Benjamin and Chance review the newly announced lineup of iPads and Macs. The new iPad Air and base iPad offer even better value for money, while Apple pushes the performance edge with the surprising launch of the M3 Ultra in the Mac Studio, and makes the best MacBook yet with the new M4 MacBook Air. Also, iOS 18.4 beta 2 brings even more new features to discuss.
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It's Thursday, which means there are some more PC games that Amazon Prime members can claim for free. Amazon has also revealed the entire slate of freebies that subscribers can snag throughout March, as well as the games they can stream at no extra cost on Amazon Luna.
Arguably the highest-profile additions of the month are available today in the form of Saints Row: The Third Remasteredand Mafia II: Definitive Edition. As ever, nearly every game on the list is for PC, but since Wolfenstein: The Old Blood is claimable via the Microsoft Store, you'll be able to play that one on Xbox as well.
Mortal Shell is an RPG from a few years back that I'd been meaning to check out, so I'll be sure to pick that one up. Elsewhere, The Forgotten Cityis a mystery RPG that was originally a Skyrim mod. The standalone version debuted a few years ago to critical acclaim.
You typically have about a month to claim each of the games before they leave the lineup (meaning that you can still snag many of the February additions) Here's what you can snap up and when, along with the launcher you can play each game on:
Now
Saints Row: The Third Remastered (GOG)
Mafia II: Definitive Edition (GOG)
Crime Boss: Rockay City (Epic Games Store)
Naheulbeuk's Dungeon Master (Amazon Games App)
March 13
Wall World (Amazon Games App)
Syberia: The World Before (GOG)
Endling - Extinction is Forever (Amazon Games App)
Dark Deity: Complete Edition (GOG)
Beholder 3 (Amazon Games App)
March 20
Wolfenstein: The Old Blood (Xbox and PC via Microsoft Store Code)
Mutazione (GOG)
Figment 2: Creed Valley (Amazon Games App)
Legacy of Kain: Defiance (GOG)
Mortal Shell (Epic Games Store)
March 27
The Forgotten City (Amazon Games App)
Deus Ex: Invisible War (GOG)
Session: Skate Sim (Epic Games Store)
Let's Build A Zoo (Epic Games Store)
Gamedec - Definitive Edition (GOG)
The Wisbey Mystery (Legacy Games Code)
Along with those games that Prime members can claim and keep forever (even if they cancel their plan), subscribers can stream a bunch of other titles via Amazon Luna. Along with staples like Fortnite, Trackmania and a couple of Fallout games, members can stream WRC Generations Fully Loaded Edition, Spitlings, The Jackbox Party Pack 3, Strange Horticulture and the utterly brilliant Overcooked! 2 throughout March. As a reminder, only Prime members in the US, Canada, Germany, United Kingdom, France, Italy, Spain, Austria, the Netherlands and Poland have access to these games on Luna.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/pc/prime-gamings-march-freebies-include-saints-row-the-third-and-mafia-ii-remasters-180008526.html?src=rss
The Nintendo DS is one of the toughest consoles to emulate, for an obvious reason. It’s the two screens. This is even an issue with ports. Some developers avoid the problem by mushing everything together onto a single traditional screen, like the recently-released Castlevania Dominus Collection. However, gamers may finally have an affordable emulation solution, thanks to the MagicX Zero 40 handheld console.
On its surface, it’s yet another handheld emulator, but this one features a four-inch vertically-oriented 800x480 touchscreen display. This should allow players to accurately recreate the experience of playing DS games. That’s great news, as replacement parts for any of the DS's iterations are difficult to come by these days.
The MagicX Zero 40 runs on a 64-bit Android operating system and features 2GB of RAM and a battery that lasts for four to seven hours. As for storage, it supports flash cards up to 512GB. What about 3DS emulation? The specs sheet indicates there’s no support for Nintendo’s follow-up dual-screen handheld, but the Zero 40 will emulate games from all of the standard single-screen systems. These include the PSP, NES, SNES, Dreamcast and many more.
The Zero 40 is expected to be released this April, with an asking price of $75. Pre-orders were open, but are sold out for the time being. There’s another option for a dual-screen emulation, if you have deep pockets. The Ayaneo Flip DS will run Nintendo DS, 3DS and Wii U games, but starts at $739.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/the-magicx-zero-40-handheld-features-a-vertical-display-for-ds-emulation-175820385.html?src=rss
New internet restrictions at the embattled SSA have cut off access to WIRED, along with other “general news” websites like The Washington Post and The New York Times.
On Wednesday, the Senate voted to block the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) from monitoring digital payments companies for fraud and privacy concerns—which Democratic lawmakers Elizabeth Warren and Adam Schiff said gave Elon Musk a "get out of jail free card."
The vote advanced a proposed joint resolution to the House of Representatives that "disapproves" of a final rule Republicans introduced last year that was supposed to bring consumer protection regulation of digital payments companies in line with traditional financial institutions.
At that time, lawmakers were concerned about tech companies spying on consumers' transactions, preventing valid transaction disputes over incorrect or fraudulent money transfers, and other potential harms to consumers "when they lose access to their app without notice or when their ability to make or receive payments is disrupted."
Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. Sign up here for free — just click TechCrunch Mobility! TechCrunch’s transportation team — well at least myself and senior reporter Rebecca Bellan — are hittin’ the road. Destination: SXSW, the annual tech, music, film, and culture […]
At the start of this week, Google announced that video and screen sharing is coming to Gemini Live on Android later this month. Ahead of that launch, the group working on Project Astra is formally joining the Gemini app team.
According to a new report, Samsung’s upcoming Android XR headset will best the Apple Vision Pro on perhaps one of its most well-received aspects, the display.
Apple’s new just launched, and I’ve made no secret of the fact that I’m a fan. If you’ve already ordered or plan to buy the M4 MacBook Air, here are my recommendations for the best accessories to accompany your new laptop.
Longtime executive Duff Stewart will step down as chief executive (CEO0 of GSD&M after 35 years at the agency, handing the reins to president Lee Newman, ADWEEK can exclusively share. Stewart will transition into a chairman role at the Austin, TX-based full-service agency, which is owned by Omnicom Group. Stewart has spent most of his...
Anyone familiar with the world of retail understands that change is constant. In today's commerce landscape, the Robinson-Patman Act (RPA), also known as the Anti-Price Discrimination Act, has been largely dormant--private enforcement has been limited, and the government has not pursued an RPA case since 2000. However, this may soon change: Several FTC commissioners have...
Google’s featured snippet is pulling in an Amazon AI summary of Adolf Hitler’s Nazi manifesto Mein Kampf that calls it “a true work of art” in the latest AI-related fuckup affecting top search results.
As of writing, searching for “mein kampf positive reviews” returned a result that was pulled from an AI-generated summary of an Amazon listing’s customer reviews. So, it’s a search algorithm attempting to summarize an AI summary. The full AI summary on Amazon says: “Customers find the book easy to read and interesting. They appreciate the insightful and intelligent rants. The print looks nice and is plain. Readers describe the book as a true work of art. However, some find the content boring and grim. Opinions vary on the suspenseful content, historical accuracy, and value for money.”
As I’m writing this, Google says “An AI Overview is not available for this search,” but the Amazon AI summary was in large text directly below it, in the space where an overview would typically be, above other web results. This is what Google calls a featured snippet: "Google's automated systems select featured snippets based on how well they answer the specific search request and how helpful they are to the user," the company says. A highlight appeared, added by Google, over the phrase “easy to read and interesting.” Notably the featured snippet result for this doesn’t quote everything from Amazon’s AI, so it is itself a summary.
Google's result for "mein kampf positive reviews" as of early Thursday morning, showing the Amazon review as a "featured snippet." Screenshot of Amazon's AI-generated review summary
Alexios Mantzarlis, the director of the security, trust, and safety initiative at Cornell Tech and formerly principal of Trust & Safety Intelligence at Google, first spotted the result.
Uh... Amazon's AI summary of Mein Kampf is even worse, and pollutes Google results for [Mein Kampf positive reviews]
After I contacted Google for comment (the company hasn’t responded as of writing) an AI Overview did appear, and notes that the book is “widely condemned for its hateful and racist ideology,” but that historical analyses “might point to aspects of the book that could be considered ‘positive’ from a purely literary or rhetorical perspective.”
Screenshot of Google's search result for "mein kampf positive reviews" as of late Thursday morning, showing the AI Overview result.
This is, at least, a better summation of the conversation around Hitler’s book that Amazon’s AI summary gives. The AI-generated review summary on the Amazon listing also shows links to see reviews that mention specific words, like “readability,” “read pace,” and “suspenseful content.” Enough people mentioned Mein Kampf being boring that there’s a “boredom” link, too.
Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The 2,067 reviews for this specific copy of Hitler’s fascist manifesto are mostly positive, and taken extremely literally, the blueprint for Nazism is easy to read and, in some sense, “interesting.” But the reviews are much more nuanced than that. Reviewing the roadmap for the Holocaust from the world’s most infamous genocidal dictator with “five stars” seems twisted, but the reviews are nuanced in a way that AI clearly doesn’t understand—but a human can.
“Mein Kampf, by Adolf Hitler, should be read by everyone in the world who are interested in a world of peace, social responsibility, and worldwide cooperation,” one reviewer wrote, in an honestly pretty concerning start to a very long review. But they go on to write more that clarifies their point of view: “This evil book presents a dark vision of how to go about creating tyranny in a democratic society so that one, similar to Russia, is created. [...] Also, Hitler is an excellent writer; he is not a rambling madman writing disconnected ideas and expressing a confusing methodology. His text is easy reading, and it is a world classic that is a must read.”
Another five-star review says: “Chilling to begin reading this book and realize that these are the words written by Adolf Hitler. Read it and absorb what he says in his own words and you soon grasp what he means. [...] We are bound to repeat History if we don't understand mistakes that were made in the past.”
These aren’t “positive” reviews; most of the five-star reviews are noting the quality of the print or shipping, and not endorsing the contents of the book.
Mein Kampf has never been banned in the U.S. (unlike plenty of other books about race, gender, and sex), but Amazon did briefly ban listings of the book from its platform in 2020 before reinstating it.
Google’s AI Overview shoots itself in the algorithmic foot frequently, so it’s noteworthy that it’s sitting this result out. When it launched in May 2024 as a default feature on searches, it was an immediate and often hysterical mess, telling people it’s chill to eat glue and that they should consume one small rock a day. In January, the feature was telling users to use the most famous sex toy in the world with children for behavioral issues. These weird results are beside the bigger point: Google’s perversion of its own search function—its most popular and important product—is a deep problem that it still hasn’t fixed, and that has real repercussions for the health of the internet. At first, AI Overview was so bad Google added an option to turn it off entirely, but the company is still hanging on to the feature despite all of this.
The Mein Kampf AI summaries are also an example of how AI is starting to eat itself online, and the cracks are showing. Studies in the last few years show that AI models are consuming AI-generated content as training data in a way that’s polluting and destroying the models themselves.
Android 16—oh, what can we say about Android 16? It’s shunted forward; it hasn’t offered anything major in the preview phase, but what does this mean, when could it drop, and why is it important? Here’s everything you need to know.
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