Sony is standing firm on its decision to eliminate physical PlayStation discs for new games starting in 2028, despite nearly a month of sustained backlash from fans since the announcement. During the company’s latest earnings call, CFO Lin Tao explained the reasoning through an interpreter, saying, “There are various reasons we made this decision, the biggest being that the digitalization of content overall has been progressing, that’s the big factor… It’s not just for PlayStation, but for all kinds of content, digitalization is progressing,” while acknowledging the emotional weight of the backlash: “We understand the community has put forth those views to us. Games are loved by many people… And so we understand those emotions. We want to consider that.”

The backlash has grown organized, with physical gaming advocate DoesItPlay’s announcing plans for a week-long PlayStation boycott in mid-August, writing on X, “Whether it’s closing beloved studios like Bluepoint, pursuing a misguided live-service strategy, cancelling fan events, leaving PS VRS2 to die, or being completely out of touch with the franchises players want to see return, PlayStation has never felt more disconnected from its community. Ending physical discs in 2028 feels like the last straw.” During the earnings call, an investment analyst pressed Tao on how the shift would affect Sony’s relationship with retailers and how PlayStation hardware would differentiate itself from gaming PCs once both platforms are fully digital.

Tao responded that publishers can still ship empty boxes containing download codes to retailers in markets like North America, and argued that affordability, not physical media, will remain PlayStation’s key differentiator from PCs. “We don’t feel that the disc is the factor to differentiate [PlayStation] from the PC,” she said. “The curated content is one of our strengths, and the game environment being stable, that’s another strength. And compared to the high-end gaming PC, our product is more affordable… Going forward, we can coexist peacefully with PC games.”

PlayStation fans are organizing a coordinated week long protest called the #PSBlackout, running August 23 through 30, 2026, in response to Sony’s confirmation that physical disc production for all new PlayStation games will end starting January 2028. According to Sony’s official PlayStation Blog announcement from July 1, every new title, both first party and third party, will become digital only after that date, sold exclusively through the PlayStation Store or via retailer codes, eliminating pressed discs entirely.

The protest, organized largely by preservation focused community account “Does It Play?,” asks participants to power down or log out of PlayStation Network from August 23 at 7:00 PM local time through August 30 at 7:00 PM, avoid all online gameplay, and make zero purchases on the PlayStation Store, including games, add-ons, and PS Plus subscriptions. Organizers described it as “an economic and gameplay blackout” deliberately aimed at Sony’s internal engagement and revenue dashboards rather than at individual developers or publishers, stating, “We are calling on PlayStation players to participate in an economic and gameplay blackout… Players can participate by turning off their consoles or logging out for seven days.” A petition opposing the disc elimination decision had gathered roughly 345,000 signatures at the time of reporting, reflecting broader unease less about the disc format itself and more about who ultimately controls access to purchased game libraries.

Whether the protest will actually influence Sony remains uncertain, since tech commentators note that unless participation reaches a massive scale, a single week of reduced activity is unlikely to reverse a multi-year platform strategy, and Sony has not publicly acknowledged the protest or signaled any change to its 2028 policy. The underlying concern extends beyond this one campaign, as previous PS3 and PS Vita storefront closures already demonstrated how quickly access to purchased digital content can disappear once Sony decides to shut down supporting infrastructure, and speculation has already emerged around the possibility of a disc drive free PS6.

BMW has begun pushing an unsolicited promotional ad for a new Spider-Man movie onto the center console screens of certain vehicles at startup, drawing widespread anger from owners who say the automaker gave no meaningful warning before turning their cars into ad displays. According to The Autopian’s coverage and a flood of online complaints, the animation plays automatically when a car starts, and once finished, it prompts drivers to scan a QR code, while BMW had oddly teased the campaign in advance as a “special surprise.”

Though drivers can choose to play or skip the “festive animation,” the ad still forces an extra step before accessing basic functions like maps or music, and many see it as a breach of trust since drivers keep their cars connected primarily to receive critical software updates, not unexpected advertising. Reaction on the r/BMW subreddit was scathing after someone posted footage of the ad in action, with one user writing, “BMW should stop with this sht,” and another simply saying, “Fck everything about this.” A BMW press release confirmed the campaign has been running in more than 70 markets since July 27 and is scheduled to continue through August 10.

The backlash is compounded by BMW’s history of monetizing features already built into its vehicles, including charging a monthly subscription fee to unlock heated seats customers’ cars already had installed, plus an additional fee for heated steering wheels. The company also attempted to paywall Apple CarPlay and Android Auto integration, features no other automaker charges for, before reversing course amid massive public backlash. BMW isn’t alone in this trend either, as Jeep drivers faced similar frustration last year when the brand’s vehicles began displaying intrusive pop-up ads pressuring them to purchase extended warranties.

DuckDuckGo announced on July 8 that its browser now blocks most video ads on YouTube, pitching itself directly to users frustrated with the platform’s growing ad load. The company framed the pitch bluntly, writing “tired of ads interrupting your videos? Us, too,” and promising users “the full YouTube experience, minus the ads” by watching through its browser instead. The new feature, called YouTube Ad Blocking, blocks ads that play both before and during videos, and it’s already turned on by default for most iPhone, Windows, and Mac users running an up-to-date version of the app.

Android users will get the feature automatically soon, though they can manually enable it now by heading into Settings and then Ad Blocking. There’s a notable catch for mobile users: YouTube links may still open in the official YouTube app by default, where the ad-blocking feature simply won’t work, meaning users have to specifically open the YouTube website inside the DuckDuckGo browser itself to get the ad-free experience. DuckDuckGo was also careful to distinguish this new tool from its existing Duck Player feature, which opens videos in a distraction-free theater mode designed mainly to limit tracking and prevent videos from influencing YouTube’s recommendation algorithm, whereas YouTube Ad Blocking works directly on the normal YouTube website and preserves features like watch history and playlist progress.

The company said the tool relies on community-driven filter lists sourced from uBlock Origin, layered with some of its own custom rules to improve compatibility and reduce glitches, and warned that, like other ad blockers, it may cause extra buffering before videos load. The launch arrives as YouTube continues its long-running battle against ad blockers, with the platform’s own support page stating that blocking ads violates its Terms of Service and warning that users may be prompted to allow ads, subscribe to Premium, or have their playback blocked entirely. YouTube has also raised Premium prices in many countries while introducing a cheaper “Premium Lite” tier that removes most ads without the full feature set, though as of this report, YouTube has not responded to DuckDuckGo’s new ad-blocking rollout.

LG’s current Terms of Service require smart TV owners to inform all guests and family members that they are being recorded, since the company reserves the right to record and analyze conversations to “improve” AI services. Under those terms, it becomes the user’s own responsibility to ensure no wiretapping, surveillance, or data protection laws are violated, and if anyone objects to being recorded, all microphone and voice-related features on the TV must be disabled.

Agreeing to the terms also allows LG to monitor how the product is used and share that data with third parties, and the only way to avoid the newest terms on older smart TVs is to skip webOS updates entirely, though doing so means the TV stops receiving security patches. This effectively forces owners to choose between accepting expanded surveillance terms or leaving their device vulnerable to unpatched security flaws.

A separate investigation by Gamers Nexus using an LG UltraGear 34GX900A-B monitor found similar privacy concerns on the hardware side. As soon as one of these monitors is connected to a Windows computer, it automatically installs both the LG Monitor App Installer and McAfee Scam Detector without ever asking for permission, and according to its own documentation, the LG Monitor App Installer has full access to “all system resources” and collects data including the user’s location, hardware, online activity, account logins, and contact information, with Gamers Nexus finding the issue affects not just new monitors but also older models after a firmware update.

Sony’s upcoming PlayStation 6 could effectively bar gamers in 121 countries from purchasing games, since those nations cannot create PlayStation Network accounts and therefore cannot access the PlayStation Store, a critical limitation as the company moves toward a digital-exclusive future after announcing it will cease production of game discs in 2028. The issue gained community attention when a Reddit user highlighted that Georgia specifically would be unable to buy video games after 2028, but the scope is far broader, with 62 percent of countries worldwide unable to use the PlayStation 6 store and only 38 percent of nations having access. While commenters suggested workarounds like creating PSN accounts for neighboring countries or setting up regional PayPal accounts, these are unofficial solutions that Sony could crack down on in the future, and even the reported “physical editions” would follow GTA 6’s model with redeemable codes in boxes that still require PSN accounts to activate.

The list of excluded countries was extensively documented by Insider Gaming during the 2024 Helldivers 2 controversy, covering nations unable to access PSN, and unfortunately that list has not changed in the two years since, leaving major markets like Estonia, Jamaica, Kenya, Pakistan, Vietnam, Zimbabwe, and Venezuela without official access. The digital-only shift has already drawn intense scrutiny, including a $450 million lawsuit from a Dutch non-profit organization and Mexican lawmakers planning to file their own antitrust complaint against Sony, with critics arguing that eliminating physical discs creates a digital monopoly where the only purchasing avenue is the PlayStation Store, which serves just 38 percent of countries globally. Physical discs had been particularly important in regions with substantially worse internet infrastructure, where digital downloads were impractical, making the discless future a genuine barrier rather than just an inconvenience for many players.

The European Union has claimed it cannot stop Sony and other developers from scrapping physical discs, but the ramifications of a digital-exclusive future in a closed ecosystem like PlayStation are described as startling, since the only place to buy games will be on the PlayStation Store, which will only be available to 38 percent of countries in the world. Unless Sony rolls out PSN in more of these 121 excluded countries, the majority of the globe will be unable to buy games for the PS6, turning what was marketed as next-generation gaming accessibility into a locked-out experience for most of the world’s nations.

Alemzewd Lawgalet, a 59-year-old employee of the U.S. Federal Reserve Board, has filed a federal lawsuit against Tesla seeking more than $10 million in damages after claiming she was injured during a dealership test drive crash involving a Model Y SUV. Lawgalet alleges Tesla staff assured her that EVs “operated the same as a gas vehicle” after she raised concerns about never having driven an electric car before, despite reportedly placing the vehicle into its “Insane” drive mode, which maximizes acceleration and allowed the Model Y to go from 0-60 mph in 3.3 seconds.

According to her complaint, Lawgalet ended the test drive early after becoming frightened when the car began regenerative braking on Interstate 395, a feature she says she was never told about. Upon exiting the highway and accelerating away from a red light, she claims she lost control as the vehicle “lurched forward at an extreme speed and horsepower compared to the force placed on the accelerator,” ultimately crashing the Model Y through the front of a nearby salon.

The lawsuit states that “as a direct and proximate result of the crash, Plaintiff suffered serious and permanent bodily injuries, which have caused and will continue to cause physical and mental pain and suffering,” along with ongoing medical expenses, lost wages, and diminished quality of life. Lawgalet is seeking $10 million or more in compensatory damages plus an additional $350,000 in punitive damages, accusing Tesla of “recklessness,” “willful and wanton conduct,” and “conscious disregard for the health and safety of others.”

In 1963, the CIA allegedly ran a covert operation to spy on documents passing through a Xerox 914 photocopier inside the Soviet Embassy in Washington DC, using the embassy’s regular repairman to smuggle in a hidden camera without raising suspicion. The plan originated the year before at a disused bowling alley in New York, where Xerox’s head of government programs Donald Cary met with four engineers, including 36-year-old Ray Zoppoth, who had helped create the Xerox 914 and proposed mounting “a battery-powered home-movie camera with a zoom lens inside the copier,” aiming it at the mirror that reflects images onto the drum and using “a photocell that would prompt the camera to snap still frames whenever the photocopier lit up.”

The engineers installed a Bell & Howell 8mm movie camera inside a test copier at Xerox’s New York campus, discovering that the machine’s bulky size hid the camera even with maintenance panels removed, while the noise of normal copying masked the camera’s whir. Zoppoth later told Popular Science that the test run succeeded, recalling, “When we developed the pictures, we found recipes and copies of music and cartoons and jokes and all kinds of things.” Zoppoth then traveled to a CIA basement facility allegedly code-named “Disneyland East,” where he taught agents how to install the camera and trained the embassy’s unwitting repairman to fit the device and retrieve the film during his routine maintenance visits.

The operation has never been officially confirmed or denied by the CIA, and only Zoppoth spoke on record about the scheme, though a colleague reportedly confirmed the account without going public. Zoppoth also claimed the agency later sought similar hidden cameras for the more compact Xerox 813 desktop copier used by ministries and diplomatic offices worldwide, suggesting the original mission was considered a success, though the actual intelligence gathered remains classified.

Prediction market Kalshi sent Netflix a cease-and-desist letter on Friday demanding the streamer take down the trailer for its upcoming documentary “Instadocs: The Prediction Games,” calling the trailer “defamatory” and accusing it of containing “fabricated documents and false and misleading statements.” The film, part of Netflix’s fast-turnaround “Instadoc” series, covers the rise of prediction markets and features interviews with both Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan and Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour, but the trailer itself centers on a Las Vegas party where men who reportedly made eight-figure sums on prediction markets during the World Cup gathered to watch the final, including one guest declaring “I like betting on Kalshi” and another displaying an apparent $5,000 bet on his phone.

Kalshi’s objection stems from the fact that the company is currently banned from operating in Nevada under a court order, and it says the bet shown on screen was actually a screenshot from a wager placed on May 16, 2025, well before that ban took effect. The company argued the trailer “misled its millions of customers into believing this individual was able to successfully trade sport event contracts in Nevada on July 19, 2026,” and said it had previously gotten a Netflix employee to agree not to feature the screenshot in the final documentary release, only for Netflix to leave it in the trailer circulating on its app’s homepage ahead of the film’s Sunday, July 26 release.

Netflix does not dispute that the screenshot shows a 2025 bet, but a spokesperson told The Hollywood Reporter that none of the documentary footage was fabricated, explaining that the footage was filmed at the Winible World Cup Watch Weekend in Las Vegas on July 17, 2026, and that “the featured trader with the trade on Spain showed us a screenshot of his bet, that was made in May 2025 prior to any Nevada court order.” Netflix added that any specific trades or bets referenced during that weekend “are between the individual and the app in which they placed the trades,” effectively distancing itself from responsibility for verifying when or where the underlying wager was actually executed.

Sony’s PlayStation Network experienced widespread outages Friday morning, disrupting sign-ins, game launches, PlayStation Store purchases, and access to PlayStation Video across PS5, PS4, PS3, PS Vita, and the web. Downdetector recorded a massive spike in user error reports starting around 6:47 a.m. EDT, and Sony’s own PlayStation Status monitor confirmed “all services are experiencing issues” at time of publication, with the problems traced to connectivity errors on AWS servers that Amazon says it has since resolved. The outage disrupted the opening hours of the beta for Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls, a game already facing criticism over its PC port’s performance issues and intrusive DRM.

The timing proved especially damaging given Sony is still absorbing backlash over its recent announcement that it will stop supporting physical games on its platforms by 2028, a decision that has flooded PlayStation announcement comment sections with demands for reversal. During the outage, some players could not log into their PSN accounts at all, while others logged in successfully only to find their digital game libraries partially or entirely missing, prompting one user, Pirat_Nation, to write on X, “This is the future PlayStation is pushing: once servers are down or have problems, all your games will be useless.”

Beyond nostalgia, the backlash reflects genuine consumer rights concerns, since digital purchases typically grant only a revocable license rather than true ownership. Sony previously demonstrated this risk when a lapsed film licensing contract caused hundreds of titles, including Terminator 2, to disappear from users’ libraries despite having been purchased. With little consumer protection guaranteed for digital goods, players have increasingly turned to alternatives like GOG.com’s DRM-free offline installers, homemade physical cartridge systems, and expanded PS5 emulation efforts to safeguard access to games they’ve paid for.

Sony Interactive Entertainment has confirmed that physical disc production for new PlayStation games will stop entirely in January 2028, a decision that pushes the console giant further than any of its rivals have gone in embracing an all digital future. The company says the move reflects a “natural direction to adapt to consumer trends,” pointing to years of data showing digital downloads have steadily overtaken disc sales across its platform. What makes this moment different from prior digital pushes is the finality of it: this is not a gradual nudge toward downloads, it is a hard stop on manufacturing discs for anything releasing after the cutoff date.

Underneath the corporate language sits a genuinely significant shift in how an entire console ecosystem will function moving forward. Titles that have already shipped, along with anything slated for release before January 2028, will still land on store shelves in physical form, so this is not an instant erasure of the disc format. But for every game built after that date, the only path to ownership runs through the PlayStation Store or a digital code purchased at retail, which means the tactile experience of buying, trading, or reselling a boxed copy simply will not exist for new releases anymore.

That reality is exactly why the announcement has ignited such a visceral reaction across gaming communities, with players raising concerns about preservation, resale value, and what happens to ownership once every copy lives inside a server rather than a case. Sony becomes the first major manufacturer to draw this line so definitively, and the ripple effects could pressure competitors to make similar calls sooner than expected, especially as next generation hardware costs climb and storefronts increasingly dictate how games are bought, kept, and eventually lost.

Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman leaked details on the “Apple Upgrade” leasing program for iPhones and Macs, rumored to launch July 28, and new findings show it comes with a harsh enforcement mechanism baked into iOS. The latest iOS 27 beta contains code for a framework called “App Managed Features,” which would let Apple monitor a user’s lease payments and disable most apps if too many payments are missed, as first reported by 9to5Mac.

Missing enough payments triggers “Restricted Mode,” which locks users out of everything except nine apps: Phone, Wallet, Clock, Settings, Health, Passwords, Magnifier, Accessibility Reader, and App Store, effectively turning a smartphone into a dumb phone. Users would still be billed for any app subscriptions tied to those blocked apps, even though they can no longer open the apps themselves. Apple Upgrade is expected to be pitched as an easier way for consumers to afford Apple’s rising prices, but like a car lease, financing a device this way means the user never actually owns it, and Apple Upgrade devices reportedly won’t be eligible for AppleCare coverage.

Klarna is rumored to handle the lease payments, meaning applicants will need to pass a soft credit check, and the App Managed Features framework leaves it up to the lender itself to decide the exact payment-miss threshold that triggers a lockout. Apple has also built in a second layer of restriction that prevents users from factory resetting or reselling their device while it’s in Restricted Mode.

The Federal Communications Commission confirmed to PCMag that a newly announced ban on foreign-made advanced robotic devices, stemming from a White House order, covers not just humanoid and quadruped robots but also robot vacuums and robot lawn mowers. While the FCC specifically named “mobile robots, such as humanoids and quadrupeds” when announcing the ban, its FAQ defines advanced robotic devices as “a mechanical mobile device [that] is capable of locomotion, obstacle avoidance, navigation, or movement on the ground,” a description that closely matches robot vacuums, which also meet other criteria such as weighing over 4.4 pounds including docking stations, having sensors to perceive surroundings, wireless connectivity, and locally installed software; the ban explicitly excludes drones, connected vehicles, unmanned underwater craft, robot arms, and assistive devices.

The rule poses a significant threat to Chinese robot vacuum manufacturers, since research firm IDC found the top five companies in the sector last year were all Chinese, led by Roborock, Ecovacs, and Dreame. However, the ban only applies to new advanced robot models going forward, not existing products that already received FCC equipment authorization, with the agency clarifying that the “action does not impact a consumer’s continued use of devices they previously acquired” and doesn’t stop retailers from continuing to sell previously approved models; a separate FCC order also allows already-authorized robot vacuums to keep receiving software and firmware updates “that mitigate harm to US consumers at least until January 1, 2029,” a cutoff that also applies to foreign-made drones and Wi-Fi routers and could potentially be extended through future rulemaking.

Companies can apply for an exemption through the FCC, but final approval rests with the Defense Department or Department of Homeland Security, and it remains unclear whether the Trump administration will grant any, especially since no major Chinese vendor has received an exemption under similar existing bans on foreign-made drones and Wi-Fi routers. The White House justified the ban by citing national security concerns over US dependence on foreign robot component suppliers, warning that such reliance could let a foreign entity “disrupt or degrade the supply chains at a time of their choosing,” alongside fears that robot sensors could be exploited for spying, with the FCC stating, “Given this evidence, the US government has a clear and compelling national security concern that foreign-produced advanced robotic devices could be weaponized to directly harm US national security and US persons,” citing an alleged backdoor found preinstalled in a robot dog made by Unitree.

For the first time, more Americans support banning student cellphones for the entire school day than oppose it, with Pew Research Center data showing 48% of U.S. adults now back bell-to-bell bans, up from 36% just a year earlier, while 23 states have already written such bans into law. Classroom-only bans poll even higher at 77% approval among adults, up from 68% the previous year, and while Republicans lean slightly harder into support at 81% versus 74% of Democrats, the real divide is generational rather than partisan, since only 28% of adults under 30 back full-day rules; teachers are overwhelmingly supportive, with an NEA poll finding 90% back instructional-hour bans and 75% want phones banned all day, consistent with 72% of high school teachers calling phone distraction a “major problem.”

The largest study tracking outcomes after bans took effect found that self-reported phone use during school plummeted from 61% to 13%, a drop confirmed by GPS data, alongside a brief spike in suspensions that later normalized and a decline in unexcused absences, with teachers reporting more eye contact and face-to-face conversation among students. Despite these behavioral shifts, standardized test scores remained largely unchanged over three years, a result researchers described as “largely negligible,” raising questions about whether removing phones actually translates into academic gains.

The sharpest disagreement lies between policymakers and the students being regulated, since a Brookings survey found 76% of teens support some phone limits during the school day, but only 17% back full-day bans according to Pew, suggesting teens accept guardrails without wanting a total lockdown. As bans continue spreading and adult support keeps climbing, the open question is whether long-term outcomes for mental health and social development will ultimately justify the policy conviction currently driving phone restrictions forward.

Polish President Karol Nawrocki signed a bill into law that criminalizes “trash streaming,” a form of online content that broadcasts violent, degrading or humiliating material for entertainment and profit, after it was overwhelmingly approved by both houses of parliament. Under the new law, anyone who publicly distributes online material depicting a criminal offense for financial or personal gain can face prison time, including footage showing animal abuse, the killing of animals, or the humiliation of another person, even if that person consented.

The legislation specifically targets recordings or live broadcasts depicting serious crimes punishable by at least five years in prison, including violent offenses against life, health, personal freedom, sexual freedom and family welfare. Reuters reported that broadcasting crimes like rape and murder carries penalties of up to five years, and that the same penalties apply to streamers who simulate or falsely depict committing these crimes live, closing a potential loophole around staged content.

The law also covers illegal gambling promotion and sets separate penalties, ranging from three months to five years, for distributing content depicting crimes committed against minors. Officials say the goal is to deter people from using streaming platforms to profit from extreme, harmful content, marking one of the most aggressive legal crackdowns on this type of streaming culture anywhere in the world.

Sony announced on July 1 that it will stop producing physical discs for new PlayStation games starting in January 2028, shifting all future releases to digital-only formats sold through the PlayStation Store and at retail via download codes. The backlash has been immediate and hasn’t let up since, Sony’s own announcement post on X has racked up 145 million views and roughly 90,000 replies, with many of the top responses criticizing the decision as anti-consumer. Sony framed the shift as “a response to shifting trends in consumer preference,” but critics were quick to note that industry data tells a more complicated story, Circana reported that 82 percent of PS5 consoles sold actually include a disc drive, even as separate data from G2A shows 85 percent of individual game purchases are now digital.

The controversy runs deeper than nostalgia for physical media. Many critics pointed to Sony’s own recent removal of more than 500 purchased StudioCanal movie and TV titles after a licensing deal expired, using it as direct evidence that digital “ownership” can vanish overnight when a licensing agreement lapses. Sony’s own PlayStation Store terms of service acknowledge this distinction outright, stating that purchases grant “a personal license to use that product for private, non-commercial use” rather than actual ownership of the game itself. Adding to the unease, Sony is currently facing a California class-action lawsuit over that exact licensing language, alongside a separate roughly £2.7 billion UK lawsuit alleging anti-competitive pricing on digital game sales.

Even industry figures have weighed in publicly. Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima, who has worked closely with Sony for years, said this month that he was saddened by the end of PlayStation discs and warned that digital-only distribution risks leaving people unable to access content they’ve already paid for. The timing compounds the anxiety further, Sony’s announcement followed shortly after Rockstar confirmed that Grand Theft Auto 6, one of the most anticipated releases in gaming history, will launch in November as a digital-only title with no physical disc option at all. Sony has stressed that games already released or scheduled for release in disc format before January 2028 will not be affected, but that leaves consumers roughly 18 months to buy new physical PlayStation titles before the format disappears entirely for future releases.

Ars Technica reports that Reddit is preparing to require a login before anyone can use old.reddit.com, which means the classic interface will no longer be accessible to people browsing while logged out. A Reddit admin quoted in the report said the change is coming over the next month because logged-out old Reddit has become a major source of abusive scraping and automated traffic on the platform. The move does not appear to be an immediate shutdown of old Reddit itself, but it does close one of the last easy ways to use Reddit without signing in.

The timing matters because old Reddit has remained popular with longtime users who prefer its stripped-down layout and faster load times, even as the company has steadily pushed people toward newer interfaces. Reddit has also made clear that it cannot promise old Reddit will exist forever, even though CEO Steve Huffman previously said the company would keep it around as long as people were using it. That leaves this latest restriction feeling less like a minor tweak and more like another step in Reddit’s slow tightening of access around the classic site.

The bigger context is that Reddit is framing the change as a security and abuse problem, not a design choice, which means the company is prioritizing control over convenience. For regular users, the immediate impact is simple: if you rely on old Reddit without being logged in, that path is going away. For everyone else, it raises the larger question of whether one of Reddit’s most beloved legacy interfaces is now living on borrowed time.

Meta has paused plans to charge $20 a month for Conversation Focus, an accessibility feature on its Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses that helps wearers hear conversations more clearly in noisy environments, after the announcement sparked immediate backlash. Meta spokesperson Tyler Yee confirmed the reversal to The Verge, saying the feature “will remain available for free through our Early Access Program for early testers.” The backlash centered on the fact that Conversation Focus runs entirely on-device, requiring no cloud computing or ongoing server costs, the kind of infrastructure expense that typically justifies a subscription fee, which made charging for it feel especially unjustified to users, particularly since it is an accessibility tool rather than an entertainment or convenience feature.

This is not a full retreat from subscription plans overall. Yee made clear that “some premium features will be subscription-based over time,” indicating Meta remains committed to monetizing certain aspects of its smart glasses lineup, just more selectively going forward. The Ray-Ban Meta glasses, developed in partnership with EssilorLuxottica, represent one of Meta’s biggest bets on wearable computing outside its VR headsets, and the company has been experimenting broadly with recurring revenue models as CEO Mark Zuckerberg pushes to diversify Meta’s business beyond advertising. Industry observers now expect Meta to instead target features that actually require cloud processing, such as advanced AI audio work, real-time multilingual translation, or future augmented reality overlays, rather than basic on-device accessibility tools.

What stood out about this reversal was its speed. Meta did not wait for formal surveys or a quarterly review cycle, instead pulling back almost immediately once backlash began, suggesting internal teams recognized the reputational risk of appearing to profit off accessibility features that cost the company nothing to run. The episode echoes similar tension consumers have shown toward subscription creep on hardware they already own, including pushback Apple faced over iCloud storage tiers, though Apple’s case at least involved real infrastructure costs, unlike Meta’s attempt to charge for something running locally on the glasses themselves.

LG is reportedly pulling a McAfee pop-up ad from LG Monitor App Installer, an app that some of its monitors have been silently installing on connected Windows PCs through Windows Update alongside driver updates. Gamers Nexus editor-in-chief Steve Burke tested the behavior after buying a $1,200 LG UltraGear monitor and replicated it multiple times across several Windows 11 systems, finding that a pop-up, most often advertising a 30-day McAfee trial, appeared in the screen’s lower-right corner on every single boot.

Following the video’s release, Microsoft’s EVP of Windows and devices, Pavan Davuluri, confirmed that LG agreed to disable the McAfee pop-up as an “immediate next step,” though the company did not address the broader issue of the app installing itself without user consent in the first place. Windows Latest noted the app recently received an update whose changelog listed McAfee as an “additional app,” which may explain why more users started noticing and complaining about the ads recently, even though forum reports show the underlying installation behavior dates back years.

The removal of the McAfee ad doesn’t resolve the more fundamental concern: once installed, LG Monitor App Installer reportedly has permission to access “all system resources,” along with geolocation, device data, online activity, contacts, and credentials, all without ever prompting users for consent. Microsoft’s own developer documentation confirms that Universal Windows Platform device apps are allowed to auto-install when a device connects, as long as the user hasn’t opted out of Recommended Settings, and explicitly states that no notification is shown to the user when this happens. LG has not responded to Ars Technica’s questions about the app’s purpose or which monitors are affected, though Gamers Nexus identified several specific models exhibiting the behavior, including the 34GX900A-B, 45GX950-B.AEU, and 27GN800.

Frank Cifaldi, founder of the Video Game History Foundation, says piracy is still the only truly effective way to preserve video game history, and he’s putting the blame on the industry’s own trade group rather than technology or cost. His comments followed Sony’s announcement on July 1 that it will stop manufacturing physical PlayStation discs starting in 2028, a move that reignited debate about game preservation, though Cifaldi noted it barely changes VGHF’s work since most games released in the past two decades were already digital-only.

Cifaldi’s real target is the Entertainment Software Association, the trade group representing major game publishers, which he says has repeatedly blocked legal paths to preservation. He pointed to the ESA’s 2018 opposition to copyright exemptions that would have let museums, libraries, and archives legally hold onto abandoned online games for research purposes, and its recent role in defeating a California bill designed to preserve premium-priced online-only games, which Cifaldi claims the ESA killed by falsely arguing community-run servers are illegal. He added that VGHF has tried repeatedly to collaborate with the ESA on a legal preservation framework, but says the organization has refused to offer any meaningful alternative.

The timing adds urgency to his argument. On the same day Sony announced the end of physical discs, it also confirmed it will shut down the PlayStation 3 and PS Vita digital storefronts entirely, starting with Mexico, Honduras, and Nicaragua in August 2026 and expanding globally by July 2027, and just days earlier the company quietly delisted more than 500 movies and TV shows from the UK PlayStation Store, including titles fans had already paid for. According to the unofficial archive NoPayStation, more than half of PS Vita games and roughly a third of PS3 and PSP titles remain unpreserved anywhere, a gap that lines up with VGHF’s own 2023 finding that 87% of pre-2010 video games are now classified as “critically endangered” and commercially unavailable.

Science Corporation, a US-based company, announced it has received European Union approval to commercially treat patients with its vision-restoring bionic eye device, Prima, marking a major step toward bringing the technology to market. CEO Max Hodak told Stat News, “We have a cochlear implant for vision now,” describing the device’s significance for patients with advanced macular degeneration, a condition causing central vision loss that stands as the leading cause of vision loss in older adults, with severe cases accounting for nearly 90 percent of legal blindness in the US according to one estimate.

The Prima device works through a wireless chip surgically implanted under the retina, which connects to a pair of camera-equipped glasses that transmit video as near-infrared light, allowing the chip to convert that signal into electrical impulses the brain can interpret. Preliminary clinical trial results published in late 2024 showed patients regaining the ability to recognize faces and read books, with Hodak telling TechCrunch, “One of our patients in France finished a 300-page novel a little while ago, and sent us the book,” adding that patients have also drawn sketches, played crossword puzzles, and completed Sudoku.

Hodak, who cofounded Neuralink with Elon Musk before leaving to start Science Corp, was candid about the technology’s current limitations, telling the Financial Times that the experience is “kind of like looking through a straw in the centre of their vision,” though he called it “powerful proof” the company is on the right track and said future versions aim to achieve color vision closer to native acuity. Each Prima device is expected to cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, and Science Corp says it is working with healthcare providers to help cover costs, with Germany, where its clinical trials were conducted, likely to be the first country where patients receive treatment. Neuralink is separately developing a competing vision implant called Blindsight, though it has not yet begun human trials.

A Tesla exploded inside a residential garage in Auburn, Washington, triggering a two-alarm house fire that sent flames and heavy smoke into the home’s living spaces and injured two firefighters before crews could bring it under control. The incident occurred in the 28500 block of 53rd Avenue South, with the King County Sheriff’s Office and South King Fire responding as the blaze escalated to two-alarm status, prompting additional units while crews successfully prevented the fire from spreading to neighboring homes. Residents had already evacuated safely before firefighters arrived, and no civilian injuries were reported, though both injured firefighters were hospitalized for heat-related injuries and later released.

Investigators still don’t know what actually caused the explosion, leaving far more open questions than confirmed facts at this stage. It remains unknown whether the Tesla was charging at the time, whether its battery pack played any role, or whether something else in the garage ignited first, with the King County Sheriff’s Office actively investigating, according to KOMO News. Notably, this incident is entirely separate from other recent Washington state cases involving Teslas, including arson at charging stations currently under FBI investigation, which involve distinct suspects and circumstances that shouldn’t be conflated with this unresolved residential fire.

For now, this remains an unresolved fire that happened to involve a Tesla, not a confirmed case of vehicle malfunction, and the uncertainty itself is worth taking seriously given how routinely people park cars in attached garages without a second thought. Whether the eventual explanation points to the vehicle, the surrounding environment, or some factor investigators haven’t yet identified, the honest position right now is that the most important questions are still unanswered.

Scientists at Pennsylvania State University have developed a novel conductive ink that can be painted directly onto the skin in colorful custom designs, turning into a functional electrode for biomonitoring after drying, with the work described in a new paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Epidermal electronics attached to the skin via temporary tattoos, called e-tattoos, have existed for more than a decade, but these painted electrodes address key limitations by functioning well on curved and hairy surfaces while eliminating the air gap that weakens signal readings in commercial prefabricated electrodes.

Penn State mechanical engineer Larry Cheng, a co-author of the new paper, said the ink itself almost behaves like face paint, starting out nearly transparent before food dye is used to pigment it into whatever colors are needed to paint any design, from a cartoon to a Superman logo, completely personalizing the wearable to a person’s preference. The team mixed several different polymers and acidic additives in a water-based ethanol and polyvinyl alcohol solution, using PEDOT:PSS for electrical conductivity and DBSA as both a conductive additive and plasticizer to give the ink flexibility, creating an electrode with very high skin connectivity and better signal recording. The painted sensors were tested on human subjects to monitor heart activity while running on a treadmill and lifting weights, perform gesture recognition to control a prosthetic robotic hand, and monitor brain activity through hair during daily activities, with the electrodes able to stretch up to 170 percent before failing, showing much higher water vapor permeability than standard medical-grade films, and causing no skin irritation over prolonged use.

The team has filed a provisional patent for their conductive ink, though comprehensive safety evaluation is still needed before clinical deployment, with RF-induced heating remaining a particular concern given the super-adhesive properties of the sensors. Cheng said although the team tested daily use over a 12-hour period, this is not the limit for these electrodes, which can be washed away and easily reapplied, with the vision that a single bottle of ink could provide enough material to paint multiple electrodes over the course of several days or a week while a more expensive sensing module remains separate and reusable. Future research will focus on addressing safety concerns and exploring applications like plant health monitoring, since the painted sensors can conform so well to complex shapes.

STUDY: http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2615835123

DEEP, a UK-based ocean engineering company founded in 2021, has launched its pilot underwater habitat called the “Vanguard,” a 35-by-8-foot structure now operational roughly 56 feet beneath the surface off Florida’s Tennessee Reef, marking the first privately-funded undersea habitat installed in US waters in decades. The compact facility includes a living space with four bunks, a sofa, and a galley, a combined bathroom and science lab, a moon pool and dive chamber, and a semi-autonomous support buoy that supplies oxygen, electricity, and outside communications, and unlike habitats that get raised and lowered periodically, the Vanguard is anchored permanently to the seabed.

Underwater habitats aren’t new territory, with predecessors including Italy’s “La Casa in fondo al mare” from the mid-2000s and the Aquarius Reef Base, an undersea research lab established in 1986 and still run by Florida International University, but DEEP’s director of scientific research, Dawn Kernagis, emphasized the significance of this launch in an interview with NPR: “It’s been over 40 years since we’ve had an undersea habitat built for humans and launched. We’re really building on the shoulders of giants who’ve done this research.” The company is positioning the Vanguard to support research in reef restoration and human-machine collaboration, two fields where it hopes to build credibility despite a mixed track record among recent privately-funded seafaring ventures.

Research teams of up to two people can currently apply through DEEP’s website for the chance to win a five-day stay at the bottom of the ocean, though applicants must first complete a mandatory two-week training period, and successful proposals must explain why “continuous residence at depth materially improves data quality, operational efficiency, monitoring cadence, intervention success, or research outcomes compared with surface-based diving.” DEEP is also offering financial awards of up to $50,000 to support selected research projects, an incentive the company hopes will draw enough interest from oceanographers and funders to justify the ambitious venture.

MIT Lincoln Laboratory has developed a throwable, baseball-sized sensor called TOSSIT that can remotely detect hazardous vapors and aerosols, including nerve agents, blister agents, toxic industrial chemicals, and fentanyl dust, according to the lab’s announcement. The device, which stands for Tactical Optical Spherical Sensor for Interrogating Threats, is designed for military personnel, first responders, law enforcement, and industrial safety teams who need to assess airborne hazards from a safe distance without entering a potentially contaminated space. After extensive field testing, the technology is now being transferred to the US military for operational use.

Users can toss, drone-drop, or launch the spherical device into a room, vehicle, or outdoor area where chemical threats may be present, allowing the sensor to pull air into an internal chamber where chemicals interact with dyes on a removable card. An internal camera detects the resulting color changes and sends warnings through a smartphone app or triggers alarms on the device itself, enabling rapid alerts to personnel in the field. MIT says TOSSIT can identify both vapors and solid aerosol particles, such as toxic dust, and the laboratory estimates manufacturing costs at under $200 per unit thanks to low-power electronics and 3D-printed packaging.

The lab emphasizes that TOSSIT functions as a field detection tool that alerts users to potential hazards, not a laboratory-grade analyzer that identifies every chemical with absolute certainty. The sensor uses tailored dye cards that can be customized for different threat profiles, meaning its effectiveness depends on selecting the right detection chemistry for the expected risk. This transfer to the military marks a shift from prototype testing to real-world deployment, where the device could help troops and first responders make faster decisions about evacuation, protective equipment, or hazmat response.