After half a decade of waiting, Microsoft finally offered an extended preview of its long-awaited reboot of the beloved Fable RPG franchise on Thursday. During the company’s recent Developer Direct showcase, Playground Games, best known for its works on the Forza Horizon series, shared nearly 11 minutes of gameplay footage and commentary related to the upcoming title. The new game will feature a fully open world for players to explore, with locations from previous Fable games like Bowerstone making a return.

Playground didn’t say exactly where the new game takes place in the Fable timeline. If you played 2010’s Fable 3, you may recall there was a time gap between each of the original games, with the final Lionhead entry giving players the chance to explore a version of Albion that’s been thrown into the tumult of an industrial revolution. This new game appears to offer a more traditional Medieval fantasy setting.

From what little Playground shared of the story, the player character is the first hero born in Albion in a generation. Like previous Fable games, their story will begin when they’re a child. They’ll leave their home of Briar Hill after a “mysterious stranger” turns all the inhabitants into stone. Before you set off on your adventure, you’ll be able to decide what your hero looks like, with customization including options for different skin tones, head shapes, tattoos and scars.

All pretty standard stuff, and combat doesn’t look groundbreaking. Your character can use a combination of melee and ranged weapons, alongside magic, to defeat their foes. In addition to a health bar, enemies appear to have a posture meter players can break through both light and heavy attacks, before carrying out “stylish” finishers. Judging from the footage Playground shared, combat doesn’t quite have the kinetic feel of say a FromSoftware title.

Thankfully, there’s more to the game than just fighting monsters. Like past Fable games, players can ask villagers out on dates, before eventually marrying them and having children, and you’re not limited to a monogamous relationship. It looks like Playground built a modern polycule simulator. Beyond that, you can also purchase every house and business in Albion. The game’s NPCs will develop an opinion of your hero and their actions. Say you evict an artist that lived in one of the houses you bought, you can later meet them on the street and they’ll tell you to your face that you’re awful. Wonderful stuff.

From a technical perspective, the footage Playground showed off looked on the rough side. The game’s frame rate and frame pacing wasn’t smooth, and I’m pretty sure I saw ghosting in some of the animations. Hopefully the studio has enough time between now and when the game is finally released sometime this autumn to polish the presentation. When the game does arrive, it will be available on Xbox Series X/S, PC via Xbox and Steam, PlayStation 5 and Game Pass Ultimate.

Microsoft first announced a new Fable game was in development back in 2020. It then went three years before sharing a preview of the title, which was originally slated to arrive in 2025 before it was delayed to this year last February.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/fable-will-let-you-be-a-heartless-landlord-this-fall-200409310.html?src=rss

An anonymous reader shares a report: Moderna does not plan to invest in new late-stage vaccine trials because of growing opposition to immunizations from U.S. officials, CEO Stephane Bancel said in an interview with Bloomberg TV on Thursday. “You cannot make a return on investment if you don’t have access to the U.S. market,” Bancel told Bloomberg TV on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos. Bancel said regulatory delays and little support from the authorities make the market size “much smaller.”

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Samsung announced the Galaxy Watch Ultra in the summer of 2024, and then refreshed it last August with double the storage and new color options. As we all know, older versions get big discounts, and if the extra storage and colors aren’t a big deal to you, you could be in a great position to get a flagship Samsung smartwatch at a big discount. The 2024 Bespoke Edition 47mm LTE Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra is selling for $389.95, originally $649.99 at launch. This is the lowest price it has reached, according to price-checking tools. The Galaxy Watch Ultra emphasizes outdoor and exercise features, but it’s much cheaper than other premium fitness watches like the Apple Watch Ultra.

Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra Bespoke Edition 47mm LTE

$383.95
at Amazon

$383.95
at Amazon

The Galaxy Watch Ultra excels over other watches in one key aspect: its outdoorsy features. If you’re an avid hiker or an athlete who spends long hours outdoors, it’s a great choice. Like any good rugged watch, this one is tough, made out of Grade 4 titanium, and has an IP68 water- and dust-resistant rating. You can also take it up high altitudes (up to 9,000 meters) and it can withstand up to 10ATM of pressure (about 330 feet underwater). You also get a built-in siren in case of emergencies. The screen is a 1.47-inch Super AMOLED display, brighter than previous Samsung AMOLED smartwatches. The only downside is that it comes in just one size—47mm.

The watch runs WearOS from Samsung and comes with 32GB of storage. The 590mAh battery is one of the best for its price point, making it perfect for prolonged outdoor use. If you don’t use any power-saving modes, it’ll last 60 hours, but it can go up to 100 hours if you’re conservative.

One of the new features this watch brings is AI-based health metrics and advanced sleep tracking, which you can read more about in PCMag’s “excellent” review. If you’re looking for a more budget-friendly and smaller option for more general use, the Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 at $217 (originally $379.99) is a great option.

Double Fine has been on a tear with its smaller projects lately. The popular indie game developer is following up last year’s atmospheric adventure game Keeper with a new title in a totally different direction. As its Double Fine founder Tim Schaefer attempted to say five times fast during today’s Xbox Developer Direct, Kiln is an “online multiplayer pottery party brawler” that boasts exactly the sort of colorful, clever fun that fans have come to expect from the studio. 

Kiln is a game with two facets: creation and destruction. On the creation side, players get to design a ceramic vessel of their choosing, anything from a dainty saucer to a massive vat. From the clips showed, this riff on character creation imitates many of the real processes of throwing on the wheel. There are options to decorate your vessel with glazes and stickers for additional personalization.

Once you’ve made your pottery creation, it’s time to destroy it. The game mode that Double Fine showed off during the Developer Direct is called Quench. In these capture-the-flag style matches, your teammates are trying to carry water in the vessels they’ve designed to the enemy’s kiln, where the goal is to douse its flames before opponents can do the same to yours. Different vessel types have different attacks for smashing enemy ceramics to shards, so there can be a strategic angle to building up a smart team composition with a mix of defensive and offensive capabilities.

Kiln looks like a really fun time, and it is due out in spring 2026. The game will be available on Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5 and Steam, as well as through Xbox programs such as Game Pass Ultimate and Xbox Cloud Gaming.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/double-fine-announces-delightful-looking-multiplayer-pottery-game-kiln-195837155.html?src=rss

It was only 16 months ago that Substack expanded into live video. Since then, it’s become a widely adopted medium on the platform, including by its ever-growing list of cable news expats. Now, the company has decided it’s ready for a bigger screen. Starting today, you can install a new Substack TV app on Apple TV and Google TV devices.

Substack describes the app’s initial launch as focusing on “reliable, high-quality viewing” for the platform’s long-form videos. It centers around video posts and livestreams from the creators and publications you follow. There’s also a “For You” section that combines those videos with algorithmic recommendations. And you can browse dedicated pages for each channel.

Viewing access aligns with your subscription level. So, if a channel restricts videos to paying subscribers on Substack’s mobile app and website, the same paywall applies here. However, the company says it’s working on adding previews of paid content for free subscribers. It also plans to add audio posts, search, improved discovery and separate sections for different shows within a single publication.

At least one of those legacy media expats who moved to Substack is optimistic about the feature. “This is a game-changing moment for the rise of independent media,” former CNN anchor Jim Acosta wrote in the announcement post. “Substack has proven that legacy media consumers are not only searching for fresh alternatives; they are finding them.”

Based on the comments in Substack’s announcement, some of the platform’s die-hards are less enthusiastic than Acosta. “File this under – thing we didn’t ask for,” Ashli Pollard wrote. “This is not YouTube,” a commenter named Dustin added. “Elevate the written word.” I personally don’t see any harm in another way to watch the videos Substack already hosts. (Its newsletters aren’t going anywhere.) But given how Big Tech companies tend to pivot further toward the most en vogue (and profitable) medium of the day, I can see why purists feel the need to dig in their heels.

Regardless, you can find the Substack TV app by searching for its name in the tvOS App Store or the Apps section on Google and Android TV devices. You can sign in by scanning a QR code with your phone.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/substack-now-has-a-tv-app-195408592.html?src=rss

Tech companies are getting increasingly pushy with their large language models—prominent buttons for these AI features coat every surface designers can think of, including in three of the most prominent browsers: Chrome, Edge, and Firefox.

If you want these AI features to go away, and stay away, there’s a script for that. JustTheBrowser is a free and open source tool from developer and tech blogger Corbin Davenport that removes AI features, telemetry data reporting, sponsored content, product integrations, and other annoyances from Chrome, Firefox, and Microsoft Edge. Basically, you can run this once and never think about these features again.

To get started, head to the JustTheBrowser homepage. There are scripts to copy (which I’m not going to include here in case they change in the future).

Credit: Justin Pot

Windows users will need to run PowerShell as an admin—the easiest way to do that is by right-clicking PowerShell in the start menu and clicking “Run as administrator.” There is a different script for Mac and Linux users—that one just needs to be copied into a regular Terminal.

Either way, you will be asked which browser you’d like to update the settings for—just hit the number corresponding to what you want to do.

Credit: Justin Pot

In my testing, the process was very simple on Windows—just click the number and the script will do its thing. On macOS, I needed to follow a few instructions to enable a configuration policy in the Settings app, something that only took a couple of clicks. After that, Chrome was free of any and all references to AI.

Credit: Justin Pot

A number of other features were also gone, including those annoying prompts to switch my default browser.

The way this works is kind of interesting: it uses features intended for large organizations. Basically all major browsers allow for group settings, which is how IT departments control what you can and can’t do with your browser. Among these settings are ones to disable AI features.

It’s an interesting workaround, and hopefully one that keeps working. There is always a chance that browser companies make it so even IT departments can’t disable AI features, at which point we’ll all need to find a new solution (or switch to an alternative browser).

Elon Musk just took the stage at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland and announced that Tesla’s Optimus humanoid robot will be sold to the public by the end of next year. Musk is the master of unrealistic timetables, but this may be the nuttiest one yet. These are humanoid robots that are supposed to be able to do just about any task a human can do.

Musk, as usual, gave himself an out if the robots don’t start rolling off the assembly line in 2027, saying that they’ll only be released when Tesla is “confident that it’s very high reliability, very high safety and the range of functionality is also very high.”

He stated that the robots have already begun doing simple tasks in the Tesla factory, but there’s no proof of this other than his word. In the real world, Optimus robots have continuously failed to live up to the marketing hype. 

There have been plenty of reports suggesting that previous demos of the robots in action were actually smoke and mirrors, as they were being remotely piloted by human operators.

Tesla’s stock jumped over three percent upon this announcement because company investors live in a world of magical rainbows, unicorns and robots mixing drinks at home in the year 2027. Musk also recently stated that the robots would be ready for commercial deployment in 2026. That’s this year. It’s worth noting that the program head for the project, Milan Kovac, recently left the company.

Again, these are autonomous robots that are supposed to be able to perform complex tasks across a wide variety of categories. That’ll likely happen someday, but not by 2027. I’m just gonna go ahead and throw Musk’s timeline in with “two years to AGI” and “five years until the singularity.”

On a related note, the Tesla CEO also said that the long-awaited Cybercab will enter production in April, with a goal of two million vehicles manufactured each year. This isn’t quite as far-fetched as the Optimus promise, but that two million number seems highly suspect. Just how many consumers does he think want a car without a steering wheel that only holds two people?

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/elon-musk-just-told-davos-that-tesla-will-sell-humanoid-robots-next-year-really-he-swears-192515568.html?src=rss

Ars readers of a certain age no doubt remember the 1980s He-Man and the Masters of the Universe series (and its spinoff, She-Ra: Princess of Powers) and the many, many offshoots of this hugely popular Mattel franchise, including an extensive line of action figures. Amazon MGM Studios no doubt hopes to cash in on any lingering nostalgia with its forthcoming film, Masters of the Universe. Judging by the extended teaser trailer, we’re getting an origin story for He-Man.

It’s not the first time someone has turned He-Man into a feature film: Dolph Lundgren starred in 1987’s Masters of the Universe, a critical and box office bomb that also featured Frank Langella as arch-villain Skeletor. Its poor reception might have stemmed from the 1987 film deviating significantly from the original cartoon, angering fans. But frankly, it was just a bad, cheesy movie, though it still has its share of cult fans today.

This latest big-screen live-action adaptation has been languishing in development hell for nearly two decades. There were rumors in 2007 that John Woo would direct a He-Man feature for Warner Bros., but the project never got the green light. Sony Pictures gained the rights in 2009, and there were multiple script rewrites and much shuffling of possible directors (with John Chu, McG, and David S. Goyer among the candidates).

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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.

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.