Author: News Room

I adore the 1995 Super Nintendo game, Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island, but I am mature enough to admit that each new Yoshi game is worth examining on its own terms. Yoshi and the Mysterious Book has no obligation to be a new retread of that 30-year-old game and it isn’t. I admire the willingness to try something different. This adventure plays more like a unique puzzle game with Yoshi aesthetics, and the result is a largely rewarding experience that rarely challenged me, but didn’t have a problem delivering the charm. You’re still eating creatures and throwing eggs as we…

Motorola may drip out its next Edge smartphone in gold. A new leak from Digital Citizen claims to show the upcoming Motorola Edge 2026, and the design is the whole story for now. The leaked images show a warm champagne gold finish. The rear panel also has a fine woven texture, which should offer a brushed silk-like feel. Gold, texture, and a whole lot of personality Over the last couple of years, Motorola has leaned into designs that include a textured back. So the Edge 2026 model continues this tradition. The overall look seems more fashion-forward than the average Android…

After years of legal battles, platform bans, and public clashes over app store fees, Fortnite is officially returning to Apple’s App Store worldwide. Epic Games announced the move on Monday, calling it part of the “final battle” in its long-running fight against Apple’s App Store policies. The return marks one of the biggest reversals in modern app store history. Fortnite was originally removed from Apple’s App Store in 2023 after Epic Games introduced its own payment system inside the app to bypass Apple’s commission fees, which can reach up to 30 percent. That decision triggered a years-long legal conflict that…

Asus isn’t waiting for Apple’s lower-cost laptop story to settle. Its new Intel Wildcat Lake Vivobook 14SE and 16SE have launched in China, giving Windows laptop makers an early chance to crowd Apple on price and visible hardware. The sharper threat is the Vivobook 16SE, which starts at CNY 4,599, about $675, with a higher-end display model at CNY 4,999, around $734. That pricier version adds a 16-inch 2560 x 1600 screen with a 144Hz refresh rate, variable refresh rate support, and a 400-nit brightness rating. That gives Asus a clean comparison against the MacBook Neo before Apple’s affordable laptop…

Intel is trying to make budget Windows laptops look a lot less bargain-bin. Project Firefly, launched in China alongside Intel’s Wildcat Lake laptop chips, gives PC makers a common hardware playbook for thinner, cleaner, lower-cost systems that can take a more direct swing at MacBook Neo. The promise is simple, fewer compromises where budget laptops usually show them most. Intel says the first wave will include more than 70 designs, with manufacturers using a tighter approach to parts, layout, and system design. Early Wildcat Lake machines cited in the source start around $449, with another example around $600. Can Intel…

The memory market is already in terrible shape, and Nvidia’s new Rubin could be kicking it while it’s already down. According to a Fast Company report, citing a forecast from Citrini Research, the company’s next-gen AI platform could require more than 6 billion GB of LPDDR memory in 2027. With the LPDDR (low-powered memory) primarily being used in phones, tablets, and other portable devices, the price hikes might get even worse. And if the report is true, Nvidia alone may consume more memory than Apple and Samsung combined. How Rubin is eating into consumer memory supply Nvidia’s Rubin platform is…

Amazon has just added a new AI feature to Alexa+. This one, however, is designed for anyone who wants a podcast on an oddly specific topic. The company has introduced Alexa Podcasts, a new Alexa+ feature that generates podcast-style audio episodes on demand. Amazon says users can ask for an episode on “virtually any topic,” with Alexa creating the audio in just a few minutes. No documents, uploads, or prep work are needed. How does this work? The process is pretty simple. You ask Alexa+ about something you want to learn, and it pulls together relevant information to build a…

With Google I/O 2026 almost here, Google seems unable to stop Gemini leaks from slipping out early. Every other day, something new appears inside the app, and this time it looks like Google is experimenting with giving users more control over how much “thinking” Gemini actually does before responding. According to a report from 9to5Google, some users are now spotting a new “Thinking Level” option inside the Gemini app. The feature reportedly appears within Gemini’s existing model picker, where users already choose between options like Fast, Thinking, Pro, or Google AI Plus. Things are getting a little more nuanced Instead…

Wikipedia has an unofficial new front door, and it looks like a desktop from a very specific era of family PCs, school labs, and chunky blue title bars. Developer Sami Smith has built a browser-based Windows XP Wikipedia explorer that turns categories into folders and articles into documents. It’s playful, slightly inefficient, and more interesting than another AI search box bolted onto the web. The site opens with desktop icons for Wikipedia, Media, Geofile Explorer, and a readme file. The Wikipedia folder lets you move through category folders, while Media turns Wikimedia Commons into something closer to an old image…

Switching from Photoshop to GIMP might feel like a big move. Everything is suddenly in the wrong place, and the UI could feel alien. This is exactly where PhotoGIMP comes in. PhotoGIMP is a free, community-driven patch for GIMP 3.0 and newer that reshapes the open-source image editor into something much more familiar for Photoshop users. It doesn’t turn GIMP into Adobe Photoshop. The patch just shakes up the layout, shortcuts, and app identity to match Photoshop, so that new users don’t feel lost on day one. Why PhotoGIMP is great for new users The biggest appeal is the interface.…