with no thought, praying you will defeat every monster without being damaged.
To have the enemy freeze in place at times is more hilarious than alarming. There are no difficulty settings, and the checkpoints are few and far between; this can easily lead to frustration. Being killed by an enemy cheap shot that is unpredictable to register after spending 15 minutes running around a research base is a tough pill to swallow.
How Does It Compare On Steam?
Dread Meridian looks crisp from Steam. While the environments are small and claustrophobic, every puzzle, rock texture, and poster is clear, and the enemies are even freakier to look at. On Quest, the game settled on an expected cartoony look, with textures overall looking muddier in all respects. No performance issues were noticed on either version.
My gaming laptop uses an AMD Ryzen 7 250 w/ Radeon 780M Graphics Processor, 24 GB DDR5-5600MT/s SODIMM, and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060 8 GB GDDR7. The comparison was conducted using a Meta Quest 3 via the Steam Link app.
There are hints of brilliance in Dani’s journey. When not struggling with the unwieldy combat, exploring the infested areas is quite unsettling. If Dread Meridian excels in something, it is that it is dripping with Lovecraftian atmosphere. Whispers are heard in Dani’s head telling her to complete a forbidden ritual; hallucinations of otherworldly landscapes assault her, and fleshy, grotesquely mutated corpses adorn the halls of every place you visit.
The abundant documents and voice recordings of the researchers’ descent into madness are as intriguing as they are eerie. It is honestly difficult to dismiss what is witnessed on-screen because there was clearly effort put into it, but the issues that creep up in the moment-to-moment gameplay cannot be ignored.
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An example of the flimsy combat when getting up close.
As a seasoned VR player, I seek lasting experiences that go beyond rolling credits. Great horror games have the potential to do that, especially late at night. Media based on H.P. Lovecraft’s work is among the most interesting due to its source material. Dread Meridian comes close to achieving this with its unnerving setting, but imprecise enemy hitboxes, punishing checkpoints, and buggy non-player character behavior ensure it becomes memorable, negatively. Down the line, with patches and the help of player feedback, perhaps it could arrive at the goal the developers had.
Editor’s Note: UploadVR is publishing this hands-on writeup based on advance access to Dread Meridian. We are making no immediate plan for a formal review or update to this article, though we’ll link to future coverage here if we are able.
10 Google Search Hacks Everyone Should Know
It’s not just you. Google Search has become significantly worse in recent years. In the past, you only had to watch out for low-quality content filled with SEO-bait keywords. Today, you have to be wary of AI-generated garbage, misinformation, and a generally worse UI. Still, it’s not impossible to find good search results on Google. I’ve found a number of tricks that have helped me reduce the number of low-quality entries Google returns for my searches. Here are 10 such tips everyone should know about before their next search:
Remove AI from results
Credit: Pranay Parab
I’m still annoyed by Google’s decision to slap AI right at the top of search results, and I make it a point to get rid of it every time I use a new browser or a new device. Doing this is much harder if you’re using the Google Search app, so stick to web browsers if you want to rid yourself of AI results. To that end, there are actually a few easy ways to remove AI from Google’s results. The quickest is to add -ai to your search queries and Google will remove AI results. Alternatively, you can try using the Hide Gemini browser extension.
Return Google search to 10 blue links
Google’s best days were when it showed a simple page with 10 blue links the moment you searched for anything. If you want to return to that simplicity, you can use the Web search filter in Google. Once you search for something on Google, click the More button below the search bar up top, and select Web. This will remove all the clutter from Google Search and return 10 webpages at a time. If you use Chrome, you can simply type “web” in the address bar to start a Web search.
I’ve also written about a browser extension called Lucky, which does the same thing in Safari for iPhone. Lucky is available at a one-time fee of $3, and, in my opinion, it’s well worth the price.
Search a particular domain
If you know the domain you want to visit, you can limit your search to that domain alone. For example, you could restrict results to .gov if you only want to look at official US government sites, or .fr if you only wish to search websites registered in France. Just add site:.gov (or any other domain of your choice) to your search queries, and you’ll find better results that way. It’s also useful if you want to restrict searches to .ac.uk or .edu sites, which are more education-focused.
Restrict results to one website
If you’ve found a trusted source that you like, such as Lifehacker, you can use Google to restrict your results only to that website. You can add site:lifehacker.com to your queries on Google, and it’ll only show you results from this website. Just replace the name of the site with whichever one you like. This method is often better than using that site’s internal search tools, too.
Look for specific file formats
When you’re looking for specific information, you may be better off searching for a particular file format. For instance, if you’re looking for scientific articles, you may have a better chance of finding a pdf file than a web result. In these cases, you can use the filetype:pdf filter to locate pdf files, and you can replace the file type to locate results in a different file format.
Google has easily accessible filters
If you’re finding significantly worse results using Google search, you can try to refine the results by using Google’s built-in filters. Just below the search bar, you’ll see a few tabs such as All, News, More, Tools, etc. Click through each of these to eliminate certain types of results. Specifically, the Tools tab lets you refine results by date, and even allows you to remove results for related search terms and focus only on exact matches.
Use Google’s Advanced Search
Credit: Pranay Parab
Sometimes, basic Google search tools just aren’t good enough to find what you need. This is particularly true when your search terms include words that are popular for other reasons. For instance, you’re searching “president,” but not the president of your country. This is where advanced search could help you remove unwanted results. You can go to the Google Advanced Search page and use all the filters there to find what you need. Each filter has a helpful description right next to it, which makes it easy to figure out what you’re doing.
Try reverse image search
Google also allows you to upload files and images to find results. Open Google search and click the + button in the search bar to upload a file or an image. You can attach a query to the image, and Google will help answer that question, or you can even look for images similar to the one you’ve uploaded. This can be useful if you want to detect fake profiles online, as scammers often steal profile photos from others to create a fake identity.
Use content blockers to hide unwanted results
If you can’t always be bothered with using various manual methods to hide all the junk from your Google Search results, consider using a content blocker to do so. My favorite has long been uBlock Origin, which is available on desktop and on mobile. It’ll remove all sponsored results, unwanted product listings, and most types of junk from your Google results.
Set your favorite websites as preferred sources
If you really like and trust certain websites, you should add those as preferred sources on Google. This will ensure that results from those sites are highlighted among search results and the Top Stories section in your search results. Google rolled this feature out in 2025, and it’s the most effective way to find information from higher quality websites. If you’d like, you can click this link to add Lifehacker as a preferred source.
How the Race Was Lost: ZRL Powerup Roulette on Countryside Tour
This week’s ZRL scratch race was the longest of Round 3, with A/B teams completing 3 laps of Makuri Islands’ Countryside Tour for a total of 47.8km with 556m of elevation.
There are two key features of this route – one I love, and one I hate:
- I love the finish, because it’s downhill and fast.
- I hate the Temple KOM. This dirty little 7-minute monster has been my nemesis in many races.
As it turned out, my real nemesis would be the Zwift gods and their capricious powerup assignments. Or the “powerup roulette,” as I’ve decided to label it today. Read on to see how my race unfolded…
Race Prep and Warmup
The days leading up to this race saw the usual team chat on Discord as we figured out who would be racing this week and how to attack the race most effectively as a team.
Our team would feature Captain Neil, Chris, Dylan, Andrew, Enrico, and me. Additionally, and perhaps most excitingly, this week we welcomed Sarah, Neil’s wife, to the virtual team car as our DS.
What was our strategy? Pretty simple, really:
- Don’t push the pace on the front during the Temple KOM, because the slower the pack moves on that climb, the better it is for us
- Push hard to hang onto the front group over the KOM
I made two slight modifications to my nutrition/supplement routine for this race. First, I chewed an extra piece of caffeine gum, which combined with my two lattes earlier in the day meant I had 300-400mg of go-go juice coursing through my veins. I wanted to see if I’d notice the difference.
Secondly, I stockpiled two SiS energy gels for the race, instead of the usual one, just to make sure I had plenty of carbs since it would be a longer effort.
After a short warmup, in which I observed my heart rate being nicely responsive to harder efforts (thanks, caffeine!), I joined my team at the start line. Let’s go!
Lap 1
We jumped out of the Yumezi start pen and quickly headed downhill. There were 70 riders in the pack, but that number would drop dramatically by the end of the long race, which we guessed would take over 75 minutes to complete.
Sarah did a lovely job of making sure we all knew the powerup situation as we rode through the flat farmlands at a fairly leisurely pace. Since we were getting feathers, draft boosts, or aero powerups at each arch (equal probability of each), it was smart to “burn” your powerup if you didn’t have a feather yet, so you could get a new powerup at the sprint arch and hopefully have a feather in your pocket heading into the key climb up the road.
So I did just that, using my draft boost so I could spin the roulette wheel of powerups at the green arch. And I got a feather! Excellent.
The pace picked up a bit after the sprint arch as we hit the slack climb up through Village Onsen and on to the fishing village. This ~4.5km lead-in to the Temple KOM wakes the legs up, but riders typically don’t push hard, because they know the big climb is just up the road.
Soon enough we were there, turning left off the tarmac and onto the dirt singletrack of the dreaded Temple KOM. The moment of truth.
I tried to stay positioned near the front of the group, in that magic spot where you get just a bit of draft without being so far back that gaps can open up and you get stranded in a chase group.
This climb breaks up into 4 sections for me:
- The first bit up through the Temple building
- The second bit up to where it flattens out at the first bridges
- The final climby stretch, with its steep, straight final pitch into the left hairpin
- The last bit, which is mostly flat and on wooden bridges
If I can survive to the end of the second section – to that first set of bridges – I find I can usually survive to the top.
To my surprise, I found myself able to hold position consistently as we climbed toward the mystical tree. I wasn’t even on the limit! (Not that it was easy, mind you. But we’ve all felt the difference between a hard push and a max effort. Sometimes it’s only a few watts… but that’s all it takes.)
Over the top of the Temple KOM, our group had shrunk from 70 to 42 riders. A long descent followed, during which I essentially soft-pedaled for 5 minutes, letting the legs recharge for the next go at the KOM.
The Countryside Tour loop breaks down into 4 distinct sections. Here are my times and power numbers on the first lap (pulled from Strava, so times and power have some margin for error, apart from the Temple KOM which is an actual segment):
- Flat Start: 234W (~8 minutes)
- Lead-In climb: 290W (~6.5 minutes)
- Temple KOM: 330W (6:28)
- Descent: 167W (~5 minutes)
- Full Lap: 258W (25:16)
Laps 2 and 3 would be remarkably similar. I’ll put those times below.
Lap 2
The second lap was, unsurprisingly, the chillest of the three. The big selection had already happened; it was clear nobody was chasing back on, and everyone wanted to save their legs for the third KOM.
My team had three riders in the front group: Enrico, Andrew, and myself. Dylan, Chris, and Neil were in groups behind. (Because we were hurting for riders, this was Neil’s second ZRL race of the day. So I was just impressed that he was alive!)
The second Temple KOM was the slowest of the three, which was fine with me, since I hadn’t managed to grab a feather despite my best efforts. I used my aero powerup on the first set of bridges, giving myself a bit of respite before the final push. And I survived the KOM a second time!
Sauce showed the second KOM had shrunk the peloton to 33 riders. As we chilled on the descent, I took the chance to survey the front group. We still had three riders, but unfortunately (and unsurprisingly) I saw our rivals, Team SEA, had 4 riders in the front pack. As far as I could tell, no other teams had 4 riders in front – but that’s also not easy to see with some jerseys looking like others in a churning group of 30+ riders.
The second lap’s numbers:
- Flat start: 211W (~8 minutes)
- Lead-In climb: 258W (~6.5 minutes)
- Temple KOM: 327W (6:34)
- Descent: 145W (~5 minutes)
- Full Lap: 235W (26:27)
Lap 3
In the flat start of the final lap, I sucked down my second SiS gel and tried to seriously entertain the idea that I could survive the final climb and be in contention for the win. My pessimistic side was saying this race would be like last week, where I got dropped on the final climb. But I knew I needed to think positively, and the first two climbs hadn’t pushed me to my limit, which was a great sign.
I also had a feather from the lap arch, so I was holding onto that for the KOM, and hoping I would land either a draft or aero at the top of the KOM for use on the fast, downhill finish.
Apart from one slight attack on the flats from SZR, we stayed gruppo compatto. Everyone else seemed nervous about the final KOM as well.
Soon enough, we were there. The pace was definitely a bit higher than the previous lap, but I had plenty of virtual gears to use and kept my cadence high, where it felt like I could make good power with the least effort. Enrico put in a bit of a dig with his feather powerup on the final push, and I sat in the wheels behind, once again pushing hard but not quite on the limit.
I’d made it! Honestly, I could hardly believe it. And while I was silently jumping for joy, as we went through the KOM arch, the Zwift gods rained on my parade by handing me a feather powerup for the final sprint.
The front group had shrunk to 20 riders. Enrico was still with me, but Andrew had been dropped on the final KOM. As I spun lightly on the descent, I tried to figure out the best plan of attack for the finish. Should I use my feather at all? When should I go?
I decided not to use the feather. I figured it was a toss-up: the feather would take away weight on the downhill, which would slow me down, but it would also make me a bit smaller (in terms of CdA), so I would be a bit more aero. (Note to self: I really should test the effect of feathers on downhill sprints…)
The descent gave me plenty of recovery, and I was feeling good as I dropped the hammer with 400 meters to go, entering the right hairpin with its steep downward drop. I had my head down, hammering in a seated sprint. Glancing up, I saw there were still a few riders ahead, and the finishing arch was just peaking out in the distance.
Keep pushing!
The aero helmets and draft vans were everywhere. I hammered with everything I had, but crossed the line in 7th.
The final lap, by the numbers:
- Flat start: 207W (~8 minutes)
- Lead-In climb: 256W (~6.5 minutes)
- Temple KOM: 335W (6:27)
- Descent: 168W (~5 minutes)
- Final Sprint: 813W for 20 seconds
- Full Lap: 260W (26:20)
Watch the Video
Results and Takeaways
COALITION Delusion finished the race in 4th place, and I was surprised to see Team SEA finish second, behind ZU4R Peacock. Nice work, all!
That means we’re sitting in 2nd place overall midway through Round 3:
Personally, I was both stoked and disappointed with this race. Stoked that I was able to hang with the front group to the finish, which was unexpected. But disappointed in how the powerup roulette worked out this time around.
I analyzed my race video afterward, trying to find a mistake I could blame on myself instead of being annoyed at the universe. Should I have used my feather in the finish? Should I have held onto an aero and tried to survive the final KOM without a powerup?
(Hindsight is 20/20, of course. Knowing what I know now, I would have held onto my aero powerup for the finish, because I could have survived the final KOM without the feather.)
Powerups don’t always play a huge role in Zwift races. But this week, they certainly did. In fact, every rider who finished ahead of me triggered either an aero or draft boost in the final sprint. (The two riders who magically glided past me without powerups over their heads in the final seconds? They triggered their aero powerups at the perfect time, so they would run out with a few seconds to go…)
The final moments of the sprint, as recorded by Zwift…
That’s frustrating. While I’m typically a fan of powerups – I like the strategic element they add – I don’t like it when they’re assigned randomly on a course where they affect the outcome so dramatically. (This is why Zwift Insider’s Tiny Races have always given the same powerups to all.)
But that’s bike racing for you, isn’t it? You know the rules going in, and you try to play it as smart as you can. But you can’t eliminate all the randomness. You can’t control every factor. Sometimes the odds work in your favor. Sometimes they don’t.
Hopefully, my airing of frustration doesn’t sound like me trying to cheapen my competitors’ results, as that’s not my intent at all. They played the game well and beat me, fair and square. (Plus, for all I know, some of them may have held onto a draft or aero powerup up the final KOM, like I should have. Respect to anyone who made that brave, 200-IQ move.)
We finished with our customary team photo, featuring DS Sarah, who did a mighty fine job:
What about you?
How did your race 3 go? Did you win at powerup roulette? Share below!
Fable Reboot Features ‘Seamless’ Open World And Is Launching This Fall
The upcoming Xbox RPG will feature a massive open world version of Albion for the first time
The post <i>Fable</i> Reboot Features ‘Seamless’ Open World And Is Launching This Fall appeared first on Kotaku.
Workday CEO Calls Narrative That AI is Killing Software ‘Overblown’
Workday CEO Carl Eschenbach on Thursday tried to ease worries that AI is destroying software business models. From a report: “It’s an overblown narrative, and it’s not true,” he told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, calling AI a tailwind and “absolutely not a headwind” for the company.
Software stocks have sold off in recent months on concerns that new AI tools will upend the sector and displace longstanding and recurring businesses that once fueled big profits. Workday shares lost 17% last year and have sunk another 15% since the start of 2026.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Forza Horizon 6 will hit Xbox Series X/S and PC on May 19
Forza Horizon 6 is taking the racing series to Japan for the first time, and now we know exactly when you’ll be able to hit the virtual streets of Tokyo. The game will arrive on Xbox Series X/S, PC and Xbox Cloud on May 19, with an early access period commencing on May 15. That lines up with earlier reports about the release date(s) after an in-game ad supposedly appeared in Forza Horizon 5. The upcoming title will hit PS5 later this year.
The standard edition of Forza Horizon 6 is expected to cost $70, though it will be on Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass. To jump in a few days early, you’ll need the premium edition (a deluxe edition will be available too).
Playground Games and co-developer Turn 10 Studios offered a first look at gameplay during Thursday’s Xbox Developer Direct showcase. You’ll start out by working through Horizon qualifiers in order to join the Horizon Festival racing circuit, then you’ll unlock faster cars and other goodies as you rise up through the ranks. In a few feature called Horizon Rush, you’ll take on obstacle courses.
Playground says this is the largest Forza Horizon game to date. This version of Tokyo, for instance, is said to be five times larger than any urban area the studio has built before and it has multiple districts. There are lots of rural areas in the game as well, and the environments are affected by seasonal changes. As has been the case in previous games, you’ll be able to explore the world as you wish, either solo or with your friends.
There will be more than 550 cars available at the jump, and you’ll be able to apply liveries to their windows. Each player house has a customizable garage. You can build up a part of the world called The Estate as you see fit and your friends can visit to see what you’ve made (building will be available in multiplayer for the first time in the series too). There are also new open-world car meets where you can show off your whips, buy copies of other players’ rides and download more songs.
Playground is including all of the accessibility features from previous games. It’s adding new ones as well, such as a customizable high-contrast mode and an autodrive option.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/xbox/forza-horizon-6-will-hit-xbox-series-xs-and-pc-on-may-19-183242726.html?src=rss
An AI pin is beneath Apple
So it’s come to this: Apple is reportedly working on a wearable AI pin. According to The Information, it is going to be a small device with “multiple cameras, a speaker, microphones and wireless charging.” It sounds like the perfect gadget to pair with the long-awaited AI-powered Siri update, which will also reportedly work as a chatbot. But while many Apple rumors conjure up an air of excitement, the notion of an Apple AI pin sounds downright baffling. Worse, it just seems desperate.
Apple, the company known for taking its time to jump into new categories with more thoughtful solutions than its competitors, is reportedly chasing the specter of OpenAI’s unreleased AI pin. Never mind that OpenAI has never actually produced any hardware, and that it arguably stumbled into its position as a leading AI player. And never mind that Humane’s AI pin was a notorious failure that barely worked, and seemed pointless from the start.
Sure, Apple doesn’t want more AI eggs on its face, after the delay of its Siri revamp and the underwhelming (and error-prone) debut of Apple Intelligence. Beyond OpenAI, there’s also competition from Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses, which lean heavily on the company’s AI. There’s also the looming threat of whatever AI hardware Meta is cooking up next, following the layoffs from its virtual reality division. And while Google doesn’t have much to show from its Android XR platform, which aims to bring its Gemini AI to your face, Samsung’s Galaxy XR is a start. We’ve also recently seen compelling demos of Google’s AR glasses prototypes and Xreal’s Project Aura glasses.
If Apple’s AI pin serves as a conduit to Siri, is it really that much more convenient than using an iPhone, AirPods or even an Apple Watch to do the same? The company has reportedly nixed plans to put cameras in the Apple Watch, and Bloomberg suggests it’s opting instead to focus on delivering its own smart glasses this year. But it’s not hard to imagine that faster hardware could let the Apple Watch handle more Siri and AI-related tasks on its own. It’s already a fairly self-sufficient device, allowing you to ask basic Siri queries, run apps and listen to music without an iPhone — the cellular models are even more capable since they can take calls and send messages.
Rumors also point to infrared cameras coming to the next AirPods and AirPod Pros. Instead of taking photos, they could enable hand gestures and environmental awareness, which might be useful for Apple Intelligence down the line. The addition of heart rate tracking in the AirPods Pro 3 shows that there are still new features Apple can bring to its buds, beyond listening to music.
At best, an Apple AI pin could just be a simple way for someone to access Siri if they don’t want to wear an Apple Watch, plug in AirPods or have their iPhone within shouting distance. But at least those devices do other things beyond talking to Siri. The same is true for Meta’s Ray-Bans and future smart glasses. Even without accessing AI, they’ll still let you listen to music, take calls and, well, be glasses for those who need prescription frames.
Given the vocal pushback against Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses, which are also being banned on cruises, clubs and other venues, I’m also not convinced many people would be eager to prominently display a surveillance device throughout the day. Wired’s Julian Chokkattu was questioned about wearing a camera while he was testing the Humane AI Pin, and I’ve also had to explain to curious people why I was wearing Xreal’s smart glasses, which feature a prominent camera accessory.
Sure, we’re already living in a panopticon of smartphone cameras, but it’s also obvious when someone is using their phone to capture photos and video. An AI pin just dangling off of your clothes is a constant threat, an unblinking eye. Even if Apple implements some sort of capture notification, someone will always try to circumvent it.
While The Information notes Apple’s AI pin may never actually see the light of day, I wouldn’t be surprised if it does. This is the company that partnered with OpenAI just to make Siri appear slightly smarter with the debut of Apple Intelligence. And instead of building its own home-brewed AI models, it’s banking on Google’s Gemini to power Siri’s big AI upgrade, as well as its future foundation models. When it comes to AI, Apple will do almost anything to avoid being seen as a straggler (and to avoid even more stock declines).
It’s genuinely strange that Apple, the company that let Samsung and Google get a multi-year head start on foldable smartphones and hasn’t yet jumped into the world of smart rings, could fast-track an AI pin for 2027. It’s yet another example of how the AI hype cycle has warped priorities throughout the tech industry. But at least Apple’s fortunes don’t depend on standalone AI hardware as much as OpenAI.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/an-ai-pin-is-beneath-apple-182744647.html?src=rss
Golden Gloves VR Debuts As Scrappy Contender On Quest Headsets
Golden Gloves VR is available now in full release on Meta Quest after a lengthy early access period.
I jumped into Golden Gloves VR and, while it’s still pretty spare graphically, there are some good ideas here about virtual fitness and boxing. I saw three gym maps to train alone or in multiplayer sessions. When you start, you teleport into a gym map where you can find access to Career Mode challenges, training bags and minigames.
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Various moments in Golden Gloves VR’s Career Mode.
The gym’s training bags are realistically responsive to punching. Training stations range from speed bags to various hanging bags and other targets. There is also an arcade machine that gives access to a Space Invaders-style game where you practice boxing form, shooting glove-shaped bullets at enemies.
I spent my time in the game’s Career Mode where I fought AI boxers increasing in difficulty every time I won a match. I initially found the fighting to be too easy, but was quickly surprised when the difficulty began to ramp up as the enemy got smarter. Smarter boxers timed their moves better to counter my swings. Their increased skill highlighted areas of my body I failed to defend in a fight, often dealing damage to my blind spots and revealing areas of improvement in reflexes and strategy.
Golden Gloves VR has an impressive set of training equipment in its gyms. Training bags can be used either within VR or with passthrough mode. In passthrough mode, equipment can be placed around your room to train while being able to see your physical surroundings.
Despite the good fighting experience, the graphics are extremely plain. Lighting overall isn’t set up well and there’s a lot that could be done to add more mood and immersion. Still, there’s good equipment and plenty here to get good cardio.
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Various training equipment in Golden Gloves VR
Golden Gloves VR is available now on Quest headsets with developers boasting that it is the “official esports platform for USA Boxing” built from “real input from boxers and coaches.” The full official launch of Golden Gloves VR includes an optional Esports USA Boxing membership.
UploadVR will keep an eye on this project as it continues to develop past full release for further updates.
Intel Arrow Lake Refresh Arrives Soon As ASUS Pushes BIOS Support For These Motherboards
There were a number of new products that we expected to hear about at CES, including the much-rumored Ryzen 9 9950X3D2, NVIDIA’s N1X SoCs, and the next Intel Arc GPU release. None of those came, but perhaps the most surprising omission was Intel’s Arrow Lake Refresh series—a fresh set of CPUs for the LGA 1851 platform, and likely to be the
Your Arm-Based Windows Laptop Is Now An Xbox With Microsoft’s PC App Launch
Microsoft is doubling down in a big way with Windows on Arm devices. Now, all Windows 11 machines running running Arm-based silicon, like Qualcomm’s forthcoming Snapdragon X2 Elite platform, have support for Xbox Game Pass, with “more than 85%” of the Game Pass catalog claimed to run well. Anti-cheat support x86/x64 emulation is also well
Korg’s new experimental synthesizer combines acoustic sounds with electronic control
Korg just officially unveiled the Phase8 synthesizer, after years of tinkering by a team led by legendary engineer Tatsuya Takahashi. This is a highly experimental synthesizer, but it’s not a concept unit. It’ll be available for purchase in April.
The Phase8 uses a new form of “acoustic synthesis” that combines acoustic sound generation with electronic control. Takahashi says the synthesizer is “beyond analog vs. digital” and “beyond electronics” altogether. It features chromatically tuned steel resonators, which creates an acoustic sound similar to that of a kalimba. These signals can be manipulated via onboard effects and sequenced like a traditional synthesizer. Here’s a video of the synth in action.
Players can mess with the resonators just like they would a guitar string or a piano key. Korg recommends that users physically touch, pluck, strum and tap the resonators to create new textures and tones. The company even suggests that people actually put objects on top of each resonator for additional experimentation. There’s a slider that boots or dampens the acoustic response.
As for the electronics, the Phase8 boasts dedicated envelopes and velocity control for each resonator and there’s a polymetric step sequencer. The sequences can be stored and recalled via eight memory slots. All controls can be automated across a sequence. There are a handful of modulation effects, including tremolo and pitch-shift.
It features modern connectivity options, including MIDI in/out via 3.5mm, USB MIDI, a standard ¼-inch audio out and a headphone jack, among other options. Preorders are open right now, but hold on to your jaw. This thing costs $1,150.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/audio/korgs-new-experimental-synthesizer-combines-acoustic-sounds-with-electronic-control-180809332.html?src=rss
Schools, Airports, High-Rise Towers: Architects Urged To Get ‘Bamboo-Ready’
An anonymous reader shares a report: An airport made of bamboo? A tower reaching 20 metres high? For many years, bamboo has been mostly known as the favourite food of giant pandas, but a group of engineers say it’s time we took it seriously as a building material, too.
This week the Institution of Structural Engineers called for architects to be “bamboo-ready” as they published a manual for designing permanent buildings made of the material, in an effort to encourage low-carbon construction and position bamboo as a proper alternative to steel and concrete.
Bamboo has already been used for a number of boundary-pushing projects around the world. At Terminal 2 of Kempegowda international airport in Bengaluru, India, bamboo tubes make up the ceiling and pillars. The Ninghai bamboo tower in north-east China, which is more than 20 metres tall, is claimed to be the world’s first high-rise building made using engineered bamboo.
At the Green School in Bali, a bamboo-made arc serves as the gymnasium and a striking example of how the material is reshaping sustainable architecture. The use of composite bamboo shear walls have proved to be resilient against earthquakes and extreme weather in countries such as Colombia and the Philippines, where sustainable, disaster-resilient housing has been built with locally sourced materials.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Salmon Man Review: Paddling Up The River Against Extreme Frustration
Your justification for starting as a salmon man in a barrel is that you are trying to get up the waterfall. This is, of course, something actual salmon do. So it follows from developer Valem Studio that it is something a salmon man in VR should do too.
Salmon Man blends genuine fun and desire to keep going with the gut-wrenching pain of a tiny mistake ruthlessly chopping away at swathes of progress in a helpless instant. Paddle locomotion, it seems, has a frustrating charm almost tailored for the viral Internet landscape of modern gaming. Getting Over It With Bennett Foddy took over the gaming zeitgeist from its release in late 2017 on Steam and its inspirations here aren’t subtle. You can play the same basic style of game in your browser right now, or take a look at what this idea is like in the trailer below.
As you’re not walking around each level yourself, you traverse by way of boat paddle, using it to push yourself from the ground and latch yourself from place to place across increasingly death-defying obstacles.
Far from the first game to take this style of game to the format, Salmon Man finds a thematic way to justify its concept and embed it into the core gameplay loop of this rage-inducing platformer. With the minimal introduction of simply being the titular Salmon Man in a barrel, you’re dropped into the beginning and left to your own devices to get through the perilous journey ahead. That’s a rough way to start what is a challenging game and not very accessible.
What gives Salmon Man additional depth and difficulty is the jump to 3D for this genre. It creates a new layer of depth to the formula as you aren’t solely trying to use momentum and physics to get to the next platform, you instead push yourself off side walls and use the full space to get that extra bit of distance. It increases the flair and excitement of each bit of progress, but it makes things somehow more challenging, never mind the steep learning curve for these controls. As you physically move a full rod through your hands in order to grasp onto platforms at your side, behind or in front, lightning-fast reactions are necessary to get by even some of the earlier obstacles, while later ones pose even more of a threat.
The Facts
What is it?: A physics-based 3D platformer
Platforms: Steam, Meta Quest 2/3/3S (played on Quest 3)
Release Date: 22nd Jan 2026
Developer: Valem Studio
Publisher: Valem Studio
Price: $6.99
It’s rewarding to make it through to a new section, especially knowing there’s always a risk of losing more than a little bit of progress if you hit the water as you helplessly flow with the current. Yet that risk also brings with it a degree of frustration that steps beyond the awkward, challenging charm one would expect from these games. Even after clearing the game the first time and facing numerous setbacks, I never found myself fully accustomed to the shape of the paddle that serves as your way of movement and projection through the environment. It never impeded the game to the point of making me want to quit, but there were occasions where the punishing loss of progress didn’t feel like my fault, or times where it sometimes seemed more useful to wave my arms aimlessly and hope for the best rather than logically try the correct method and hope I could execute it.
Comfort
There are some adjustments that can be made to the game to increase comfort. With the game relying on a handheld paddle for movement, you can choose between left- or right-handed controls. Additionally, snap camera turns and the option to reduce haptic feedback are also available.
Recommend having a strong degree of comfort with simulated motion in VR gaming. Even as someone with a lot of comfort in the medium and who never feels sick when playing, I at times could feel a little uncomfortable being flung around constantly in search of that next platform.
I also found the lack of any external narration, dialogue or secondary recognition of your progress to be a notable absence. This is a developer choice and far from necessary, sure, but one that can make the journey feel a little lonely and lacking a bit of character and charm. Beyond a few tinges of music in themed areas (pirate music near the wrecked ship, for example), I found myself even hoping I could hear one of those dreaded, all-too-common sarcastic self-quips from a player character cracking awkward jokes, just to break the silence.
If you do clear the game, a lava difficulty replaces water with lava ensuring a forced restart for failure. That wasn’t for me. With the noted lack of comfort to the controls, I can only imagine any mistake would be exacerbated when attempting the latter areas in particular in this mode. I experimented with some early sequences and the first death left me satisfied with the fact I did, at least, clear it once in the normal way.
That being said, even if, like me, a lava-infused playthrough isn’t your speed, there’s still plenty to keep you coming back beyond the initial challenge. Standard route through the game seems a bit too simple? Why not see if you can jump off the main path to more off-beat areas to find an array of hidden rubber ducks! The initial clear isn’t enough? There are achievements with in-game rewards and, if you want to brag, there’s a leaderboard for time trials where you can compete with other players for the best time. You can lose 45 minutes or an hour trying to make progress without even realizing, or keep retrying to get the best time possible. Hidden under the surface is a surprising amount of stuff to get to, but it’s not perfect.
Salmon Man – The Final Verdict
Salmon Man is a worthwhile use of your time if you’re in the market for this sort of game. It’s somewhat ironic to say this as a games reviewer, but more than most titles, you can tell at a glance whether this is for you. Did you enjoy Getting Over It? Can you handle a turbulent VR experience? Do you want to combine those ideas? This is for you. If not, perhaps it’s ok to give this game a miss. If you do give it a go though, there’s a good degree of value and fun to be had here.
UploadVR uses a 5-Star rating system for our game reviews – you can read a breakdown of each star rating in our review guidelines.
Debian’s FreedomBox Blend promises an easier home cloud
There are other home server, NAS, and media-streaming distros, but this aspires to much moreHands On Want to get off someone else’s cloud, especially if it’s hosted in a country you don’t trust? FreedomBox is an off-ramp, and it’s included in Debian in the form of a Blend.…
Yakuza 3 Remake Ugly Alleyway Has Fans Concerned
It seems like a technical issue is causing the spot to look bad and a modder may have already fixed it
The post <i>Yakuza 3</i> Remake Ugly Alleyway Has Fans Concerned appeared first on Kotaku.
Where to Stream Every Nominated Movie Before the 2026 Oscars
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It’s Oscar season! By which I mean, it’s that time of year when movie dorks are in a rush to catch up on as many Oscar-nominated films as is feasible before the awards ceremony kicks off—which, this year, will be on March 15 on ABC. If box office and streaming numbers are any indication, there’s a good chance you’ve seen this year’s nominations front-runner, Sinners, which didn’t just receive the most nominations in 2026, but received the most nominations ever (can’t say I’m mad about it), but the second-most nominated movie of the year, Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another, is also readily available.
Unfortunately, you can’t yet easily stream major nominees like Marty Supreme, Hamnet, and The Secret Agent, which are still making the rounds in theaters. It’s also too early to stream the likes of Sirât, The Voice of Hind Rajab, Kohuko, Viva Verdi!, Arco, Zootopia 2, and Avatar: Fire and Ash, though there’s a good chance that will change before the first envelopes are torn open. I’ll continue to update this article as more movies drop on digital platforms. Unless your a hardcore cinema-goer, you should have plenty to occupy your eyeballs until then.
Sinners
16 Nominations for: Best Picture, Actor (Michael B. Jordan), Supporting Actor (Delroy Lindo), Actress (Wunmi Mosako), Directing (Ryan Coogler), Original Screenplay, Original Song (“I Lied to You”), Original Score, Casting, Cinematography, Film Editing, Makeup and Hairstyling, Costume Design, Production Design, Sound, Visual Effects
Ryan Coogler’s Sinners didn’t just do pretty well with the nominations—it did historically well. The previous record has stood at 14 since 1950, when All About Eve deservedly won the night. Titanic and La La Land matched that number, but it’s never been beaten until now (the addition of the new Best Casting category helping matters just a bit). Nominations aren’t trophies—La La Land didn’t wind up winning the actual Best Picture prize—but it’s still a notable achievement.
It’s also an Oscar rarity in another sense: Sinners is one of a very small handful of horror movies to be nominated for Best Picture and may well be only the second (after Silence of the Lambs) to win. Stream Sinners on HBO Max and Prime Video.
One Battle After Another
13 Nominations for: Best Picture, Actor (Leonardo DiCaprio), Supporting Actor (Benicio Del Toro and Sean Penn), Supporting Actress (Teyana Taylor), Director (Paul Thomas Anderson), Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, Editing, Original Score, Production Design, Sound, Casting
Paul Thomas Anderson, you will always be famous where Oscar is concerned. The director’s dark comedy/action thriller earned a very impressive 13 nominations, including a Best Actor nod for Leonardo DiCaprio and supporting nominations for Teyana Taylor and Benicio Del Toro. Stream one Battle After Another on HBO Max.
Frankenstein
9 Nominations for: Best Picture, Supporting Actor (Jacob Elordi), Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, Costume Design, Makeup and Hairstyling, Original Score, Production Design, Sound
Perpetual Oscar fave Guillermo del Toro’s long-gestating Frankenstein adaptation finally made it to theaters (albeit briefly—it’s mostly a Netflix thing) this year, and the result was worth the wait. Sumptuous and appropriately horrifying, the director did Mary Shelley proud, and the film earned a very respectable nine nominations along the way. The all-time number of Frankenstein movies runs into the hundreds, but I’m pretty sure that this is the first one to get any significant Oscar love. Stream Frankenstein on Netflix.
Sentimental Value
9 nominations for: Best Picture, Actress (Renate Reinsve), Supporting Actor (Stellan Skarsgård), Supporting Actress (Elle Fanning), Supporting Actress (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas), Director (Joachim Trier), Original Screenplay, International Film, Editing
This Norwegian import from director Joachim Trier (The Worst Person in the World, which also starred Best Actress nominee Renate Reinsve) managed to pick up nominations in both the International Film and overall Best Picture categories. It’s probably a long shot for the latter, but has a solid shot at the former. (Between this and Predator: Badlands, Elle Fanning had a great 2025.) Rent Sentimental Value from Prime Video.
Bugonia
4 Nominations for: Best Picture, Actress (Emma Stone), Adapted Screenplay, Original Score
This is the fifth Yorgos Lanthimos film to receive Oscar nominations in major categories, and the third that’s up for Best Picture, following Poor Things a few years back, but the acclaimed, idiosyncratic director has yet to claim a trophy of his own. Stream Bugonia on Peacock.
F1: The Movie
4 Nominations for: Best Picture, Editing, Sound, Visual Effects
Heeeey it’s that Apple movie that I saw a million ads for (Brad Pitt: The Movie”) that’s apparently pretty good? I don’t know, I’m not a car guy. But director Joseph Kosinski (Top Gun: Maverick) sure knows how to film things going fast. Stream F1: The Movie on Apple TV+
Train Dreams
4 Nominations for: Best Picture, Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, Original Song (“Train Dreams”)
Clint Bentley’s historical drama is slow, absolutely, but in a modern cinema landscape of constant distraction and over-explanation, its contemplative beauty feels revolutionary. Stream Train Dreams on Netflix.
KPop Demon Hunters
2 Nominations for: Original Song (“Golden”), Animated Film
I’d have put this one up for the overall Best Picture trophy as well, but that’s just me. Pure joy, and very likely to take home both of these awards (if “Golden” loses Best Original Song, the pre-teen set is likely to riot). Stream KPop Demon Hunters on Netflix.
Blue Moon
2 Nominations for: Actor (Ethan Hawke), Original Screenplay
Besties Richard Linklater and Ethan Hawke reunited to tell the story of Broadway lyricist Lorenz Hart on the opening night of Oklahoma!. It sounds like a real niche movie, but it is well worth seeking out—Hawke is definitely a stealth contender for Best Actor. Rent Blue Moon from Prime Video.
It Was Just an Accident
2 Nominations for: Original Screenplay, International Film
A group of Iranian political prisoners, now free, must decide whether and in what way to take revenge in this film, which won the Palme d’Or at Cannes last year but missed out on a Best Picture nomination. Rent It Was Just an Accident from Prime Video.
If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
Nomination for: Actress (Rose Byrne)
Rose Byrne picks up a nomination for her role as a mother who’s going through it. (I’ve heard this one called “the Uncut Gems of parenting movies.”) Rent If I Had Legs I’d Kick You from Prime Video.
Weapons
Nomination for: Supporting Actress (Amy Madigan)
Was there any more memorable screen presence in 2025 than Aunt Gladys? No, there was not—even before that scene where…what happened to her…happened. Stream Weapons on HBO Max.
Elio
Nomination for: Animated Film
This might not be Pixar’s best-reviewed film, but the story of a kid who becomes an inadvertent alien ambassador is pretty darn charming, nonetheless. Stream Elio on Disney+.
Song Sung Blue
Nomination for: Actress (Kate Hudson)
The premise, dealing with the real-life, occasionally tragic story of a Neil Diamond tribute band, sounds like something I made up. But it’s real, and also an Oscar nominee! It’s great to see Hudson back in the spotlight a quarter-century after her breakout turn in Almost Famous. Rent Song Sung Blue from Prime Video.
Jurassic World Rebirth
Nomination for: Visual Effects
The dinosaurs are back, and this time they’re chasing Jonathan Bailey, Scarlett Johansson, and Mahershala Ali. Stream Jurassic World Rebirth on Peacock.
Diane Warren: Relentless
Nomination for: Original Song (“Dear Me”)
This will be Diane Warren’s 17th Original Song Oscar nomination and who knows maybe her first win? Stiff competition this year, though. (It’s gonna be gonna be “Golden,” right?) Rent Diane Warren: Relentless from Prime Video.
The Alabama Solution
Nomination for: Documentary Film
The filmmakers spent six years documenting abuse and murder within the Alabama prison system from the perspective of the incarcerated individuals, leading a movement for change. Stream The Alabama Solution on HBO Max.
The Lost Bus
Nomination for: Visual Effects
Matthew McConaughey and America Ferrera rush to save kids during the deadliest fire in California history in this true-ish story, which picked up a nod for it’s too-real disaster effects. Stream The Lost Bus on Apple TV+.
Come See Me in the Good Light
Nomination for: Documentary Film
The story of queer American poet and activist Andrea Gibson, in their own words. Stream Come See Me in the Good Light on Apple TV+.
The Ugly Stepsister
Nomination for: Makeup and Hairstyling
All in all, not a bad year for scary movies at the Oscars, with this impressive bit of body horror getting a surprise nod. Stream The Ugly Stepsister on Hulu.
Grok generated an estimated 3 million sexualized images — including 23,000 of children — over 11 days
We already knew xAI’s Grok was barraging X with nonconsensual sexual images of real people. But now there are some numbers to put things in perspective. Over an 11-day period, Grok generated an estimated 3 million sexualized images — including an estimated 23,000 of children.
Put another way, Grok generated an estimated 190 sexualized images per minute during that 11-day period. Among those, it made a sexualized image of children once every 41 seconds.
On Thursday, the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) published its findings. The British nonprofit based its findings on a random sample of 20,000 Grok images from December 29 to January 9. The CCDH then extrapolated a broader estimate based on the 4.6 million images Grok generated during that period.
The research defined sexualized images as those with “photorealistic depictions of a person in sexual positions, angles, or situations; a person in underwear, swimwear or similarly revealing clothing; or imagery depicting sexual fluids.” The CCDH didn’t take image prompts into account, so the estimate doesn’t differentiate between nonconsensual sexualized versions of real photos and those generated exclusively from a text prompt.
The CCDH used an AI tool to identify the proportion of the sampled images that were sexualized. That may warrant some degree of caution in the findings. However, I’m told that many third-party analytics services for X have reliable data because they use the platform’s API.
On January 9, xAI restricted Grok’s ability to edit existing images to paid users. (That didn’t solve the problem; it merely turned it into a premium feature.) Five days later, X restricted Grok’s ability to digitally undress real people.
Anna Moneymaker via Getty Images
But that restriction only applied to X; the standalone Grok app reportedly continues to generate these images. Since Apple and Google host the apps — which their policies explicitly prohibit — you might expect them to remove them from their stores. Well, in that case, you’d be wrong.
So far, Tim Cook’s Apple and Sundar Pichai’s Google haven’t removed Grok from their stores — unlike similar “nudifying” apps from other developers. The companies also didn’t take any action on X while it was producing the images. That’s despite 28 women’s groups (and other progressive advocacy nonprofits) publishing an open letter calling on the companies to act.
The companies haven’t replied to multiple requests for comment from Engadget. To my knowledge, they haven’t acknowledged the issue publicly in any format, nor have they responded to questions from other media outlets.
Apple / Google
The research’s findings on sexualized images included numerous outputs of people wearing transparent bikinis or micro-bikinis. The CCDH referred to one of a “uniformed healthcare worker with white fluids visible between her spread legs.” Others included women wearing only dental floss, Saran Wrap or transparent tape. One depicted Ebba Busch, Sweden’s Deputy Prime Minister, “wearing a bikini with white fluid on her head.”
Other public figures were part of that group. They include Selena Gomez, Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish, Ariana Grande, Ice Spice, Nicki Minaj, Christina Hendricks, Millie Bobby Brown and Kamala Harris.
Examples of children include someone using Grok to edit a child’s “before-school selfie” into an image of her in a bikini. Another image depicted “six young girls wearing micro bikinis.” The CCDH said that, as of January 15, both of these posts were still live on X.
In total, 29 percent of the sexualized images of children identified in the sample were still accessible on X as of January 15. The research found that even after posts were removed, the images remained accessible via their direct URLs.
You can read the CCDH’s report for more details on the results and methodology. We’ll update this story if we receive a reply from Apple or Google.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/grok-generated-an-estimated-3-million-sexualized-images–including-23000-of-children–over-11-days-175053250.html?src=rss
Blue Origin makes impressive strides with reuse—next launch will refly booster
Blue Origin confirmed Thursday that the next launch of its New Glenn rocket will carry a large communications satellite into low-Earth orbit for AST SpaceMobile.
The rocket will launch the next-generation Block 2 BlueBird satellite “no earlier than late February” from Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
However, the update from Blue Origin appears to have buried the real news toward the end: “The mission follows the successful NG-2 mission, which included the landing of the ‘Never Tell Me The Odds’ booster. The same booster is being refurbished to power NG-3,” the company said.