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More and more people are flocking to Texas — making it one of the fastest growing states in the country. The population explosion also means an increase in the demand for water.

Take West Odessa — many residents don’t have running water and this is in a region where the multi-billion dollar oil industry is booming. But figuring out how to pay for new infrastructure to get water lines where they need to be is a big problem.

Driving through a West Odessa neighborhood, Catarina Tavarez points out bulky water tanks sitting alongside most of the homes and RVs.

“There’s a black tank right here. They’ve got a green tank right there,” she said. “RV place with three tanks.”

Residents store water in these large containers because otherwise they don’t have a reliable source. West Odessa is an unincorporated community that local leaders believe has around 50,000 residents, and in recent years, the West Texas community has been growing fast.

The farther you drive into West Odessa, the more black water tanks are scattered across yards. (Mitch Borden/Marfa Public Radio) 

Many people came here for cheap land and few regulations. It’s a place you might see a small ranch in the middle of a residential neighborhood, work yards filled with oil drilling equipment or mobile homes packed tightly on a single lot.

“This is West Odessa, you’ll have a beautiful home and then the most random mobile homes falling apart,” Tavarez said.

As more people have moved here, the community has expanded beyond existing water lines. Hence the tanks. Which can take a ton of time and money to fill with thousands of gallons of water.

Pulling up to her neighbors house, Tavarez tells me how they haul water.

“They’ll have their flatbed, they’ll have different kinds of tanks,” she said. “They’ll go out anywhere where they can find it less expensive and she told me it takes her about two to three hours per week to haul water.”

Tavarez is part of a group called the West Odessa Water Warriors, which is trying to get more residents connected to the local water utility. Patti Kappauf founded the group last year and according to her it has not been easy.

She said, “You’d think prolific oil fields, right. We would have money — but we don’t and, you know, this population just got out of control.”

A big part of the problem is some parts of West Odessa have access to running water, while large swaths just don’t. The local water system is run by the Ector County Utility District, which doesn’t have the millions of dollars needed to run water lines to the far corners of West Odessa.

Darrell Pando, who was recently elected to the board of the utility district, is kept up at night by how difficult it is going to be to get running water to more West Odessans.

“The main issue is 99% of the people that are asking for water, are outside the district, so there’s no infrastructure out there whatsoever,” he said.

More people are going to have to pay the district if they are going to be able to expand water infrastructure, which has sparked some difficult conversations.

A water tower stands in West Odessa that’s surrounded by homes without running water. (Mitch Borden/Marfa Public Radio)

Pando recalled a citizen telling him, “Darrell, you mean to tell me that I probably won’t be alive by the time you get me water?’ I said ‘I might not even be alive.’ I said, ‘It might not be my kids, it might be my grandkids finishing this up.’”

There are some projects in the works that will expand access to clean and running water, according to Pando, but nothing that will fix the problems at the scale that’s necessary.

Across Texas, communities are worried about running out of water as more people move in. Lawmakers are talking about investing more in water projects. But people out here in West Odessa, like Catarina Tavarez, feel abandoned. 

“It’s not an issue for them, it’s not a priority for them,” Tavarez said.

She pointed out that it’s not always about expanding lines to new developments. In some cases old water wells have dried up, which is what happened to her.

“Running water is a basic need.  I mean this should not be a problem right now,” she said. “It should have been fixed years ago.”

For now, Tavarez and her neighbors will keep filling their water containers wherever they can to keep their faucets running.

Early this year, Mark Zuckerberg announced that Meta would be ditching its long-running fact checking program, claiming that it has enabled too much “censorship” on the company’s apps. Now, Meta has set an end date for fact-checking on Facebook, Instagram and Threads (at least for its US users). 

“By Monday afternoon, our fact-checking program in the US will be officially over,” Meta’s recently elevated policy chief Joel Kaplan announced in a post on X. “That means no new fact checks and no fact checkers.”

Instead, Meta has been slowly ramping up Community Notes. Meta began allowing potential contributors to sign up in February. It began testing the system, which will initially be powered by the same algorithm as Community Notes on X, earlier this month. But the crowdsourced fact checks have yet to appear publicly on posts. It sounds like that’s also about to change with the official end of Meta’s existing fact checking partners. “The first Community Notes will start appearing gradually across Facebook, Threads & Instagram, with no penalties attached,” Kaplan said.

Though Meta has said it wants to eventually end fact checking entirely, the company has said relatively little about its plans for Community Notes outside of the US. That may be because officials in other countries, like Brazil and the European Union, have already expressed concern about how the change could affect the flow of disinformation around the world.

Meta’s push to end fact checking in the US came early this year alongside several other policy changes that marked a notable rightward shift for the social network just as President Donals Trump took office. The company also ended corporate DEI programs, rolled back hate speech protections on its services and added a close Trump ally to its board.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/meta-is-entering-its-post-truth-era-on-monday-202858791.html?src=rss

Microsoft just announced several updates to its Copilot AI assistant, and some sound downright useful. It’s bringing Copilot Vision to mobile, but with some new features. For the uninitiated, this software originally launched for the Edge web browser and gave Copilot the ability to “see” and comment on the contents of websites.

The company is upping its game for the mobile version, adding some multimodal functionality. It’ll be able to integrate with your phone’s camera to “enable an interactive experience with the real world.” Microsoft says it can analyze both real-time video from the camera and photos stored on the device

Microsoft gives an example of Copilot Vision analyzing a video of plants to determine if they are healthy or not and suggesting actions to take. We’ll see if it can actually perform that kind of nuanced reasoning. Modern AI companies love to promise the world and then, well, you know the rest. In any event, the mobile version of Vision is available today in the Copilot app for iOS and Android. The web version is also coming to Windows. 

Microsoft is bringing Copilot Search to Bing to “seamlessly blend the best of traditional and generative search together to help you find what you need.” The company is now calling Bing “your AI-powered search and answer engine.” Like most AI web search tools, this provides summaries to answer queries.

Microsoft says this can take the form of a simple paragraph, like Gemini AI for Google searches, but that it also can provide “images and data from your favorite publishers and content owners.” Copilot Search is rolling out today.

The company also introduced something called Copilot Memory. This is Microsoft’s attempt to bring more personalization to Copilot. After all, it’s tough to have a true AI companion when it doesn’t remember anything about you. With this addition, Copilot will be able to remember specific details about your life, like “your favorite food, the types of films you enjoy and your nephew’s birthday and his interests.”

The company touts that the software will recommend actions based on what it remembers. To that end, Microsoft says Copilot will be able to do stuff like buy tickets to events, order flowers and make dinner reservations. It says the service will “work with most websites across the web.” We’ll see how that works out.

The update brings some other tools to the table, like the ability to auto-generate podcasts based on specific topics and offer shopping advice based on sales history across the web. These updates begin rolling out today, but it may not hit every user for a bit. Microsoft says availability will expand in the coming weeks and months.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/microsofts-latest-copilot-updates-include-a-mobile-version-of-the-multimodal-vision-tool-182752162.html?src=rss

TikTok is going to get more time to figure out a plan to stay in the US. President Donald Trump is signing another executive order effectively extending the deadline for the company to find US buyers by another 75 days. The president signaled he intended to give the deal more time via a Truth Social post.

"My Administration has been working very hard on a Deal to SAVE TIKTOK, and we have made tremendous progress," Trump wrote. "The Deal requires more work to ensure all necessary approvals are signed, which is why I am signing an Executive Order to keep TikTok up and running for an additional 75 days." 

Trump's post suggests that the recently introduced suite of tariffs against US trade partners like China will somehow help close the deal. As part of the TikTok ban signed in to law by former President Biden in April 2024, TikTok's parent company ByteDance is forced to sell TikTok to a US buyer or get kicked out of US app stores and web hosting platforms. 

After a good bit of back and forth over the legality of the ban, the Supreme Court ultimately upheld it, and left the enforcement of the law to the incoming Trump administration. TikTok was briefly unavailable, but Trump ultimately signed an executive order that delayed the enforcement of the ban by 75 days to give TikTok more time to find a buyer and get the app back up and running.

Multiple companies and groups have expressed interest in outright buying or investing in TikTok — reportedly, even Amazon — but no one has come to a deal that satisfies ByteDance or the Chinese government. It's not clear tariffs will change anyone's motivations, but if everyone continues to accept Trump's Justice Department just not enforcing the ban, than the whole ordeal seems like it could last as long as necessary.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/trump-is-extending-the-deadline-for-a-tiktok-deal-by-another-75-days-180526714.html?src=rss

Vimeo is launching a new service that lets content creators run their own subscription service without needing coding experience. Vimeo Streaming removes the technical hurdles of building a monetized video service while avoiding the whack-a-mole game of chasing YouTube's algorithms or the often-meager payouts on TikTok and Instagram.

The company says the product is ideal for media and entertainment creators, performing arts organizations, educators and e-learning companies, sports and event broadcasters and fitness studios. And since Vimeo is pitching less to individuals trying to build an audience from scratch, you'll need to contact the company's sales team for pricing details.

The service provides tools and templates for "a professional 'Netflix-style' streaming experience without any coding needed." Creators can tailor Vimeo Streaming's look and feel with custom branding, colors and logos. The service offers white-label web, mobile and TV apps for all major platforms, so you don't have to convince your audience to download the Vimeo app. Creators can organize and categorize videos, create playlists, include artwork and use custom layouts.

Vimeo

Monetization options include subscriptions (with free trials and payment processing), selling or renting videos on-demand, optional sponsorship ads and video bumpers and audience loyalty perks. It also supports live-streaming (including concurrent, backup and 24/7 streams), piracy protections and AI-powered subtitle translations in 36 languages.

"Vimeo is proud to serve the professional creator," CEO Philip Moyer told The Hollywood Reporter. "We believe creators should be in control of their work and how they are paid, so we're taking the technologies that are usually only afforded by the biggest platforms and putting it in the hands of our customers at a fraction of the cost."

You can learn more on Vimeo's product page.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/vimeo-streaming-lets-creators-roll-their-own-netflix-171220483.html?src=rss

It was Tuesday June 25, 2019. San Francisco became the first US city to (temporarily) ban the sale of vapes, SpaceX successfully launched and deployed 24 satellites and I sat in Nintendo’s UK office on the outskirts of London, playing a demo of a game that still isn’t out. 

However, according to yesterday's Switch 2 presentation, Hollow Knight: Silksong will arrive at some point this year. Nintendo even showed off a couple of seconds of new footage. There are slopes!

Oh Silksong, oh Hollow Knight: Silksong, oh Hollow Knight’s repurposed DLC. The second Hollow Knight game from Team Cherry was initially meant to be a DLC addition to the original, but plans changed, with the developers saying that it had become “too large and too unique." (This many years later, exactly how large and unique will Silksong be?)

Later, as part of the 2022 Xbox and Bethesda Games showcase, a Silksong trailer teased a release date in the next 12 months as part of Xbox’s attempt to deliver a wave of exciting games after a lackluster start to the Series X/S launch.

When the early 2023 release date passed us by, Team Cherry delayed the game into 2024 and now, well, it’s 2025. I played that demo so long ago that it might have just been a dream.

Without rewriting my six-year-old hands-on impressions entirely, the new game features a new playable character named Hornet, who featured as a repeatable boss fight in the original Hollow Knight, with silk-based attacks and faster, more agile gameplay. It also offers a more aggressive play style, with Hornet able to heal herself using silk charges and even repair damage with silk bundles left behind from prior unsuccessful attempts. It's a different gameplay twist from having to beat the Hollow Knight shadow in the original.

I subtitled my hands-on impressions, saying it would be “worth the wait.” Back then, I'd recently finished Hollow Knight on the Switch, putting in a few too many hours and was hungry for more bug-shaped Metroidvania adventures. Silksong felt fresh, more responsive, faster and flashier — and I just wanted to play more Hollow Knight.

Barely six seconds of footage during Nintendo's Switch 2 presentation was enough to re-ignite the Silksong fandom, when it revealed nothing new more than some downhill traversal. It's proof that a lot of people are still excited — and still waiting.

I'm excited, and six years on, it feels like it must be pretty close. 

Right?

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/that-one-time-i-played-hollow-knight-silksong-160022483.html?src=rss

A four-pack of Samsung’s SmartTag 2 trackers is on sale for $58 via Woot. That’s a massive discount of 42 percent, as the regular price is $100. This combo pack ships with two black trackers and two white trackers.

They easily made our list of the best Bluetooth trackers. We appreciated the vast finding network, as there are a lot of Samsung phones out there contributing to it. We said the network is “larger than anything out there for Android.” The trackers offer a decent battery life of 16 months, and the batteries are replaceable.

There’s also a large hole for keychains, which is something Apple AirTags lack. The ring volume is also louder than both AirTags and Tile Pro trackers. These trackers are fairly hearty, with IP67 water and dust-resistance. Setup is simple, as the companion app walks users through just about everything.

There’s only one downside, but it’s a doozy. SmartTag trackers only work with Samsung tablets and phones. This doesn’t really impact the finding network, as there are millions of Samsung devices out there, but does limit who should make this purchase.

Follow @EngadgetDeals on X for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/a-four-pack-of-samsung-smarttag-2-trackers-is-on-sale-for-58-right-now-152356230.html?src=rss

Nintendo has delayed US Switch 2 pre-orders in response to the new set of tariffs announced by President Donald Trump earlier this week, as first reported by Polygon. Following Nintendo's announcement of the console on Wednesday, pre-orders in the United States were slated to open on April 9. They're now delayed indefinitely.   

"Pre-orders for Nintendo Switch 2 in the US will not start April 9, 2025 in order to assess the potential impact of tariffs and evolving market conditions," the company told Engadget. "Nintendo will update timing at a later date. The launch date of June 5, 2025 is unchanged."

As mentioned earlier, Nintendo officially announced the Switch 2 on April 2. Hours later, the Trump administration said it would impose a sweeping set of new tariffs targeted against a broad swath of countries, including Japan, China and Vietnam. Products from the latter two countries, where Nintendo manufactures much of its hardware, will be subject to import duties of 54 percent and 46 percent, respectively.  

In the US, Nintendo said the Switch 2 would cost $450. As Polygon notes, sticker shock was already dominating the conversation around Nintendo's new handheld, with many fans begging the company to "drop the price!" of console during its recent livestreams. It's unclear what could happen following Nintendo's assessment of the situation, but one possibility is that the company could allocate less stock for the US market.              

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/nintendo/nintendo-delays-switch-2-us-pre-orders-following-trump-tariffs-150747208.html?src=rss

This story was produced by our colleagues at the BBC.

The rapid patter of the auctioneer and the thud of a gavel — the classic sounds of an auction. Today, 250 cars are being sold at Manheim Leeds in the north of England. It’s part of Atlanta’s Cox Enterprises and is one of the U.K.’s busiest car auctions.

If you’ve ever wondered what happens to old rental cars or where your car goes at the end of the finance period, there’s a good chance it ends up at auctions like Manheim Leeds.

Out in the yard, it’s a fresh spring morning. Cars arrive by truck and undergo a rigorous process before hitting the auction floor: cleaning, inspection and grading.

Cars being prepped for auction at Manheim Leeds. (BBC)

In the main building is Manheim’s expansive warehouse. Lined neatly across the floor are gleaming cars waiting their turn to be driven down to the double-lane auction floor. Here, I catch up with Sunny Bhatt, who runs SRH Cars in Leeds. He’s eyeing up premium German vehicles.

“We’re kind of looking at the mileage,” explains Sunny, “so as long as it’s not too heavy on the miles. Preferably under eight years old. You’d be hoping to pay around about £8,000-£9,000.”

That’s about $11,000, and, according to another player — British Car Auctions — the U.K.’s used car market is going strong. The average selling price was $10,500 in January, up 6% from the year before. Sunny explains that we have electric vehicles to thank for that.

“It’s a supply-and-demand issue. There’s a massive influx of electric cars,” he said. “So a lot of the auctions have less and less petrol and diesel cars, which will drive the price up.”

By “petrol and diesel,” Sunny means gas cars. And despite this influx of EVs into the market, Sunny says, for now, he’s not interested. “I’d rather stick to the petrol and diesel cars that we know, love — and can fix.”

Standing behind the auctioneer’s platform, I can see the screens flashing: numbers and bids coming in from online buyers watching a live stream of the auction.

Matt Scholes from RHT Motors is taking a break. He comes to Manheim every week and always has a strategy.

Matt Scholes from RHT Motors comes to Manheim Leeds every week. (BBC)

“I do a lot of pre-work before I get here,” Scholes says. “I’ve managed to buy three out of six. Paid a little more than I would’ve wanted for two of them but I’ve got to set a ceiling before I start to bid or it can get out of hand.”

After greeting all the regulars on the auction floor, center manager Ben Musther gets me to go shoulder-to-shoulder with the other bidders.

“So we’re on lot number 496,” he says. “This is a Mitsubishi Shogun, and it’s done 130,000 miles. It’s got an auction guide price of about £2,000 to £2,450.”

He darts me a glance. “Where do you think it’s probably gonna end up?”

“I’d say £2,000,” I tell him, slightly uncertain.

“I don’t think you’re a million miles away,” says Musther. “I think that’s gonna probably do £1,700 to £1,800. Nobody’s putting their hand up just yet.”

“I better keep my hand down,” I say, only half-joking.

“We’re alright. We’re trained professionals,” quips Ben before turning his attention to business.

Ben Musther is the center manager at Manheim Leeds. (BBC)

“So he’s now asking for £1,800, the internet’s flashed up there, £1,900. So that’s now on provisional.”

“That’s it? It’s done?”

“That vehicle’s offered and out the door.”

I’m proud of my guess, telling Ben, “I wasn’t far off.”

Professional pride kicks in. “You wasn’t”, he says, “but I did mention £1,800 to £2,000!”

Okay, so Ben wins this one. It’s clear that here at Manheim Leeds, the used car market remains strong and always moving.

American startups raised more than $91 billion in venture capital funding in the first quarter of this year, according to new data out this week from the research firm Pitchbook.

More than a third of that funding went to one company: OpenAI. But even if you leave that mega-deal out, AI-focused companies still received about half of the remaining VC dollars in the United States.

One reason venture capitalists are piling into AI? They have a serious case of FOMO.

“People tend to chase hot sectors. Venture is a very shiny object industry,” said Sarah Kunst with the venture capital firm Cleo Capital.

She’s invested in AI companies herself and said lots of startups that were first focused on fintech or e-commerce but use artificial intelligence for something are rebranding themselves as AI companies now. 

“Because you know that leaning into the AI story will help you raise money, will help your company get off the ground,” Kunst said.

Still, there’s a drawback to all this focus on AI.

“If all these companies are doing AI, are we missing out on potential innovation in other spaces?” asked Emily Zheng, an analyst at Pitchbook. 

She also points out that a lot of AI-focused companies have yet to make money. If they never do, this big bet VCs are making won’t pan out and will have less to invest with in the future.

The prices of commodities like crude oil, copper and soybeans have dropped in response to President Donald Trump’s tariff announcements, indicating pessimism about where the global economy may be headed. Even though many commodities, like oil, were exempt from tariffs, the broader economic effects of tariffs are likely to take a toll if they continue.

Tariffs have cast a shadow on the upcoming planting season for Iowa soybean farmer Dave Walton: “It feels a bit like today; cloudy, overcast, gray,” he said.

Before this round of tariffs, Walton said that soybean prices were almost breaking even. “With that additional drop in price, it just creates more red ink, so we went from a break-even or a small loss to a larger loss.”

As for crude oil — the commodity of all commodities — new tariffs make U.S. consumer products pricier, according to Joe DeLaura, a senior energy strategist at Rabobank. That will cool the demand for fuel for transoceanic shipping and other transportation.

“Companies are just going to cut back on orders,” he said. “That’s going to decrease domestic usage of logistics, transportation and shipping.”

Gasoline demand could also take a hit. Consumers may be less likely to get in their cars and drive to the store.

“You’re not going to go shopping at Target if the $15 t-shirt costs you $30,” said DeLaura.

OPEC + is adding oil supply, which is also pushing down prices — lower prices that could hurt U.S. oil producers, said Ian Lange with the Colorado School of Mines.

“The shale revolution means we’re now big producers — the biggest producer — and so there’s sort of, like an extra negative impact right on the U.S. economy as a result of us being big producers of oil and gas when the price of oil and gas goes down,” he said.

In the world of metals, volatility has taken a toll on prices, per consultant Chris Berry of House Mountain Partners — including for copper, which was recently at a high.

“When you look at copper, it’s called the metal with the PhD in economics because it — generally speaking — is a pretty good predictor of economic growth in an economy,” he said. “If you’re going to lay higher costs into an economy, it’s going to hit copper prices in particular.”

In other words, a growing economy needs more copper, while a weakening one needs less.

Midjourney has released the alpha version of V7, which it says is an "entirely new" AI image generation model and is much smarter at processing your text prompts. The image quality of its output is noticeably higher, the Midjourney team says, and can create better textures, bodies and hands. AI image generators typically struggle with creating accurate depictions of hands, but based on photos posted by some users on their socials, V7 is capable of spitting out some photorealistic images of human hands. 

The new model comes with a feature called "Draft Mode," which can render images at half the speed the program usually takes. Its results are rougher and less detailed, but it will cost half of what a standard generation costs. Midjourney says Draft Mode is the best way to iterate on ideas. You can use it, say, if you're collaborating with someone and just spitballing ideas with them — it works with voice, so you don't even have to type out each other's suggestions — or if you're unsure what kind of vibe you're going for. If you like an image Midjourney creates in Draft Mode, you can click "enhance" or "vary" on it to re-render it at full quality. 

At launch, V7 will have Turbo and Relax modes for standard rendering, with the former costing twice as much as a normal speed job on the V6 model. Midjourney needs more time to optimize its standard speed mode for V7, but it will make the option available in the future. The new mode is missing more capabilities, as well, including upscaling, editing and retexturing, which will fall back to the program's V6 model for now. Midjourney promises to roll out new updates for the model every week or two over the next two months.

To be able to test the alpha version of V7, you'll have to unlock your personalization profile first. Midjourney describes personalization as "a style assistant for your image creations," since it teaches the AI your visual preferences. You'll have to rank at least 200 pairs of images to create a V7 Global Personalization Profile and test the model. Personalization is switched on by default for the V7, but you'll be able to switch it off if you want. 

One of the most exciting new features for our new V7 model is something we call "Draft Mode". Draft mode is half the cost and 10 times the speed and it might be the best way to iterate on ideas ever. Try it with voice, think out loud and let our ideas flow like liquid dreams. pic.twitter.com/ANfTMC6Ej1

— Midjourney (@midjourney) April 4, 2025

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/midjourney-launches-its-new-v7-ai-image-model-that-can-process-text-prompts-better-134546883.html?src=rss

The Trump administration’s tariffs are set to hit the apparel industry especially hard.

Nearly all of the clothes and shoes we buy in the U.S. come from outside our borders — many of them from countries in Southeast Asia. Imports from many of those countries are soon going to be subject to tariffs over 30%.

When President Trump raised taxes on imports from China in his first term, apparel companies moved a lot of their operations elsewhere — especially to Vietnam, said David Swartz with Morningstar. 

This time, with tariffs targeting all U.S. trading partners, there’s nowhere to hide.

“They cannot move production to other countries to avoid a tariff in one country in any realistic time frame,” he said.

Moving garment manufacturing to the U.S. is just not an option, per Stephen Lamar, head of the American Apparel and Footwear Association.

“Because we don’t have the labor, the skill sets, the infrastructure, the capabilities to scale up production,” he said.

Bottom line? “We’re not going to be able to buy clothing as inexpensively as we have in the past,” said Denise Green at Cornell University.

There could be an upside, though: We’ve been buying and wasting a lot of apparel for years, she said. “Maybe we come to value clothing and take care of it and ensure its longevity.”

But, Green added, tariffs will devastate the global apparel industry.

You have to go all the way back to the Nintendo 64 to play the most recent 3D Donkey Kong game. But without a new mainline Zelda or Mario title (Mario Kart World doesn't quite count) queued up for the Switch 2's launch in June, Nintendo's favorite ape is getting some time to shine in Donkey Kong Bananza. And after getting a chance to play a demo of the game prior to its release on July 17, I have to say I'm loving this glowed-up gorilla.

Now, I'm not entirely sure how DK went from the jungle to being stuck in the banana mines because the demo just kind of dropped me in without a ton of context. Regardless, there's no doubt that this is the best the gorilla has ever looked. He's got a fresh, almost cell-shaded look not entirely dissimilar to the art style seen in recent Zelda games, along with a more youthful and expressive appearance. And it seems his time spent digging has garnered him some new skills as well, which include the ability to punch, dig and butt stomp his way below, into and through all sorts of terrain, with dirt flying everywhere as you do it.

Sam Rutherford for Engadget

This opens up a world (cave?) of exploration because now DK can tunnel through to new locations or shape his surroundings with a ground pound, though there's also the usual assortment of actions like running and jumping. This type of freedom immediately changes the way you tackle obstacles compared to a standard platformer. Nearly everything is destructible in some way, and between digging, rolling or simply chucking giant rocks at foes, it feels like there are multiple ways to get where you need to go.

Granted, you still have familiar tropes like collecting jeweled bananas and of course, a companion in the form of a friendly purple rock monster that rides on DK's shoulder. But make no mistake, this ain't the same country DK has swung through before. Thanks to all of its new traversal mechanics, in a lot of ways, Bananza reminds me more of Mario Galaxy than Odyssey. It's just swapped out the gravity-bending physics for bombastic spelunking.

Sam Rutherford for Engadget

That said, while the game looks great and handles well, I do have some initial concerns. After a while, the constant digging and rock smashing felt a bit button-mashy. Plus, all the ricks and detritus that gets kicked up becomes a distraction, as I would kind of like to actually see where I'm going. There really is a ton of earth that needs moving. This makes me wonder if the game is aimed at a slightly younger audience similar to a lot of Kirby games rather than something meant to appeal to older players.

But even though I only had a brief time with the game, I saw more than enough to make me want to come back. And alongside Mario Kart World, it's exceedingly clear that Donkey Kong Bananza is part of Nintendo's giant punch that will carry the Switch 2 through its launch window.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/nintendo/donkey-kong-bananza-hands-on-a-funky-fresh-take-on-nintendos-favorite-ape-130057272.html?src=rss

The trailer for M3GAN 2.0 is here and if you were expecting a copy-paste of the original's horror vibe, you may be surprised. Instead, the sequel is embracing a turn towards action in vein of Terminator 2 complete with upgrades to the original doll, a robot showdown and... a wing suit? 

Set to arrive in theaters only on June 27, the film is once again directed by Gerard Johnstone and features returning cast members Allison Williams, Violet McGraw, Brian Jordan Alvarez and Jen Van Epps, along with newcomer Ivanna Sakhno (Pacific Rim: Uprising) as Amelia. 

It's two years after the original M3GAN doll went on a murderous rampage (including that wild dance sequence) and was eventually destroyed. Since then, its designer Gemma has become an author and voice for more robust AI oversight, while Gemma's niece Cady (who M3GAN 1.0 swore to protect) is now a teenager.

Meanwhile, M3GAN's AI tech was stolen by a defense contractor to build super robot solidier Amelia. However, the experiment went awry and Amelia seeks murderous revenge against the AI's creators, particularly Gemma and Cady. Despite misgivings (mostly over the fact that M3GAN tried to murder her), Gemma decides to resurrect the OG doll to combat Amelia, and even adds updates to make her faster, stronger and, well, taller. 

That sets up a showdown between M3GAN and Amelia, complete with guns, a Teletubby version of M3GAN, catchphrases ("hold on to your vagina") and the aforementioned wingsuit sequence. It has strong shades of Terminator 2 with the original robot doll protecting a key character from a new upgraded model. That's married with a camp aesthetic, lots of blood and even a creepy usage of Britney Spears' Oops I did it Again. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/watch-m3gan-switch-from-horror-to-action-in-the-new-sequel-trailer-125749110.html?src=rss

Following the release of rival Anthropic's Claude for Education, OpenAI has announced that its $20 ChatGPT Plus tier will be free for college students until the end of May. The offer comes just in time for final exams and will provide features like OpenAI's most advanced LLM, GPT-4o and an all-new image generation tool. 

"We are offering a Plus discount for students on a limited-time basis in the US and Canada," the company wrote in a FAQ. "This is an experimental consumer program and we may or may not expand this to more schools and countries over time."

On top of the aforementioned features, ChatGPT Plus will offer students benefits like priority access during peak usage times and higher message limits. It'll also grant them access to OpenAI's Deep Research, a tool that can create reports from hundreds of online sources. 

AI tools have been widely adopted by students for research and other uses, with open AI recently saying that a third of young adults aged 18-24 already use ChatGPT, with much of that directed toward studies. Anthropic is going even farther than OpenAI to tap into that market with Claude for Education, by introducing a Learning mode specifically designed to guide students to a solution, rather than providing answers outright. 

Where Anthropic is positioning itself more as a tutor to students, OpenAI is simply giving them access to its most powerful research tools. That brings up the subject of academic integrity and whether AI tools are doing work that students should be doing themselves. Anthropic's approach may be more palatable to institutions — along with its Claude for Education launch, the company announced that it partnered with several universities and colleges to make the new product free for students. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/openais-20-chatgpt-plus-is-now-free-for-college-students-until-the-end-of-may-120037778.html?src=rss

After Nintendo revealed the full details around the Switch 2 this week, Engadget's Sam Rutherford got some hands-on time with the new console. In this episode, he talks about the major improvements in the new hardware (especially that 1080p, 120 fps screen) and why he doesn't really miss the older Switch OLED. Also, Sam discusses his time with Mario Kart World, the new semi-open world version of Nintendo's classic racer.

In other news, we dive into the latest updates around the TIkTok ban, and we discuss how the Trump administration's tariff push will affect everything in the technology world and beyond. Stay tuned to the end of the show for our chat with Shinichiro Watanabe, the creator of Cowboy Bebop, about his new anime series Lazarus.

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Topics

• Switch 2 details are finally here, Sam Rutherford got hands-on time with it – 1:47

• U.S.’s broad new tariffs on China and beyond could make everything from keyboards to cars more expensive – 49:32

• TikTok’s divest-or-ban deadline is April 5, here are the possible buyers – 54:57

• xAI buys X, but how much does that matter? – 58:24

• Working on – 1:00:59

• Pop culture picks – 1:02:31

Credits 

Hosts: Devindra Hardawar and Sam Rutherford
Producer: Ben Ellman
Music: Dale North and Terrence O'Brien

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/engadget-podcast-nintendo-switch-2-hands-on-and-the-cowboy-bebop-creator-chats-about-lazarus-113005280.html?src=rss

Nintendo’s new console has finally been revealed in full, with magnetically attaching Joy-Cons, a new chat function and a bigger higher-res 7.9-inch screen that supports 120Hz and HDR.

Then there are the new Joy-Cons. Alongside larger SL and SR buttons made of metal, the controllers can be disconnected by pressing a more pronounced release button on the back. The big upgrade, though, is using either Joy-Con like a mouse. (And even use them on your pants, if you want to.)

The Switch 2 also uses DLSS, so it’s easier for developers to port games across to the hybrid console. In a very Nintendo way, it didn’t actually talk up the hardware specifics, so NVIDIA had to fill in the gaps. 

Engadget

According to NVIDIA, responsible for the chip inside, the Switch 2 has “ten times” the graphical performance of the original. DLSS tech means games can be rendered at a lower resolution, and trained AI models and dedicated Tensor Cores can be used to fill in extra details.

With that extra power, the Switch 2 supports up to 60 fps at 4K resolution and 120 fps at 1440p or 1080p resolutions, docked. The 1080p screen can handle variable refresh rates up to 120Hz in handheld mode, too.

Yes, catching up with the last two decades, the Switch 2 can also do video chat (and voice chat, but yawn). However, it demands a sold-separately camera, costing $50. Boo.

I think that strikes at the issue of price. The original Switch was $300 at launch, the PS5 starts at $399 now. The Switch 2 is $450. Sure, that includes the screen and (technically) two controllers, but it’s a bit of a jump.

Is Nintendo factoring in tariffs? Possibly. While some of us think $450 is an appropriate price for the console itself, the costs are creeping up in every direction. Want the new must-have Mario Kart World? That’s $80 now. Meanwhile, older games re-released on the Switch 2 also won't be cheap. Cyberpunk 2077 rings in at $70. Oof.

If you want to expand storage, well, you’d need a microSD express card, the faster, pricier version of the tiny storage card. Need another pair of Joy-Cons? That will be $90, please.

Want to pre-order a Switch 2 ahead of the June 5 launch? We’ve got all the details, but it’s worth noting Nintendo is trying to get ahead of scalpers by offering a dedicated pre-order system for existing heavy Switch users with a Switch Online subscription.

In Nintendo’s words: “Invitation emails will be prioritized on a first-come, first-served basis to registrants who have purchased a Nintendo Switch Online membership with a minimum of 12 months of paid membership and a minimum of 50 total gameplay hours, as of April 2, 2025.”

Read on for our hands-on impressions of the Switch 2.

— Mat Smith

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Even more Switch 2 stuff

• Nintendo Switch 2: Everything you need to know

• The Switch 2’s Joy-Cons can double as mouse-like controllers

• Mario Kart World hands-on: The perfect launch game for the Switch 2

The Nintendo Switch 2 has built-in voice chat and screensharing GameChat will be free until March 31, 2026. Nintendo

While we didn’t get to try it at the early hands-on event, voice chat is an integral part of the new Nintendo console. By pressing the new C button on the right Joy-Con, players can jump into a GameChat with friends and family. Nintendo demoed the feature during its recent Switch 2 Direct, alongside a new Switch 2 Camera, enabling video chat too, with a cut-out profile. It looks a lot like a stream on Discord, with windows along the bottom of the screen for every chat participant. Up to four friends can share their screen and join with video chat if they own the Switch 2 Camera.

Continue reading.

• Want a less ugly Switch 2 camera?

National Security Council adds Gmail to its list of bad decisions Signalgate was just the start.

It’s not long since that Signal messaging app disaster, but US politicians continue showing off their minimal national security expertise. The Washington Post reports that members of the White House’s National Security Council have used personal Gmail accounts for official government business. National security advisor Michael Waltz and a senior aide of his both used their own accounts to discuss sensitive information with colleagues. Government departments typically use business-grade email services, while the federal government also has its own internal communications systems with additional layers of security.

Continue reading.

• How to add someone to a Signal group chat

Google’s Pixel Buds Pro 2 are back on sale You can pick up a pair for $179.

Google’s latest wireless earbuds are on sale via Amazon for just $179. This is a record-low price, down from $229. As per our review, they sound great. They provide a good low end, which is tough to do with earbuds, and crunchy highs. Google says it redesigned the entire audio system, and it shows. We called out the “noticeable improvement” over the original Pixel Buds Pro earbuds.

Continue reading.

'Careless People' author will testify on Meta at Senate hearing This will be Wynn-Williams’ first remarks since Meta took legal action against her.

Sarah Wynn-Williams, the former Facebook policy director who wrote a best-selling memoir about her time at the company, will testify at a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing next week. In her book, Careless People, Wynn-Williams recounts Meta executives’ interactions with world leaders and government officials as Facebook’s influence expanded globally in the early 2010s. Her account has resurfaced information about Facebook’s attempts to operate in China and revealed new details about its overtures to Chinese government officials.

Prior to her book’s publication, Wynn-Williams also filed whistleblower complaints about alleged misconduct at the company.

Meta’s attempts to curtail sales of the memoir spectacularly backfired, with the book seeing explosive sales after reports suggested Meta took legal action against the author. Now there’s a senate hearing too.

Continue reading.

The world’s smallest pacemaker is injectable and powered by light And it dissolves when no longer needed. Northwestern University

Engineers at Northwestern University have developed the world’s smallest pacemaker. It’s so small that it fits in the tip of a syringe. It safely dissolves into the bloodstream after a time, so it’s a temporary solution. It’s designed for folks who need heart help short-term, like newborn babies with congenital defects. The pacemaker pairs with a wireless device mounted to a patient’s chest. When it detects an irregular heartbeat, it shines a light that activates the pacemaker.

Continue reading.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/general/the-morning-after-engadget-newsletter-111500071.html?src=rss

Twelve years ago, Frida Adame unknowingly launched her career outside downtown Houston’s outdoor ice rink in Discovery Green park, helping her mom make some extra money during the holidays. 

“My mom used to stand on that corner right over there selling trinket lights,” she said. “I used to stand right on that corner and sing, ‘lights, lights, $5.’” 

Adame, 29, spent so much time around rink that the operations manager encouraged her to get a job there.

“Of course, he didn’t know that I didn’t have legal documentation to work,” Adame said.  

At the time, Adame — who emigrated from Mexico as a kid — was eligible for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, so a security guard at the rink gave her the money for her application fee. Once approved, she got a work permit and temporary protection from deportation under the program. 

“I started to get my new job with my Social, because I do get a Social Security [number] through DACA. I started filing my own taxes,” she said.  

Since then, Adame has worked her way up, from skate attendant to project manager for the company that runs the ice and roller skating rink, and other rinks across the country. Her contributions far surpass her first working years, when she earned around $8 an hour.  

“This year, I believe I had to pay back $2,500” to the IRS, she said. That’s in addition to what was taken out of her paycheck. These are taxes she pays even though she’s not eligible for benefits like federally funded Medicaid or Social Security. 

Millions of undocumented immigrants pay taxes every year, including DACA recipients like Adame. And the confidentiality of the addresses and other personal data submitted to the IRS by taxpaying undocumented immigrants has remained protected for decades. 

But the Donald Trump administration is looking to change that, challenging a decadeslong firewall around taxpayer data. In March, The Washington Post reported on a plan to share IRS data with immigration officials to carry out deportations.

Section 6103 of the U.S. tax code protects all taxpayers, including undocumented immigrants, from having their data shared with agencies like the Department of Homeland Security, according to law professor Shayak Sarkar of the University of California, Davis. 

“That allows for people to now provide the IRS detailed information on their income and on themselves, without concern that it will be shared with other people, agencies, congressional committees, except under the narrowest of circumstances,” Sarkar said. 

Taxpayer privacy provisions are strong, in part thanks to laws that came after the Richard Nixon administration weaponized IRS data against political enemies. 

“But as with other unprecedented actions, it’s going to require the courts to assert the importance of Congress’ will in the statute and the importance of the regulatory framework that has emerged from it,” he said. 

The longstanding protections around tax data have encouraged anxious immigrant families to comply with their legal obligation to file taxes. In 2022, an estimated $97 billion was paid by undocumented immigrants in federal, state and local taxes, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.

Jackie Vimo, a political science professor at Montclair State University, has helped those families directly with their taxes for decades. 

“I have told people to their faces, told their families, in presence of their children and their spouses, that their information is absolutely safe,” they said. 

Vimo is not making the same assurances this year. 

“I can’t, in good conscience, advise people that it’s safe to file their taxes anymore,” they said. “This sets a dangerous precedent that no one’s information is secure.”

“It’s a catch-22,” said Ana Guajardo, executive director of the Centro de Trabajadores Unidos workers center in Illinois. The group is one of the plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed last month to prevent the IRS from sharing data about undocumented immigrants. 

“You’re trying to force people to be in a situation where they’re not obeying the laws that they’re trying to follow, and then later you want to find ways that you’re going to deport them for not following them,” she said. 

Guajardo expects any move to share data with the Department of Homeland Security will discourage immigrants from filing taxes. 

It’s a puzzling move considering the fiscal implications, according to the Cato Institute’s vice president for economic and social policy studies, Alex Nowrasteh. 

“Reducing the amount of taxpayers paying into those programs who are not going to receive benefits is a really foolish thing to do,” Nowrasteh said. 

And Frida Adame, who first filed taxes while working at the Houston ice rink, thinks most immigrants will continue to file their taxes anyway.  

“We’re not looking for a free ride. We’re looking to do things right,” Adame said.  

The IRS and DHS did not respond to requests for comment on this story. 

We now know what many (but not all) of President Donald Trump’s tariffs are set to be: 10% minimum on imports, with exemptions for semiconductors, pharmaceuticals, lumber and certain minerals. For many countries’ goods, the levy will be much higher.

Just a year ago the average tax on goods coming into the U.S. was 2.5%. Now, it’s 22.5%, according to Fitch Ratings — the highest in more than 100 years. 

So now that we have those numbers, what are we going to see on shelves and in grocery carts?

For some businesses, tariffs have already made an impact. Eugene Jen is a partner at the Jenesis Group, a family-owned homebuilder in New York.

“We placed an order for specialty stainless steel. From the time that we first quoted the job back in February to now, my vendor told me they increased the prices 277% — I actually did the math,” he said.

Homebuilders expect construction prices to climb more than $9,000 for a single-family home, according to the National Association of Home Builders.

“It’s due to tariffs on building materials like nails and screws that come from Asia, as well as appliances,” said NAHB Chief Economist Robert Dietz.

But the latest tariffs are so broad-based, they’re gonna show up way beyond home prices.

“These tariffs apply to pretty much everything that you see in a retail store,” said Jon Gold, vice president of supply chain and customs policy at the National Retail Federation.

Goods from several Asian countries got the highest tariffs — 54% in some cases. That’s where we’ll feel the biggest sticker shock, said Kylie Cohu, a vice president at the Jefferies investment bank.

“Consumer electronics, those are definitely exposed. Footwear, as well as apparel, is highly exposed. Anything kind of with a textile, as well as toys and games and even some parts of furniture,” she said.

Cohu said retailers will try to convince suppliers to eat some of the cost. But a lot of goods arriving now were ordered up to a year ago. The time for negotiating is long gone, leaving retailers holding the bag and less able to shield consumers.

“And now, companies are gonna have to scramble to come up with the cash, and folks don’t have time to react and shift their supply chains and sourcing, if they’re even able to,” said Jon Gold with the NRF.

UBS economists now predict inflation will soar to 4.4% this year and stay above 4% in 2026. Deutsche Bank economists say real gross domestic product growth could fall below 1% this year, at which point the economy tips perilously close to recession. The unemployment rate, they predict, could rise to 5% this year.