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16.03.2026 04:31 If your Playdate wishlist is anything like mine , here's a good excuse to actually go ahead and free some of those games from limbo: Panic is running a sale across the Playdate Catalog to celebrate its three-year anniversary. Sure, the majority of Playdate games are pretty cheap as is, but they can still add up when you're on a wild purchasing spree. Ask me how I know! The sale started on March 5 and goes until March 19 at 1PM ET , so take advantage of the discounts while you can. There are 423 games available in the Catalog now, according to Panic, so if you're having trouble deciding on which you should go for, I've got you covered with a few recommendations right here. Season Two If $39 felt like too much to drop on Season Two when it came out last summer, now's the time to get it. Playdate's second season had only half the number of games as its first, but it still felt like a much stronger collection. Each of its 12 games is really solid, and there's plenty of variety in terms of genre and style, from puzzles and hours-long adventures to fast-paced action games that are great for bursts of intense play. And, it comes with Blippo+ — an oddball cable TV simulator that's unlike anything out there right now. All of these games are worth playing, but there were definitely some standouts from the bunch: The Whiteout, a post-apocalyptic adventure that'll surely hit even harder now considering the winter we've had; the puzzle platformer Taria Como; the arcade action game Fulcrum Defender; the climbing adventure, Tiny Turnip. I also really enjoyed Dig! Dig! Dino! for something on the chiller side. Outside Parties I have not been able to shut up about this game since it came out. It's unique, it's creepy, it's completely engrossing and it really pushes the limits of what the Playdate can do. Outside Parties is a horror scavenger hunt, presenting you with one massive picture to scrutinize and find hidden scenes within, using the crank to adjust the brightness constantly so you can find anything that may be buried in shadow. As you find these targets, more and more of the game's story comes to light through eerie audio clips. It is such a cool experience and the atmosphere of it all is incredible. You'll get many hours of playtime out of this one too, with over 150 targets to find and lots of lore to uncover. Crankstone A full-blown western for the Playdate! Crankstone is a gallery shooter with minigames mixed throughout, and between the aesthetic, the music and the activities, it's a lot of fun. You can choose the story mode to get right into the shooting and defending the town from outlaws, or head to the saloon to pick from the handful of mini games individually, including some fast-paced "spot the correct card" deck shuffling games and a few mimicry games involving the crank. It's like a wild west theme park crammed into the Playdate, which is to say, it's wonderful. Echo: The Oracle's Scroll This is one of my all-time favorite Playdate games. Echo: The Oracle's Scroll is a metroidvania without the usual combat, focusing entirely on exploration and puzzle-solving in a vast network of subterranean kingdoms. In this game, the Blight has forced civilization underground, and you play as a child who has been sent on a mission to deliver a scroll from the bottom-most territory, where the humans live, up to The Archives. There are all sorts of treacherous environments underground, including magma lakes and areas filled with hostile vegetation, making for what is at times a challenging platformer that requires lots of creativity to make your way through. The tone is a bit somber, but quirky characters — like a frog prince with a bouncy belly — keep things from getting too dark. Carte Blanche This one's for lovers of classic card games. There are six games in this virtual card game parlor : Cribbage, Gin Rummy, Spades, Cassino and Spite Malice. It's great for if you already know what you're doing, but I found Carte Blanche to be a really good introduction to these games for absolute beginners too, thanks to the easy-to-follow tutorials. When you win games, you'll be rewarded with coins that you can spend at Blanche's slot machine, which is stocked with little trinkets she's collected. Castle Kellmore Castle Kellmore absolutely rules. This first-person action game puts you in a series of mazes where you have to fight off floating-head-style monsters as you hunt around for keys and try to find the doors and portals to your escape. There are sixteen levels, and upon finishing each one you'll get a little summary of how long it took you to complete that area and what percentage of the level's enemies you killed. I also really get a kick out of the sounds in this game. The enemies slurp and squelch, and your character will let out a hilariously passionless, "Ah" or "Ooeuugh" after picking up a health boost or getting injured. Great for fans of dungeons! Piña Rollada If you've ever played any of the Super Monkey Ball games, the gist of this one should be pretty familiar: roll the ball through the course and collect all of the fruits before reaching the exit. Don't fall off the edge, and do it all in as little time as possible. Piña Rollada makes use of the Playdate's accelerometer, which means you control the ball's movement by tilting the console . The courses start getting tricky pretty much right away, with thin paths that don't have any guardrails, obstacles to avoid and moving platforms. And, just going near the exit will result in the ball getting sucked in, so you have to keep that in mind as you collect any surrounding fruits if you don't want the level to end prematurely. This is another one of those games that is both frustrating and totally addicting. Expect to yell a lot. Other games to try These are just the games I've been enjoying lately, but there are tons of other Playdate games worth checking out during the sale, like these cheese games and Spilled Mushrooms. And if you need even more recommendations, take a look through our list of the best Playdate games, where you'll find gems like Summit and Bwirds. There are quite a few I'm planning to finally spring from my wishlist too, including The Shape That Waits. Update, March 15 2026, 7:15 PM ET: This story has been updated to include additional game recommendations. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/playdate-games-to-check-out-before-the-catalogs-3-year-anniversary-sale-ends-181500370.html?src=rss

15.03.2026 23:20 In an unexpected twist, humans have taken some jobs back from AI. Embark Studios' CEO Patrick Söderlund recently told GamesIndustry.biz that the studio "re-recorded" some of the AI-generated voice lines in Arc Raiders with human voices, only after its successful launch in October. "There is a quality difference," Söderlund told GamesIndustry.biz. "A real professional actor is better than AI; that's just how it is." With Arc Raiders' player count peaking at nearly half a million users on Steam, the game's breakout success was still marred by its use of text-to-speech AI. While there was no generative AI used for the visuals of the extraction shooter, Embark Studios paid its actors for approval to license their voices for text-to-speech AI, according to Söderlund. Even though Söderlund said that the text-to-speech AI was reserved for lines "that aren't as essential to the immersion of the experience," many players weren't happy with this creative decision. Responding to the criticism, Embark Studios is seemingly reversing course and relying more on its voice actors. Söderlund said that the studio pays its voice actors for their time in the recording booth and will "continue to bring many of them back as we carry on updating the game." However, it's important to note that Söderlund told GamesIndustry.biz that "some" of the AI-generated lines were replaced by voice actors, which could indicate that the studio isn't looking to completely ditch its text-to-speech AI anytime soon.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/arc-raiders-replaced-some-of-its-ai-generated-voice-lines-with-professional-actors-184915627.html?src=rss

15.03.2026 18:32 To capitalize on Claude's recent spike in popularity, Anthropic is offering a limited-time promotion that doubles usage limits for anyone using its AI chatbot during off-peak hours. From March 13 to March 27, users on Free, Pro, Max, and Team plans will get double the usage limits in a five-hour window when using Claude outside weekday hours between 8 AM and 2 PM ET. According to Anthropic, the promotion is automatic, and users don't have to enable anything to get the benefits. A small thank you to everyone using Claude: We’re doubling usage outside our peak hours for the next two weeks. pic.twitter.com/W7TEBPditq— Claude March 14, 2026 Anthropic said that this promotion applies to anyone using Claude on web, desktop or mobile, but also with Cowork, Claude Code, Claude for Excel and Claude for PowerPoint. Previously, Anthropic offered a similar event from December 25 to December 31, doubling usage limits for Pro, Max 5x or Max 20x subscribers. However, Anthropic is targeting an even wider audience with its latest promotion since only Enterprise users are excluded this time around. Anthropic is marketing the promotion as a "small thank you to everyone using Claude," but it's likely tied to its ongoing battle with the Department of Defense. After refusing to remove certain AI safeguards for the Department of Defense, Anthropic was listed as a supply chain risk and lost its contract with the federal agency. In turn, OpenAI signed a deal with the Department of Defense, leading to many users deciding to boycott ChatGPT in favor of Claude and other AI chatbot options.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/anthropic-is-doubling-claudes-usage-limits-during-off-peak-hours-for-the-next-two-weeks-163645928.html?src=rss

14.03.2026 23:10 A month after Seedance 2.0's launch in China sparked cease-and-desist letters from Disney and Paramount Skydance over its use of copyrighted materials, its developer ByteDance has reportedly hit pause on the release of the AI video tool in other regions. According to The Information, which spoke to two anonymous sources with knowledge of the matter, ByteDance has suspended Seedance 2.0's global rollout. Engadget has reached out to ByteDance for comment and will update this story if we hear back with more information. Seedance 2.0 caught heat from Hollywood studios almost immediately upon its release, after user-generated videos including a viral AI clip of Brad Pitt fighting Tom Cruise sparked concerns that copyrighted works were used in training the model. In February, ByteDance told the BBC that it is "taking steps to strengthen current safeguards as we work to prevent the unauthorised use of intellectual property and likeness by users." It's unclear when exactly ByteDance planned to release the tool more widely. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/bytedance-has-reportedly-suspended-the-global-rollout-of-its-new-ai-video-generator-212326112.html?src=rss

14.03.2026 23:10 You're responsible for your own Spotify algorithm now. On stage at SXSW, Spotify's co-CEO, Gustav Söderström, announced the Taste Profile feature, which allows users to personally customize exactly what they want to listen to, whether it's music, audiobooks or podcasts. This AI-powered feature is still in beta, and it will be available to Premium users in New Zealand in the coming weeks. From its short video demo, Spotify's Taste Profile feature will show you a summary of your listening habits and offer a "Tell us more" prompt at the bottom. With the new prompt, users can inform the AI what they want to see more of or if they want to get rid of a genre that keeps popping up in their algorithm. Spotify said that the Taste Profile will take into consideration more ambiguous prompts, too, like if you're training for a marathon and want upbeat music or want to listen to news podcasts during your commute to work. Spotify added that Taste Profile is an optional feature, and unwilling users can "leave it and enjoy Spotify as usual." With Taste Profile, Spotify is continuing its momentum of offering AI features, like the Prompted Playlist feature that was made available last month. Unlike the existing AI Playlist feature, Prompted Playlist lets you put in specific requests to generate a playlist, like only including songs from a specific TV show. Like Taste Profile, the Prompted Playlist feature saw beta testing in New Zealand first, before expanding to US and Canadian users a month later.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/music/spotifys-new-taste-profile-feature-lets-users-fine-tune-their-algorithms-recommendations-191104626.html?src=rss

14.03.2026 23:10 There may have been some extra incentive for the Trump administration to get the TikTok US deal done. According to a report from The Wall Street Journal, the Trump administration is set to receive a total of $10 billion in the deal that allowed TikTok to remain in the US. The new investors who acquired stakes in the US entity of TikTok already paid a $2.5 billion fee to the administration when the deal closed in January, but WSJ's latest report noted that the group of investors would continue to make payments until the total hits $10 billion. After a group of investors, which includes Oracle along with the Silver Lake and MGX investment firms, acquired stakes in the US-based TikTok entity called TikTok USDS Joint Venture, the WSJ previously reported that the administration would receive a "multibillion-dollar fee" for its work on the deal. To better contextualize the recently-revealed $10 billion fee the Trump administration is receiving, the US entity of TikTok was valued at $14 billion by Vice President JD Vance. The Trump administration has previously involved itself in major deals with other US corporations. Last year, the administration invested $8.9 billion into Intel and received a nearly 9 percent equity stake. In terms of unprecedented windfalls, the Trump administration also received a Boeing 747-8 as a gift from the Qatari government in May.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/trump-administration-will-reportedly-get-10-billion-for-brokering-the-tiktok-deal-180954979.html?src=rss

14.03.2026 23:10 Need something new for your reading list? This week, we recommend A.D. Sui's The Iron Garden Sutra, a meditative horror sci-fi/fantasy and murder mystery. I don't typically gravitate toward locked room mysteries, but the description of this book ticked all the right boxes to win me over: "a death monk and a team of researchers trapped onboard a spaceship of the dead encounter something beyond human understanding." It has all the makings of a compelling murder mystery, which is fine on its own, but thanks to the philosophical musings of its main character, Vessel Iris, and a setting that almost demands existential contemplation, it becomes something much deeper. Vessel Iris is a monk some time in the far future whose mission is to perform funeral rites for the dead so their souls may reach their ultimate destination, according to the beliefs of his religion, the Starlit Order. "Vessels" like Iris share their mind with an AI companion, which creates a really interesting dynamic for the reader, as there is a constant dialogue going on between the two from the start . Iris shows up to an ancient ship called the Counsel of Nicaea expecting to perform his duties for the long-deceased on board and instead finds himself facing a group of researchers who are very much not dead — and a jumbled mess of bones from the hundreds of bodies they disturbed by moving, which he'll have to sort in order to properly bless. Despite being a ghost ship in most respects, it turns out the Nicaea is alive with vegetation and gardens that would have once supported the humans that lived there. And, there's seemingly something else, as Iris' AI begins to pick up strange pings from a presence on the ship, and one by one the team of researchers starts getting picked off. As everything unravels, Iris begins to question his faith and his purpose. This was such a great read, and I was excited to learn it's the first in a two-book series, The Cosmic Wheel series. Fans of horror sci-fi/sci-fantasy should definitely check this one out. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/what-to-read-this-weekend-locked-in-with-the-iron-garden-sutra-172342019.html?src=rss

14.03.2026 18:10 Meta could be preparing for one of the largest layoffs in its history, according to a Reuters report. The tech giant is planning to cut about 20 percent of its workforce, according to the outlet's sources. According to the report, neither a date nor the exact number of layoffs has been finalized yet. However, Reuters reported that Meta's top executives have told "other senior leaders" to start "planning how to pare back." In its latest financial report, the company's employee headcount was 78,865 as of December 31, 2025, while revenue reached nearly $60 billion for the fourth quarter and more than $200 billion for the entire year. A Meta spokesperson told Reuters that this was "speculative reporting about theoretical approaches." Meta is no stranger to major layoffs. Earlier this year, Meta targeted about 1,000 employees in its layoffs with the Reality Labs division that's responsible for the company's virtual reality and metaverse efforts. Early last year, Meta laid off about five percent of its workforce, following a smaller round of firings that same month. Meanwhile, the company has been spending heavily to acquire AI startups, like Moltbook, a social network designed for AI agents, and Manus, a startup focused on AI agents for task automation.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/meta-is-reportedly-planning-to-cut-up-to-20-percent-of-its-staff-in-upcoming-layoffs-160812304.html?src=rss

14.03.2026 18:10 Digg has shut down, for now, just a few months after its open beta launched. Justin Mezzell, the company’s CEO, has explained on the home page that it noticed hours after the beta launched that it was already being targeted by SEO spammers. “The internet is now populated, in meaningful part, by sophisticated AI agents and automated accounts,” he wrote. Apparently, the Digg team wasn’t ready for the scale and the speed at which bots found and started flooding the website.Mezzell said Digg banned thousands of accounts and deployed both internal tools and external solutions, but they weren’t enough. He admitted that the votes and the comments on the website couldn’t be trusted due to the amount of bot activity it got. While Digg has decided to significantly downsize its team, a small number of staff members has stayed to rebuild it completely. He said it wasn’t enough to present Digg as an alternative to current social networks and community-based websites. “What comes next needs to be genuinely different,” he added. The CEO didn’t explain how Digg will reinvent itself, but he did announce that its founder, Kevin Rose, is joining the company full time. Rose bought back Digg last year in partnership with Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian. Back then, they said they had “a fresh vision to restore the spirit of discovery and genuine community that made the early web a fun and exciting place to be.” Based on what happened to Digg, that’s now harder to achieve with the state of the internet today. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/digg-shuts-down-for-a-hard-reset-because-it-was-flooded-with-bots-153848094.html?src=rss

14.03.2026 13:30 Welcome to our latest roundup of what's going on in the indie game space. A bunch of intriguing games arrived this week, including a mobile port of one of the most absorbing things I’ve played in years and two completely different titles with the same name. Let’s get things started with a look at a few projects that were featured in the latest edition of the Future Games Show.Hyperwired is a 2D roguelike shooter with an interesting resource-management twist. To recharge your weapons and systems, you have to plug a cable that trails behind your spaceship into a socket. While you're plugged in, your movement is restricted by the length of the tether, but you gain more firepower. There are a whole bunch of upgrades and bullet modifiers to play around with here, including a slow-motion system you can activate at almost any time. Hyperwired is slated to hit Steam, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch this summer.In Clean Up Earth, you and other players can work together to restore polluted environments. You can play solo if you like, but on the larger maps you'll need to team up with others to handle large bits of junk. One particularly neat aspect of Clean Up Earth is that in-game actions will automatically trigger micro-donations from developer Magic Pockets and its partners to environmental organizations.Clean Up Earth is coming to Steam, Epic Games Store, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S on April 2. A Nintendo Switch 2 version is on the way in the future. There's a demo available on Steam as well. Mr. Magpie’s Harmless Card Game is a minesweeper-style riff on the likes of Inscryption and Buckshot Roulette. As with some other roguelike deckbuilders, you're trapped in a creepy situation and the only way to escape alive is to gamble and earn enough money in time to meet quotas. To do that, you'll need to twist the odds in your favor by building multipliers and synergies. You can boost your deck with powerful cards you can buy from a shop.However, there are dangerous JERRY cards on the board that could spell doom if you flip them over. You can use hints and strategies to try to figure out where those cards are and avoid them. There's no release date as yet for Mr. Magpie’s Harmless Card Game, which is from Giant Light Studios. However, you can request access to a playtest on Steam.A press release described Herdles as "Spyro meets Breath of the Wild, with a dog." I'm immediately sold. Playing as a magical version of creative director Christian Hübel’s own dog, Snoopy, you'll "restore balance to a fracturing world" in this open-world platformer. On your journey, you'll rescue Herdles, or corrupted creatures. Doing so will unlock new powers, such as being able to glide, bust through walls and swim up waterfalls.There's no combat or death in this game, which seems to be largely about solving puzzles, experimenting with physics-based abilities and exploring. It's said to have "deep accessibility and customization options" too. Fire Sword Studios and One More Journey are behind Herdles, which does not have a release window, though the Steam page is live.New releasesI took an earlier-than-usual lunch break on Thursday to check out the mobile version of Ball x Pit as soon as it was released. I adore this game. I'm happy it runs smoothly on my iPhone 16, because that should give me more reason to avoid doomscrolling. It's the same Ball x Pit. It's still fantastic. The touchscreen dual-stick controls work well enough, especially when the auto-fire option is enabled. Still, a mobile controller like OhSnap's MCON or the Backbone Pro works better for me. A bunch more people will be able to enjoy Ball x Pit now that it's on iOS and Android. You can play the first level for free and it costs $10 to unlock the full game.It's a pretty good week for folks who are into brick-breaking roguelites, because here's another one. ITER-8 blends mining and tower defense. It's a bit like Dome Keeper. You're tasked with acquiring resources from an enormous monolith that's above your base. You'll need to drag these items back to your base so you can upgrade your character, ship, shield and weapon. There are relics to find and you can swap these for installations like lasers, barriers and cannons. There are also puzzle-based sections that sees your character leave their ship for some in-person mining and upgrade collecting, temporarily switching from 2D to 3D action.After a while, the monolith starts to thrum with an ominous sound. That means it's time to race back to base to fend off waves of alien enemies. The two sides of ITER-8 work fairly well together and I've enjoyed my time with it so far. I actually find it pretty relaxing overall, though the tower-defense aspect could have been designed a bit more elegantly. Switching aim from one side of the base to the other doesn’t feel snappy enough. ITER-8 is available on Steam for $13. There's a 25 percent launch discount available until March 23.Piece by Piece is billed as a cozy repair shop game from Gamkat and publisher No More Robots. It looks cute! You can decorate your shop and make it homely by cleaning, keeping the log fire burning and making sure the cookie jar is full. Of course, you'll be fixing up heirlooms and antiques for customers too. It's out now on Steam for $12, with a 20 percent discount until March 25.Piece by Piece is a puzzle platformer in the most literal sense. You manipulate levels by moving puzzle pieces around. It's a great idea from Neon Polygons and I'm keen to check this one out on Steam. It typically costs $13, but there's a 15 percent discount until March 27.Wait a second here... Two games called Piece by Piece that were released in the same week? That's a heck of a coincidence. Thankfully, the teams behind both games saw the funny side. They've even created a bundle of both games so you can buy them both for an extra 10 percent off.Here's another puzzle-forward game, albeit one that's more of an adventure. In Rhell: Warped Worlds Troubled Times, you'll discover and combine spells in creative ways to solve riddles in similar fashion to games like Baba Is You. There are said to be more than a million ways to combine the magical keywords. Since every spell works on any object in the game, there are more than 102 million possible configurations. Neat!Solo developer Alice Jarratt from SlugGlove spent three years making Rhell: Warped Worlds Troubled Times and drew more than 10,000 frames of animation for it. The game is available on Steam for $15, with a 20 percent launch discount until March 26. A demo is available too. Upcoming I've had Hoa on my wishlist for forever, so it's probably time for me to check out that puzzle platformer before the sequel arrives later this year. Hoa 2 sticks with the hand-painted art of the original game but it’s a 3D game this time. It begins a long, long time after the end of Hoa, with the eponymous fairy returning to a world that's been transformed by time. But many of her old friends have passed away, so Hoa seeks a new purpose. Along with platforming and spatial puzzles, Hoa 2 features secrets and mini-games. It's coming to Steam, PS5, Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch 2. I dig what I've seen of MotorSlice, which seems to have Mirror's Edge-style parkour action but in a much grittier-looking world. The developers also took inspiration from the Prince of Persia series and Shadow of the Colossus here — perhaps not too surprising in the latter case given that you'll be scaling huge bosses. This action adventure sees you on a mission to destroy every piece of machinery inside a ruined megastructure.MotorSlice is coming to Steam this spring. A demo for this game from Regular Studio and publisher Top Hat Studios is available now. Being a lifelong soccer fan is a curse that's punctuated with infrequent moments of the most intense joy you'll ever feel. Plus, every few years, I lose about a month of my life to the most recent version of Football Manager . So, it's safe to say that a game focused on perhaps the least glamourous job in soccer is up my alley.Kitman — a job you might know of as "equipment manager" — is a sports management game with co-op for up to four people in which you take care of things behind the scenes of a soccer team. You'll clean locker rooms, polish boots, make sure players have the right uniforms and so on, while taking care of details on the fly on match days. There's a fun twist here in that you can secretly take on some of the manager's duties, such as scouting players and adjusting formations. Maybe that explains what's been happening with Tottenham Hotspur lately.Kitman, from Outlier, is coming to Steam later this year. In the meantime, you can sign up to take part in a playtest.If, like me, you adore Astro Bot, here's something to keep an eye on. Astrolander is a 2.5D platformer with lovely-looking 3D environments. As a robot named Feedback, you set out on a journey with a rocket-powered sidekick named Haptic to save bots known as the Most Valuable Programs, or MVPs. A second player can join in and help take control of Feedback.Astrolander is from 16-year-old Max Trest of Lost Cartridge Creations. The PlayStation team tried Astrolander at an event a few years back and offered Trest the chance to bring his game to PS5. Astrolander is also coming to Steam. It's set to arrive later this year.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/ball-x-pit-on-mobile-piece-by-piece-x2-and-other-new-indie-games-worth-checking-out-110000319.html?src=rss

14.03.2026 03:00 OpenAI plans to add its Sora video generation model directly into ChatGPT, The Information reports . The standalone Sora app was seen as a smash hit when it launched alongside Sora 2 in September 2025, but interest in the video generation app has fallen in the time since as users ran into limits on the amount and kinds of videos they could create.Adding Sora to the ChatGPT could give the model a second life, and ideally grow the ChatGPT app's weekly active users from the 900 million OpenAI reported in February, to a billion or more. According to The Information, the standalone Sora app will stick around after the model is integrated, even though the app has fallen out of the App Store's top 100 free apps and only a small number of users reportedly share their videos publicly in the app.It’s hard to pin down an exact number for what generating a video costs OpenAI, but the company charges API customers $0.10 per second for a 720p video, and in 2025, it was willing to give away 30 free video generations per account per a day in the Sora app. When you consider the even larger audience that could use the model in the ChatGPT app, things could get expensive fast. That could be one reason The Information reports OpenAI has projected it could spend over $225 billion on inference — the cost of running the company's models — between 2026 and 2030.The company has attempted to monetize the Sora app by having users pay for credits to generate new videos, and could deploy something similar once the model comes to ChatGPT. Maybe giving customers the ability to generate videos with Disney characters could even get people to pay for more videos once they run out of free generations. Whether or not adding Sora to ChatGPT moves the needle for OpenAI, though, the company will likely be spending even more money than it was before.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/openai-reportedly-plans-to-add-sora-video-generation-to-chatgpt-222611439.html?src=rss

13.03.2026 22:40 Meta AI should soon be better at surfacing international news content thanks to a set of new deals with publishers. The company announced new agreements with international outlets and offered additional details on its recent deal with News Corp. The latest deals bring French newspaper Le Figaro, Spanish media company Prisa and German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung into the fold. Together, along with News Corp, which runs a number of outlets in the UK, these sources should give Meta AI better access to timely info about world events. Meta didn't disclose terms of the deals — The Wall Street Journal previously reported the News Corp arrangement was worth up to $50 million a year — but it said that it intends to link out to the relevant news sources."These integrations will also facilitate easier access to information by linking out to articles, allowing you to visit these partners’ websites for more details while providing value to partners, enabling them to reach new audiences," Meta wrote in an update. The company has a long and sometimes fraught history with publishers as its priorities have shifted over the years. In the past, Meta has struck deals to pay publishers to produce live video or "instant articles" only to change course as news content has become less of a priority for Facebook.Now, with Meta struggling to compete with its AI rivals, it seems the social media company is once again interested in news content. As the company notes in its blog post, Meta AI isn't always great at surfacing accurate and timely info. I noted this in 2024 when the company's assistant was repeatedly unable to accurately answer seemingly simple questions like " who is the Speaker of the House of Representatives." By striking a bunch of deals with publishers, the company should be better equipped to handle these kinds of queries . How much benefit publishers will see from these arrangements, however, is an open question. While Meta says it will link out to the relevant news sources, there are lots of outside data points that raise serious questions about the effect AI search tools are having on web traffic. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/meta-is-bringing-more-international-news-to-its-ai-213323713.html?src=rss

13.03.2026 22:40 Adobe has agreed to pay the US government $75 million to settle its lawsuit over the company's allegedly harmful approach to subscriptions. The suit started in 2024, when the US Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission filed a joint complaint alleging the company deliberately made it difficult to cancel subscriptions and obscured the frequently expensive "early termination fee" customers have to pay to get out of annual subscriptions that are paid monthly."While we disagree with the government’s claims and deny any wrongdoing, we are pleased to resolve this matter," Adobe writes. "We have agreed to provide $75 million worth of free services to customers that qualify. We will proactively reach out to the affected customers once the appropriate filings with the Court are made and accepted. Additionally, we have agreed to a $75 million payment to the Department of Justice."Adobe's statement also notes that it's made the process of both signing up for and canceling subscriptions "more streamlined and transparent." A major sticking point of the original complaint is that canceling an "annual plan, paid monthly" subscription before completing the first year of service required customers to pay an early termination fee to make up for the value Adobe lost initially offering its software at a discount. Adobe currently allows plans to be refunded if they're canceled within 14 days after signing up, but canceling an "annual plan, paid monthly" subscription after those first 14 days requires paying a hefty fee .A court will have to approve Adobe's proposed settlement before the lawsuit can be totally resolved, but the timing is at least a little ironic. Shantanu Narayen, Adobe's CEO for the last 18 years and the executive who oversaw the company's transition from traditional software business to software-as-a-service business, recently announced plans to retire. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/adobe-agrees-to-pay-settlement-for-making-its-subscriptions-hard-to-cancel-210336635.html?src=rss

13.03.2026 22:40 In the mad dash many companies have made to incorporate AI features into their phones, Nothing arrived at one of the better ideas with Essential Space on the Nothing Phone 3a in 2025. The AI-powered app turns screenshots and voice recordings into actionable to-do lists and transcriptions, and now Nothing is rolling out an update to make the app easier to search and capable of recognizing new kinds of content.As part of the update, Essential Space now recognizes "Events," displaying them in their own card with fields for the date, time and location. That means, for example, if you add a photo of a flyer for pottery class to the app, Essential Space will be able to pull the details of when and where it's happening, and track it in much the same way it does tasks or to-dos. Nothing foresees events being such a big part of how people will use Essential Space that it's also changing the layout of the app's interface and listing things like Events and Tasks in a new For You page you see when you open the app.To make everything you've stored in Essential Space easier to find, the app now also supports semantic search, surfacing results that don't just match the text you've entered, but try to match the meaning of what you're looking for. Semantic search should be particularly useful when you're looking for an image, because you can enter a description of what you're looking for and Essential Space should still be able to surface it.Sorting and indexing digital ephemera like voice notes and screenshots with AI is a popular use for the technology. Google offers Pixel Screenshots, and even Apple gave iOS and iPadOS the ability to automatically recognize events in images and add them to your calendar. Essential Space might be less unique now, but the fact that Nothing continues to update it bodes well for its future.Nothing's new Essential Space update is available starting today on "all 2025–2026 Nothing and CMF phones that support Essential Key," the company says. Essential Space should automatically update, but you also manually update the app in the Google Play Store.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/nothing-updates-its-ai-app-with-semantic-search-and-a-new-way-to-track-events-202500495.html?src=rss

13.03.2026 22:40 Apple's cheapest laptop is also its most repairable. iFixit gave the new MacBook Neo a 6/10 repairability score. Although that number would only be mediocre for, say, a game review or final exam grade, it's the MacBook line's highest iFixit score in about 14 years.As always, iFixit goes into great detail about the product's repairability, but a few points stand out. First, the MacBook Neo's battery is screwed down rather than glued — moving it from "this might burn the house down" to "routine repair" territory. The laptop also has a flat disassembly tree. That means its battery, speakers, ports and trackpad are all immediately accessible after opening the back case.In other areas, a simplified antenna assembly helps the screen come away cleanly. Keyboard repair is still a bit tedious , but at least it isn't riveted to the top case like on other models. Apple's decision to forego a Force Touch trackpad and return to a mechanical style improves repairability as well. And in a nice touch, all the machine's Torx Plus screw sizes are clearly labeled inside the case.AppleSeveral other encouraging signs carry over from recent MacBooks. iFixit found that Apple's Repair Assistant accepted all replacement parts it tried without a fuss. And its USB-C ports and headphone jack are modular, so replacing either doesn't "turn into logic board work."Not everything is peachy. As expected, the Neo still has soldered RAM and storage, so there's no upgrade path there. iFixit describes Apple's pentalobe screws on the bottom case as an "annoying" choice. And while the device's speakers are easy to remove, they, well, just aren't very good. While iFixit describes the Neo's repairability as "a real comeback," it's premature to assume higher-end MacBooks will follow suit. After all, with this $599 device , Apple is targeting the educational sector, where repairability could mean more bulk orders. Until Apple is convinced that the MacBook Air or Pro would sell better with similar serviceability, this kind of score may be limited to the budget model.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/laptops/the-macbook-neo-is-apples-most-repairable-laptop-200923202.html?src=rss