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I wish this Death Stranding 2 Ring Terminal replica were a real smart ring

TL;DR Kojima Productions and Anicorn have collaborated to create a 1:1 replica of the Ring Terminal from Death Stranding 2: On the Beach. The Ring Terminal features NFC technology that allows users to “forge a direct link with the immersive universe of Death Stranding 2.” The replica costs $240 and pre-orders open later today. Kojima Productions has just launched its highly anticipated title, Death Stranding 2: On the Beach. If you want even more of a connection to the world of Death Strandin

Xfinity now includes unlimited data in all Internet plans with new pricing

Comcast has just announced a streamlining of its Xfinity Internet plans, with four tiers that offer variable pricing based on lock-in timelines, and perhaps most importantly, unlimited data no matter your choice. Comcast launches streamlined Xfinity price plans Xfinity customers now have four Internet plans to choose from based on the amount of data you want, and each is available in three pricing tiers based on price lock-ins. Essentially, the longer you want your price guaranteed, the more

Engadget Podcast: Reviewing our favorite VPNs and M3GAN 2.0

This week, I chat with Sam Chapman, Engadget’s new security reporter who’s been reviewing VPNs and related products. He dives into what led him to security, the VPNs he likes the most and his thoughts on potential cyberattacks. Additionally, we discuss Microsoft’s latest news around the Windows 10 Extended Security Update, and Devindra explains why M3GAN 2.0 absolutely rules. Credits Host: Devindra Hardawar Guests: Sam Chapman Producer: Ben Ellman Music: Dale North and Terrence O'Brien If

The Victus 15L gaming desktop dropped to just $540 at HP

'ZDNET Recommends': What exactly does it mean? ZDNET's recommendations are based on many hours of testing, research, and comparison shopping. We gather data from the best available sources, including vendor and retailer listings as well as other relevant and independent reviews sites. And we pore over customer reviews to find out what matters to real people who already own and use the products and services we’re assessing. When you click through from our site to a retailer and buy a product or

Meta Scores AI Fair Use Court Victory but Judge Warns Such Wins Won't Always Be the Case

AI companies scored another victory in court this week. Meta on Wednesday won a motion for partial summary judgment in its favor in Kadrey v. Meta, a case brought by 13 authors alleging the company infringed on their copyright protections by illegally using their books to train its Llama AI models. The ruling comes two days after a similar victory for Claude maker Anthropic. But Judge Vince Chhabria stressed in his order that this ruling should be limited and doesn't absolve Meta of future clai

Topics: ai chhabria fair meta use

This Barbie flip phone bundle is on sale - and it comes with one year of service

'ZDNET Recommends': What exactly does it mean? ZDNET's recommendations are based on many hours of testing, research, and comparison shopping. We gather data from the best available sources, including vendor and retailer listings as well as other relevant and independent reviews sites. And we pore over customer reviews to find out what matters to real people who already own and use the products and services we’re assessing. When you click through from our site to a retailer and buy a product or

I found the best July 4th deals live now: Save on outdoor, tech, home and more

'ZDNET Recommends': What exactly does it mean? ZDNET's recommendations are based on many hours of testing, research, and comparison shopping. We gather data from the best available sources, including vendor and retailer listings as well as other relevant and independent reviews sites. And we pore over customer reviews to find out what matters to real people who already own and use the products and services we’re assessing. When you click through from our site to a retailer and buy a product or

Best July 4th laptop deals live now

'ZDNET Recommends': What exactly does it mean? ZDNET's recommendations are based on many hours of testing, research, and comparison shopping. We gather data from the best available sources, including vendor and retailer listings as well as other relevant and independent reviews sites. And we pore over customer reviews to find out what matters to real people who already own and use the products and services we’re assessing. When you click through from our site to a retailer and buy a product or

Comcast is simplifying its Xfinity internet plans and dropping data caps

is a news editor covering technology, gaming, and more. He joined The Verge in 2019 after nearly two years at Techmeme. Comcast is changing its Xfinity plans nationwide to make them simpler — and it’s dropping data caps so that the plans have truly unlimited data. The company announced today that it will now offer four plans — 300 Mbps, 500 Mbps, 1 Gbps, and 2 Gbps — across three different pricing tiers: an “Everyday Price” paid per month without a price guarantee, a lower price per month with

The Xbox 360 dashboard just got updated… to advertise newer Xboxes

is a senior reporter who’s been covering and reviewing the latest gadgets and tech since 2006, but has loved all things electronic since he was a kid. Earlier this week some devoted Xbox 360 users booted up their aging consoles to find that Microsoft had updated the home screen to finally resolve an issue with box art. But in addition to that fix, several users on Reddit, as well as Kotaku, have confirmed the update also adds some sizable ads for the Xbox Series X / S consoles to the 360’s dash

Microsoft’s Xbox PC launcher gets going with Steam, Epic, and other games showing up

is a senior editor and author of Notepad , who has been covering all things Microsoft, PC, and tech for over 20 years. Microsoft announced earlier this week that it would start testing its new aggregated gaming library on the Xbox app for Windows, and it’s now starting to show up for testers today. This new library experience lists Steam, Battle.net, Ubisoft, Epic Games Store, and Riot Games titles that are all installed on a PC from various other launchers — much like GOG Galaxy. I’ve been tr

This OnePlus Open bundle deal gets you a $300 smartwatch for free - how to qualify

'ZDNET Recommends': What exactly does it mean? ZDNET's recommendations are based on many hours of testing, research, and comparison shopping. We gather data from the best available sources, including vendor and retailer listings as well as other relevant and independent reviews sites. And we pore over customer reviews to find out what matters to real people who already own and use the products and services we’re assessing. When you click through from our site to a retailer and buy a product or

Meta AI can summarize your unread WhatsApp messages now - how to try it

J Studios/Getty Images Meta is introducing a new AI-powered feature into WhatsApp designed to summarize unread messages. The feature, called Message Summaries, was announced Wednesday in a WhatsApp company blog post. Message Summaries leverages Meta AI to provide brief, bulleted lists outlining key points from a message chain on the social messaging app. It's built upon Meta's Private Processing technology, which means the summaries are conveyed privately to users without any of the informatio

What Happens When Hertz's AI Scanner Finds Damage on Your Rental

Get The Drive’s daily newsletter The latest car news, reviews, and features. Email address Sign Up Thank you! Terms of Service & Privacy Policy. Back in April, we reported on how Hertz was planning to employ artificial intelligence to scan vehicles before and after renters use them, to check for damages and issue associated charges. The AI system has been live now for a few months at select locations around the country, and one customer of Hertz-owned Thrifty reached out to The Drive to share h

Best Alkaline Batteries for Your Devices in 2025

For this round of testing, we gathered four of the most popular battery brands and tested five battery categories, including AAA, AA, C, D and 9-volt. Our objective was to find out which battery manufacturer offered the best value for your money. To assess battery performance, we used our custom-built battery test rig and timed the longevity of each battery, paying attention to their voltage output over time, and compared the difference in price per unit. Battery performance and voltage drop M

Hallmark Plus and Starz in a Bundle? The Prime Video Add-On Subscription Exists

Signing up for an a Prime Video add-on subscription may appeal to you if you want to access content from streamers like Max and Apple TV Plus without leaving Prime Video. And if you are interested in a particular duo of streaming services -- say, Starz and the newer offering Hallmark Plus -- you might even be able to save some money. Starz and Hallmark Plus usually cost $11 per month and $8 per month, but you can currently get the combo through Prime Video in the US for $14 per month. The compa

Gas Prices Hold Steady After Iran Ceasefire Despite Dubious $8/Gallon Warnings in California

Gas prices could rise due to the conflict with Iran. Alvaro Gonzalez/Getty Images Brent crude opened Thursday at $67.83 a barrel, down more than $13 from the high of $81 last week, after traders decided the Iran-Israel ceasefire will probably keep the Strait of Hormuz open. It follows US President Donald Trump delivering an all-caps message about oil prices on Monday, less than a day after US and Israeli forces struck three Iranian nuclear sites. "EVERYONE, KEEP OIL PRICES DOWN. I'M WATCHING!"

Waymo Expands Its Self-Driving Service to Atlanta. Here's Everywhere to Hail a Ride

Self-driving cars are slowly becoming less sci-fi and more real-world as companies like Waymo, the driverless arm of Google's parent Alphabet, expand into more cities. Its newest service area: Atlanta, through a partnership with Uber. Now riders there can travel across 65 square miles of the city, and there are plans for future expansions. Last week, the robotaxi service stretched into more parts of the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles. Bay Area riders can hail a fully autonomous Waymo ri

Meta Scores AI Fair Use Court Victory, but Judge Warns Such Wins Won't Always Be the Case

AI companies scored another victory in court this week. Meta on Wednesday won a motion for partial summary judgment in its favor in Kadrey v. Meta, a case brought by 13 authors alleging the company infringed on their copyright protections by illegally using their books to train its Llama AI models. The ruling comes two days after a similar victory for Claude maker Anthropic. But Judge Vince Chhabria stressed in his order that this ruling should be limited and doesn't absolve Meta of future clai

Topics: ai chhabria fair meta use

Book authors made the wrong arguments in Meta AI training case, judge says

Soon after a landmark ruling deemed that when Anthropic copied books to train artificial intelligence models, it was a "transformative" fair use, another judge has arrived at the same conclusion in a case pitting book authors against Meta. But that doesn't necessarily mean the judges are completely in agreement, and that could soon become a problem for not just Meta, but other big AI companies celebrating the pair of wins this week. On Wednesday, Judge Vince Chhabria explained that he sided wi

'Made in the USA' reference disappears from Trump phone listing

'Made in the USA' reference disappears from Trump phone listing "Speculation to the contrary is simply inaccurate," a spokesperson told the BBC. But the Trump Mobile organisation says the phone will still be made in America. A "Made in the USA" tagline featured in promotional material for the Trump T1 phone when it launched on 16 June, was no longer displayed on its site as of Wednesday, reporters found. Days after the Trump Organisation announced plans to launch a US-made smartphone, a refe

Microsoft rolls out Windows security changes to prevent another CrowdStrike meltdown

Elyse Betters Picaro / ZDNET Last summer's CrowdStrike meltdown was a nightmare for network administrators worldwide, disrupting healthcare systems, cutting off access to banking systems, and grounding aircraft. All in all, the event caused billions of dollars in direct and indirect damages, and it was entirely preventable. Also: How to get Windows 10 extended security updates for free: 2 options In response, Microsoft convened a security summit, bringing together technical experts from Crowd

Why your AC isn't blowing cold air - and 5 easy and quick ways to fix it

Yuga Kurita/Getty Images It always happens during a heatwave. That moment of sinking dread when your AC unit kicks on, but instead of a refreshing blast of arctic air, you're met with a weak, lukewarm breeze. Then panic sets in. Is the AC dead? Is this going to cost a fortune? How will I get to sleep tonight in this stifling heat and humidity? While a truly broken AC unit can indeed be a headache and an expense, the good news is that it's not always a catastrophic failure. The reason your syst

Some bits on malloc(0) in C being allowed to return NULL

You're using a tool with a too-generic User-Agent You're probably reading this page because you've attempted to access some part of my blog (Wandering Thoughts) or CSpace, the wiki thing it's part of. Unfortunately whatever you're using to do so has a HTTP User-Agent header value that is too generic or otherwise excessively suspicious. Unfortunately, as of early 2025 there's a plague of high volume crawlers (apparently in part to gather data for LLM training) that behave like this. To reduce th

Google DeepMind Releases AlphaGenome

Science AlphaGenome: AI for better understanding the genome Share Copy link × Introducing a new, unifying DNA sequence model that advances regulatory variant-effect prediction and promises to shed new light on genome function — now available via API. The genome is our cellular instruction manual. It’s the complete set of DNA which guides nearly every part of a living organism, from appearance and function to growth and reproduction. Small variations in a genome’s DNA sequence can alter a

Microsoft is moving antivirus providers out of the Windows kernel

is a senior editor and author of Notepad , who has been covering all things Microsoft, PC, and tech for over 20 years. It’s been nearly a year since a faulty CrowdStrike update took down 8.5 million Windows-based machines around the world, and Microsoft wants to ensure such a problem never happens again. After holding a summit with security vendors last year, Microsoft is poised to release a private preview of Windows changes that will move antivirus (AV) and endpoint detection and response (ED

US, French authorities confirm arrest of BreachForums hackers

U.S. and French authorities have confirmed the arrests of five hackers accused of being behind several major hacks and being part of a notorious cybercrime forum. On Thursday, the U.S. Department of Justice announced the indictment of British national Kai West, 25, accusing him of being “a serial hacker” known as IntelBroker. U.S. authorities allege West is behind “a years-long hacking scheme,” which caused more than $25 million in damages by targeting more than 40 victims, including a telecoms

Rivian cuts dozens on manufacturing team ahead of R2 launch

Rivian has laid off around 140 employees, or roughly 1% of its workforce, as it prepares for the launch of its more affordable R2 SUV in 2026, TechCrunch has learned. The cuts were mostly made to Rivian’s manufacturing team and have been ongoing since Wednesday, according to multiple former employees who were granted anonymity to speak about the layoffs. Some employees were told that the company was eliminating roles that created “process inefficiencies.” Rivian confirmed the cuts in an email

Anthropic destroyed millions of physical books to train its AI, court documents reveal

WTF?! Generative AI has already faced sharp criticism for its well-known issues with reliability, its massive energy consumption, and the unauthorized use of copyrighted material. Now, a recent court case reveals that training these AI models has also involved the large-scale destruction of physical books. Buried in the details of a recent split ruling against Anthropic is a surprising revelation: the generative AI company destroyed millions of physical books by cutting off their bindings and d

Deals: Rare offer on 1TB M4 MacBook Air at $200 off, Apple Solo Loops $15, all-black Ocean Band 20% off, more

Alongside the ongoing $100 price drop on the 512GB M4 Mac mini, today we spotted a rare deal on the 24GB M4 MacBook Air with the upgraded 1TB SSD at $200 off the list price. From there we move over to some official Apple Watch band deals – the Solo/Braided Loop bands start from just $15 today and we have a rare savings opportunity on the official all-black Apple Ocean Band at 20% off. Those offers join a host of charging and accessory offers, some discounts on M4 iPad Pro, and more. Rare deal h