Author: News Room
A new Mac app is betting that the reason your hydration reminders fail is that they are too easy to ignore. Apps like Loook take a gentle approach, nudging you to hydrate alongside reminders for posture and eye breaks. Hydration Hostage takes the opposite stance. Built by a solo developer, the app sits in your menu bar and takes over your screen on a predefined schedule until the camera confirms you actually drank water. How it works Hydration Hostage uses Apple’s Vision framework to handle verification. Given that the app requires camera access, the developer has been upfront about the…
Facebook has rolled out a batch of AI-powered features, with the headliner being AI Mode, a new way to get answers to questions directly inside the app using Meta AI. An AI layer on top of Facebook Search In a blog post, Facebook explains that the new AI Mode works from both the Feed and the search bar, pulling answers from public content across Meta’s apps, including Groups and Reels, to surface what real people are saying rather than returning a list of links. The feature is powered by Meta AI, which runs on the company’s Muse Spark model. The…
Xbox is reportedly closing Ninja Theory, the Cambridge, England-based studio behind the Hellblade series, according to The Verge. Sources familiar with the matter said the studio’s staff were informed about the closure on Monday, just over a week after the studio appeared at the Xbox Games Showcase to announce Senua, a new entry in the franchise. Part of a wider Xbox reset The reported closure extends beyond Ninja Theory, with Bloomberg revealing that Double Fine, the San Francisco studio known for Psychonauts, and Montreal-based Compulsion Games, maker of South of Midnight, are also in active negotiations to spin off from…
Microsoft is reportedly planning to add buy now, pay later (BNPL) support to the Xbox storefront, with code spotted on the Xbox website pointing to upcoming integrations with Klarna and PayPal. Splitting the cost of Xbox purchases The code snippet, shared by Better xCloud on X (via Windows Central), reveals that Xbox users will be able to spread the cost of purchases across weeks or months either with or without interest, depending on the duration. Both Klarna and PayPal are listed as BNPL providers in the code, though Microsoft has yet to announce the feature or share a launch date.…
Google has been slowly phasing out Manifest V2, the older framework that powers many Chrome extensions, since October 2024. For most users, ad blockers like uBlock Origin stopped working by default well over a year ago. Power users found technical workarounds that kept them alive a little longer, but Chrome’s next update removes the last of those loopholes for good. The last flag falls A recent Chromium code commit, spotted by CyberNews (via 9to5Google), removes the kExtensionManifestV2Disabled flag, which developers had been using as a backdoor to keep Manifest V2-based extensions running in Chrome. Google describes the flag as “dead…
Laser-powered lightsails are one of the coolest answers to spaceflight. It might not be as sci-fi-sounding as a warp drive, but now, its practicality has also come under question. Using lightsails, a spacecraft could unfurl an ultra-thin reflective sail and let a powerful laser push it toward another star, without relying on fuel. The tech was simple and elegant–except it’s also more complicated than it sounds. A new preprint from researchers Chao Shen and Jiaze Li of the Harbin Institute of Technology suggests that relativistic lightsails may run into a hidden propulsion problem once they start moving extremely fast. How…
Fox is making its biggest streaming move yet. The media giant announced plans to acquire Roku in a deal valued at roughly $22 billion, bringing together one of television’s largest collections of sports, news, and entertainment programming with one of the most widely used streaming platforms in the world. Under the agreement, Fox will pay Roku shareholders a mix of cash and stock, valuing the company at $160 per share. The transaction is expected to close during the first half of 2027, pending regulatory approvals and other customary conditions. Why own a show when you own the screen? The deal…
How a mobile-friendly platform is fulfilling the global demand for serialized romance and fantasy fiction. How people enjoy reading has changed dramatically in the last couple of decades. Today, readers often turn to their phones for their next quick escape, be that social media or gaming. Sagabox has taken this mobile-centric approach to storytelling and created a space for it. It’s a digital reading platform that aims to make romance and fantasy fiction more accessible, to keep things fresh with constant updates. Instead of treating mobile reading as a scaled-down version of traditional publishing, Sagabox leans into the habits that define digital entertainment: quick access, frequent engagement, and stories…
Sony only recently revealed God of War: Laufey, but new information is already beginning to paint a clearer picture of when players may finally get to experience the next chapter in the franchise. According to industry insider NateTheHate, the latest release window he has heard points to a launch sometime during the first half of 2027. While Sony and Santa Monica Studio have not officially confirmed a date, the report suggests development may be further along than many fans expected. The claim also aligns with recent comments from Bloomberg journalist Jason Schreier, who indicated that the lack of a release…
Using AI to write your dating app messages is no longer a surprise. More than 1 in 4 singles in the US have already used AI to help with their dating life, a figure that jumped 333% in a single year. Dating apps are actively encouraging it, too. Hinge is pushing AI features into its app, Bumble has its own Bee AI assistant, and Facebook Dating now has an AI chatbot to help you find love. However, a new peer-reviewed study from Constructor University suggests that it might not be the romantic shortcut everyone hoped for. What the Cyrano Effect…