YouTube is warning creators about a new phishing scam that attempts to lure victims using an AI-generated video of its CEO Neal Mohan. The fake video has been shared privately with users and claims YouTube is making changes to its monetization policy in an attempt to steal their credentials, according to an announcement on Tuesday.
“YouTube and its employees will never attempt to contact you or share information through a private video,” YouTube says. “If a video is shared privately with you claiming to be from YouTube, the video is a phishing scam.”
In recent weeks, there have been reportsfloating around Reddit about scams similar to the one described by YouTube. One user said they received an email saying an account called “Notification for YouTube Creators” shared a private video with them and instructed them to download a malicious file. Another noted they received a private video from “Channel for Creators,” which asked them to agree to a new monetization policy on a fake DocuSign site. In both of these cases, the email came from [email protected].
“Many phishers actively target Creators by trying to find ways to impersonate YouTube by exploiting in-platform features to link to malicious content,” YouTube adds. This kind of scam isn’t completely new, as one Reddit user spotted a deepfake video of Mohan going around in 2023. If you receive one of these fake videos, you can report it on YouTube’s website.
The crypto market never closes, so it was fitting President Donald Trump made the announcement on a Sunday: he was going to reward the billionaires who funded his presidential run.
âA U.S. Crypto Reserve will elevate this critical industry after years of corrupt attacks by the Biden Administration,â Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social, a social media website that he owns. His brilliant son Eric made a post suggesting that his fatherâs announcement qualified as market manipulation. Fantastic.
I know Iâve been saying this a lot lately, but this is so stupid
Trump promised his crypto constituency a âstrategic national bitcoin stockpileâ on the campaign trail. The new post expands the plan to include Ethereum, Solana, Rippleâs XRP, and Cardano. I am using âplanâ loosely. I donât know whoâs going to buy and hold the tokens, or even if tokens need to be bought at all, or what kind of wallet will be used, or any of the rest of it. In a sane system, weâd have an inkling of these things, but this is Donald Trump.
Look, I know Iâve been saying this a lot lately, but this is so stupid. The US dollar is a source of American soft power and a tool for setting fis …
Mobile World Congress 2025 is well under way in Barcelona, Spain, and while there’s still two days left, the mobile-focused show has already delivered lots of new laptops, smartphones, concepts, and innovative accessories.
Some of the biggest announcements were made over the weekend, so we want to make sure you didn’t miss anything. Here are the best gadgets that have debuted at MWC 2025 so far, but there’s still more to come. You can catch up on all of our coverage of the show right here.
Many of the most innovative devices making their debut at MWC are concepts that could one day make their way into consumers’ hands. Samsung’s Display group demonstrated a few different prototypes including an asymmetrical Z Flip-style phone that folds in two places leaving the middle of its screen visible, and a larger folding display hidden inside a briefcase. Its most interesting concept was a Nintendo Switch-style handheld console with a hinge in the middle allowing it to fold in half for improved portability.
The ThinkBook Flip concept uses the same flexible OLED screen as Lenovo’s ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 that’s expected to arrive as early as June 2025 and start at $3,499. But instead of the screen extending out from beneath the laptop’s keyboard to increase screen real estate, on the ThinkBook Flip it’s static and designed to fold backwards. That will potentially allow the Flip to be used as a more traditional 13.1-inch laptop, as a 12.9-inch tablet, or as a laptop with an abnormally tall 18.1-inch display. The lack of a motorized mechanism could also make the ThinkBook Flip cheaper, if it ever sees the light of day.
Following the launch of the Xiaomi 15 Ultra in China, the company announced a UK and European launch for its latest flagship phone with pricing at around $1,600, although there’s no word on a US launch yet. Although some may find the 15 Ultra’s quadruple rear camera with an asymmetrical lens layout downright ugly, the phone features a new 4.3x periscope lens paired with a 200-megapixel 1/1.4-inch-type sensor with improved low-light performance that left us thoroughly impressed in our review.
Anyone who can remember fidgeting with the original iPod’s scroll wheel will appreciate a specific feature on the Nubia Focus 2 Ultra smartphone. Surrounding the camera bump on the back of the phone is a physical spinning dial – similar to the dials found on DSLR and mirrorless lenses – that can be used to adjust the camera’s zoom level or switch between a series of filter presets. There’s no word on whether the dial can be used with other smartphone apps, but using it as a tiny steering wheel would be a satisfying way to play racing games.
What if you didn’t have to worry about your laptop’s battery life as long as the sun was shining? That’s the idea behind Lenovo’s Yoga Solar PC concept featuring 84 solar cells integrated into the laptop’s lid. When positioned in direct sunlight for 20 minutes, the laptop’s solar panel will generate enough electricity for an hour of video playback. The company says it’s still evaluating power output in other lighting conditions, but the solar charging capabilities could still be a welcome fallback for times when a power outlet isn’t available.
Portability is a limiting factor when it comes to how good smartphone photography can get. To create a mobile device that offers photographic capabilities closer to what you can get from mirrorless cameras, Xiaomi is resurrecting an old Sony idea with magnetic lens attachments. The company’s Modular Optical System concept uses lenses that are actually self-contained cameras with sensors larger than what you’ll find in any smartphone. Captured images are processed by the phone the lens is attached to so they’re immediately available to share, and while a smartphone with a giant lens hanging off the back might be a little awkward to use, the temporary approach means the phone maintains its slim form factor the rest of the time.
Lenovo wasn’t the only company at MWC staring at the sun for inspiration. Chinese phone brand Infinix demonstrated a concept smartphone at the show with an integrated solar panel on the back. Using more efficient perovskite solar cells like companies such as Anker do, Infinix’s says its SolarEnergy-Reserving technology can charge a phone at up to 2W speeds in optimal lighting conditions, although leaving your smartphone in the sun for a few hours to charge isn’t going to help with overheating.
What sets the HMD Amped Buds apart from other wireless earbuds aren’t their ANC or IP54 splash-resistance. It’s their charging case featuring a 1,600mAh battery that can keep the buds running for an impressive 95 hours before the case needs a power top-off. But if you’ve got a smartphone that’s dying at an inopportune time, the Amped Buds’ charging case can also be used to reverse wireless charge for Qi2-compatible mobile devices. That’s not quite enough power to fully recharge a smartphone, but when these launch in April 2025 for around $206, it could be enough of a boost for a couple extra hours of use.
After a multitude of leaks and official teases from the company, Nothing officially announced its 3A and 3A Pro phones at MWC. Both feature 6.77-inch displays, Android 15, and Snapdragon 7S Gen 3 chipsets paired with 12 GB of RAM and 256 GB of storage. The 3A Pro, which starts at $459, features a 3x periscope telephoto lens while the $379 3A’s zoom capabilities are limited to 2x. They’re both well-equipped midrange phones, but stand out with the introduction of a new feature Nothing calls Essential Space that uses AI to extract and store useful information from screenshots, voice memos, and photos.
Imagine a pair of wireless earbuds that don’t lose their connection when you wander too far away from your smartphone or computer. Xiaomi’s new Buds 5 Pro are the first earbuds to feature Qualcomm’s S7 Pro chip, first announced in October 2023, that can stream audio at a much higher bandwidth over Wi-Fi. Your wireless connection will remain strong as long as you’re within range of your Wi-Fi network, but the buds can fall back to a standard Bluetooth connection when Wi-Fi isn’t available. The Buds 5 Pro are available now for $240, but at launch are only compatible with the Xiaomi 15 and 15 Ultra smartphones.
The Galaxy S25 Edge that Samsung teased at its Unpacked event earlier this year already has some thin competition. Tecno’s Spark Slim concept measures in at 5.75mm thick with a 5,200mAh battery – larger than what’s included in the Galaxy S25 Ultra – while the Galaxy S25 Edge is rumored to be 6.4mm thick. We don’t yet know when the Galaxy S25 will launch, but it will probably be a lot sooner than this concept since Tecno hasn’t announced any plans to put the Spark Slim into production.
Can’t be bothered to unlock your phone and check a weather app to see what the temperature is? The Realme 14 Pro and 14 Pro Plus are available with a pearl white finish featuring thermochromic pigments that change from white to blue when exposed to temperatures below 61 degrees Fahrenheit. Not as accurate as a thermometer, but at least you’ll know if you need to grab a light jacket. The phones first launched in India in January, but are now coming to Europe with a price tag that starts at around $450.
The 3D fad may have passed, but Lenovo hasn’t entirely given up on it just yet. The company’s ThinkBook 3D laptop concept uses a combination of directional backlighting and user head tracking to simultaneously display both 2D and 3D content on screen without the need for any special glasses. Lenovo also created an accompanying AI ring concept that allows users to navigate and interact with 3D content using gesture-based spatial controls since trackpads and computer mice are limited to just two dimensions.
The new iPad is a minor upgrade over its predecessor that starts at $349.
As predicted, Apple announced not one buttwo new iPads this week. The new entry-level iPad starts at $349, while the 11-and 13-inch iPad Airs start at $599 and $799, respectively. Both tablets are set to arrive on March 12th, though you can preorder them from Apple and Best Buy starting today, March 4th.
Unsurprisingly, both tablets represent pretty minor upgrades over prior models. The 11th-gen iPad has twice as much base storage as its last-gen predecessor (128GB vs. 64GB); however, it also remains the only tablet in Apple’s current lineup that lacks support for Apple Intelligence. It doesn’t run on Apple’s silicon, either, but Apple says the upgraded A16 chip is nearly 30 percent faster than the A14 chip found in the 10th-gen iPad.
As for the new 11- and 13-inch iPad Air, both run on Apple’s M3 chip. The last-gen processor isn’t as powerful as the M4 chip found in the latest Pro models, but Apple claims the Air should be twice as fast as the M1-powered Air released in 2022. The M3 chip also introduces GPU upgrades, including dynamic caching support, which improves the performance of demanding apps by optimizing the device’s memory usage.
As for accessories, both tablets support the Apple Pencil USB-C, but only the Air supports the Apple Pencil Pro, which offers built-in Find My support and a gyroscope sensor. The M3-powered Air is also compatible with the new Magic Keyboard, which boasts a larger trackpad and a new 14-key function row so you can quickly adjust the volume and other settings. The keyboard starts at $269 for the 11-inch model and $319 for the 13-inch model.
Where to preorder the new iPad
The new iPad will be available on March 12th in four colors: blue, pink, yellow, and silver. You can currently preorder the base model with Wi-Fi and 128GB of storage from Apple, Best Buy, and B&H Photo starting at $349. If you prefer more storage, you can get the 256GB model for $449 or the 512GB version for $649. LTE-equipped versions are also available starting at $499 for 128GB of storage, $599 for 256GB of storage, and $799 for 512GB of storage.
Where to preorder the new iPad Air
As mentioned previously, the iPad Air comes in two flavors: a smaller 11-inch variant and a 13-inch model. Both sizes also come in four colors: dark gray, blue, purple, and a “starlight” cream shade.
You can preorder the 11-inch iPad Air with Wi-Fi and 128GB of storage directly from Apple, Best Buy, and B&H Photo starting at $599. You can also reserve it with 256GB of storage for $699, 512GB of storage for $899, or 1TB of storage for $1,099. If you want cellular connectivity, you can get the 11-inch Air starting at $749 with 128GB of storage, $849 for 256GB, $1,049 for 512GB, and $1,249 for 1TB.
As for the 13-inch iPad Air, it’s available for preorder from Apple, Best Buy, and B&H Photo starting at $799. You can also buy the tablet with 256GB of storage for $899, the 512GB model for $1,099, and the 1TB version for $1,299. The LTE-equipped model, meanwhile, starts at $949 for 128GB of storage, $1,049 for 256GB, $1,249 for 512GB, and $1,449 for 1TB.
Update, March 4th: Added new preorder links for Best Buy and B&H Photo.
YouTube is tightening its policies on gambling content. The platform has announced that it will soon prohibit creators from verbally referring to gambling services not approved by Google, as well as displaying their logos and linking to them in videos.
The new rules, which go into effect on March 19th, may also put age restrictions on videos about online gambling. That means viewers under 18, or anyone not signed into YouTube, won’t be able to watch these videos. YouTube says this rule excludes videos showing online sports betting and people gambling in person.
YouTube also notes that it may remove content “promising guaranteed returns,” whether or not the gambling service in question has been approved by Google. “We know this update may impact creators who focus on online gambling content like casino games and applications, but we believe these changes are a necessary step in protecting our community, especially younger viewers,” YouTube says in the announcement.
Though only out for a grand total of four days, Monster Hunter Wilds has sold an astonishing 8 million copies. That’s according to Capcom, reporting that the monster hunting action RPG has become the company’s fastest selling title ever.
The Monster Hunter franchise has racked up a number of superlatives for its publisher with 2018’s Monster Hunter World selling 21 million copies to date to become the company’s best selling game. With these statistics, combined with the success of the Resident Evil remakes, Street Fighter VI, and Dragon’s Dogma 2 (not to mention MonHun Rise), Capcom is one of the few publishers not currently on fire amidst the industry’s larger financial and labor crisis. Even better, it’s parlaying that success into developing new creative endeavors like Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess or reviving much beloved but dormant franchises like Okami and Onimusha.
For now, players seem to be enjoying the hell outta Monster Hunter Wilds so much that it’s causing commotion in the real world. According to a report in Gamespot, MonHun fans are finding the cheese naan that players can make in the game so appealing that it’s selling out in restaurants that specialize in the dish.
Apple is pushing back against the UK’s secret order to give the government access to encrypted iCloud files. The company has filed an appeal with the Investigatory Powers Tribunal, which deals with complaints about the “unlawful intrusion” of UK intelligence services and authorities, according to a report from the Financial Times.
As noted by FT, the tribunal will “consider whether the UK’s notice to Apple was lawful and, if not, could order it to be quashed.” The tribunal could reportedly hear the case as soon as this month. Apple stopped offering Advanced Data Protection in the UK in response to the secret order, and now it looks like the company is attempting to put a stop to it altogether. Apple didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
In January, the UK government issued the order under the Investigatory Powers Act of 2016, according to a report from The Washington Post. It specifically targets iCloud’s Advanced Data Protection option that uses end-to-end encryption to secure backups, preventing third parties – including Apple itself – from accessing them. The UK government is still not “confirming or denying” the existence of the order, which could affect Apple users globally.
The Nintendo Switch is now eight years old and the company is announcing what could be its final retail bundle push before the introduction of the Switch 2. The new bundle includes the Nintendo Switch OLED system with a digital copy of Super Mario Bros. Wonder and a 3-month Nintendo Switch Online individual membership for $349.99 — a $67.98 savings if bought separately at regular prices.
Nintendo is releasing the new bundle on March 10th to celebrate “MAR10 Day.” On March 9th, the company will also offer a bunch of its Mario titles on discount at retail stores including Best Buy, GameStop, Target, and Walmart. You can get Super Mario Odyssey, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury, Super Mario RPG, Princess Peach: Showtime!, and Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD for $39.99 each, as well as Mario vs. Donkey Kong for $29.99.
After eight years, the Nintendo Switch is on the cusp of outselling the Nintendo DS and becoming the company’s best selling gaming system of all time. Nintendo says it’s “taking risks” with the Switch’s successor as it proceeds with production. The company is planning a Switch 2-focused Nintendo Direct on April 2nd to share more details about the console.
After a whole lot of teasing, it’s now official: remakes of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 and 4 are on the way. Activision officially announced the new release — called Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4 — which will include remakes of both seminal skateboarding games and is launching on Xbox, PlayStation, PC, and the Switch on July 11th. It’ll also be available for subscribers of Game Pass Ultimate and Game Pass PC.
Just like the previous remakes, the new collection will include all of the content from the original games, alongside some modern additions, including brand-new parks and a handful of current skaters like Olympic stars Rayssa Leal and Yuto Horigome. They’ll join the original cast, including the likes of Bucky Lasek, Steve Caballero, Kareem Campbell, Elissa Steamer, Chad Muska, Rodney Mullen, and, obviously, Tony Hawk.
The new game is being developed by Iron Galaxy Studios, which worked with Vicarious Visions — now a part of Blizzard — on the previous remake. Here’s a little before-and-after image comparing the original games to the updated version:
Activision says that the soundtrack — always an important part of a Tony Hawk game — will include classic songs from Motörhead, Gang Starr, KRS-One, and others, “alongside new tracks that capture the spirit of modern skate culture.” The game will also support cross-platform online multiplayer for up to eight skaters.
The original remakes were well-received updates of some true classics, and the new game will be launching at a very interesting time for skateboarding games. In addition to clever indie releases like Skate City, OlliOlli World, and the upcoming Skate Story, EA is also bringing back its long-dormant Skate series.
Sony is launching a new PlayStation beta program to offer “an easier, more consolidated way for gamers to sign up to participate in future PlayStation betas across a wide range of PlayStation experiences,” according to a blog post by Sony’s Sid Shuman.
By signing up for the beta program (technically called the “Beta Program at PlayStation”), you’ll be able to “express interest in gaining beta access to test participating games for the PS5 console and PC, new PS5 console features, PlayStation App features, and even user experience features on PlayStation.com,” Shuman says.
You’ll only need to sign up a single time to indicate that you’re interested beta tests. That’s a nice change from previous PS5betas, which have required individual signups and codes to access.
You should be able to sign up for the program here starting today, though as I write this, the page is 404-ing for me. The post suggests that you should “check back later if the page is not yet available in your region.”
Signing up for the program doesn’t guarantee that you’ll get picked for a beta, Shuman says.
Yesterday morning, billionaire Los Angeles Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong published a letter to readers letting them know the outlet is now using AI to add a “Voices” label to articles that take “a stance” or are “written from a personal perspective.” He said those articles may also get a set of AI-generated “Insights,” which appear at the bottom as bullet points, including some labeled, “Different views on the topic.”
“Voices is not strictly limited to Opinion section content,” writes Soon-Shiong, ”It also includes news commentary, criticism, reviews, and more. If a piece takes a stance or is written from a personal perspective, it may be labeled Voices.“ He also says, “I believe providing more varied viewpoints supports our journalistic mission and will help readers navigate the issues facing this nation.”
The news wasn’t received well by LA Times union members. In a statement reported by The Hollywood Reporter, LA Times Guild vice chair Matt Hamilton said the union supports some initiatives to help readers separate news reporting from opinion stories, “But we don’t think this approach — AI-generated analysis unvetted by editorial staff — will do much to enhance trust in the media.”
It’s only been a day, but the change has already generated some questionable results. The Guardian points to a March 1st LA Times opinion piece about the danger inherent in unregulated use of AI to produce content for historical documentaries. At the bottom, the outlet’s new AI tool claims that the story “generally aligns with a Center Left point of view” and suggests that “AI democratizes historical storytelling.”
Um, AI actually got that right. OCers have minimized the 1920s Klan as basically anti-racists since it happened. But hey, what do I know? I’m just a guy who’s been covering this for a quarter century https://t.co/WUsIxHQMFl
— Col. Gustavo Arellano (@GustavoArellano) March 4, 2025
Insights were also apparently added to the bottom of a February 25th LA Times story about California cities that elected Klu Klux Klan members to their city councils in the 1920s. One of the now-removed, AI-generated, bullet-pointed views is that local historical accounts sometimes painted the Klan as “a product of ‘white Protestant culture’ responding to societal changes rather than an explicitly hate-driven movement, minimizing its ideological threat.” That is correct, as the author points out on X, but it seems to be clumsily presented as a counterpoint to the story’s premise – that the Klan’s faded legacy in Anaheim, California has lived on in school segregation, anti-immigration laws, and local neo-Nazi bands.
Ideally, if AI tools are used, it is with some editorial oversight to prevent gaffes like the ones LA Times is experiencing. Sloppy or nonexistent oversight seems to be the road to issues like MSN’s AI news aggregator recommending an Ottawa food bank as a tourist lunch destination or Gizmodo’s awkward non-chronological “chronological” list of Star Wars films. And Apple recently tweaked its Apple Intelligence notification summaries’ appearance after the feature contorted a BBC headline to incorrectly suggest that UnitedHealthcare CEO shooting suspect Luigi Mangione had shot himself.
Google Messages is introducing an AI feature that aims to help protect Android users from text message scams. The new AI-powered scam detection tool was announced today alongside other new features, including live location sharing in the Find My app for Android users and features specifically for Pixel owners like multicamera streaming support and new text-to-image options in Pixel Studio.
Scam Detection in Google Messages works by monitoring SMS, MMS, and RCS messages in real time for suspicious patterns. Once a likely scam has been detected, Google Messages will present a warning message to users that allows them to quickly dismiss it or report and block the sender. Google says the feature is designed to tackle “conversational text scams that begin innocently” before later initiating nefarious schemes.
“Traditional spam protections are focused on protecting users before the conversation starts, and are less effective against these latest tactics from scammers that turn dangerous mid-conversation and use social engineering techniques,” says Alberto Pastor Nieto, senior product manager for Google Messages. “To better protect users, we invested in new, intelligent AI models capable of detecting suspicious patterns and delivering real-time warnings over the course of a conversation, all while prioritizing user privacy.”
Scam Detection is launching in English and rolling out to the US, UK, and Canada first, with expansion to more countries coming “soon.” The feature is on by default and only monitors conversations with people who aren’t saved to your contacts list. Google says that all message processing occurs on-device to keep user conversations private. The feature can be disabled under Google Messages’ Spam Protection settings.
Another feature that starts rolling out to Android users today is the ability to share live location information with “trusted contacts” in the Find My app. Google says that location data is “safely stored” and that users can select who they want to share their location with and for how long, with the app dropping “regular reminders” about who this information is being shared with. A similar feature was already available for Google Maps, but now people can coordinate meetups or find lost friends in the same app used to find missing devices.
Google is also releasing additional features that are only available on Pixel devices. Pixel 9 users can now connect GoPro cameras or other Pixel phones to their own device via Bluetooth and WiFi to stream from different angles on compatible apps, including YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok — similar to Apple’s multicamera feature on iPads and iPhones. Pixel 9 users can also now use the Pixel Studio app to generate images or stickers of people. These will be stylized rather than realistic to prevent the tool from being misused.
Other Pixel 9-specific updates include support for satellite messaging on both Verizon and T-Mobile, as well as suggestions in Pixel Screenshots that will automatically recommend which screenshots should be added to the user’s collections. Transcription has also been refreshed for Pixel Watches, Pixel Tablets, and Pixel 6 phones and newer, allowing users to transfer audio recordings from old devices and have them automatically transcribed and saved within the Recorder app.
All the features mentioned in this article are starting to roll out today but may take a few weeks to appear on supported devices.
Microsoft is finally rolling out a native version of its Copilot Windows app, nearly a year after turning it into a basic web app. A new Copilot app is rolling out to Windows Insiders this week that’s built using native XAML and includes a new side panel and an improved UI.
The Copilot app on Windows now matches the design of the recently launched Copilot app for macOS, which lets you upload images and generate images or text. You can also interact with Copilot using a microphone, and access conversation history in the updated sidebar.
This new Copilot app is rolling out to all Windows Insiders first through the Microsoft Store, which means it should appear on all Windows 11 PCs in the coming weeks.
Researchers initially developed the Federal Environmental Web Tracker to document similar changes during the first Trump administration, and they resurrected the tool this week. It’s basically a big spreadsheet that includes links to webpages that are either down completely or have had significant changes made since Trump stepped back into office.
By early February, just a couple weeks or so after Trump stepped into office, FEMA was already deleting the term “climate” from its website. As of this morning, the Federal Environmental Web Tracker includes more than 200 entries for federal webpages that have been altered. It’ll be updated weekly by the nonprofit group that made it, called the Environmental Data and Governance Initiative (EDGI).
The Federal Environmental Web Tracker includes more than 200 entries for federal webpages that have been altered
Some of the changes are subtle — like an Environmental Protection Agency webpage that shares data on pollution from power plants being renamed “Power Sector Data” instead of “Power Sector Emissions Data.” The data’s still there, and the change in the title might help that information stay online by flying under the radar, as Trump administration officials arbitrarily yank stuff they consider taboo.
But there are also entire webpages or sections of content that have vanished. Much of that content relates to the ways that certain communities are disproportionately affected by climate change and pollution because of poverty or the history of segregation and racism in the US. EPA pages on climate change, human health, and children’s health, for example, no longer include links to information about “equity.”
Thanks to EDGI and other groups archiving these webpages, you can use the resurrected web tracker and the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine to see old versions of websites. Documenting the transformation taking place now is crucial for policymakers and advocates who want to make that information publicly available again.
Advocates are already taking action to try to bring resources back online. Organic farmers filed suit against the Trump administration last week for removing content they rely on to help them grow crops, alleging that the US Department of Agriculture’s sudden removal of key online resources broke federal law. It follows a similar lawsuit filed by doctors that led to some federal webpages on health disparities being restored.
Dotemu, the studio and publisher best-known for retro revivals like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge and Streets of Rage 4, has announced its next game — and this time it’s a brand-new property. Called Absolum, and it’s a fantasy beat ‘em up with roguelike elements; it’s being described as a “rogue ‘em up.” Dotemu is developing the game alongside Guard Crush Games and Supamonk. The new game is expected to launch later this year on the Switch, PlayStation, and PC.
It looks like Absolum will retain the core beat ‘em up action the developers are known for, and will be playable both solo and co-op (local and online modes are both supported) with four different playable characters. Dotemu says that the game will include “branching pathways to explore, quest to discover, intriguing characters to encounter, and a deep variety of challenging bosses in store.”
But instead of taking place in a familiar retro universe, Absolum is set in a new fantasy realm that the studio says is inspired by classics like Golden Axe. Here’s the set-up:
Absolum features an engaging narrative with themes of foiling an unbridled, dictatorial power and cheating Death itself. In the world of Talamh, a cataclysmic event caused by magic prompts the Sun King Azra to conquer all lands and sources of magic through brutal warfare, slaughtering any wizard unwilling to serve him.
Talamh’s hope now lies with a defiant band of rebels aided by a mysterious, mythical mentor known as Uchawi and the similarly powerful Root Sisters, who together oppose Azra’s pursuit of total power by wielding an ancient, forbidden magic. These mythical forces empower our rebels with astonishing magic as they stoke a resistance, fight Azra’s iron grip on Talamh, and discover the secret behind Azra’s ever-growing dominion.
It’s shaping up to be a busy year for Dotemu, which is also publishing the throwback Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound.
Split Fiction, the new game fromIt Takes Twodeveloper Hazelight Studios, doesnât do anything particularly new. The game is a straightforward co-op adventure that strings together disparate sci-fi and fantasy games like links on a chain. If you bundled together the sci-fi and fantasy sections as separate entities, they wouldnât form a cohesive experience in either gameplay or story. And the overarching narrative that connects them all is a pretty heavy-handed (though necessary, in todayâs climate) parable about the rapaciousness of generative AI tools and the creative bankruptcy of the executives that develop them.
Nevertheless, thereâs an ironic genius in Split Fiction precisely because it takes so many little gameplay elements that Iâve seen and done before and executes them with a brilliance and polish I have not.
In Split Fiction, you and a partner play as Zoe and Mio, two people who have come to the curiously named Rader Corporation under the auspices of getting their stories published. But â gasp! â instead of getting paid, they get trapped in a machine designed to extract peopleâs creative ideas. After mishaps and shenanigans, Zoe and Mio are forced to w …
The cameras on our phones wonât stop getting bigger. Xiaomiâs new 15 Ultra is dominated by an enormous ring of cameras on the back, Nothing has rethought its camera layout from scratch to fit a periscope into the Phone 3A Pro, and consistent rumors suggest that even Apple is going to strap a big olâ camera bar onto the back of its iPhone 17 Pro models later this year. But why stop there? What if you could get all of the heft and weight of a real camera and burden your phone with it? What if we could make your phone camera much, much bigger?
Thatâs what both Xiaomi and Realme have attempted to do at this yearâs Mobile World Congress, with two very different concept phones that each attempt to bridge the gap between a smartphone and a DSLR.
Realmeâs attempt is the most familiar. In fact, its âinterchangeable lens concept,â which mounts a full DSLR lens onto the existing camera island of its concept phone, is remarkably similar to a concept that Xiaomi already showed off in 2022. The phone here is itself custom, not based on any of Realmeâs existing smartphones, and includes two typical cameras on the rear, plus a third, customized one-inch-type sensor from …
Gaming’s first big surprise hit of 2024 arrived early with the release of Palworld. Described by some as “Pokémon with guns,” the game launched in early access on Steam and Xbox in January and sold millions of copies in a matter of days.
The game hasn’t been without controversy — including accusations of plagiarism — but that didn’t slow things down. However, it’s now facing a bigger threat — on September 18th, Nintendo and The Pokémon Company announced they filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Pocketpair, the maker of Palworld.
Keep up with all the latest on Palworld right here.
Demonstrators protest against cuts to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) by US President Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s DOGE initiative. | Image: AFP via Getty Images
Leadership and staff at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) are clashing in court over whether the Trump administration is seeking to wind down the agency and if it has allowed workers to continue their legally required duties. Now, a key agency executive is expected to testify in a hearing next week, after a judge expressed concerns the agency would be shut down before she had a chance to weigh in.
The CFPB has been targeted by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), with Elon Musk posting “RIP” to the agency in early February, and a lawsuit filed by the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) seeks to halt its effective shutdown. Last week, several CFPB employees — some anonymous but who offered to provide their identities to the judge under seal — submitted sworn statements that the Trump administration is trying to fire the “vast majority” of agency workers and make it so “that the CFPB would exist in name only.”
Over the weekend, agency chief operating officer Adam Martinez responded to allegations that he had misled the court about the future of the agency and what workers were being permitted to do. In the new declaration, Martinez says CFPB leadership is really looking to “rightsize” the agency.
But in a hearing on Monday to discuss a preliminary injunction on the terminations, Judge Amy Berman Jackson worried that CFPB leadership was issuing directives “with people’s fingers crossed behind their backs,” according to Bloomberg Law reporter Evan Weinberger. Jackson considered ways to ensure the agency wouldn’t be “choked out of existence before I get to rule,” Weinberger reported, saying that Martinez would be called to testify next week at a hearing scheduled for 10AM on Monday.
Judge Amy Berman Jackson worried that CFPB leadership was issuing directives “with people’s fingers crossed behind their backs”
The CFPB enforces the law and writes regulations for the financial services industry, which has increasingly come to include both digital products from traditional finance companies and financial services projects from tech firms. Under its typical operations, the agency would field consumer complaints about financial products and regulate digital payments apps, like the kind that Musk’s X is planning to offer.
The NTEU alleges the Trump administration is violating the US separation of powers by dismantling an agency created and funded by Congress, pointing to directives from CFPB acting director Russell Vought for staff to halt their work. Martinez’s February 24th declaration to the court tried to establish that staff had been permitted to continue statutorily required work. But last week, several current and former CFPB staffers told the court that the Trump administration really was seeking to shut down the agency and that even legally mandated work had been halted. They cited Martinez’s own references in early February to the “closure of the agency,” which he said was in “wind down mode.”
In his Sunday declaration, Martinez tried to explain the alleged discrepancies. He did not dispute the portrayal of his statements, saying they reflected his understanding of agency leadership’s stance at the time. But since then, “a great deal has evolved at the CFPB,” Martinez says.
Once Vought was named acting chief of the CFPB on February 7th, Martinez says, the focus shifted to “right sizing” the agency. Even though the statements that CFPB staff referenced from Martinez came after Vought’s appointment, he says that’s because he still saw it as “a very fluid situation” during that week, and “time was needed for new leadership to refocus the Bureau.” Martinez says that new leadership has “taken a methodical approach to handling the Bureau’s operations and responding to senior executives who have recommended or requested guidance to perform each of the CFPB’s critical statutory responsibilities.”
Martinez casts doubt on one staffer’s declaration that unnamed senior executives said the agency would not exist, saying that would be “inconsistent” with leadership’s directives. He also pushed back on the declaration from Matthew Pfaff, CFPB chief of staff for the Office of Consumer Response, who said that complaints to the agency — including pleas about imminent foreclosure, typically handled by the Escalated Case Management team — were not being monitored or investigated. Martinez claims that, as of February 27th, the Escalated Case Management team is working.
“For those who face urgent situations—e.g., a person who submits a complaint about losing their home to an imminent foreclosure—there is simply no one at the CFPB to help.”
But that’s “blatantly false,” Pfaff says in a new declaration responding to Martinez’s updated statement. “For those who face urgent situations—e.g., a person who submits a complaint about losing their home to an imminent foreclosure—there is simply no one at the CFPB to help,” Pfaff writes. A supervisor of the Escalated Case Management team also filed a sworn declaration, using a pseudonym for fear of retaliation, saying their team had not performed work since Vought’s February 10th order to “stand down from performing any work task,” which they say “had no exception for statutorily mandated functions.”
Martinez claims he is personally helping staff seek clarification about which legally mandated responsibilities he says they can continue to carry out. But Pfaff says Martinez has not yet provided guidance to him after sending a memo two weeks ago about “key statutory work” and says he’s “aware of several inquiries to Mr. Martinez, requesting authorization to perform statutorily authorized work, which have been ignored.”
Ahead of Monday’s hearing, the agency appeared to try to button up its response, characterizing any interpretation of its earlier directives to stop legally mandated work to be a misunderstanding. In an email obtained by The Verge, CFPB chief legal officer Mark Paoletta wrote that it’s come to his attention “that some employees have not been performing statutorily required work. Let me be clear: Employees should be performing work that is required by law and do not need to seek prior approval to do so.”
Monopoly App Banking ditches the banker and replaces them with a mobile app that tracks cash and handles transactions. | Image: Hasbro
Hasbro announced a new version of Monopoly that simplifies gameplay by replacing cash and the banker with a mobile app that handles all of the game’s transactions. With Monopoly App Banking, a smartphone or tablet takes over the role of banker and keeps track of every player’s money and properties. It will make the game more accessible to younger players while also making it much harder to cheat, but it also means Monopoly is no longer an alternative to screen time.
Monopoly App Banking is expected to be available from most major retailers starting in August 2025 and will sell for $24.99. The accompanying mobile app is free, but players will have to provide their own mobile device.
The game board features a similar layout to traditional versions of Monopoly, but is updated with kid-friendly alternatives to the game’s iconic properties. Instead of Park Place and Boardwalk, the most valuable properties are now a rocket launch pad and the moon, while others include a chocolate factory, a VR roller coaster, and a dinosaur park.
Each player selects a token and a matching bank card that, along with property cards, are scanned and recognized by the mobile app to automate transactions such as purchasing title deeds or paying rent. That approach may not appeal to parents or teachers who use Monopoly as a covert way to help kids practice their math skills, but Hasbro says the new version will speed up what can often be a long game to play. In addition, the app includes mini games that can be played to earn perks, which could help hold the attention of younger players.
