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Despite the months-long feud between Anthropic and the Pentagon, the National Security Agency is using the AI company's new Mythos Preview, according to Axios, which spoke to two sources with knowledge of the matter. Anthropic announced Mythos Preview at the beginning of April, describing it as a general-purpose language model that is "strikingly capable at computer security tasks." But back in February, Trump ordered all government agencies to stop using Anthropic's services after the company refused to budge on certain safeguards for military uses during contract talks. 

The news comes days after Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei met with White House chief of staff Susie Wiles and other officials, reportedly to discuss Mythos. The White House later said the meeting on Friday was "productive and constructive," though President Trump said he had "no idea" about it when asked by reporters, Reuters reports. According to Axios' sources, the NSA is one of the roughly 40 organizations Anthropic gave access to Mythos Preview, and one said it's "being used more widely within the department" too. 

The company is still embroiled in a legal battle with the US government. Anthropic filed lawsuits against the Department of Defense in two courts in March after the Trump administration labeled it a "supply chain risk," and the Pentagon filed a response shortly after. While Anthropic was granted a preliminary injunction by one court to temporarily block this designation, federal judges in the other denied its motion to lift the label. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/the-nsa-is-reportedly-using-anthropics-new-model-mythos-211502787.html?src=rss

To make up for an incredibly laughable inaugural event, Beijing is running back its humanoid robot half-marathon. Fortunately, the event that pits humanoid robots made by Chinese companies against each other across 13 miles went a lot smoother this year.

This year's half-marathon hosted more than 100 competitors, with first place going to Honor, better known for its smartphones, and its red-clad robot named Lightning. Living up to the name, the gold medalist finished the race in 50 minutes and 26 seconds. That's several minutes faster than the human record that was recently set by Uganda's Jacob Kiplimo last month.

Honor swept the other podium spots, with the important caveat that they all navigated the course autonomously, according to the state-sponsored television news agency CCTV. That's a massive improvement over last year, where the fastest time among 21 robots was achieved by Tiangong Ultra with a record of two hours and 40 minutes. Last year's event saw many of the bipedal robots receiving assistance from human operators who ran alongside them, as well as some comical mishaps, like falling at the starting line.

However, the BBC reported that around 40 percent of the robots competed autonomously this year, while the rest were remote-controlled. Despite the rapid improvements, this year's event still had its fair share of crashes, even from Honor's robots.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/beijings-robot-half-marathon-is-back-for-its-second-year-with-far-less-embarassing-results-191308396.html?src=rss

In case you haven't gotten around to reading Palantir CEO Alex Karp and Nicholas W. Zamiska's 2025 book, The Technological Republic, (because why would you do that to yourself?), the company best known for supplying AI-driven defense and surveillance software to the likes of the US Army, ICE and NYPD shared a 1,000-word X post this weekend covering its main points. The entire thing is both bizarre and deeply concerning. "The ability of free and democratic societies to prevail requires something more than moral appeal,” one of the 22 points states. "It requires hard power, and hard power in this century will be built on software."

The book is billed as "a passionate call for the West to wake up to our new reality," and other excerpts in the social media post include assertions such as: "Free email is not enough. The decadence of a culture or civilization, and indeed its ruling class, will be forgiven only if that culture is capable of delivering economic growth and security for the public"; "National service should be a universal duty"; "The postwar neutering of Germany and Japan must be undone"; and "Some cultures have produced vital advances; others remain dysfunctional and regressive."

The statement criticizes the West’s resistance to "defining national cultures in the name of inclusivity," as well as the treatment of billionaires and the "ruthless exposure of the private lives of public figures." It's a lot to take in, and it should make crystal clear what Palantir stands for to anyone who somehow didn't already know. Here's the post, in full:

Because we get asked a lot.

The Technological Republic, in brief.

1. Silicon Valley owes a moral debt to the country that made its rise possible. The engineering elite of Silicon Valley has an affirmative obligation to participate in the defense of the nation.

2. We must rebel against the tyranny of the apps. Is the iPhone our greatest creative if not crowning achievement as a civilization? The object has changed our lives, but it may also now be limiting and constraining our sense of the possible.

3. Free email is not enough. The decadence of a culture or civilization, and indeed its ruling class, will be forgiven only if that culture is capable of delivering economic growth and security for the public.

4. The limits of soft power, of soaring rhetoric alone, have been exposed. The ability of free and democratic societies to prevail requires something more than moral appeal. It requires hard power, and hard power in this century will be built on software.

5. The question is not whether A.I. weapons will be built; it is who will build them and for what purpose. Our adversaries will not pause to indulge in theatrical debates about the merits of developing technologies with critical military and national security applications. They will proceed.

6. National service should be a universal duty. We should, as a society, seriously consider moving away from an all-volunteer force and only fight the next war if everyone shares in the risk and the cost.

7. If a U.S. Marine asks for a better rifle, we should build it; and the same goes for software. We should as a country be capable of continuing a debate about the appropriateness of military action abroad while remaining unflinching in our commitment to those we have asked to step into harm’s way.

8. Public servants need not be our priests. Any business that compensated its employees in the way that the federal government compensates public servants would struggle to survive.

9. We should show far more grace towards those who have subjected themselves to public life. The eradication of any space for forgiveness—a jettisoning of any tolerance for the complexities and contradictions of the human psyche—may leave us with a cast of characters at the helm we will grow to regret.

10. The psychologization of modern politics is leading us astray. Those who look to the political arena to nourish their soul and sense of self, who rely too heavily on their internal life finding expression in people they may never meet, will be left disappointed.

11. Our society has grown too eager to hasten, and is often gleeful at, the demise of its enemies. The vanquishing of an opponent is a moment to pause, not rejoice.

12. The atomic age is ending. One age of deterrence, the atomic age, is ending, and a new era of deterrence built on A.I. is set to begin.

13. No other country in the history of the world has advanced progressive values more than this one. The United States is far from perfect. But it is easy to forget how much more opportunity exists in this country for those who are not hereditary elites than in any other nation on the planet.

14. American power has made possible an extraordinarily long peace. Too many have forgotten or perhaps take for granted that nearly a century of some version of peace has prevailed in the world without a great power military conflict. At least three generations — billions of people and their children and now grandchildren — have never known a world war.

15. The postwar neutering of Germany and Japan must be undone. The defanging of Germany was an overcorrection for which Europe is now paying a heavy price. A similar and highly theatrical commitment to Japanese pacifism will, if maintained, also threaten to shift the balance of power in Asia.

16. We should applaud those who attempt to build where the market has failed to act. The culture almost snickers at Musk’s interest in grand narrative, as if billionaires ought to simply stay in their lane of enriching themselves . . . . Any curiosity or genuine interest in the value of what he has created is essentially dismissed, or perhaps lurks from beneath a thinly veiled scorn.

17. Silicon Valley must play a role in addressing violent crime. Many politicians across the United States have essentially shrugged when it comes to violent crime, abandoning any serious efforts to address the problem or take on any risk with their constituencies or donors in coming up with solutions and experiments in what should be a desperate bid to save lives.

18. The ruthless exposure of the private lives of public figures drives far too much talent away from government service. The public arena—and the shallow and petty assaults against those who dare to do something other than enrich themselves—has become so unforgiving that the republic is left with a significant roster of ineffectual, empty vessels whose ambition one would forgive if there were any genuine belief structure lurking within.

19. The caution in public life that we unwittingly encourage is corrosive. Those who say nothing wrong often say nothing much at all.

20. The pervasive intolerance of religious belief in certain circles must be resisted. The elite’s intolerance of religious belief is perhaps one of the most telling signs that its political project constitutes a less open intellectual movement than many within it would claim.

21. Some cultures have produced vital advances; others remain dysfunctional and regressive. All cultures are now equal. Criticism and value judgments are forbidden. Yet this new dogma glosses over the fact that certain cultures and indeed subcultures . . . have produced wonders. Others have proven middling, and worse, regressive and harmful.

22. We must resist the shallow temptation of a vacant and hollow pluralism. We, in America and more broadly the West, have for the past half century resisted defining national cultures in the name of inclusivity. But inclusion into what?

Excerpts from the #1 New York Times Bestseller The Technological Republic: Hard Power, Soft Belief, and the Future of the West, by Alexander C. Karp & Nicholas W. Zamiska

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/palantir-posted-a-manifesto-that-reads-like-the-ramblings-of-a-comic-book-villain-181947361.html?src=rss

Anyone looking to upgrade to the next Mac Studio or MacBook Pro might have to wait a little longer, thanks to the ongoing global memory shortage. As reported by Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, "at least two of the company's upcoming machines ... could debut a little later than the company initially planned," referencing the refreshes to Apple's desktop and its laptop that's expected to get a touchscreen.

Bloomberg reported that the upcoming Mac Studio, which follows up the current lineup in the M4 Max and M3 Ultra configurations, was first expected to release in the middle of the year. However, Apple is already dealing with shortages of its existing Mac Studio stock, likely due to the device being a popular choice for anyone running local AI models. With no stop to the shortage in sight, Gurman predicted that the refreshed Mac Studio's release could be postponed to around October instead.

It's not just Apple's desktop offerings being affected. Gurman also reported that the release of the next MacBook Pro could be delayed. While Gurman said the release timeline of the touchscreen MacBook Pro could be between the end of 2026 to early 2027, he's now predicting that it would arrive toward the later end of that timeline. Of course, Apple isn't the only consumer tech company heavily affected by the RAM shortage. However, Apple can at least take advantage of its successful MacBook Neo release amidst the memory shortage crisis affecting all laptop makers.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/the-next-mac-studio-and-macbook-pro-releases-could-be-postponed-by-several-months-173120187.html?src=rss

Tesla is expanding its Robotaxi footprint across Texas by introducing availability in both Dallas and Houston. As announced in a post on X, the EV maker is rolling out its Robotaxis to small sections of the Texas cities, as detailed by two maps of its new service areas. 

The first Robotaxi rides started in Austin, Texas where Tesla is headquartered, but the service's launch was paired with a "Tesla Safety Monitor," or a supervising human in the passenger seat. Earlier this year, Tesla began to transition away from including safety monitors, leaving its Robotaxis to operate unsupervised and fully autonomous. In the latest announcement on X, Tesla also showed off a 360-degree panning shot with no safety monitor, but the company hasn't stated if its Dallas and Houston service will have in-car human supervision. It's worth nothing that Tesla previously admitted that some of its Robotaxis are sometimes driven remotely by human operators.

With the Robotaxi expansion into Dallas and Houston, Tesla is encroaching on Waymo's autonomous ride-hailing service that entered the same markets in February of this year. Looking ahead, Tesla is also targeting the Bay Area market in California for its Robotaxi expansion. While the company has received approvals to operate a ride-hailing service in California, it still doesn't have authorization for autonomous taxis in the state yet.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/tesla-is-rolling-out-its-robotaxi-service-to-dallas-and-houston-160742941.html?src=rss

Not everyone had the money for the original Neo Geo Advanced Entertainment System when it released in the '90s, but there's still a chance to experience it as an adult with disposable income. SNK and Plaion Replai, who is also behind the all-black remake of the Commodore 64, announced a faithful remake of the high-end retro console, called the Neo Geo AES+.

To bring the original console into the modern day, the collaborating companies added HDMI compatibility for resolutions up to 1080p and DIP switches on the bottom of the console to allow for language selection, overclocking and switching display modes. Rounding out the upgrades, SNK and Plaion Replai included a permanent way to retain high scores on a memory card and a low-power usage mode. For the purists out there, the Neo Geo AES+ still works on those chunky CRT displays since it has the original AV output.

Preorders are currently open for two versions of the Neo Geo AES+, including an all-white 35th anniversary edition bundle that includes an Arcade Stick, a limited-edition Metal Slug game cartridge and a memory card, for $349.99. The standard edition in classic black will only come with an arcade stick, but will be available for $249.99. Coinciding with the console release, Replai Plaion will release 10 modernized game cartridges, including Metal Slug, The King of Fighters 2002 and other classics, for $89.99 each. If you think those prices are high, don't forget the original Neo Geo AES' release price was $649.99. The Neo Geo AES+ is set to start shipping on November 12.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/snks-neo-geo-console-remake-works-with-original-cartridges-and-hdmi-194509442.html?src=rss

A judge has granted the makers of the "ICE Sightings - Chicagoland" Facebook group and the Eyes Up app a preliminary injunction to stop the Trump administration from coercing platforms to take these projects down. Judge Jorge L. Alonso of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois found that the plaintiffs, Kassandra Rosado and Kreisau Group, are likely to succeed in their case, which alleges that the government suppressed protected speech under the First Amendment by strong-arming Facebook and Apple into removing ICE monitoring efforts. 

Both Eyes Up and ICE Sightings - Chicagoland use publicly available information to keep tabs on ICE activity. But after pressure from Trump officials, they were removed from Apple's App Store and Facebook, respectively. Similar apps including ICEBlock and Red Dot were also taken down from the App Store and Google Play. The lawsuit cites social media posts by former US Attorney General Pam Bondi and former Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem that demanded and took credit for the removal of these apps. In a document filed on Friday, Alonso called these posts "thinly veiled threats."

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), which is defending the plaintiffs, wrote in a post on X that it is "extremely encouraged by this ruling." It continued, "Even though it’s not the end of the case, it bodes well for the future of our legal fight to ensure that the First Amendment protects the right to discuss, record, and criticize what law enforcement does in public."

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/judge-sides-with-creators-of-banned-ice-trackers-who-allege-dhs-and-doj-violated-their-first-amendment-rights-191701801.html?src=rss

Apple has secured a major victory for its redesigned smartwatches as per the latest decision from the US International Trade Commission. The federal agency ruled against reinstating an import ban on Apple Watches, allowing the tech giant to continue selling its devices with a reworked blood-oxygen monitoring technology.

The ITC decided to terminate the case and refer to a preliminary ruling from one of its judges in March that claimed that Apple's redesigned smartwatches don't infringe on patents held by Masimo, the medical tech company that has long been embroiled in lawsuits surrounding the Apple Watch. Apple thanked the ITC in a statement, adding that "Masimo has waged a relentless legal campaign against Apple and nearly all of its claims have been rejected." We reached out to Masimo for comment and will update the story when we hear back.

The latest decision could offer some closure to the longstanding legal feud between Masimo and Apple. The patent battle dates back to 2021 with Masimo's first filing against Apple that requested an import ban on Apple Watches. The ITC ended up ruling that Apple violated Masimo's patents, resulting in the previous import ban and the Apple Watch maker redesigning the blood-oxygen reading feature in certain models. However, Masimo wasn't satisfied with this conclusion and sought another import ban on the updated Apple Watch models. Now that the ITC has ruled against that, Masimo is left with the option to appeal the decision with the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

While Masimo may currently be on the losing side of this legal battle, it's confronting Apple on multiple fronts. In November, a federal jury sided with Masimo and ruled that Apple has to pay $634 million in a separate patent infringement case.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/wearables/apple-avoids-a-second-import-ban-for-its-redesigned-smartwatches-in-latest-court-ruling-175600668.html?src=rss

The US Department of Justice is siding with X, as the social media platform owned by Elon Musk navigates a criminal investigation unfolding in France. As first reported by The Wall Street Journal, the Justice Department characterized the French probe as "an effort to entangle the United States in a politically charged criminal proceeding aimed at wrongfully regulating through prosecution the business activities of a social media platform.”

France launched its investigation into X in July, accusing the platform of manipulating its algorithm and "fraudulent data extraction." Months later, French authorities raided X's office in Paris and issued summonses to Musk and Linda Yaccarino, the former CEO of X, to appear for interviews on April 20 as part of the probe. According to WSJ, French officials are also investigating X for other charges, including disseminating CSAM and Holocaust denial. However, France's latest move to ask the Department of Justice for assistance has been stonewalled.

“This investigation seeks to use the criminal legal system in France to regulate a public square for the free expression of ideas and opinions in a manner contrary to the First Amendment of the United States Constitution," the DOJ wrote in letter, as seen by WSJ.

An xAI official told WSJ that it's "grateful to the Justice Department for rejecting this effort by a prosecutor in Paris to compel our CEO and several employees to sit for interviews." The company spokesperson also said there was "no wrongdoing" and that it was a "baseless investigation."

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/doj-refuses-to-help-french-authorities-in-criminal-probe-of-x-162654518.html?src=rss

The Artemis II astronauts are settling back into life on Earth, but we're not quite tired yet of hearing about their amazing journey. There's a new PBS documentary now streaming on YouTube that dives into the Artemis program and the latest efforts to send humans to the moon again. Also this week, NASA shared some awesome images of a comet flying into the sun, the nonprofit American Rivers released its annual report on the most endangered rivers in the US and ESA posted a throwback image of Mars to highlight some interesting changes down on the surface. Here are the science stories that caught our attention this week. 

A comet grazes too close to the sun

Earlier this month, a recently discovered comet made a close approach to the sun — but it couldn't handle the heat. NASA has shared incredible images of the encounter that took place on April 4, showing the comet exploding into dust as it swings around our star. As NASA notes in a social media post, this was "its first and last observed flyby of the Sun."

The comet, C/2026 A1 (also known as MAPS) was first spotted on January 13 of this year. As it neared the sun, it was observed by a slew of instruments: NASA and ESA's SOHO (Solar and Heliospheric Observatory) spacecraft, NASA's STEREO (Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory) and NASA's PUNCH (Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere). This allowed for views of its passage from multiple angles. Seen in a narrow-field coronagraph view captured by SOHO, the comet appears to plunge directly into the sun. But, the wide view from NASA's STEREO shows it actually swinging closely around the sun before breaking apart. 

🧵2/4

This close-up coronagraph view from NASA/ESA’s SOHO spacecraft shows comet C/2026 A1 (MAPS) approaching the Sun on April 4.

After the comet passes behind the disk, only a cloud of dust emerges. pic.twitter.com/PbkzqPnZ5F

— NASA Solar System (@NASASolarSystem) April 16, 2026

MAPS was one of a family of comets aptly called Kreutz sungrazing comets, and according to Karl Battams, the principal investigator for SOHO’s coronagraph, its destruction occurred likely several hours before what would have been its closest approach. 

Potomac named most endangered river in the US

The nonprofit conservation organization American Rivers has released its 2026 report on the most endangered rivers in the country, and data centers play a major role in the status of its top pick. According to American Rivers, the Potomac River is the most endangered in the US due both to the threat of sewage pollution from aging pipe systems and the "unprecedented surge in data center development" in its vicinity. 

The Potomac River basin spans parts of Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia and Washington, DC. In January, the catastrophic failure of the Potomac Interceptor wastewater pipe in Montgomery County, Maryland dumped hundreds of millions of gallons of untreated sewage into the Potomac River and the Chesapeake and Ohio (C&O) Canal, causing bacteria levels to hit over 4,000 times the safe recreational limit at sites closest to the incident, according to the report. The Potomac Interceptor is over 60 years old, and is just one of many in the region that is at or past the 50-year service life, American Rivers notes. 

On top of that, data center development in places like Virginia and Maryland has skyrocketed, which could put a strain on local water and energy sources. Data centers also have potential to cause further pollution to the river. 

"The region currently has over 300 data centers and is on track to have a total of about 1,000 centers occupying roughly 200 million square feet of buildings — enough to cover 3,472 football fields — on an estimated 20,000 acres of land," the report explains. "These facilities pose a significant and growing threat to both water quality and water quantity, yet are being approved without meaningful transparency, regulatory review, and assessment of cumulative impacts."

The organization is calling for Congress to reauthorize infrastructure funding bills so aging systems can be upgraded, and for regulators in these states to require transparency about data centers' resource use, along with comprehensive environmental assessments before development plans are approved. 

Mars ash: then vs nowESA/DLR/FU Berlin

The European Space Agency this week shared a look at how a region on Mars has changed since it was observed by NASA’s Viking orbiters way back in 1976. New images captured by ESA's Mars Express spacecraft show how dark volcanic ash has encroached upon a swath of land in an area known as the Utopia Planitia basin. If you visit the blog post, you'll find a side by side comparison of images from the two time periods.

It's a rare example of an observable change on the surface of the red planet that's occurred over such a short period of time, ESA notes. The agency explains, "The spread of the ash over the last 50 years has two possible explanations: either it has been picked up and moved about by martian winds, or the ochre dust that previously covered the dark ash has been blown away."

Before you go, be sure to check these stories out too:

• The PBS Artemis II documentary is streaming on YouTube

• NAACP sues xAI over data center pollution

• There's yet another study about how bad AI is for our brains

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/science/a-comet-gets-destroyed-by-the-sun-data-centers-endanger-the-potomac-river-and-more-science-news-160000714.html?src=rss

Welcome to our latest roundup of what's going on in the indie game space. Once again, there are some neat new games for you to check out this weekend. We've got a bunch of updates and announcements for upcoming titles to tell you about too.

There have been a bunch of solid indie showcases lately (and highlights from another one to tell you about below). If you want to learn about a ton of other games ASAP, you might want to set your alarm pretty early on April 25.

Starting at 5AM ET that day, the latest edition of Indie Life Expo takes place on YouTube, Twitch, TikTok, Bilibili and elsewhere. This one will feature more than 200 games! A rapid-fire Indie Waves segment will power through 160 of them. Organizers received 1,100 submissions for this installment, so hats off to them for featuring a sizable percentage of those.

Before that, you can check out another showcase on April 21. Top Hat Studios Presents: Spring Showcase 2026 will start at noon ET on the publisher's YouTube and Twitch channels.

The stream will feature Motorslice, Well Dweller and survival horror game Becrowned, as well premieres and other Top Hat games. I've been looking forward to Motorslice, which has a May release window. I wager we'll get a precise release date for that during this stream.

Meanwhile, there's an interesting Steam event taking place soon. InterfaceX26 will run from April 27 until May 4. This one is focused on games that deal with made-up operating systems and other custom interfaces. Organizers have brought together more than 150 developers and publishers, who are asking Valve to introduce an official "Fake OS" tag for games on Steam. 

Some neat games will be included in a sale and a showcase on May 2, including Blippo+, TR-49 and The Roottrees are Dead. Expect demos and relevant new releases too. Speaking of which...

New releases

We've been waiting a very long time for Replaced. This cyberpunk adventure from Sad Cat Studios and publisher Thunderful finally landed this week on Steam, GOG, Xbox on PC and Xbox Series X/S. It's on Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass. Otherwise, the base game costs $20. A supporter edition that includes the soundtrack is $25. It'll hit the Epic Games Store at a later date.

The game was initially supposed to arrive in 2022. It certainly didn't help that Sad Cat Studios was forced to relocate from Belarus to Cyprus after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. But the game is finally here and it debuted to generally positive reviews.

Replaced is a 2.5D action platformer set in an alternate version of 1980s America, in which you play as an AI trapped in a human body that may or may not dream of electric sheep. I haven't yet had a chance to properly jump into this gorgeous-looking game, but I'm hoping to do so this weekend.

Speaking of games I've long had on my wishlist, Gecko Gods arrived this week. I think I first clapped eyes on this around 2022. Various trailers charmed me with the idea of a puzzle exploration platformer that casts you in the role of a gecko that's able to run along walls and ceilings. 

I've played around 90 minutes of this one so far. I dig the look and the gecko is very cute (being able to customize its appearance is a nice touch). I love that you "collect" different types of bugs by eating them. It's a fairly relaxing game, which is broadly what I need at the minute.

I think there are some issues here, though. I've explored two of the main five islands in the open world and it feels a bit sparse so far. The joy of being able to clamber up and around any object complicates things when it comes to more precise platforming sections. While the sailing sections are pretty, the boat is clunky to control on the choppy water. I ran into some mild technical issues as well on PS5 with occasional framerate dips and objects popping in. Hopefully, that's something the developers at Inresin are able to address.

Gecko Gods — from publishers Super Rare Originals and Gamersky Games — is available now on Steam, PS5 and Nintendo Switch. It's normally $20, but there's a 10 percent launch discount until April 30 (on PS5, this only applies to PlayStation Plus members)

Another highly anticipated game landed this week in the form of Mouse: PI for Hire. We've had our eyes on this first-person shooter/detective game with sumptuous rubberhose-style animation for quite some time. Reviews have been generally positive so far, and it seems that there's enough substance here to live up to those stellar visuals. 

Mouse: PI for Hire — from Fumi Games and publisher PlaySide — is out now for $30. It's available on PC, Nintendo Switch 2, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.

Thirsty Suitors developer Outerloop Games and co-publisher Outersloth served up the cooking-themed Dosa Divas this week. It tells the story of two sisters who set out on a journey with their mech to take down a fast food empire and reconnect communities through cooking. 

It caught my eye when I saw it during a showcase a while back and it has a great concept, though I don't exactly love turn-based combat. I've read a few lukewarm reviews of the game, and the consensus seems to be that the cooking mechanics and combat perhaps needed some more time to simmer. 

If you'd like to try Dosa Divas yourself, you can pick it up on Steam, Xbox Series X/S, PS5, Nintendo Switch and Switch 2. It'll usually run you $20, but there's a 10 percent launch discount until April 28.

If you're looking for a puzzle game that can be relaxing or rather dark, depending on your mood, it might be worth checking out A Storied Life: Tabitha. As you pack up the home of a late loved one, you'll need to decide which items to keep in the limited storage space you have and discard the rest. You'll need to wrap fragile items in bubble wrap and vacuum pack soft items to save room in the boxes.

As you save items, you'll unlock words that you can use to fill in the blanks of your loved one's life and tell their story, Mad Libs-style. Given that you'll find items like a blackmail letter and a shirt with lipstick on the collar, it seems like there's a lot of variety to the kinds of stories you can tell.

A Storied Life: Tabitha is available on Steam now. It'll normally run you $15, but you can save 10 percent if you buy it before April 28.

To round out this section, I’ll quickly note that Hades 2 is out now on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S for  $30, with a 20 percent launch discount. It's on Game Pass Ultimate, Game Pass Premium and PC Game Pass too.

I bought Hades 2 when Supergiant Games brought it to Steam early access two years ago, telling myself I'd wait until the full game was out. But I still haven't gotten around to it yet. There are always too many games tugging at my fragile attention span and Hades 2 faded into the background for me. I really ought to play it, I know!

Upcoming 

I'm keeping an eye out for Agefield High: Rock the School from Refugium Games. This spiritual successor to Rockstar's Bully is set to arrive this summer on Steam. It emerged this week that it will hit PS5 and Xbox Series X/S later in the year.

It's a coming-of-age adventure in which you play as Sam, a young lad who has moved to a new school in the early 2000s. He wants to make his last few months of high school a time to remember.

There's a branching narrative with multiple endings here — you can opt to go to classes and be a good student, or skip school and cause trouble. As a mostly rule-abiding student way back when, I'd be tempted to go for the latter. This seems like a bit of a life sim with a broad array of activities and ways to get into bother. I’m looking forward to it.

The latest edition of the Galaxies Showcase — yet another indie spotlight event — took place this week and The Backworld caught my attention. This is a Mother-inspired RPG from Numor Games and publisher Top Hat with charming art direction (yes, I did see that one character doing a Naruto run), an intriguing mix of characters and... 

Oh no, why did the music stop? Why did it get so dark all of a sudden? What are these horrifying beasts that are chasing my character? Yup, there's a heavy horror element here. Numor took inspiration from The Backrooms as well.

The Backworld will be released later this year. A demo just hit Steam.

A Study in Blue, from Relate Games, was another highlight of the Galaxies Showcase, thanks in large part to that impressive animation. This is a point-and-click adventure in which you play as two characters with complex pasts: private detective Kenneth and runaway Blue. 

You'll explore a semi-open world and solve crimes by collecting clues and calling out characters' lies. There are three intertwined story acts and multiple endings. A Steam demo featuring a side quest from the main game that'll take around two hours to complete is available now.

I'm always going to be interested in any game that riffs on The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. On the face of this trailer, Elementallis developer AnKae Games seems to borrow quite a bit of the design language and other ideas from the SNES classic. Still, if you're going to crib from anything, it may as well be the best game of all time.

This 2D action RPG, which is also published by Top Hat and has a heavier focus on elemental powers than A Link to the Past, looks very much like my kind of jam. It's coming to Steam, GOG, Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X/S and Xbox One on April 28. Per the eShop listing, it'll cost $18.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/cyberpunk-platformers-gallivanting-geckos-and-other-new-indie-games-worth-checking-out-110000924.html?src=rss

The James Bond franchise has a long history of getting pop stars to record its theme songs (perhaps most memorably with Live and Let Die), and it looks like that tradition will now extend to video game adaptations about the fictional spy. IO Interactive has announced that Lana Del Rey co-wrote and performed the theme for 007 First Light, the developer's playable James Bond origin story.

"First Light" is written and performed by Lana Del Rey and composer David Arnold, and like the moody and abstract opening credits released alongside the song, could vaguely gesture at the themes of the game. IO Interactive has previously said that its game focuses on a young, inexperienced and more reckless Bond, before he developed his trademark cool. The developer is also integrating the stealth mechanics it perfected in Hitman into the upcoming game.

Del Rey's personal gaming experience may begin and end with her hit "Video Games," which was apparently written about a former boyfriend's love of World of Warcraft, but the artist does know how to write a song with Bond in mind. Lana Del Rey shared in 2024 that her song "24" from the album Honeymoon was originally written for 2017's Spectre, one of several songs that were cast aside in favor of Sam Smith's "Writing's on the Wall."

007 First Light is coming to Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5 and PC on May 27, 2026. A Nintendo Switch 2 version of the game is now coming out this summer.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/15-years-after-video-games-lana-del-rey-has-an-actual-video-game-song-221925735.html?src=rss

The crew of NASA's Artemis II mission have safely returned to Earth, but if your Moon fever has yet to break, or you're curious to get a big picture view of how the second of a planned five Moon missions was pulled off, PBS has a new documentary you'll want to watch. The hour-long Return to the Moon was produced for PBS' NOVA and aired on TV on April 15, but you can view the episode in its entirety on YouTube right now.

Return to the Moon covers the history of NASA's Artemis program, and specifically the planning and preparation that went into Artemis II. Per the documentary's official description:

Follow the four members of the Artemis II crew as they embark on a perilous 10-day journey to orbit the Moon, venturing beyond Earth orbit for the first time since Apollo and farther into the Solar System than any humans have gone before. And get an inside look at the preparations needed to overcome the extreme engineering challenges of human-crewed spaceflight, all the way from launch to splashdown.

The last Apollo mission was in 1972, so Artemis II getting a group of four astronauts anywhere near the Moon has naturally generated a lot of excitement. The crew flew further away from Earth than anyone has gone so far, captured some stunning photos of both the Moon and our home planet and managed to make everyone feel better about their dislike of Microsoft Outlook. Few Moon missions have been as well-documented or relatable.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/science/the-pbs-artemis-ii-documentary-is-streaming-on-youtube-210347406.html?src=rss

The specter of price hikes caused by the current AI-driven demand for memory and storage appears to have convinced a fair share of people to buy a new computer. According to data analyzed by Counterpoint Research, global PC shipments grew around 3.2 percent year-over-year in Q1 2026, "driven by pre-emptive buying before memory-led price increases hit the retail level" and Microsoft forcing some customers to upgrade by ending support for Windows 10 last year.

Sales hit 63.3 million units during the first quarter, Counterpoint says, and were particularly concentrated in five high-end PC makers: Lenovo, ASUS, Apple, HP and Dell. Of the five, Lenovo commands the most PC market share at 26 percent, but sales increased for almost all of the companies, save for HP, whose year-over-year sales technically declined by 5 percent. Of particular note, Apple's PC sales grew by 11 percent, likely on the strength of the M5 updates it made to the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air, and the introduction of the affordable $600 MacBook Neo. Counterpoint suggests the updates could drive even further sales growth next quarter. 

Even with positive sales, the PC industry as a whole is by no means out of the woods. "The aggressive expansion in AI infrastructure investment is driving up overall component costs, which will likely impact the pricing of CPUs and other key components in [PCs]," Counterpoint Senior Analyst Minsoo Kang says. "Ultimately, the sustained upward pressure on costs and the resulting hike in retail prices are expected to have a significant negative impact on the PC market’s growth in 2026."

A general sense that the worst is yet to come is consistent with what other analysts have warned about the current shortages of RAM and storage. In December 2025, IDC predicted that PC shipments could drop as much as 8.9 percent in 2026 in response to the price of RAM, and later revised its prediction to 11.6 percent this past March. Even if consumers aren't feeling the worst of these price hikes just yet, new announcements of price increases seem to arrive like clockwork every few weeks — for example, this week, Meta raised the price of its Quest headsets — which means if they aren't feeling them now, they will soon.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/a-lot-of-you-panic-bought-pcs-to-avoid-ramaggedon-2026-200237204.html?src=rss

Sam Altman's cryptocurrency turned identity verification startup Tools for Humanity is offering a new set of perks to people who scan their eyes at one of the company's orbs. Among them, is a new tool called Concert Kit that could help bands and artists fight back against ticket scalping bots. 

The new feature relies on the revamped World ID, the orb-based verification system that scans users eyeballs and faces to create a "proof of human" signature that lives on users' mobile devices. "It's basically like a little human passport for the internet that lets you prove on apps and websites that you are a real and unique human without revealing anything about yourself," Tools for Humanity Chief Product Officer Tiago Sada tells Engadget. 

Now, as more apps and services are starting to support World ID, that "human passport" can unlock some new abilities. Coupled with Concert Kit, it allows artists to designate a specific pool of tickets for "verified" humans only. The concept is a bit like how pre-sales currently work, with artists (or their teams) setting aside a specific number of tickets for people who have set up a World ID. Those folks can then use their World ID to get ticket codes for Ticketmaster, Eventbrite, AXS or other major ticketing platforms. 

Because World ID is limited to actual, "verified," humans the system won't be susceptible to the same tactics that have enabled bots to ruin the ticket-buying process for so many, Tools for Humanity says. Artists are also in control of what level of verification they want to require from their fans. (The new World ID app will also allow people to set up an account with a selfie check if they don't have ready access to an orb.) 

Just how much of a dent Concert Kit will be able to make in the massive scalping bot problem that plagues the concert industry is less clear. So far, Bruno Mars is slated to use the solution on his upcoming world tour — no word on just how many of his tickets will be reserved for World ID-verified humans, though — and Concert Kit is available to other artists starting today.

Concert Kit is one of several new integrations and updates to World ID that Tools for Humanity announced at an event in San Francisco Friday. Tinder, which earlier this year started testing World ID as an age verification solution in Japan, will be rolling out support worldwide. In the US, Tinder's integration won't be for age verification, though. Instead, it will indicate whether there is an actual "verified" human behind a given profile.

Tinder profiles that verify with World ID will get a badge as an extra signal of authenticity.Tools for Humanity

On the enterprise side, Zoom and DocuSign are also adding support for World ID to help businesses verify that there is an actual person (and not a deepfake or bot) joining their video calls or signing important documents. Tools for Humanity is also introducing a standalone app for World ID that separates its identity verification tools from its existing crypto wallet app.

The updates are Tools for Humanity's latest attempt to make their orb-based verification system, which has been widely mocked, more mainstream and perhaps a little less dystopian. (Elsewhere, orbs have begun appearing in some new places like a San Francisco Gap.) 

On their part, Tools for Humanity seems aware that a lot of people aren't ready to scan their faces at a bunch of orbs controlled by Altman just to "prove" they are humans. I asked Sada, Tools for Humanity's Chief Product Officer, what he would say to people who think that the company is solving for the wrong problem: that really it should be up to ticketing platforms and dating apps and other services to strengthen their security and bot-fighting tools, rather than rely on their users to "prove" their humanness. 

He said it was a "completely understandable question" and compared it to some people's initial discomfort with things like Apple's TouchID or FaceID. "Not everyone has to do it upfront, and that's important," he said. "It's optional. If you want to have a World ID, you get access to that enhanced experience."

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/sam-altmans-human-verification-company-thinks-its-eye-scanning-orbs-could-solve-ticket-scalping-171500555.html?src=rss

Bluesky is once again having a wobble. The platform said some of its systems are down and that it’s “investigating an incident with service in one of our reginos” (that’s Bluesky’s typo, not mine). The issue appears to have started at 1:42AM ET and was still persisting as of 11AM when this story was originally published. Since then, the site has been experiencing intermitent interuptions, including at times to its status page where users should be able to monitor outages.

At 7:47PM ET, the platform explained that it’s been attempting to mitigate “a sophisticated Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attack, which intensified throughout the day.” It said the attack had caused interruptions to users’ feeds, notifications, threads and search, all of which the Engadget team experienced first-hand at various points through the day. While DDoS attacks are frequently used as virtual smokescreens for hacks, Bluesky says it has “not seen any evidence of unauthorized access to private user data.” The social media service had another brief outage earlier this month.

In a later update on April 17, Bluesky noted that the DDoS attacks are “ongoing” but that the service has been stable since about 9PM PT last night. The company also reaffirmed that it hasn’t seen any evidence of access to user data. The next update is set to arrive by end of day Friday.

Update, April 17, 12:47PM ET: This story was updated with Bluesky’s latest outage update.

Update, April 16, 8PM ET: This story was updated after publish with an of the outage from Bluesky.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/bluesky-blames-ddos-attack-for-server-outages-150515882.html?src=rss

NASA has confirmed the pending launch of the European Space Agency's (ESA) Rosalind Franklin rover, which is being sent to Mars. The current plan is to launch via a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Kennedy Space Center. The timing is still being worked out, but the space agency says this won't happen until at least 2028.

This is a partnership between NASA and the ESA, with the European agency providing the rover, the spacecraft and the lander. The US will provide braking engines for the lander, heater units for the rover's internal systems and, of course, assistance with the actual launch.

The rover will be outfitted with scientific instruments to look for signs of ancient life on the red planet. These include a state-of-the-art mass spectrometer and an organic molecule analyzer, which will come in handy as the vehicle collects samples at the Oxia Planum landing site.

This is a mission that has suffered years of delays for all kinds of wild reasons. It was actually first conceived all the way back in 2001. The rover mission was originally scheduled for 2009, after NASA came on board. Budget constraints forced NASA to drop out in 2012, so Russia signed on as the ESA's launch partner.

During this period, the mission experienced technical malfunctions which forced additional delays. The ESA suspended its partnership with Russia in 2022 after the country invaded Ukraine. This left the mission in doubt until 2024, when NASA came back into the fold.

In the middle of a historic mission back to the Moon, this Administration is proposing to a 47% cut to NASA science and a 23% cut to NASA’s budget overall. Last week’s launch showed our country and world what we’re capable of when we work together toward a common goal. None of… pic.twitter.com/zW3i3iFaEQ

— Senator Mark Kelly (@SenMarkKelly) April 10, 2026

However, the setbacks didn't even end there. The Trump administration has repeatedly tried to end NASA's involvement with the project, and many others, via stark budget cuts. The current proposal was made while the Artemis II crew was on their mission around the Moon, according to a report by The Register. Here's hoping the launch actually happens in 2028.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/science/space/nasa-restarts-work-to-support-europes-uncrewed-trip-to-mars-after-years-of-setbacks-161524488.html?src=rss

Panic, the company behind the tiny and excellent Playdate console, is taking a stand on generative AI. The company has published an AI disclosure that says as of this month, the Playdate Catalog “will no longer accept titles that use ‘Generative AI’ for art, audio, music, text, or dialog.” Panic does allow for developers to use AI assistance for coding, but also says that “we will flag any title as such and specify the extent that it was used (for example, “Lua debugging”) so the customer can decide whether to support it or not.”

This comes a day after Panic announced that Playdate season three was happening and would arrive later this year. For those who don’t recall, the Playdate includes a “season” worth of games when you buy it, 24 titles in total with two revealed every week. Season two came out last year with 12 games — but, as Game Developer notes, one of those games used generative AI for writing and coding. On Bluesky, someone asked Panic if it would disclose what games in season three used AI, and the company confirmed that it was a requirement for season three that developers not use AI for art, music, writing or coding.

Specifically, Panic says you can’t use large language models like ChatGPT or Google Gemini, AI image generators like Stable Diffusion or audio generators like MuseNet and Suno. Previously-approved games with generative AI will be allowed to stay on the catalog with a disclosure that indicates what exactly AI was used for. The company says these guidelines are “under constant discussion and is subject to change at any time.”

I recall seeing AI disclosures on games in the Playdate Catalog in the past, but it makes sense to be up-front and clear on exactly what Panic allows and what it will reject. That said, it’s fairly easy to sideload games onto a Playdate, so anyone who wants to use generative AI to make a game isn’t entirely out of luck — though distribution and discovery for Playdate owners will obviously be harder.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/panic-says-the-playdate-catalog-wont-accept-games-made-with-generative-ai-160615022.html?src=rss

The rules of Exit 8, both the cult indie game and the recent film adaptation, are simple: You're stuck in a subway station that loops around endlessly. If you notice any anomalies on your current loop, you turn around. If everything is the same, you keep going forward. Each successful guess takes you to a new entrance where the loop recurs, until you reach the end of the labyrinth, Exit 8 itself. 

It's a setup that perfectly suits a first-person video game, where you can fully control where your character looks and moves. And it's also something director Genki Kawamura deftly replicates in the film through long tracking shots and sweeping camera movements. Even without a controller, or a keyboard and mouse, the viewer remains immersed, looking and listening for any minor changes. Within just a few minutes, the film makes it clear it's not just another thoughtless video game adaptation like The Mario Galaxy Movie — it's an attempt to translate the experience of the game to an entirely new medium.

That's a daunting challenge for most artists, but Kawamura is no stranger to jumping between formats. He's known for producing popular anime films from the likes of Makoto Shinkai and Mamoru Hosoda, including Your Name and Belle. He's also made a name for himself as a best-selling author, with books including the novelization of Exit 8.

Kawamura's perspective for the film came from a conversation with Nintendo's legendary game designer Shigeru Miyamoto, who had mentioned that the greatest games are both fun for the players and people watching them. "So what I tried to do in the film is to really place the audience in the shoes of the player in certain shots... almost like they were watching a live stream of a video game in other scenes," he said in an interview with Engadget (via a translator). "That's kind of structurally the through-line of the film."

The Exit 8 adaptation balances that sense of immersion with a more traditional narrative structure, something the game lacked entirely. As the film begins, we're introduced to a young man standing in a crowded train. A drunken businessman shouts at a mother to quiet crying baby down. Instead of telling the belligerent salaryman to fuck off, the young man plugs in his earbuds and tries to ignore the situation, just like everyone else. He eventually steps off, while the tearful mother suffers through the verbal assault.

It's a scene that anyone who's lived in a crowded city can relate to — the moments where you know you should try to help a stranger, but fear, cowardice or embarrassment hold you back. 

Exit 8NEON

Shortly after receiving a call from his ex-girlfriend, who reveals that she's pregnant, the young man stumbles into the Exit 8 loop. At first, it's just a normal subway station, with large poster ads, a photo booth and random maintenance doors. But he quickly notices that the room repeats itself. Thanks to a helpful set of instructions on the wall, he learns that his only way out is to start tracking anomalies, like slight changes in text, or the way a robotic businessman walks past him. And yes, things get freaky quickly. 

Kawamura points to his experience working in animation as a major influence for Exit 8. In particular, the works of Satoshi Kon and Katsuhiro Otomo influenced how he externalized what characters were thinking and feeling, as well as how he depicted the interaction of dream and real worlds. 

" When we were filming, I told my DP [director of photography] that the main character of this film is the corridor," he said. "And all of our human characters, they have no names, so therefore they're NPCs in this corridor, which is the main character. So I wanted the corridor to almost evoke this feeling in the audience that it has a will of its own. And this yellow Exit 8 sign is almost like this divine God-like being."

Kawamura says he personally views it as the corridor challenging humans who have a guilty conscience, but you can easily read in other meanings. More importantly, Exit 8 isn't merely a faithful recreation of the source material — it adds enough to make a case for existing a separate medium, a challenge many video game adaptations fumble.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/exit-8-is-cinema-for-the-livestreaming-era-151112907.html?src=rss

In hindsight, I suppose it was only a matter of time after Anthropic made Claude capable of generating charts and diagrams that the company would then begin offering a more robust image editor. Now, a little more than a month after that release, Anthropic has announced Claude Design, a new research preview that allows subscribers to use Claude to generate designs, prototypes, slides and more.  

"Claude Design gives designers room to explore widely and everyone else a way to produce visual work," Anthropic says of its newest product. As with its previous forays into image generation, the company isn't calling this, well, an image generator. Instead, Anthropic describes Opus 4.7, the system powering the app, as its most capable vision model to date. In other words, you won't be using Claude Design to whip up a picture of a cat in space eating a lasagna.  

As you might expect, every project in Claude Design starts with a prompt. From there, Anthropic notes users can refine Claude's outputs through conversation, inline comments and direct edits. Like Adobe's recently announced AI assistant, Claude will also generate custom sliders that correspond to specific elements in a design, which the user can push and pull to modify those elements. For instance, in the screenshot below, you can see how Claude has tweaked the interface to allow the user to adjust the glow and density of arcs it used to illustrate a connected network.

Claude Design will generate custom sliders you can use to adjust specific visual elements. Anthropic

Anthropic has also built an onboarding process that allows Claude to build an internal visual language after reading your organization's codebase and existing design documents. "Every project after that uses your colors, typography, and comments automatically," according to the company. Outside of text prompts, there's also support for image and document uploads, and Anthropic has even included a web capture tool so enterprise customers can snapshot elements from their company's website. There's also built-in sharing, and you can export a design directly to Claude Code. In the coming weeks, Anthropic has promised to make it easier to build integrations with its new app. 

Claude Design arrives in the same week that both Adobe and Canva released their own visual AI assistants. If Anthropic is preparing to eat Canva’s lunch, it's doing so in a strange way given that you can export your Claude Design projects to Canva. If you want to try the new app for yourself, it's available as part of Anthropic's Pro, Max, Team and Enterprise subscriptions, with usage running up against your usage limits.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/anthropic-now-has-a-design-assistant-too-150000903.html?src=rss