Author: News Room
Framework delivered rare good news last month when it found a cheaper and better SSD for the Laptop 13 Pro. The situation has now swung sharply in the other direction, as soaring LPCAMM2 costs are forcing the company to change some existing preorder configurations. Framework says prices from its memory supplier have more than doubled compared to its previous inventory, far beyond the low-to-mid double-digit increase it had expected. The company has enough modules to cover existing orders overall, but not enough in the right mix of 64GB, 32GB, and 16GB capacities. Some preorders are getting less memory Framework has…
Your smart TV may know far more about your viewing habits than you realize, even if you rarely use its smart features. In a new privacy explainer, Proton warns that many modern TVs quietly collect data about everything displayed on the screen and share it with manufacturers, advertisers, and analytics companies. The worrying part is that escaping this tracking is becoming increasingly difficult because many privacy controls are buried deep in settings or enabled by default. Proton argues that buying a smart TV today often means accepting a level of surveillance that most people never knowingly signed up for. How…
Onimusha: Way of the Sword is the latest game to grace the cover of Game Informer, and after playing it for a few hours, experiencing never-before-seen parts of it, it’s one of the more titillating releases on the horizon for me. It helps that it’s the first Onimusha game in 20 years, reviving a franchise that many others and I considered abandoned by publisher-developer Capcom. It also features one of Japan’s most celebrated samurai, Miyamoto Musashi, as the protagonist – a bold but exciting decision in a series with some beloved leads. While using Musashi, a legendary samurai in Japanese history, seems like…
Samsung has finally joined the silicon-carbon battery race with its latest batch of premium foldables packing the new battery tech. But details for this change were rather hard to spot on the spec sheets. The company has confirmed during media briefings that the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, Galaxy Z Fold 8, and Galaxy Z Flip 8 all use silicon-carbon batteries. Even then, the resulting capacities are hardly record-breaking. The Fold 8 Ultra carries a 5,000mAh battery, the regular Fold 8 gets 4,800mAh, and the Flip 8 has 4,300mAh. Rivals from Honor and Motorola have already crossed the 6,000mAh mark.…
There has been a giant SSX Tricky-sized hole in my life for many, many years now, which is why I became immediately interested in developer byteparrot’s Carveout 2160, which I saw a post about on Bluesky this morning. It’s an extreme-action snowboarding game set in Space and is “inspired by SSX, with tricks, combos, and boost.” After watching the trailer, I’d take it a step further and say it must be specifically inspired by 2001’s SSX Tricky. From the fantastical tracks filled with exuberant neon, half pipes, rails to grind, ramps, and more, to the way each snowboarder performs tricks, Carveout…
If you’ve been curious about Xbox Cloud Gaming but didn’t want another monthly subscription, Microsoft may have a new option for you. The company is testing a free, ad-supported version of Xbox Cloud Gaming for Xbox Insiders, allowing eligible players to stream select games they already own without a Game Pass membership. However, you’ll have to watch a short advertisement before your session begins. Microsoft says the ads will never interrupt gameplay, making this an early test of whether a simple tradeoff can bring cloud gaming to more players. How does free Xbox cloud gaming work? The trial is currently…
Poinpy is free, now. There’s nothing holding them back. For the unfamiliar, Poinpy is a mobile platforming game developed by Moppin, also known as Ojiro Fumoto, the creator of Downwell. Poinpy, the titular green blob, has to climb the screen with a limited number of bouncy jumps, collecting ingredients for juice to satisfy the hungry beast pursuing them. It was originally exclusive to Netflix’s game subscription, but left the service last summer. Now, it’s been re-released for free on iOS and Android devices.Fun fact: Poinpy’s soundtrack was composed by Calum Bowen, who recently did the sound design for The Mermaid Mask,…
You might have asked Alexa to do plenty of dumb things over the years, but “figure out which of my washer’s 30 cycles actually means cold wash” might not have been one of them. Turns out, Amazon just built the toolkit that makes exactly that possible, and it’s rolling out across a genuinely huge list of brands today. So what’s actually changing for your smart home gadgets? Amazon’s launching a new AI-powered smart home developer toolkit that lets device makers plug their full feature set into Alexa+ instead of forcing you to dig through app menus yourself. Amazon says customers…
Halo: Combat Evolved is a foundational game whose influence and reach are hard to encompass. 25 years ago, that game established an array of mechanics, control systems, story tropes, and gameplay flow that rippled outward across the genre and beyond. In crafting a rebuild, Halo Studios opted to strip out the competitive multiplayer that helped establish part of that reputation, which is a real shame. Even so, Halo: Campaign Evolved does a phenomenal job of capturing what made the 2001 original so much fun while updating certain elements to better suit modern sensibilities. The core game shows its age in…
Prime Video‘s home screen has looked the same for years, with rows of tiles that rarely matches what you actually want to watch. Amazon is betting AI can change that, and Jeff Bezos is personally driving the effort. Bezos reportedly directed Prime Video head Mike Hopkins to overhaul the streaming service so AI sits front and center, according to Reuters. The project carries an internal codename, Lighthouse, and it’s already reshaping how the app might work. What’s changing on Prime Video? The redesign would rebuild the home page around AI-generated recommendations instead of the fixed grid every subscriber currently sees.…