Welcome to our weekly roundup of the goings on in the indie game space. It's been quite the busy spell, with several notable games debuting or landing on more platforms and some intriguing upcoming projects popping above the parapet.
The Steam Automation Fest is taking place this week (it runs until July 21 at 1PM ET), so fans of games like Satisfactory and Factorio might be looking to pick up some bargains on similar titles. As well as offering a variety of discounts, Automation Fest also saw t...
If I had to describe the status of Subnautica 2 in just three words, it would be these: messy, messy, messy. That’s not to say the game itself is in terrible shape this is actually a pivotal claim in the whole situation but the relationship between Subnautica series developer Unknown Worlds and its parent company, Krafton, is in shreds. This month alone, Krafton fired the founders and CEO of Unknown Worlds, Subnautica 2 was delayed until 2026 and the ousted leaders filed a lawsuit against Krafto...
Netflix admitted during its earnings call on Thursday that it used generative AI to create VFX in The Eternaut, a Netflix original from Argentina that was released in April 2025. The company's co-CEO Ted Sarandos said that generative AI was specifically used for a VFX shot in the post-apocalyptic drama, but the move is one of several ways Netflix is embracing AI.
According to Sarandos, the creators of The Eternaut wanted to include a shot of building collapsing in Buenos Aires, and rather than c...
Meta said on Friday that it won't sign the European Union's new AI code of practice. The guidelines provide a framework for the EU's AI Act, which regulates companies operating in the European Union.
The EU's code of practice is voluntary, so Meta was under no legal obligation to sign it. Yet Meta's Chief Global Affairs Officer, Joel Kaplan, made a point to publicly knock the guidelines on Friday. He described the code as "over-reach."
"Europe is heading down the wrong path on AI," Kaplan posted...
Remedy has announced plans to fix FBC: Firebreak and restore the good will of consumers after a rough launch earlier this year. Many of the issues surrounding the launch were regarding the onboarding process, which the company acknowledges by saying that "many players come into the game and leave within the first hour."
Remedy is trying to make that opening hour more welcoming to new players, so they don't "feel ineffective and confused as to what to do." It has already placed an introductory vi...
Microsoft has rather abruptly closed down its Movies and TV app, which is accessible on Xbox and Windows PCs via the Microsoft Store. This allowed people to rent or buy movies or TV shows natively through their console or computer’s storefront, but in a newly updated support page Microsoft said the service has ended.
"Microsoft no longer offers new entertainment content for purchase, including movies and TV shows, on Microsoft.com, Microsoft Store on Windows, and the Microsoft Store on Xbox" the...
Samsung announced its newest devices during its Galaxy Unpacked event on July 9. That happened to fall on the second day of Amazon’s Prime Day event. Do big tech companies not know what the others are doing? Do they care? Do they like making the lives of tech reporters difficult? I didn’t have time to consider. Only when I was done covering Amazon did I have time to begin properly testing Samsung’s latest wearable. That means I’ve been living with the Galaxy Watch 8 for four days now.
While tha...
Chinese President Xi Jinping has bluntly questioned a nationwide rush of investment into the AI and EV industries. As deflation anxiety grows and Trump’s trade war with China ramps up, the world’s second largest economy is turning to fast-growth tech industries to remain competitive.
But Xi appears to think that the strategy is flawed. As reported by the Financial Times, China's President sent out a pointed message about over-investment at the two-day Central Urban Work Conference in Beijing.
"W...
Eliza McNitt is no stranger to new media. Her 2017 project, Fistful of Stars, was a fascinating look at stellar birth in virtual reality, while her follow-up Spheres explored black holes and the death of stars. Now with her short film Ancestra, McNitt has tapped into Google's AI tools to tell a deeply personal story. Working with Google Deepmind and director Darren Aronofsky's studio Primordial Soup, McNitt used a combination of live-action footage and AI-generated media to tell the story of her...
DuckDuckGo is making it easier to wade through some of the AI slop that has taken over the internet in recent months. This week, the company introduced a new filter for removing AI-generated images from search results. The next time you use the browser, you'll see a new dropdown menu titled "AI images." From there, you can set whether you want to see AI content or not.
New setting: hide AI-generated images in DuckDuckGoOur philosophy about AI features is “private, useful, and optional.” Our goa...
If you're on the market for a new pair of AirPods, you're in luck. The latest AirPods 4 are down to some of the best prices we've seen. You can pick up the standard AirPods 4 for $90, a 30-percent discount, or the AirPods 4 with ANC for $120, a 33 percent discount.
While neither deal is quite as good as the ones we saw during the Prime day sale that just passed, you’re only going to be an extra dollar down regardless of which model you go for. The non-ANC AirPods 4 were $89 for Prime Day (a rec...
Nintendo has posted a call for participants for another Playtest Program, and this time, it's looking for 40,000 testers and not just 10,000 like in the first one. If you'll recall, Nintendo looked for 10,000 participants for the first Playtest event last year to test an unnamed, mysterious Switch Online feature. The new program still only welcomes active Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack members, but as you'd expect, it now supports both the original Switch and the Switch 2.
Interested p...
We've been busy in the Engadget reviews department over the last few weeks, keeping up with Prime Day, product launches and the accumulating stack of devices on our desks. If you missed any of our in-depth testing recently, you can quickly catch up on the latest camera, laptop, phone and soundbar reviews in the list below.
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7
Samsung made notable design changes on its latest flagship foldable phone, finally giving the masses a significant update after a series of iter...
The minds behind Bo’s sublime e-scooter met each other while working for the advanced engineering arm at (F1 team) Williams. Their mission was to take their knowledge of designing and building some of the world’s fastest cars to build a better e-scooter. But while they no longer work for a Formula One team, they can’t quite shake that desire to build vehicles that travel at preposterously daft speed. Which is why the company has today unveiled The Turbo, a souped-up version of the standard Bo e-...
Subaru just screwed up our SEO with the launch of the Uncharted, an electric crossover with up to 300 miles of range that probably has nothing to do with the video game. It uses the same E-TNGA platform as Toyota's CH-R EV and strongly resembles that model.
Due to arrive next year, the 2026 Uncharted will come in two versions, both with 74.7kWh batteries. The first is a front-wheel drive version with 228 horsepower and 300 miles of range, while the second is a much grunt-ier dual-motor four whee...
Apple is suing leaker Jon Prosser and a codefendant for misappropriation of trade secrets related to YouTube videos from earlier this year that depicted mockups of iOS 26 (which was, at the time, expected to be called iOS 19). In the suit, which Apple filed at a district court in the Northern District of California, the company claims Prosser and Michael Ramacciotti "conspired to break into an Apple employee’s development iPhone to take Apple’s trade secrets."
Per the filing, which was obtained ...
Rebecca Kelly Slaughter, one of the Democratic FTC Commissioners President Trump had fired back in March, said she looks forward to getting back to work. US District Judge Loren AliKhan has just ruled that her removal from the agency was "unlawful and without legal effect" and that she was still a "rightful member" of the commission. The judge explained that the firings violated protections that prevent a president from unilaterally removing officials at independent agencies.
In her statement a...
What can you expect from Google’s Made By Pixel event? Well, according to the media invite we got (brag), it’s promising new Pixel phones, watches, buds and more.
Last year, that was true. The same event gave us the Pixel 9, Pixel 9 Pro, Pixel 9 Pro XL, Pixel 9 Pro Fold, Pixel Watch 3 and Pixel Buds Pro 2. I think that was everything?
As for that “and more” part, recent rumors suggest Google is working on Pixelsnap, a proper response to Apple’s MagSafe tech. Android phones have been slow to adop...
Vimeo, the business-focused video sharing and hosting platform, is bringing back its Apple TV app after ending support for all of its TV apps in 2023. While the company hasn't been trying to be a YouTube competitor for a while, TV apps were always more convenient than Vimeo's proposed solution of casting video from a smartphone or tablet.
The rebuilt Vimeo Apple TV app lets you access Vimeo's curated library of Staff Picks, your personal library of uploaded videos and anything you've saved to yo...
Peacock, NBCUniversal's streaming home for The Office and Love Island USA, is going to cost a good bit more starting on July 23, Variety reports. The streaming service's two existing tiers will cost an additional $3 per month, and Peacock will also start testing a cheaper $7.99 "Select" tier that includes access to NBC and Bravo shows and a limited number of titles from the NBCUniversal back catalog.
With the new price hike, Peacock's ad-supported "Premium" plan will go from costing $8 per mont...
Add this to the list of "things that might be fun if you had a buttload of money": Someone forked over $5.3 million in a Sotheby's auction to own a piece of Mars. The Red Planet meteorite was discovered in 2023 in a remote area of the Sahara Desert in Niger.
Martian meteorites of any size are incredibly rare. To get here, an asteroid first hits the Red Planet to eject material from its surface. (Sotheby's says there are only 19 Martian craters large enough to have spit out this one.) That chunk ...
Google has filed a lawsuit against the operators of a what is believed to be the largest smart TV botnet in the world BadBox 2.0.
The company said in its complaint that this China-based botnet had compromised more than 10 million uncertified devices including TV streaming boxes, tablets and projectors. Google said that cybercriminals pre-installed malware or used malicious apps to download malware on hardware that was running open-source Android software. These compromised devices were then use...
The Unicode Consortium has announced that it's adding what's essentially a Bigfoot emoji to the open Unicode standard this fall. The famous cryptid will appear as "Hairy Creature" alongside a selection of other fun new emoji options in Unicode 17.0.
It might seem strange that a consortium of companies as powerful as Apple, Google and Microsoft would practically subtweet one of North America's most famous semi-mythological creatures. But the global nature of Unicode makes avoiding region-specific...
There's finally a full trailer for Tron: Ares, the third installment in the decades-long sci-fi franchise. This comes after a teaser dropped a few months back and over two years after the film was first announced.
The new footage is pretty cool, and gets into the meat of this threequel. It's a riff on AI and big tech, as corporate entities look to weaponize the digital creations of The Grid and bring them to the real world. This does not go well, as evidenced by shots of iconic franchise Recogni...
After five years of development, one of Steam's coziest games is leaving Steam early access and making the jump to consoles. Starting today, you can purchase The Wandering Village on PC, Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 5. On Steam, the game's developer, Stray Fawn Studio, is offering a 35 percent discount until July 31. In the US, that means you can get the game for just under $20. Switch owners, meanwhile, can get a 10 percent launch discount until August 7.
I've been playing The Wandering Vil...
It’s likely that you predominantly associate Spotify with music and podcasts, but if you’re a Premium member, you also get 15 hours of audiobook access per month. For some members, though, that clearly isn’t enough, as Spotify has introduced a new add-on subscription that doubles that listening time.
Audiobooks+ was first trialled in Ireland and Canada, and is launching initially for Premium Individual and Plan members in a number of countries in Europe, as well as Australia and New Zealand. Onc...
Amazon’s decarbonization goals are being undermined by its push to be a leader in generative AI. Its most recent sustainability report concedes its overall carbon emissions grew for the first time since 2022. It reported a six percent increase in its carbon footprint across 2024, laying much of the blame at the feet of its data center rollout.
The reported increase is significant given Amazon’s method of reporting its own environmental impact. Critics have suggested the mega-retailer “dramatical...
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, along with a group of current and former company directors and officers, just agreed to settle to end a trial that sought $8 billion in damages, according to a report by Reuters. Zuckerberg and the others will actually be paying out to Meta shareholders as a recompense for damages allegedly caused by allowing repeated violations of Facebook users' privacy.
The parties have not disclosed the details of the settlement, but one would assume the payout was less than the $8 ...
Hollywood video game adaptations continue to have a moment. Following the success of HBO's The Last of Us and Amazon's Fallout, Netflix has officially greenlit an Assassin's Creed series. The news comes nearly five years after the company signed a deal with Ubisoft to adapt the franchise.
Two Emmy nominees will helm the series. Roberto Patino (DMZ, Westworld, Sons of Anarchy) and David Wiener (Halo, Homecoming, The Killing) will serve as showrunners and executive producers. No casting has been a...
"This is probably the most uncertain future NASA has faced, maybe since the end of Apollo," Casey Dreier tells me over the phone. Dreier is the chief of space policy at The Planetary Society, a nonprofit that advocates for the exploration and study of space.
On July 10, the Senate Appropriations Committee met to discuss the proposed federal Commerce, Justice and Science budget for 2026. While on average, funding for NASA has accounted for about 0.3 percent of total yearly spending by the federal...
Uber is investing hundreds of millions of dollars in Nuro and Lucid, the latest step in the company’s plan to build an extensive robotaxi program that can roll out globally. Uber’s partnership with EV manufacturer Lucid will see it deploy at least 20,000 of the Newark-based company’s vehicles over a period of six years. These will be equipped with the AI-powered Nuro Driver autonomous technology. The vehicles will be owned and operated by Uber or one of its third-party partners, and the service ...
Jack Dorsey has been back in the news lately after unveiling a pair of new apps he worked on, Bluetooth-based messenager Bitchat and UV exposure tracker Sun Day. The Block CEO put those together under the auspices of a new development collective called "and Other Stuff," a nonprofit that he is backing with a $10 million cash injection through his StartSmall foundation, as TechCrunch reports.
The group plans to work on open-source projects, including ones that could become consumer social media a...
Virtuos, the studio that developed The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered, is laying off seven percent of its staff, or around 270 employees. Gauthier Andres, a reporter and co-founder at Origami, was first to report the news, which the studio later confirmed. Virtuos has provided support on a number of large game projects including a recent patch for Cyberpunk 2077 and employs more than 4,200 people across the US, Europe and Asia.
The company said the layoffs are primarily affecting "teams fa...
Stellantis, the automotive giant behind Chrysler, Citroen, Fiat, Jeep and Peugeot, is pulling out of hydrogen. The company said it’s killing its fuel cell development program in the face of “limited availability of hydrogen refueling infrastructure, high capital requirements and the need for stronger consumer purchasing incentives.” To put that another way, it’s realized hydrogen EVs are facing the same set of challenges it’s not been able to overcome in the last two or three decades.
It’s a st...
TikTok has proven to be a powerful platform to help tunes go viral and now the company is making it easier for songwriters to benefit from that reach. The social media site has rolled out a pair of new features in beta: a Songwriter label that identifies users as such under their profile, and a Songwriter Music Tab that lets them spotlight tracks they've written or co-written.
So far, only a limited number of publishers and songwriters can apply to get the new label and tab. TikTok noted that s...
Since rolling out the redesign of its Firefly app in April, Adobe has been releasing major updates for the generative AI hub at a near monthly clip. Today, the company is introducing a handful of new features to assist those who use Firefly's video capabilities.
To start, Adobe is making it easier to add sound effects to AI-generated clips. Right now, the majority of video models create footage without any accompanying audio. Adobe is addressing this with a nifty little feature that allows users...
Whether you shopped during Prime Day last week or not, a few of the best deals are still around right now in case you missed anything. One of those is on our pick for best dual-zone air fryer: this Ninja Foodi air fryer is on sale for $160, which is 36 percent off its usual price.
That's the same price it was on Prime Day proper and one of the best we've seen. It's a 10-quart model that includes a smart cook thermometer and six prep modes, including air fry, reheat and dehydrate. Plus, it warms...
After several generations of iterative updates, it feels like Samsung tossed the Galaxy Z Fold 7 into a Hyperbolic Time Chamber to create a stunning device that's leaner, stronger and more powerful than before. The best part though is the phone looks and functions just like a regular handset now that there’s less bulk to lug around. But at a moment's notice, it can go Super Saiyan by opening up to reveal an even larger 8-inch display to become a true multimedia Raidboss. Unfortunately, it's stil...
Apple has rolled out the Emoji Game exclusively for its News+ subscribers in the US and Canada, just in time for World Emoji Day. While the company originally announced the game for iOS 26 at WWDC earlier this year, the Emoji Game is now available to subscribers on iPhone, iPad and Mac running iOS 18.4, iPadOS 18.4 and macOS 15.4 or later, respectively. The game is similar to other word games out there like Wordle in that players would have to fill in the blanks to guess words and phrases. But l...
Slack, the cloud‑based team messaging juggernaut, is charging ahead with further integration of AI into users’ day‑to‑day experience. The company is introducing a series of tools aimed at improving productivity and improving team communication.
AI writing assistance has been built directly into Slack Canvas, allowing users to create assets like project briefs as well as refine the content they create using natural‑language prompts. Writing assistance can also be used to generate and assign actio...
South Korea's top court has upheld an appeals court ruling to dismiss all charges in a long-running fraud case against Samsung chairman Jay Y. Lee. The accounting fraud and stock manipulation charges stemmed from a merger of two Samsung subsidiaries in 2015. Prosecutors had accused Lee of manipulating share prices to help clear the way for the merger in an attempt to consolidate his power.
In 2024, a court ruled that the prosecutors failed to prove their claims. The case has worked through the a...
Roblox is joining the growing ranks of online platforms that are trying to better understand the ages of their teen users. The company is rolling out a new "age estimation" feature for teens 13 and older.
With the update, teens will be prompted for an age check that requires a video selfie in order to access its new less restrictive chat feature called "trusted connections." Roblox is relying on third-party identity company Persona for the actual "estimation," and users who fail the check will a...
The Federal Communication Commission plans to vote on new rules that will ban the use of Chinese technology in undersea cables, according to a press release from FCC Chairman Brendan Carr. The proposed rules will apply to any company on the FCC's existing list of entities that pose "an unacceptable risk to the national security of the United States."
Besides "prohibiting the use of 'covered' equipment," the FCC's new rules will also limit the ability for Chinese companies to receive a license to...
Google is continuing to double down on its AI Mode, bringing more features to its dedicated Search chatbot. Today, the company is adding the Gemini 2.5 Pro model and the Deep Search capability to AI Mode. These features will be available to Google AI Pro and Google AI Ultra subscribers. Although both of these tools can still be accessed through other means, Google's move to incorporate them into the chatbot points to an end goal of AI Mode being the primary form of engagement with the company's ...
On Tuesday, Nintendo published an interview with the creators of Donkey Kong Bananza. The second big Switch 2 tentpole title comes from the team that made Super Mario Odyssey. The developers explained how they laid the foundation for DK's first 3D adventure since the Nintendo 64 era.
Destruction is at the heart of Donkey Kong Bananza. Everything in his environment can be smashed to bits. Not only is that a fun mechanic, but it also adds an element of verticality and freedom of exploration. That'...
Virtuos, the studio that developed The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered, is reportedly laying off seven percent of its staff, or around 300 employees, according to Gauthier Andres, a reporter and co-founder at Origami. The studio has provided support on a number of large game projects including a recent patch for Cyberpunk 2077 and employs over 4,200 people across the US, Europe and Asia.
The brunt of the layoffs are happening to Virtuos employees in China, where Andres reports that around 2...
Threads is testing letting you sign up with a Facebook account rather than an Instagram account. The new option, spotted by Social Media Today, doesn't appear to be widely available yet, but is already mentioned in a Meta support article.
Besides making it easier for people who don't have an Instagram account to quickly create an account on Meta's X and Bluesky competitor, this new Facebook sign up option should influence the kind of posts and ads that get recommended to you.
"Signing up to Thre...
There's another big update for Cyberpunk 2077 coming our way. Update 2.3 brings some notable new features to PC and consoles. CD Projekt Red (CDPR) is adding official in-game support for VRR on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. This should help with screen tearing when the frame rate drops and is of particular use when running the game in performance mode.
There's also an official AutoDrive feature, which is something that has long-existed in the modding community. This is available in all cars and motor...
Google will host its next Made by Google event on August 20, the company announced today. In a media invite, it promised the event would feature new Pixel phones, watches, buds "and more." It's hard to imagine what other product types might be covered by those last two words, but for those who watch the industry closely, this event is likely to see the launch of the Pixel 10 flagship phones, along with a Pixel Watch 4 and new Pixel Buds.
It's easy to make that deduction, especially going by pre...
If you were having trouble viewing Reddit today, you weren't alone. Downdetector showed a spike in outages and problems at the site. Reddit acknowledged the problem on Wednesday. At 12:38PM ET, it said the situation had been resolved.
Reddit told Engadget that an update was the culprit. "An update we made caused some instability," a company spokesperson said. "We reverted and are seeing Reddit ramp back up." As to what that update was, we don't yet know, but it was probably a standard tweak to t...
Steam has added a new rule to its guidelines that has resulted in certain games getting banned, according to a report by Automaton. The new clause states that "content that may violate the rules and standards set forth by Steam's payment processors and related card networks and banks, or internet network providers" is not allowed and could result in removal from the platform.
In other words, if credit card companies get mad about something, they could actually have the power to ban a game. The c...
Google will host its next Made by Google event on August 20, the company announced today. In a media invite the search giant shared with Engadget, it promised the event would feature new Pixel phones, watches, buds "and more." At its annual hardware event last year, Google announced the Pixel 9, Pixel 9 Pro, Pixel 9 Pro XL, Pixel 9 Pro Fold, Pixel Watch 3 and Pixel Buds Pro 2.
Between the company's invite and what came out of last year's event, expect a refresh of nearly the entire Pixel line. ...
If you tried to visit Reddit this morning, you likely saw a message reading, "Server error: We have encountered an error. Please try again later." The company's system status page shows a "partial outage" for the desktop web, mobile web and mobile apps. Later (at least for me), pages began to load again, but with errors.
If you tried to visit Reddit this morning, you likely saw a message reading, "Server error: We have encountered an error. Please try again later." The company's system status pa...
If you’re all caught up on The Last of Us (the TV version that is) then you’ll know that season two made clear that when the show returns it will focus a lot more on Kaitlyn’s Dever’s Abby. But it sounds like we’re going to have to wait a while to see that side of the story unfold.
Speaking to Variety off the back of The Last of Us netting HBO 16 Emmy nominations this week, the company’s CEO, Casey Bloys, said season three is "definitely planned for 2027." Bloys didn’t offer any more specific in...
It's time to break out that 1980s playlist. The last season of the Netflix hit Stranger Things finally has a trailer. It's been nearly a decade since the show premiered and it looks like it's going out with a bang. This trailer is absolutely packed with action, showing many fan favorite characters in mortal peril of one kind or another.
Season four ended with one heck of a cliffhanger so, of course, things pick up from there. The footage depicts all kinds of supernatural chaos impacting the sma...
Google is bringing AI‑generated summaries to Discover, the personalized stream of articles and videos found in the Google app curated based on a user's interests. The search giant remains undeterred by the imperfect nature of AI Overviews, or what it might mean for publishers whose content largely makes up Google's search results.
TechCrunch has reported that some Android and iOS users in the US are seeing cards containing AI‑generated summaries on their Discover page. These cards appear with ne...
Prime Day might be behind us, but the dregs of the deals are still lingering. And if you’re in the market for a new pair of AirPods, you’re in luck. Apple’s ever-popular AirPods 4 (the ones without ANC) are currently down to $90 when purchased from Amazon, which is 30 percent off their usual price of $129. If you want the ANC model for those noisy flights, they’re 33 percent off at $120.
While neither deal is quite as good as the ones we saw during the Prime day sale, you’re only going to be an...
Budgeting can be a challenge, especially when you're trying to pay for the daily cost of life and save for things you want like a new gaming console or laptop. But there are plenty of tools out there that can make budgeting more manageable, and one of our favorite budgeting apps is on sale right now. You can subscribe to Quicken Simplifi for only $3 per month, which is half off its usual $6-per-month price. Notably, the sum is paid in one go for the year, instead of month to month.
Yes, spendin...
Nintendo has revealed the two lead actors for its live-action The Legend of Zelda movie. Bo Bragason is playing the title character, Princess Zelda, while Benjamin Evan Ainsworth is taking on the role of Link, series creator Shigeru Miyamoto announced on X.
The performers are around the right ages for their parts Bragason was born in 2004 while Ainsworth is 16. These are by far the biggest roles to date for both actors, but they each have plenty of experience in front of cameras.
Bragason has a...
Apple's Irish tax break problems are officially over. Ireland's Department of Finance has reported that the entirety of the €14.25 billion fund in Apple's escrow account for the case has been fully transferred to the Exchequer or Ireland's central fund. The escrow account has, therefore, been closed. This marks the end of one of the world's largest antitrust cases that started way back in 2013 when the European Commission launched an investigation to determine whether Apple was enjoying better t...
Welcome to Video Games Weekly on Engadget. Expect a new story every Monday or Tuesday, broken into two parts. The first is a space for short essays and ramblings about video game trends and related topics from me, Jess Conditt, a reporter who's covered the industry for more than 13 years. The second contains the video game stories from the past week that you need to know about, including some headlines from outside of Engadget.
Please enjoy and I'll see you next week.
If I end up reading one mo...
Razer is back with a new addition to its Core line of external graphics enclosures. The Razer Core X V2 external graphics enclosure can house recent GPUs from brands including NVIDIA GeForce and AMD Radeon. It uses a single Thunderbolt 5 cable to the host device; in its press materials, Razer claims this tech delivers up to twice the bandwidth of Thunderbolt 4. This is true, but Thunderbolt 5 still isn't on the level of a modern desktop GPU connection, being roughly equivalent to 8 lanes of PCIe...
Xbox's "Stream your own game" feature continues to expand. You can now use your PC to play supported games you own on Xbox. (The games stream from the cloud, not your console.) You'll need to be an Xbox Insider and Game Pass Ultimate subscriber to use it.
The PC launch follows the feature's arrival earlier this year on other devices. Already supported were Xbox consoles, TVs, browser-based devices (including mobile) and Meta Quest headsets.
The idea is the latest chapter in Microsoft's mission t...
US tariffs continue to cause problems and supply issues in the gaming space. The latest to feel the effects is Analogue. The company announced today that its Analogue 3D, a modern remake of the Nintendo 64 console, will not start shipping until late August.
Analogue noted that "last week's sudden tariffs" were the reason for this change. "We’re absorbing the costs—your preorder price stays the same. No additional charges," the company said in a post on X.
This isn't the first time the highly ant...
Uber and China-based Baidu are teaming up to deploy more autonomous vehicles throughout the world. The companies plan on bringing thousands of Baidu's Apollo Go vehicles to various regions that will be accessible via the Uber platform, including mainland China and other "global markets outside of the US."
The first joint deployments are expected in Asia and the Middle East later this year. Once launched, Uber riders could be presented with the option to have the trip fulfilled by an Apollo Go ve...
Discoveries keep pouring out of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). Researchers observed an unusual cluster, which they dubbed the Infinity Galaxy. It appears to support a leading theory on how some supermassive black holes form.
Although "Infinity Galaxy" sounds like a place Thanos would hang out, it merely describes its appearance. Two compact, red nuclei, each surrounded by a ring, give the cluster the shape of an infinity symbol.
What's inside is more interesting. (After all, this is a mu...
With so many different handheld gaming devices entering the market, having a flexible gamepad that works with many different hardware platforms can be a valuable addition to your gear collection. A promising new option arrived today with the pre-order announcement of the 8BitDo Pro 3. This controller retails for $70 and is due to start shipping on August 12.
The Pro 3 gamepad will be compatible with the recently released Nintendo Switch 2 as well as the original Switch. It will also work with W...
The nominations for the 77th Emmy Awards just dropped and, unsurprisingly, Apple TV+'s Severance led the pack with a whopping 27, including Best Drama. The streamer has another bona-fide hit with the Seth Rogen-led The Studio, which captured 23 nominations.
However, HBO Max received the most kudos by platform, with 142 nominations in total. This is thanks to the second season of The Last of Us, with 16 nominations, and the Batman-adjacent The Penguin. The White Lotus, The Pitt and Hacks also gra...
Microsoft’s extensive gaming portfolio was hit hard by sweeping layoffs earlier this month. The situation appears to have been particularly galling for staff at Candy Crush developer King who are reportedly set to be replaced by AI tools they worked on.
Multiple anonymous sources have told MobileGamer.biz that a number of narrative, UX, level design and user research staffers at King have spent several years helping to build and train AI models that can do their jobs more quickly. Those same emp...
Xbox has confirmed the second batch of Game Pass additions for July. There's no obvious headliner here, but there are a bunch of great additions to the catalog. These include indie hits like Wheel World and blockbusters like Robocop: Rogue City. Let's get into it.
Robocop: Rogue City came as a huge surprise back in 2023. A game based on a decades-old sci-fi franchise by a relatively unknown developer? It should have been a train wreck. Instead, it's a solid 3D action title that perfectly captur...
Lucid is about to roll out its first hands-free features. On July 30, Lucid Air sedan owners with the DreamDrive Pro add-on will get automated drive assist and lane-change features. If you have a Gravity SUV you'll have to wait until later this year.
The features will arrive via an OTA update for vehicles with DreamDrive Pro hardware. The optional add-on has 32 sensors, including LiDAR, radar, ultrasonic sensors and cameras. DreamDrive Pro already supports semi-autonomous features like lane chan...
Apple just announced a commitment of $500 million over several years to buy rare earth magnets from the US-based company MP Materials. These rare earth magnets are used in a number of products, including iPhones, MacBooks and the Apple Pencil stylus. The American-made magnets will be shipped throughout the world, to help "meet increasing global demand for the material."
MP Materials is the only fully integrated rare earth producer in the country. The two companies have also pledged to work toget...
Sony just surprised the photography world by unveiling the RX1R III, a fixed-lens 35mm full-frame compact camera. Coming nearly ten years after the RX1R II, it has a 61MP Exmor R sensor along with Sony's latest image processing technology that promises low noise and high dynamic range.
Apart from all the new tech, the RX1R III is smaller and more streamlined than before and considerably lighter at 17 ounces than its main competition, Leica's Q3 and the Fujifilm GFX100RF. With that, it's designe...
Insta360 has launched a firmware upgrade and new accessories for its X5 360-degree camera as part of what it calls the Insta360 Summer Update. Key new features include "AdaptiveTone" to improve dual camera exposure, a new "Ultra Battery" for longer recording times, an ND filter set and custom-designed lenses.
"It can be a struggle for dual-lens cameras like X5 to balance the exposure across both lenses," the company explained. To fix this issue it came up with AdaptiveTone, which independently...
Google has closed a $3 billion deal to secure 3,000 megawatts of hydroelectric power, as it looks to meet the data demands of its growing AI and cloud computing platforms by harnessing low-cost clean energy. Brookfield Asset Management's renewables division says that its deal with Google is the largest deal of its kind for hydroelectricity. The first phase of this deal will provide Google with 670MW of carbon-free electricity from Brookfield’s Holtwood and Safe Harbor plants in Pennsylvania.
The...
Prime Day might have ended last week, but that doesn't mean the sales are over. Amazon still has discounts on some of our favorite items, including our pick for best dual-zone air fryer.
Right now, you can get the Ninja DZ401 Foodi Air Fryer for $160, down from $250. The 36 percent discount actually brings the device to the same as its Prime Day sale price. It's a 10-quart model with a smart cook thermometer. It has six modes, including air fry, reheat and dehydrate. Plus, it warms up so quick...
Rivian, the American EV manufacturer, is integrating Google Maps into its navigation app. The update should provide Rivian owners with more detailed information about their route, disruptions and places they're passing.
These new features include updated traffic data and reroutes if another option turns out to be quicker along your journey. Drivers will also have access to real-time road disruption reports from the Google Maps community. Plus, places of interest should now be available right on...
Redditors in the UK will now have to verify their ages before they can view mature content. Just like Bluesky, which announced a few days ago that it was rolling out age verification features, Reddit had to enforce the new rule to comply with the UK Online Safety Act. The UK's new requirements are meant to prevent children from accessing age-inappropriate posts. Reddit will use a third-party company called Persona to verify a user's age. Users will either have to upload a photo of their governme...
Grok, xAi's chatbot most famous for going on an antisemitic spree last week, has now added the ability to perform as a synthetic companion for your enjoyment. Elon Musk announced the new feature, available to paid subscribers, which will take the form of animated characters Ani and Rudy.
Both are distinctly not safe for work, with the former operating as a digital waifu for you to, uh, romance. Rudy, on the other hand, is a red panda with a smart mouth who likes to get rude with the people he's...
The Department of Commerce has opened national security investigations into imports of drones and polysilicon, a raw material used in chips and solar panels. Among other things, officials are looking into "predatory trade practices" and the capacity of other countries to "weaponize their control over supplies" of drones, drone parts and polysilicon, as well as derivatives of each.
The DoC commenced the investigations on July 1, but has only just disclosed them publicly. The probes could lead to ...
Mac owners will soon be able to play one of the biggest games of the last five years or so. Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition will be available in the Mac App Store as well as Steam, GOG.com and the Epic Games Store on Thursday, July 17. As the name implies, it includes both the base game as well as the Phantom Liberty expansion from 2023. The port was announced last fall and was originally planned to arrive "early" this year, but it took a little longer to get everything squared away.
Unsurprisi...
John Wick Hex, a stylish and well-received game based on the John Wick movies, will soon no longer be available to purchase. In a statement on the title’s Steam page, publisher Big Fan Games says it will be delisted from all platforms on July 17.
After that date, the publisher said, those who have already acquired the tactical action game from a digital storefront will still be able to download it. Physical console copies will still work too.
Big Fan didn’t provide an explanation as to why John ...
Your college years are typically thought of as some of the best of your life, but they can be hard to enjoy to the fullest if you're worried about paying for the essentials like food, textbooks, supplies and, if you're lucky, the occasional evening out with friends. With everything going up in price, it may seem like good discounts are few and far between, but that's not the case. Students still have excellent discounts to take advantage of across the board, be it on streaming services, shopping...
NVIDIA will be able to start selling its H20 AI GPU to China again soon after gaining approval to do so from the US government, the company announced in a blog post. Earlier this year, the company was blocked from selling the H20 to China over concerns it could aid the nation's military.
"NVIDIA is filing applications to sell the H20 GPU again. The US government has assured NVIDIA that licenses will be granted and NVIDIA hopes to start deliveries soon," the article states. The company also anno...
Be extra careful where you buy your used Nintendo Switch game cards. A Switch 2 owner posted on Reddit about how their account was banned after downloading patches for a few Switch game cards they'd bought from Facebook Marketplace. The Switch 2 user contacted Nintendo support and discovered they were banned, but they provided proof of purchase and were unbanned shortly after. The Redditor said the “whole process was painless and fluid.”
Nintendo
Nintendo attaches unique codes to its Switch gam...
It’s been a little over a year since Form released its second-generation smart swim goggles into the world. Since then, the company has been working on a way to ensure its headgear is even more attractive to swimmers who like to get out in the rough. Today, it’s announcing the Smart Swim 2 Pro, a modest upgrade on its predecessor with a focus on durability.
The 2 Pro’s lenses are now made of Gorilla Glass 3, which adds a gram or two more weight but should keep them scratch-free for far longer. G...
YouTube has clarified its rules about repetitious content and your favorite reaction video channel won't be impacted. Earlier this month, the platform said it would be changing its rules for monetization in an effort to address AI-generated materials, but didn't include many specifics, which led many to sound the alarm that reaction videos might get swept up in the new rules. The company has now provided a few tweaks and more clear delineations in its guidelines about channel monetization polici...
ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, is reportedly working on mixed reality goggles, The Information reports. The in-development device is designed to layer digital objects over your view of the real world, and is supposed to compete directly with Meta's upcoming mixed reality products.
The goggles are being built by ByteDance's virtual reality startup Pico, the creators of the Pico 4 VR headset. Pico's past products have attempted to match Meta's Quest headsets in terms of features, but the...
Meta is going after creators who rip off other users' content as part of a broader effort to fix Facebook's feed. In its latest update, the company laid out new steps it's taking to penalize accounts that lift work from others.
In a blog post for creators, Meta says that accounts that "repeatedly" and "improperly" reuse other accounts' text posts, photos or videos will have their pages demonetized "for a period of time." Meta willa also throttle all of their posts, not just the ones with the off...
Anthropic's Claude can now create and edit designs with visual studio Canva from within an AI chat. This integration is powered by a Canva server that uses Anthropic's Model Context Protocol, or MCP. Claude can use Canvas's tools to generate a design or search for materials within a user's Canva workspace. This functionality requires a paid subscription to Claude, and access also varies based on the user's Canva plan.
Multiple artificial intelligence platforms have started using MCP to connect t...
In a world of flashy limited-edition video game consoles, the 30th anniversary PS5 hardware Sony released in September 2024 came off as remarkably refined, which might have been why it was so hard to actually buy. If you missed that original drop, you'll have another chance to order it, according to a Facebook post on the official PlayStation Facebook page. Sony is doing a limited restock of the 30th Anniversary Limited Edition DualSense controller on September 5, and you'll be able to preorder ...
Update (7/14/25): Best Buy will reportedly restock Switch 2 consoles next on July 17, which coincides with the release of Donkey Kong Bananza.
The Nintendo Switch 2 is finally available in the US, but it's still pretty tough to find it in stock online anywhere. The $450 console officially went up for sale on June 5, and several retailers have offered it both online and in-store in the week since. While millions of people have been able to buy theirs so far, online inventory has dried up cons...
The US Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office (CDAO) is handing out millions of dollars to the leading AI companies to develop military applications. Each of these "awards" are worth up to $200 million, with Anthropic, Google, OpenAI and xAI on the receiving end.
The agency notes that this money will be used to "develop agentic AI workflows across a variety of mission areas." In other words, this is primarily for military applications. A press release says the move will "broaden" the D...
Google is adding what it calls "featured notebooks" to NotebookLM as a way to demo its AI-powered software and offer interactive, high-quality resources on everything from personal advice to William Shakespeare. The company tried something similar after its developer conference in May, when it created a NotebookLM notebook trained on everything that was announced at Google I/O 2025.
The new featured notebooks have their own dedicated tab on the NotebookLM homepage and were created in partnership...
If you've been hunting high and low for a Nintendo Switch 2, then get ready to visit your local Best Buy on July 17. The electronics retailer will be restocking the handheld in all of its stores to coincide with the release of Donkey Kong Bananza, the first 3D Donkey Kong game in almost 30 years.
The Nintendo Switch 2 has been one of the hottest launches of the summer, and it remains in short supply due to high demand. Even the Amazon listing for the Switch 2 is available only by invitation, wou...
Meta is building several gigawatt-sized data centers to power AI, as reported by Bloomberg. CEO Mark Zuckerberg says the company will spend "hundreds of billions of dollars" to accomplish this feat, with an aim of creating "superintelligence."
The term typically refers to artificial general intelligence (AGI), which describes AI systems that boast human-level intelligence across multiple domains. This is something of a holy grail for Silicon Valley tech types.
The first center is called Promethe...
Canon has released 20 cameras since launching the RF mount in 2018, but it had one gaping hole in a key market: vlogging. Now, the company has patched that with the launch of the $700 R50 V that’s aimed at creators on a budget and designed to take on Sony’s ZV-E10 II.
The R50 V has the same 24-megapixel APS-C sensor as the R50, but adds vlogging-friendly features like 4K 60p video, C-Log3 for extra dynamic range, a livestreaming button and a side tripod socket for vertical video. It’s cheaper t...
Two years in, Threads is starting to look more and more like the most viable challenger to X. It passed 350 million monthly users earlier this year and Mark Zuckerberg has predicted it could be Meta's next billion-user app.
But Threads still isn't sending much traffic to other websites, which could make the platform less appealing for creators, publishers and others whose businesses depend on non-Meta owned websites. According to Similarweb, a marketing intelligence firm, outbound referral traff...
Just days after apologizing for Grok's recent hard turn toward antisemitism, xAI has announced a suite of AI products for government use. Grok for Government brings together the company's latest commercial products, including Grok 4 and Deep Search, with special considerations given to the needs of federal, state and local agencies.
To that end, xAI says it will design custom models for specific national security and research customers. It will also develop specialized AI applications for use i...
Amazon Prime Day is officially over after a record-long affair, but there are still standout deals available. You can currently snag the Apple Watch Series 10 for $279, or $120 off its usual retail price. That’s tied for the lowest price we've ever seen. A deal offering 30 percent off a current-generation Apple product doesn’t come around often. The cellular version is also $120 off during this sale.
It’s hard to believe the Apple Watch has hit its tenth generation, but this latest model remain...
