President Donald Trump has pardoned Ross Ulbricht, the founder of Silk Road who was sentenced to life in prison after being found guilty of money laundering, narcotics trafficking and computer hacking. I just called the mother of Ross William Ulbright [sic] to let her know that in honor of her and the Libertarian Movement, which supported me so strongly, it was my pleasure to have just signed a full and unconditional pardon of her son, Ross, Trump said in a post on Truth Social. Ulbricht has bee

Netflix has released its earnings figures for the fourth quarter of 2024. While a lot of the results seem like good news for the company's shareholders, like operating income of more than $10 billion and a 16 percent revenue increase, there's a sting in the tail for its viewers. Subscription prices are going up yet again, starting today. As we continue to invest in programming and deliver more value for our members, we will occasionally ask our members to pay a little more so that we can re-inve

Mark Gurman at Bloomberg has released a report about Meta's next steps in hardware, crediting sources familiar with the company's work. According to these insiders, Meta is developing at least three new smart glasses models and has set a roadmap toward releasing its first true augmented reality glasses. The company is reportedly also continuing efforts to implement AI tools in a wrist wearable and in earbuds. Meta already sells smart glasses in partnership with Ray-Ban, a product line internally

The TikTok ban may have lasted only a few hours (at least for now), but Meta is still trying to capitalize on its rivals tenuous future. Meta has rolled out a new breakthrough bonus program that offers up to $5,000 to creators who are new to the companys apps. According to Meta, the bonus program is open to US adults who have an existing presence on a third party social app that you can link or already have linked during the application process. Participants will also be required to create a p

Instagram blocked searches related to a number of political hashtags, including #democrats, #democrat, #jan6th, #republicans and a number of other terms Tuesday. Users who searched for these hashtags were instead greeted with a notice that weve hidden these results because they may contain sensitive content. Its not clear exactly how many search terms were affected but users on Reddit reported that dozens of tags were unsearchable. Meta spokesperson Andy Stone blamed an unspecified issue in a p

EA's Origin PC client has officially reached the end of the line. The gaming company had previously announced its plans to rebrand the Origin app for desktop players back in 2020 and began rolling out the new EA app in 2022. However, Origin will be completely shuttered on April 17, 2025, as Microsoft ends support for 32-bit software. Anyone still using Origin will need to swap over to the EA app before that date. For those PC players who have not migrated over to the EA app, the company has an F

This years NAMM trade show has opened up its doors, so that means there will be a wealth of new musical doodads to lust over. Case in point? Polyend just dropped a hybrid device that combines the functionality of a standard guitar pedal with a drum machine. The Polyend Step is a fully-featured, programmable drum machine in stompbox format. This should be an absolute boon for those who want some accompaniment while playing guitar, or any other instrument. That alone makes it the perfect practice

The UK will release a digital drivers license later this year, along with a digital wallet issued by the government. This will allow folks to easily prove their age when buying age restricted items online and in person. Obviously, it will also prove a persons right to drive. This will be one of the first digital documents available via the GOV.UK digital wallet, which is also launching later this year. The wallet will also be home to documents like Veterans Cards, Disclosure and Barring Service

Its January and for many of us in the northern hemisphere, that means staying inside to escape the cold. To help you while away the hours, Xbox is adding another dozen-plus titles to Game Pass over the next couple of weeks. Lets jam through them in chronological order of introduction to the service, starting with Lonely Mountain: Snow Riders (cloud, PC and Xbox Series X/S via Game Pass Ultimate and PC). This multiplayer skiing game is a day one addition to Game Pass. A whole heap of games are co

There are a lot of factors to consider when shopping for wireless earbuds. Some people want the best active noise cancellation (ANC) performance while others are more interested in features that enable all-day wearing. Some folks desire a seamless interaction with their phone and some are searching for the absolute best sound quality. If you fall into that last category, the Bowers & Wilkins Pi8 ($399) is worth considering. The company has consistently produced some of the best audio performance

Accounts Center is a single space allowing users to manage their Facebook, Instagram and (even) Meta Quest log-ins. Today, Meta has announced that WhatsApp is joining the list of supported apps, enabling you to reshare statuses and posts across all of your platforms . In addition, you can use single sign-on to log back into your WhatsApp account. Meta has announced the change today, but it will take time before WhatsApp support is added to everyones Accounts Center, so patience may be required.

Masterbuilt has offered backyard grill masters smart options that burn charcoal instead of pellets since 2020 . Last year, the company debuted two models ahead of CES, and in early 2025, it's adding one more. The new Gravity Series 1150 is a larger sibling to the Gravity Series 600 in Masterbuilt's lineup. With 1,150 square inches of cooking space, this bigger model has nearly double the food capacity and a longer burn time of up to 15 hours. To achieve this, the hopper on the 1150 can hold up t

The Super Bowl is just around the corner, and theres no better way to enjoy the game at home than watching them on a large TV particularly an OLED, thanks to its color accuracy. The 65-inch LG C3 OLED TV is again at the lowest price that we saw during last years holiday season. Its currently 20 percent off and down to $1,197. While this is the older C3 model from 2023, the newer C4 model costs more, and it remains a good choice if getting the absolute latest model isnt a priority. The LG C3 OLE

Almost immediately after taking office, President Donald Trump signed a swathe of executive orders including a reprieve for TikTok in the US. With the executive order, Trumps Justice Department will not enforce the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act for 75 days , extending the time the company has to reach a deal. TikTok (and other ByteDance apps) went offline late Saturday, but the TikTok outage only lasted a matter of hours. Trump affirmed there would be n

If it feels like every piece of home tech is now smart, youre not far off. The smart home space has grown exponentially in the past few years to include speakers, cameras, locks, lights and even kitchen appliances. There are also different voice assistants and IoT standards to consider, all of which can make it confusing (to say the least) to build your smart home ecosystem from the ground up. Allow us at Engadget to help with that. Weve tested dozens of smart home gadgets over the years and con

Marvel Snap is back online in the US after it shut down alongside TikTok , Second Dinner has announced. The game's developer also said on X that it's partnering with a new publisher and working to bring more services in-house to make sure this never happens again. This weekend, Marvel Snap went offline along with the other apps developed by or affiliated with ByteDance, including video editing tool CapCut, social media app Lemon8 and, of course, TikTok. The collectible card game was publ

That didnt take long. Soon after taking office, President Donald Trump signed a swathe of executive orders. Among them was a temporary pause on the law that banned TikTok in the US . With the executive order, Trump's Justice Department will not enforce the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act for 75 days, effectively extending the amount of time the company has to reach a deal. In a statement, Trump said that the unfortunate timing of the law, which went into e

When President Biden took office back in 2021, he issued several executive orders to address climate change . Now, the reverse is happening. President Trump is in charge now and he is signing EOs at a fevered pace. Many of these actions seek to limit or reverse any changes made by the Biden administration, taking the oft-used head in the sand approach to climate policy. Trump's first step was to withdraw the US from the Paris climate agreement... again. Trump began the executive order deluge

The filmmakers behind The Brutalist , a likely Oscar contender currently being distributed by A24, used AI to alter actor's dialogue and create images used in the film's epilogue, the film's editor Dvid Jancs shared in an interview with RedShark News . The epic drama follows a fictional Hungarian architect (as played by Adrien Brody) who struggles to make art under the fickle system of American capitalism (and the weirdos that run it). To make Brody and his costar Felicity Jones' Hungarian pronu

As part of sweeping plans to change immigration in the United States, the Trump Administration has removed functionality from the CBP One app, a US Customs and Border Protection app used by asylum seekers to pursue legal admission into the US along the southwest border. As of January 20, 2025 the app can longer be used to schedule an appointment for admission, and any existing appointments have been cancelled, according to the CBP website . The CBP One app was introduced in 2020, and was expande

Canon has just launched Live Switcher Mobile , a new iOS livestreaming app that supports up to three camera views you can swap between with just a few taps. The app currently only works with Apple devices, and it strangely doesnt support Canons own cameras. Live Switcher Mobile can let users specify how many seconds a viewpoint stays on a camera before automatically changing to another one. The app also supports on-screen captions, along with real-time comments. However, the latter feature only

I am the first to admit that I am quite clumsy, so I always buy extra care protection for my devices. However, I'm still always shocked by the price of fixing whatever inevitable water damage or cracked screen I bring in. So, it's nice to see that Samsung Care+ with Theft and Loss has updated its plan to include $0 same day repairs for cracked screens and back glass. Samsung's most expensive protection plan also includes unlimited repairs at authorized locations , so you don't have to worry if i

China has provided the strongest indication yet that its willing to secure a deal that will keep TikTok up and running in the US. The country previously claimed it would block any forced sale of the app but said something different after President-elect Donald Trump indicated hed be open to 50-50 joint ownership of TikTok between US and Chinese interests. When it comes to actions such as the operation and acquisition of businesses, we believe they should be independently decided by companies in

TikTok bid adieu to its US users over the weekend before returning for an encore with no clear ending. But, it's now joined by a few copycats, including X (formerly Twitter). X announced late Sunday night in owner Elon Musk's typical cringy fashion ( see here ) that its US users now have a dedicated tab for vertical videos. The new video tab exists in the app's bottom bar represented by a play button icon. Previously, users had to click on a video and then scroll up or down to see mo

January is bleak, to say the least, and sometimes getting through it requires buying a treat. Fortunately, the month is also big on sales, including 20 percent off the Google Pixel 8a . Currently, Amazon has the Google Pixel 8a available for $399, down from $499, the same deal it had on Black Friday. The Google Pixel 8a debuted in May last year and garnered a 90 in our review . We thought it was an excellent value for the phone, even at its sticker price, and named it the best midrange smartphon

TikTok might be (sort of) back for now, but that's not stopping other social media platforms from trying to horn in on its business . Bluesky is the latest, introducing a TikTok-like vertical video feature on mobile called Trending Videos, now available in the explore tab, the company announced in a post on its app. We had to get in on the video action too Bluesky now has custom feeds for video! Like any other feed, you can choose to pin these [to your home screen] or not. Bluesky is yours

Sometimes, the best gaming headset doesnt need to be a gaming headset at all. While many people view these devices as their own niche, theyre ultimately still headphones, just with a boom mic and some fancy branding attached. While the general quality of dedicated headsets has improved over time, they still tend to cost more compared to a good pair of wired headphones (which, yes, still exist). If you need to chat with friends, you can always buy a microphone separately and get superior sound qu

There are really two types of ereaders: Dedicated ebook/audiobook devices or slabs that are more akin to small tablets with E Ink screens. In the first category, the competition is really between Amazons Kindle devices and Rakutens Kobo readers. Ereaders in the latter group include entries from Onyx Boox, PocketBook and a couple of smaller companies. Of course, any smartphone or tablet can act as an ereader, but for our purposes, we focused on devices with paper-like, E Ink screens. After buying

Bluesky experienced explosive growth last year, particularly toward the end , necessitating that the platform ramp up its moderation efforts. In its recently released moderation report for 2024, Bluesky said it grew by about 23 million users, jumping from 2.9 million users to nearly 26 million. And, its moderators received 17 times the number of user reports they got in 2023 6.48 million in 2024 compared to 358,000 the previous year. The bulk of these reports were related to harassment, trollin

Good news, Android fans: You've got just a few days left before the unveiling of 2025's latest (and presumably greatest) new Samsung phones. The company's first Galaxy Unpacked event of the year is slated for Wednesday, January 22 and as in past years, you'll be able to watch along from home. Between credible leaks and historical precedent, we can reasonably assume that the event will include a new lineup of Galaxy S25 phones (including Ultra, Plus and regular models) at the very least. The new

Instagram head Adam Mosseri took to Threads on Sunday with yet another announcement this weekend , the timing of which surely had nothing at all to do with TikTok and other ByteDance-owned apps (briefly) going dark : a new, free video-editing app called Edits is on the way. Instagram's Edits will cater to people who edit videos on their phone, and will offer a full suite of creative tools. That includes higher-quality recordings, shareable drafts, trending audio, insights about your Reels perfor

Update, January 19 2025, 2:06PM ET: After shutting down its app and being delisted from various app stores about 12 hours ago, TikTok is now in the process of restoring services in the US. This story addresses more recent changes to this evolving situation; below is the original text of this report. Its been unclear in the leadup to the TikTok ban what the fate of parent company ByteDances other apps would be, but now we know: theyve gone dark in the US too. At the same time TikTok went offline

It hasn't even been a full day since ByteDance shut down TikTok in the US , and now it says the app is coming back. In a statement posted on X Sunday afternoon, TikTok wrote, In agreement with our service providers, TikTok is in the process of restoring service. The statement also thanked Trump, who will be sworn in on Monday and who previously said he was considering giving TikTok an extension amid reports of potential bidders (though ByteDance has expressed no interest in selling). We will wor

Samsungs first big launch of 2025 is almost here. Galaxy Unpacked will take place on January 22 at 1PM ET in San Jose, CA, where Samsungs Next Big Thing (to borrow a 14-year-old marketing slogan ) will be revealed. What exactly will be on tap? Well, apart from a few sure bets and some likely leaks, only those sworn to a blood oath under an NDA know for certain. But here are the most likely products and features well see. Spoilers: There will be phones. Galaxy S25, S25+ and S25 Ultra Galaxy S24 U

The switch has flipped on the US TikTok ban. TikTok's app stoped working and was removed from the App Store and Google Play on Saturday night, just hours before the January 19 ban was expected to take effect. People who have previously installed the app are instead greeted with a pop-up. Sorry, TikTok isn't available right now, it says. A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the U.S. Unfortunately, that means you can't use TikTok for now. We are fortunate that president Trump has indicated tha

Instagram is rolling out a bunch of changes this weekend that will conveniently make it look a lot more like TikTok, which could go dark in the US on Sunday now that the Supreme Court has ruled in favor of the law banning the app if parent company ByteDance doesnt sell it. Those changes include extending Reels to three minutes long and changing the longstanding square grid on your profile to a rectangular layout, as Adam Mosseri announced in an Instagram post and on his Story, respectively. Cons

Bang & Olufsen announced its new $499 premium earbuds, the Beoplay Eleven , back in November, touting among other things their replaceable batteries for sustainability and alignment with the EUs impending device repairability requirements. But an iFixit teardown tells a more complicated story about actually replacing those batteries, describing the process of just getting the case open as a very onerous and labor intensive task even for a trained technician. And inside, the battery is affixed to

Amazon's drones won't be making any deliveries in the foreseeable future. According to Bloomberg , the company has paused all commercial drone deliveries in Texas and Arizona after a previously undisclosed event in which two of Amazon's MK30 drones had crashed at the Pendleton, Oregon airport it uses for testing. MK30 is the company's next-gen drone model, which is lighter and has a longer range than its predecessor, the MK27. The incidents took place in December, with one of the