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17.01.2026 01:41 OpenAI plans to start testing ads inside of ChatGPT "in the coming weeks." In a blog post published Friday, the company said adult users in the US of its free and Go tiers would start seeing sponsored products and services appear below their conversations with its chatbot. "Ads will be clearly labeled and separated from the organic answer," OpenAI said, adding any sponsored spots would not influence the answers ChatGPT generates. "Answers are optimized based on what's most helpful to you." OpenAI says people won't see ads appear when they're talking to ChatGPT about sensitive subjects like their health, mental state of mind or current politics. The company also won't show ads to teens under the age of 18. As for privacy, OpenAI states it won't share or sell your data with advertisers. The company will also give users the option to disable ad personalization and clear the data it uses to generate sponsored responses. "We’ll always offer a way to not see ads in ChatGPT, including a paid tier that’s ad-free," OpenAI adds. Users can dismiss ads, at which point they'll be asked to explain why they didn't engage with it. Users will be able to ask follow-up questions about sponsored content. OpenAI"Given what AI can do, we're excited to develop new experiences over time that people find more helpful and relevant than any other ads. Conversational interfaces create possibilities for people to go beyond static messages and links," OpenAI said. However, the company was also quick to note its "long-term focus remains on building products that millions of people and businesses find valuable enough to pay for."To that point, OpenAI said it would also make its ChatGPT Go subscription available to users in the US. The company first launched the tier in India last August, marketing it as a low-cost alternative to its more expensive Plus and Pro offerings. In the US, Go will cost $8 per month — or $12 less than the monthly price of the Plus plan — and offer 10 times higher rate limits for messages, file uploads and image creation than the free tier. The subscription also extends ChatGPT's memory and context window, meaning the chatbot will be better at remembering details from past conversations. That said, you'll see ads at this tier. To go ad-free, you'll need to subscribe to one of OpenAI's more expensive plans. For consumers, that means either the Plus or Pro plans. According to reports, OpenAI had been testing ads inside of ChatGPT since at least the end of last year. As companies continue to pay a high cost for model training and inference, all chatbots are likely to feature ads in some form. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/openai-is-bringing-ads-to-chatgpt-192831449.html?src=rss

16.01.2026 20:30 X seems to be working again after struggling with an outage that took the service offline and made it slow to load for much of the morning. According to X’s developer platform page, there is an ongoing incident related to streaming endpoints that’s caused increased errors. The incident started at 7:39AM PT, according to the page.That roughly coincides with a spike in reports at Down Detector. The issues seemed to be somewhat intermittent. At some points, X’s website loaded partially and only showed older posts. At other times, the app and website failed to load at all. As of 9:30AM PT, X’s Explore and trending pages were loading, but the “following” tab wasn’t showing posts and instead suggested users “find some people and topic to follow” . Posts aren't loading.XAs of 11:15AM PT, X’s developer site was still indicating ongoing issues, so there may still be some lingering problems even though the website seems to be functioning normally again. Reports on Down Detector have also dropped off considerably.X didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the outage. As TechCrunch notes, this is the second time this week that X has experienced significant issues. The service also went down for many users around the world on Tuesday.Bluesky changed its profile photo earlier in the week.XBut while the latest issues were widespread, some posts are were still managing to go through. Rival Bluesky, which earlier in the week changed its profile picture on X to its butterfly logo in a bikini, took the opportunity to throw some shade. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/x-is-recovering-after-being-down-for-most-of-the-morning-171843683.html?src=rss

16.01.2026 20:30 Although X removed Grok’s ability to create nonconsensual digitally undressed images on the social platform, the standalone Grok app is another story. It reportedly continues to produce “nudified” deepfakes of real people. And now, Ashley St. Clair, a conservative political strategist and mother of one of Elon Musk’s 14 children, has sued xAI for nonconsensual sexualized images of her that Grok allegedly produced.In the court filing, St. Clair accused xAI’s Grok chatbot of creating and disseminating deepfakes of her “as a child stripped down to a string bikini, and as an adult in sexually explicit poses, covered in semen, or wearing only bikini floss.” In some cases, the chatbot allegedly produced bikini-clad deepfakes of St. Clair based on a photo of her as a 14-year-old. “People took pictures of me as a child and undressed me. There’s one where they undressed me and bent me over, and in the background is my child’s backpack that he’s wearing right now,” she said.“I am also seeing images where they add bruises to women, beat them up, tie them up, mutilated,” St. Clair told The Guardian. “These sickos used to have to go to the dark depths of the internet, and now it is on a mainstream social media app.”St. Clair said that, after she reported the images to X, the social platform replied that the content didn’t violate any policies. In addition, she claims that X left the images posted for up to seven days after she reported them. St. Clair said xAI then retaliated against her by creating more digitally undressed deepfakes of her, therefore “making the laughingstock of the social media platform.”She accused the company of then revoking her X Premium subscription, verification checkmark, and ability to monetize content on the platform. “xAI further banned from repurchasing Premium,” St. Clair’s court filing states.On Wednesday, X said it changed its policies so that Grok would no longer generate sexualized images of children or nonconsensual nudity “in those jurisdictions where it’s illegal.” However, the standalone Grok app reportedly continues to undress and sexualize photos when prompted to do so.Neither Apple nor Google has removed the Grok app despite explicit policy violations.Anna Moneymaker via Getty ImagesApple and Google have thus far done, well, absolutely nothing. Despite the multi-week outrage over the deepfakes — and an open letter from 28 advocacy groups — neither company has removed the X or Grok apps from their app stores. Both the App Store and Play Store have policies that explicitly prohibit apps that generate such content.Neither Apple nor Google has responded to multiple requests for comment from Engadget. That includes a follow-up email sent on Friday, regarding the Grok app continuing to “nudify” photos of real women and other people.While Apple and Google fail to act, many governments have done the opposite. On Monday, Malaysia and Indonesia banned Grok. The same day, UK regulator Ofcom opened a formal investigation into X. California opened one on Wednesday. The US Senate even passed the Defiance Act for a second time in the wake of the blowback. “If you are a woman, you can’t post a picture, and you can’t speak, or you risk this abuse,” St. Clair told The Guardian. “It’s dangerous, and I believe this is by design. You are supposed to feed AI humanity and thoughts, and when you are doing things that particularly impact women, and they don’t want to participate in it because they are being targeted, it means the AI is inherently going to be biased.”Speaking about Musk and his team, she added that “these people believe they are above the law, because they are. They don’t think they are going to get in trouble, they think they have no consequences.”This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/the-mother-of-one-of-elon-musks-children-is-suing-xai-over-nonconsensual-deepfake-images-191451979.html?src=rss

16.01.2026 20:30 Last week at CES, Lego introduced its new Smart Play system, with a tech-packed Smart Brick that can recognize and interact with sets and minifigures. It was unexpected and delightful to see Lego come up with a way to modernize its bricks without the need for apps, screens or AI. So I was a little surprised this week when the Lego Education group announced its latest initiative is the Computer Science and AI Learning Solution. After all, generative AI feels like the antithesis of Lego’s creative values. But Andrew Silwinski, Lego Education’s head of product experience, was quick to defend Lego’s approach, noting that being fluent in the tools behind AI is not about generating sloppy images or music and more about expanding what it means by teaching computer science.“I think most people should probably know that we started working on this before ChatGPT ,” Silwinski told Engadget earlier this week. “Some of the ideas that underline AI are really powerful foundational ideas, regardless of the current frontier model that's out this week. Helping children understand probability and statistics, data quality, algorithmic bias, sensors, machine perception. These are really foundational core ideas that go back to the 1970s.” To that end, Lego Education designed courses for grades K-2, 3-5 and 6-8 that incorporate Lego bricks, additional hardware and lessons tailored to introducing the fundamentals of AI as an extension of existing computer science education. The kits are designed for four students to work together, with teacher oversight. Much of this all comes from learnings Lego found in a study it commissioned showing that teachers often find they don’t have the right resources to teach these subjects. The study showed that half of teachers globally say “current resources leave students bored” while nearly half say “computer science isn’t relatable and doesn’t connect to students’ interests or day to day.” Given kids’ familiarity with Lego and the multiple decades of experience Lego Education has in putting courses like this together, it seems like a logical step to push in this direction. In Lego’s materials about the new courses, AI is far from the only subject covered. Coding, looping code, triggering events and sequences, if/then conditionals and more are all on display through the combination of Lego-built models and other hardware to motorize it. It feels more like a computer science course that also introduces concepts of AI rather than something with an end goal of having kids build a chatbot.In fact, Lego set up a number of “red lines” in terms of how it would introduce AI. “No data can ever go across the internet to us or any other third party,” Silwinski said. “And that's a really hard bar if you know anything about AI.” So instead of going to the cloud, everything had to be able to do local inference on, as Silwinski said, “the 10-year-old Chromebooks you’ll see in classrooms.” He added that “kids can train their own machine learning models, and all of that is happening locally in the classroom, and none of that data ever leaves the student's device.”Lego also says that its lessons never anthropomorphize AI, one of the things that is so common in consumer-facing AI tools like ChatGPT, Gemini and many more. “One of the things we're seeing a lot of with generative AI tools is children have a tendency to see them as somehow human or almost magical. A lot of it's because of the conversational interface, it abstracts all the mechanics away from the child.” Lego also recognized that it had to build a course that’ll work regardless of a teacher’s fluency in such subjects. So a big part of developing the course was making sure that teachers had the tools they needed to be on top of whatever lessons they’re working on. “When we design and we test the products, we're not the ones testing in the classroom,” Silwinski said. “We give it to a teacher and we provide all of the lesson materials, all of the training, all of the notes, all the presentation materials, everything that they need to be able to teach the lesson.” Lego also took into account the fact that some schools might introduce its students to these things starting in Kindergarten, whereas others might skip to the grade 3-5 or 6-8 sets. To alleviate any bumps in the courses for students or teachers, Lego Education works with school districts and individual schools to make sure there’s an on-ramp for those starting from different places in their fluency.While the idea of “teaching AI” seemed out of character for Lego initially, the approach it’s taking here actually reminds me a bit of Smart Play. With Smart Play, the technology is essentially invisible — kids can just open up a set, start building, and get all the benefits of the new system without having to hook up to an app or a screen. In the same vein, Silwinski said that a lot of the work you can do with the Computer Science and AI kit doesn’t need a screen, particularly the lessons designed for younger kids. And the sets themselves have a mode that acts similar to a mesh, where you connect numerous motors and sensors together to build “incredibly complex interactions and behaviors” without even needing a computer.For educators interested in checking out this latest course, Lego has single kits up for pre-order starting at $339.95; they’ll start shipping in April. That’s the pricing for the K-2 sets, the 3-5 and 6-8 sets are $429.95 and $529.95, respectively. A single kit covers four students. Lego is also selling bundles with six kits, and school districts can also request a quote for bigger orders. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/legos-latest-educational-kit-seeks-to-teach-ai-as-part-of-computer-science-not-to-build-a-chatbot-184636741.html?src=rss

16.01.2026 20:30 Canada has agreed to drastically reduce its tariffs on imported Chinese EVs from 100 percent to 6.1 percent as part of a new deal between the two countries. In return, China will be reducing tariffs on Canadian canola seeds from 84 percent to about 15 percent. The move is a break from the United States, which maintains a 100 percent tariff on EVs from China, effectively banning them in the country. Mexico currently tariffs the vehicles at 50 percent after increasing its rate last year. Under the agreement, which Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney called "preliminary," Canada will allow up to 49,000 Chinese EVs into the country, with that number rising to 70,000 after five years. Until now the three major North American trading partners had been aligned in trying to protect their domestic electric vehicle manufacturing. Chinese EV companies benefit from state subsidies, and as such can often be priced at a far better value than domestic alternatives. “Our relationship has progressed in recent months with China. It is more predictable and you see results coming from that,” Carney said to reporters. A warmer relationship may be forming in response to the Trump administration's tariff policies, with China hoping that alienated nations may seek a better relationship with the Eastern power. As to concerns that cheaper electric vehicles from China could hurt the Canadian auto market, the prime minister was unconcerned, saying "it’s still in low, single-digit proportion of the size of the Canadian auto sector," Carney added, “Canadians buy about 1.8 million autos a year.” China remains Canada’s second-largest trading partner after the United States.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/evs/canada-cuts-tariffs-on-chinese-evs-as-part-of-new-deal-174241990.html?src=rss

16.01.2026 20:30 We already knew something Ocarina of Time-related was coming from Nintendo and Lego in 2026, and now we know exactly what that set will look like. Weighing in at a surprisingly modest 1,003 pieces, the typically word salad-y Lego The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time - The Final Battle is the second Lego Zelda set, following the 2,500-piece Great Deku Tree set in 2024. While the latter lets you choose between building either a Breath of the Wild or OoT-themed replica of the wise old guardian of the forest, the upcoming set is aimed squarely at fans of the series’ debut 3D outing. As you can probably guess from the name, it’s a brick-built tribute to Link and Princess Zelda’s climactic battle with Ganondorf in the seminal Nintendo 64 game, in what remains of the castle. Inside the rubble are three recovery hearts. It’s hard to see how this works without a video, but Lego says you can release Link’s nemesis by pressing a button that raises him from the debris. As well as the minifigures for Zelda and Link — complete with his Master Sword and Hylian Shield — you also get a suitably transparent Navi to display. And then there’s the large poseable Ganon , which is probably the highlight of the whole set. Interestingly, the new Ocarina of Time set is the first high-profile Lego announcement since unveiling its new Smart Brick at CES, but it looks like we’ll be playing with regular dumb Lego only here. You’ll just have to do the final Hyrule-saving "Hyah!" yourself, I guess. Lego The Legend of Zelda : Ocarina of Time - The Final Battle is available to pre-order from today and will be available from March 1, priced at $130. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/nintendo/the-latest-legend-of-zelda-lego-set-pays-tribute-to-ocarina-of-times-final-battle-172212137.html?src=rss

16.01.2026 20:30 You know things are messed up when a Big Tech company fights accusations of union-busting by insisting it was only AI layoffs. That's where things stand after a group of fired TikTok moderators in the UK filed a legal claim with an employment tribunal. The Guardian reported on Friday that around 400 TikTok content moderators who were unionizing were laid off before Christmas.The workers were sacked a week before a vote was scheduled to establish a collective bargaining unit. The moderators said they wanted better protection against the personal toll of processing traumatic content at a high speed. They accused TikTok of unfair dismissal and violating UK trade union laws."Content moderators have the most dangerous job on the internet," John Chadfield, the national officer for tech workers at the Communication Workers Union , said in a statement to The Guardian. "They are exposed to the child sex abuse material, executions, war and drug use. Their job is to make sure this content doesn't reach TikTok's 30 million monthly users. It is high pressure and low paid. They wanted input into their workflows and more say over how they kept the platform safe. They said they were being asked to do too much with too few resources."TikTok denied that the firings were union-busting, calling the accusations "baseless." Instead, the company claimed the layoffs were part of a restructuring plan amid its adoption of AI for content moderation. The company said 91 percent of transgressive content is now removed automatically.The company first announced a restructuring exercise in August, just as hundreds of moderators in TikTok's London offices were organizing for union recognition. At the time, John Chadfield, CWU's National Officer for Tech, said the workers had long been "sounding the alarm over the real-world costs of cutting human moderation teams in favour of hastily developed, immature AI alternatives.""That TikTok management have announced these cuts just as the company's workers are about to vote on having their union recognised stinks of union-busting and putting corporate greed over the safety of workers and the public,” Chadfield said.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/tiktok-sued-by-former-workers-over-alleged-union-busting-170446921.html?src=rss

16.01.2026 20:30 One way to read more in the new year is to incorporate audiobooks as part of your reading habit. Audible is having a sale right now that makes that easier and cheaper to do: you can get three months of access for only $1 per month, or a total of $3. The promotion runs through January 21. An Audible subscription grants one audiobook per month to keep. This can be selected from a massive catalog of new releases and bestsellers. The collection here has just about everything. However, it's easy to plow through a single book in a month. Users also get streaming access to thousands of curated titles. Think of it like Netflix for audiobooks. The catalog is limited, but it gets the job done in a pinch. Subscribers do get access to all Audible original content and they will receive discounts on purchasing audiobooks outright. In other words, it's a neat little service and well worth a buck. The regular price is $15, so make sure to cancel at the end of that three months if you aren't enjoying the platform. Follow @EngadgetDeals on X for the latest tech deals and buying advice.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/audible-deal-three-months-of-access-is-only-3-right-now-193859977.html?src=rss

16.01.2026 20:30 Apple's next-gen Siri is still far off, but this week the company announced that it'll be using Google's Gemini AI for its new foundation models. In this episode, Devindra and Engadget's Igor Bonifacic discuss why Apple teamed up with Google again, instead of OpenAI or Anthropic. Also, they chat about Meta's Reality Lab layoffs, which is refocusing the company on AI hardware like its smart glasses.Subscribe!iTunesSpotifyPocket CastsStitcherGoogle PodcastsTopicsMeta announces 1000+ layoffs, closes 3 VR studios as it shifts focus to AI hardware – 2:12Gemini can now pull context from the rest of your Google apps including photos and Youtube history – 12:31Framework raises the price of its desktop by $460 because of the global RAM shortage – 18:36NVIDIA may revive the RTX 3060 and kill off 5070 Ti due to its VRAM demands – 21:57Apple creates a subscription bundle for Pro creative apps like Final Cut Pro, Logic, and others – 23:00Tesla’s Full Self Driving is also going subscription only, a year costs $999 – 29:15Matthew McConaughey trademarks himself to fight unauthorized AI likenesses – 33:27Apple announces that its long delayed ’smarter Siri’ will be powered by Google Gemini – 35:15X finally responds to Grok’s CSAM and nudity generation with limits – 51:46Cursor claims their AI agents wrote 1M+ lines of code to make a web browser from scratch, are developers cooked? – 57:52 CreditsHost: Devindra HardawarGuest: Igor Bonafacic Producer: Ben EllmanMusic: Dale North and Terrence O’BrienThis article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/engadget-podcast-why-did-apple-choose-gemini-for-next-gen-siri-150000993.html?src=rss

16.01.2026 20:30 The holiday season is fully in the rear view mirror and real life is here to stay. But that doesn't mean the time for gifts is over — especially ones for yourself. You can still take advantage of great January sales on some awesome tech products. Take the Apple Mac mini M4, which is down to $500 from $599. The 17 percent discount gives you 16GB of RAM and 256GB of SSD for only about $20 more than the computer's Black Friday sale. Its beefier models are also on sale: opting for 512GB of SSD will cost you $690, down from $799, while also upping your RAM to 24GB is available for $890, dropping from $999. We gave the Apple Mac mini M4 a 90 in our review thanks in large part to its powerful chip. The M4 works very fast despite being in such a small device. It also offers front-facing headphone and USB-C ports. You can further upgrade to the Apple M4 Pro chip for $1,270, down from $1,399 — a nine percent discount. The Pro model also has Thunderbolt 5 support. Check out our coverage of the best Apple deals for more discounts, and follow @EngadgetDeals on X for the latest tech deals and buying advice.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/get-100-off-apples-mac-mini-m4-desktop-141615926.html?src=rss

16.01.2026 20:30 Now that the winter holidays are well and truly past, now's the perfect time to take stock of your tech setup. If you were gifted some new gear in December, make sure that you've got the proper accessories to keep that gear performing at its best. If a new way to power all those batteries would be a benefit, Amazon's currently running a discount on an excellent wireless charging pad. The UGREEN MagFlow Qi2 3-in-1 Charger Station 25W is on sale for $95. That's only a little bit above the lowest price we've ever seen for the product , and it's still a 32 percent discount off its usual cost. This is our top pick for a 3-in-1 charging pad thanks to its versatility. The UGREEN can work equally well as a permanent fixture in your home or act as a portable charging station. It boasts a foldable design and has smart little design details to keep it feeling like a premium product. The Qi2 25W charging works across a range of iPhone models and accessories, such as AirPods. There's also a dedicated part of the pad's design for an Apple Watch, which uses a proprietary charging standard, to power up too. Just note that you'll need a newer model of phone and the latest iOS 26 in order to take full advantage of the 25W charging capability. The wireless pad also comes with both a charging plug and a cable. We felt this UGREEN model was a great value at $140, so being able to snag one for a third of the usual price is an even better deal. Follow @EngadgetDeals on X for the latest tech deals and buying advice.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/our-favorite-3-in-1-wireless-charger-is-on-sale-for-32-percent-off-214707127.html?src=rss

16.01.2026 15:20 The fate of Warner Bros. Discovery remains the biggest story in Hollywood, with Paramount Skydance refusing to back down from its rival bid to the proposed Netflix acquisition of the company. If the Netflix deal does go through, the company’s co-chief executive, Ted Sarandos, has attempted to ease concerns around what that could mean for theaters. In an interview with The New York Times, Sarandos responded to a question about his company’s commitment to the theatrical business by insisting that he has no interest in bringing a swift end to it. "We will run that business largely like it is today, with 45-day windows," he said. "I’m giving you a hard number. If we’re going to be in the theatrical business, and we are, we’re competitive people — we want to win. I want to win opening weekend. I want to win box office." Prior to this new NYT interview’s publication, Deadline reported that it had been told by sources that Netflix was supportive of a 17-day window, which would obviously be far more damaging to theaters. This came after the Stranger Things finale reportedly banked north of $25m during its brief theatrical run over New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. Sarandos was also asked if he regretted saying the theatrical business as we know it today is an "outmoded" idea. He told the NYT: "You have to listen to that quote again. I said 'outmoded for some.' I mean, like the town that 'Sinners' is supposed to be set in does not have a movie theater there. For those folks, it’s certainly outmoded. You’re not going to get in the car and go to the next town to go see a movie." He went on to explain that for someone like his daughter, who lives in Manhattan and has a number of theaters within walking distance of her home, the term does not apply in the same way. The Netflix co-chief exec’s latest comments seem to be designed to appease theater owners as much as the movie-going public, after a number of chains opposed the proposed WBD sale. "Such an acquisition will further consolidate control over production and distribution of motion pictures in the hands of a single, dominant, global streaming platform in a market that is already highly concentrated," said trade organization Cinema United in a statement to Congress.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/netflix-will-give-wbd-movies-45-day-theater-exclusivity-if-deal-goes-through-141223786.html?src=rss

16.01.2026 15:20 Meta is killing the standalone Workrooms app on February 16, 2026. The company presented Workrooms as a virtual reality space where teams can meet and collaborate in an immersive environment when it launched the product. Now Meta says its Horizon platform has evolved enough to support “a wide range of productivity apps and tools,” so it “made the decision to discontinue Workrooms as a standalone app.”The company recently slashed its spending on the metaverse and started the process to lay off more than 1,000 employees from its Reality Labs division. Due to those layoffs and organizational changes, it closed three of its VR studios. Reality Labs had lost more than $70 billion since 2021, and Meta told Engadget that it had decided to shift some of its investments from the metaverse towards wearables, such as its AI-powered Ray-Ban smart glasses. The company is also discontinuing Horizon managed services, its subscription service that helps organizations manage their Quest headsets, in February. Users will no longer be able to access the Workrooms app or any of their data in it starting on February 16. Meta is allowing people to download their data if they need it until that date. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/meta-is-closing-down-its-vr-meeting-rooms-as-part-of-its-wider-cull-140000422.html?src=rss

16.01.2026 15:20 The Italian Competition Authority has opened two investigations into Microsoft-owned game studio Activision Blizzard, centered around the mobile games Diablo Immortal and Call of Duty: Mobile. The AGCM alleges the free-to-play games use "misleading and aggressive practices" to encourage in-game purchases. Regulators say the games rely on a "deceptive user interface design" meant to encourage longer and more frequent play sessions while bombarding players with reminders and opportunities to spend real money in-game. Players might be reminded to buy a limited-time item before it's gone or urged not to miss out on rewards, with in-app messages and push notifications that reach players during and outside gameplay. The authority also raised concerns about virtual currency and in-game currency bundles that can make it harder to understand real-world costs. Parental control settings are also being scrutinized as the AGCM says the default settings are too permissive, such as allowing in-game purchases and unlimited play time. The watchdog will also investigate potential violations of consumer contractual rights and practices that may encourage players to unknowingly give up those rights, such as the EU's 14-day right of withdrawal. Free-to-play games have long leaned on loot boxes and other in-game purchases to drive monetization. Unlike full-priced games like Diablo IV, these systems can blur the line between natural progression and pay-to-win. For an idea of how quickly costs can add up, consider one player who reportedly spent $100,000 on Diablo Immortal.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/italian-regulators-are-investigating-activision-blizzards-monetization-practices-135057481.html?src=rss

16.01.2026 15:20 One way you can reduce the number of cables you have to deal with on the regular is by investing in a few wireless chargers. Those with iPhones should consider Apple's own MagSafe charger not only because of its sleek and effective design, but also because it's on sale right now at Amazon. The Qi2.2-rated MagSafe charger is down to $30 for the one-meter version, or $40 for the two-meter version. If you have an iPhone 16, iPhone 17 or iPhone Air, this cable can charge your device at 25W as long as it's connected to a 30W power adapter on the other end. While you'll need a more recent iPhone to get the fastest MagSafe charging speeds, the charger can wirelessly top up the battery of any iPhone from the last eight years . With older iPhones, the charging speed tops out at 15W. The cable works with AirPods wireless charging cases too — it's certified for Qi2.2 and Qi charging. The MagSafe charger is one of our favorite iPhone accessories, and would pair quite nicely with your new iPhone if you're picking up one of the latest models. If you're on the fence about that, be sure to check out our reviews of the iPhone 17, iPhone Pro/Pro Max and iPhone Air. Follow @EngadgetDeals on X for the latest tech deals and buying advice.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/apples-latest-magsafe-charger-is-on-sale-for-30-141707636.html?src=rss