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The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children said it received more than 1 million reports of AI-related child sexual abuse material (CSAM) in 2025. The vast majority of that content was reported by Amazon, which found the material in its training data, according to an investigation by Bloomberg . In addition, Amazon said only that it obtained the inappropriate content from external sources used to train its AI services and claimed it could not provide any further details about where th

Two Elon Musk companies are reportedly planning to merge. On Thursday, Reuters reported that SpaceX and xAI are holding merger talks ahead of a planned IPO. Part of their plan is to launch AI data centers into space (but unfortunately, only as far as Earth's orbit). Last week, it was reported that Musk planned to take SpaceX public despite having once said it wouldnt happen until the company had a presence on Mars. Now, the IPO could happen as early as this year. Shares of xAI would reportedly b

The Internet Archive has often been a valuable resource for journalists, from it's finding records of deleted tweets or providing academic texts for background research. However, the advent of AI has created a new tension between the parties. A few major publications have begun blocking the nonprofit digital library's access to their content based on concerns that AI companies' bots are using the Internet Archive's collections to indirectly scrape their articles. A lot of these AI businesses are

Apple has acquired Israel-based startup Q.ai, a move that could provide a much-needed boost to the tech giant's capabilities in artificial intelligence. Although Apple has not disclosed terms of the deal, sources told Financial Times that the arrangement is reportedly valued at nearly $2 billion. If that figure is accurate, the Q.ai acquisition marks Apple's second largest acquisition to date, followed by its purchase of Beats for $3 billion back in 2014. Johny Srouji, Apples senior vice preside

A group of music publishers led by Concord Music Group and Universal Music Group are suing Anthropic, according to a report by Reuters . The suit accuses the AI company of illegally downloading more than 20,000 copyrighted songs, including sheet music, lyrics and compositions. These songs were then allegedly fed into the chatbot Claude for training purposes. There are some iconic tunes named by Universal in the suit, including tracks by The Rolling Stones, Neil Diamond and Elton John, among many

This past summer, Google DeepMind debuted Genie 3 . Its whats known as a world world, an AI system capable of generating images and reacting as the user moves through the environment the software is simulating. At the time, DeepMind positioned Genie 3 as a tool for training AI agents. Now, its making the model available to people outside of Google to try with Project Genie . To start, youll need Googles $250 per month AI Ultra plan to check out Project Genie . Youll also need to live in the US a

The New England Patriots are headed to the 2026 Super Bowl. (Lauren Leigh Bacho via Getty Images) Lauren Leigh Bacho via Getty Images Drake Maye and the New England Patriots face Sam Darnold and the Seattle Seahawks at Super Bowl LX , which will be held at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, CA this year. For those of you who don't have your calendars blocked off already, the game is on February 8, with kickoff scheduled for 6:30 p.m. ET. Like all other Sunday Night Football games this season, the ch

Maingear is back with another nostalgia-fueled gaming PC. The Retro98 may look like it's made for playing Quake while you wait for The Phantom Menace trailer to drop. But on the inside, the beige box is powerful enough to slay today's most demanding AAA games. You're not going to find this PC at your local Radio Shack, Maingear promises. If you're at least middle-aged, the Retro98's exterior is instantly familiar. The hand-built tower includes an LED fan-speed display, a working turbo button and

Spotify is adding group chats to the messaging service it premiered last year. In an addendum to the original blog post introducing Messages, the company announced that users can initiate chats with up to 10 of their friends to share the podcasts, playlists and songs they are listening to. The in-app messaging feature, which was released last August, works to keep users on the app instead of navigating to another platform to share content with friends. Since its introduction, Spotify has added f

Waymo said one of its robotaxis struck a child, who sustained minor injuries. The incident took place in Santa Monica, California, on January 23. The company reported it to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), which has opened an investigation . The agency said the incident occurred close to a school within regular drop-off hours, with other children and a crossing guard nearby. The child ran from behind a double-parked SUV into the path of a Waymo Driver. Waymo said its v

Honda and DriveOhio have teamed up on a new road safety initiative in which Honda vehicles are being used to collect real-time data that can advise about potential issues and road deficiencies before they become a problem. Hondas Proactive Roadway Maintenance System, which has been in prototyping since 2021, uses advanced vision and LiDAR sensors to identify issues such as worn or obstructed road signs, damaged guardrails, rough roads and emerging potholes. During the pilot, members of the Ohio

Apple's AirPods 4 have a ton of improvements over the previous generation, but the version with active noise cancellation takes things up a notch. With them, you can get noise-cancelling power without the in-ear design of the AirPods Pro 3 that may bother some folks. They're even more enticing when they're on sale, like right now. The AirPods 4 with ANC are down to $119 at the moment, or $60 less than their usual price. While we've seen the ANC model as low as $99, the $119 price tag is the best

Google has agreed to a preliminary $135 million settlement in a class action lawsuit brought by Android users who accused it of harvesting their data without consent. The suit alleged that since November 12, 2017, Google has been illegally collecting cellular data from phones purchased through carriers, even when apps were closed or location features were disabled. As reported by Reuters , the affected users believed Google using their data for marketing and product development meant it was guil

AirPods Pro 3 have returned to an all-time-low price. You can pick them up for $199 right now, which is $50 off and the best discount we've seen since the earbuds came out at the end of last year. We gave these AirPods a score of 90 out of 100 in our review and we consider them the best wireless earbuds for iPhone users. The third generation model is a substantial update to an already impressive product, bringing new features like live translation to the table. The AirPods Pro 3 also offer heart

Brandon Sanderson, a popular author of high-fantasy and science fiction books, has signed a deal with Apple TV to adapt his works set in the Cosmere fictional universe into films and TV shows. Sanderson said last year at Celsius 232, Spains annual sci-fi and fantasy convention, that his ultimate dream project is a really good Mistborn film. Apple TV is making that come true: Some of the first projects to come out of the deal are feature film adaptations of the Mistborn books and a TV show based

Virtual private networks (VPNs) have been household technology for a while now, but there's still a lot of uncertainty around them. This is partly due to the fact that they can conceal online activity that local or national governments deem illegal up to and including, say, circumventing ID checks for age verification . Consumers aren't helped by the sheer amount of duds sold in app stores right next to the best VPNs , especially when they're purposefully exploiting moments that have people rus

DJI just revealed the RS 5 camera gimbal, a new entry in its long-standing Ronan Series. The RS 5 is lightweight, at around three pounds, with a maximum payload of nearly seven pounds. This gimbal offers what DJI calls enhanced intelligent subject tracking. The tracking was already impressive with some of the company's older offerings, so any improvement will be icing on the cake. A new tracking module lets videographers frame live footage and follow subjects directly from an included touchscree

Color is the buzziest feature in ereaders right now, but is it necessary? It makes the covers more fun, and readers of comics and graphic novels will appreciate the added hues (though they may be happier with an E Ink tablet for better image detail). Color is just one factor to consider when picking out the best ereader. The lights, screen quality, housing and buttons make a difference too. Then theres the software: Do you want to stay in the Kindle ecosystem or get a device that can handle lots

Tesla will basically stop the production of its Model S and X electric vehicles next quarter, CEO Elon Musk has announced at the automakers earnings call for the 2025 fiscal year. Its time to bring the Model S and X program to a end with an honorable discharge, because were really moving into a future thats based on autonomy, Musk said. You can still buy the vehicles as long as there are units to be sold, and Tesla promises to support them for as long as people have them. Once theyre gone, thoug

Apple picked up an intriguing new member for its design team today in Sebastiaan de With, co-founder of the iPhone camera app Halide. He announced the move today on Threads, adding, So excited to work with the very best team in the world on my favorite products. The Halide app has caught our eye at Engadget at several points over the years. de With also is co-founder of Lux, which is Halide's parent company. The other Lux apps also have an emphasis on photography and videography, particularly on

Mark Zuckerberg says there's an end in sight to Reality Labs' years of multibillion-dollar losses following the company's layoffs to the metaverse division earlier this year. The CEO said he expects to gradually reduce how much money the company is losing as it doubles down on AI glasses and shifts away from virtual reality. Speaking during Meta's fourth-quarter earnings call, Zuckerberg was clear that the changes won't happen soon, but sounded optimistic about the division that lost more than $

Researchers using the James Webb Space Telescope have found a galaxy that is offering new data about the early stages of the universe's existence. The latest discovery shared by astronomers is about a bright galaxy dubbed MoM-z14. According to the team, this galaxy existed 280 million years after the Big Bang. The sounds like a long time, but in the context of the universe's estimated 13.8 billion years of existence, that's actually one of the closest examples astronomers have found to the Big B

Weve somehow almost reached the end of January already, which means its time for Sony to divulge the list of PlayStation Plus Monthly Games for February . They are Undisputed , Subnautica: Below Zero, Ultros and Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown . If you have a PS Plus subscription on any tier, you can claim these starting on February 3. After claiming them, these games will stay in your library as long as your PS Plus plan remains active. Undisputed (PS5) is a 2024 boxing game with dozens of licensed

Patreon creators will need to make some changes soon, thanks to Apple. On Wednesday, Patreon said Apple has renewed its requirement that all Patreon creators must move to subscription billing. The deadline to do so is November 1, 2026. Patreon's blog post announcing the change made it clear that it had no other choice. We strongly disagree with this decision, the company wrote. Creators need consistency and clarity in order to build healthy, long-term businesses. Instead, creators using legacy b

Music hardware and software manufacturer Native Instruments has entered into preliminary insolvency proceedings, according to a report by Create Digital Music . This is the company behind iconic software like Massive, Traktor and Kontakt and hardware like Maschine+. Native Instruments also owns the brands iZotope, Brainworx and Plugin Alliance. We don't have many specifics as to what this entails and what the future of the company will look like. We do know that an administrator has been appoint

Following its recent AI makeover of Gmail , Google is bringing more Gemini-powered tools to Chrome . Starting today, a host of new features are rolling out for the browser, with more to come over the next few months. The first of the new features is a sidebar. Available to all Gemini in Chrome users , the interface allows you to chat with Gemini and keep a conversation going across multiple tabs. Google suggests the sidebar is useful for multitaskers.Our testers have been using it for all sorts

When deciding which video game to buy, Is it fun? is no longer the only consideration. Given the state of the industry, Do I want to support this company? is arguably more important. Take, for example, Ubisoft, where things seem to unravel more each day. After the floundering publisher floated even more layoffs this week, workers at its Paris headquarters said, Enough is enough. They're now calling for a three-day strike. Unions representing Ubisoft employees plan to strike from February 10 to 1

ExpressVPN is back on sale again, and its two-year plans are up to 78 percent off right now. You can get the Advanced tier for $101 for 28 months. This is marked down from the $392 that this time frame normally costs. On a per-month basis, it works out to roughly $3.59 for the promo period. Weve consistently liked ExpressVPN because its fast, easy to use and widely available across a large global server network. In fact, it's our current pick for best premium VPN . One of the biggest drawbacks h

As frustrating as it is that governments and businesses are running roughshod over our online freedoms, at least we have plenty of good VPNs to keep us protected online. There are so many fast, intelligently designed, full-featured and affordable services on the market that the biggest problem is picking one. For any use case, you can bet at least two providers will be neck-and-neck for first place. On the other hand, the VPN world is still the Wild West in some ways. It's easy enough to slap a

Gaming peripheral company Razer has announced the beta release of Synapse Web, a browser-based version of its desktop software. The web app is intended for quick adjustments when away from home, such as LANs or tournaments, where downloading the full desktop version may not be possible or practical. At launch, Synapse Web will only support the Razer Huntsman V3 Pro keyboards, though Razer says more devices will be added down the line. Using any Chromium-based browser, users can make quick change

Apple has launched its next-generation AirTag for $29 and brought a slew of new features along with it. But, first, it's important to get this out of the way: The new AirTag still doesn't have a keyring hole, so you'll still need accessories like a case, holder or secure pocket . Once you get over that, the new Apple AirTag does offer some nice improvements. For starters, it's now powered by Apple's second-generation Ultra Wideband chip the same one used in the iPhone 17 lineup and for the Appl

If one of your New Year's resolutions was to improve your cybersecurity , it's not too late. Most of the holiday deals are over by now, but plenty of services are still offering excellent prices. With access to a virtual private network (VPN) , you can keep your activity hidden from your ISP and any advertisers it may sell that data to all while streaming sporting events and TV dramas from all across the globe. We strongly recommend using a VPN , but if you jump on the very first deal you see,

The latest lineup of MSI's Prestige laptops is now available to buy. The company unveiled its next-generation business laptop at CES earlier this month, all of them powered by the latest Intel Core Ultra Series 3 processors. Available in configurations that include up to the Intel Core Ultra 9 , the updated Prestige series are equipped with chunky 91Wh batteries and, depending on the model, offer over 30 hours of 1080p video playback. In more real-world terms, if youre on a work trip and know yo

Fans of co-op beat-em-ups and fictional bass players who kind of suck as human beings might want to mark March 3 on their calendars. Thats when Scott Pilgrim EX is set to hit PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and Steam. Developer and publisher Tribute Games announced the release date in a new trailer, which also revealed two more playable characters: Matthew Patel (a member of the League of Evil Exes) and Robot-01, a creation of the Katayanagi Twins. One more fighter will be u

The big game is one of the few instances now in the US where most people gather around the TV to watch the live event together. While the teams playing in Super Bowl 2026 are the true stars of the show (and Bad Bunny , of course), your TV is a pretty important part of the puzzle of putting together an excellent Super Bowl party. Maybe youve been thinking about replacing an aging set, or youre itching for a full refresh of your home theater setup either way, youll want to try to get a good deal

A new year is the perfect time to get your spending in order, and if you're not trying to build your own spreadsheet, budgeting apps are one of the best ways to do it. To save yourself some money in the process, you can pick up a year-long subscription to Monarch Money , one of Engadget's favorite budgeting apps , for just $50 if you use code NEWYEAR2026 at checkout and you're a new subscriber. That's a 50 percent discount on the service's normal $100 price. Monarch Money makes for a capable and

Services have been a huge part of Apples business for the past several years to the tune of tens of billions of dollars in revenue last year alone. Now, with the new Apple Creator Studio bundle, the company is leaning harder into the professional creative software space. Apple Creator Studio packages a bunch of the companys pro apps into a single subscription service that you can pay monthly or yearly for. Its officially available starting January 28, and includes a one-month free trial. The ke

Tax season is fast approaching, and unfortunately for 2026, Direct File isn't an option anymore . The free, government-provided service was shut down, so you'll need to look to other federal programs, including IRS Free File , to file your paperwork. If you don't qualify for Free File , TurboTax might be your best bet for a relatively cheap, efficient way to file your taxes. While it pains us to suggest you give money to a company that has spent decades lobbying to ensure America's tax system re

Last year fans of Ted Lasso received the good news that the show would be returning for a fourth season , despite having referred to its third season as its final one. Now Apple TV has shared some still images and further confirmation that production is underway. As first shared by The A.V. Club , this latest batch of still images depicts the eponymous coach back in action, this time coaching a womens soccer team. A description of the upcoming season shared with the outlet reads, In season four,

The peak time for deals on streaming services the holiday shopping season has come and gone, but Disney is back with a fresh offer for the new year. New and eligible returning subscribers can get one month of the ad-supported Disney+ Hulu bundle for just $10. That's $3 off the usual monthly rate for the bundle, and more than 58 percent off if you consider the prices for each service individually (Disney+ at $12 per month and, separately, Hulu also at $12 per month). We'd be remiss if we didn't

LinkedIn has long been a platform for showing off professional accomplishments. Now, the company is leaning into the rise of vibe coding by allowing users to show off their proficiency with various AI coding tools directly on their profiles. The company is partnering with Replit, Lovabl, Descript and Relay.app on the feature and is working on integrations with fellow Microsoft-owned GitHub as well as Zapier. LinkedIn has always allowed users to add various skills and certifications to their prof

Snaps augmented reality glasses business will now be its own entity, with the company establishing Specs Inc. as a wholly owned subsidiary. It will enable Snap to more easily secure investors and partnerships for its wearables, as well as to grow Specs into a distinct brand while running it within Snap Inc. As The Information reported in mid-2025, Snap was thinking of ways to raise outside money for its AR glasses to be able to better compete with Meta, which has a lot more money to spend on dev

If you're looking to expand the storage on your Switch 2, the 512GB Samsung P9 microSD Express card is on sale right now for 33 percent off, marked down to $80 from $120. With component prices skyrocketing these days, it's getting increasingly rare to see good storage on sale, and 512GB for $80 is a much better deal than you'll currently find directly from Nintendo . The P9 boasts transfer speeds of up to 800MB/s, making moving games to the card that much faster. As for load times, in our testin

Last summer, Google announced that Android 16 would include a desktop interface built from Samsung DeX , a mirroring and phone integration tool for PC. Thanks to a (now permissions-restricted) bug report discovered on Google's Issue Tracker, we have what is almost certainly a first look at the Android-on-desktop project, codenamed Aluminium OS . First spotted by 9to5Google , the bug report was about Chrome incognito tabs and included two screen recordings. The description said the recordings wer

Anker introduced a nifty little charger at CES 2026 , which is a refresh of the pre-existing Nano Charger . It's already on sale for $30, which is a discount of $10 when you clip the on-page coupon on Amazon. The 45W charger includes a smart display that shows real-time data like power flow, temperature and charging status. It also features fun animations to keep things cheerful. Anker says it can recognize what's being charged and automatically adjust certain metrics to ensure a longer battery

Apple has been leaning harder on services for several years now. That part of the business brought in tens of billions of dollars in revenue last year alone, and the company says 2025 was a record year . With Apple Creator Studio, Apple is extending that strategy further into professional creative software. Apple Creator Studio is a new subscription bundle that packages several of the companys pro apps under a single monthly or yearly fee. It launches on January 28 and includes a one-month free

Rarely does a set of open-fit earbuds actually impress me. I tend to find them underwhelming because overall sound quality is subpar compared to the more traditional in-ear models. Any promise of noise reduction, or a far-fetched claim of noise cancellation , usually doesnt hold true. The first time I used the Shokz OpenFit Pro ($249.95) I was immediately met with better audio performance than Id just experienced on Sonys new LinkBuds Clip and noise reduction technology that actually lessened so

China has agreed to import its first batch of NVIDIAs H200 AI chips after the government initially rejected the idea, Reuters reported. Several hundred thousand H200 chips were approved for sale in the country following NVIDIAs CEO Jensen Huangs visit there last week, according to two people familiar with the matter. The US government allowed the sale of NVIDIAs H200 processors to vetted and approved companies in China late last year. The first sales have been allocated mainly to three unnamed C

Amazon has confirmed that its letting go of 16,000 workers and employees across its organization. In an announcement by company SVP Beth Galetti, she explained that Amazon was going through organizational changes to reduce layers and remove bureaucracy. Affected employees in the US will be given 90 days to look for another internal role and will receive severance pay if they do not find any. Galetti also said that Amazon doesnt have plans to announce broad reductions every few months but admitte

Windscribe is a virtual private network (VPN) with intense How do you do, fellow kids? energy. It has servers in 69 countries and an annual plan that costs $69, an obsession with the sex number that rivals Elon Musk's. I'm shocked that it doesn't have a subscription costing $4.20 per month. But there's another side to Windscribe's cringe: an obsession with independence and a Bernie Sanders-like anger on behalf of an exploited public. In a market where the best VPNs aim for professionalism, Winds