23andMe is close to settling a proposed class action lawsuit filed against the company over a data breach that compromised 6.9 million users' information. According to the preliminary settlement filing, the DNA testing company has agreed to pay $30 million to affected customers, as well as to conduct annual computer scans and cybersecurity audits for three years. A website will be built to notify people eligible to a portion of the settlement fund and to facilitate payments. Affected users will also be sent a link where they can delete all their information from the service, and they'll be abl ..read more

After a two-week blackout, ESPN and other Disney-owned channels are back on DirecTV. The Walt Disney Company and DirecTV released a joint statement on Saturday announcing that they are in the process of finalizing a new contract, and that all channels affected by their dispute have been restored. That includes ABC, Freeform, FX and National Geographic channels. Disney yanked its networks off DirecTV at the beginning of September after the two companies failed to reach an agreement before their old contract expired. Inconveniently for sports fans, the blackout coincided with the start of footba ..read more

Hardware season is in full swing. Apple launched the iPhone 16, AirPods 4 and Apple Watch Series 10 on Monday this week. On the same day, at the very same time, the review embargo for the Pixel Watch 3 lifted, and we managed to get most of our piece up then. Not only that, we also saw Sony announce the PlayStation 5 Pro this week, plus in the last two weeks there has been plenty of news out of the IFA conference in Berlin. There were things like Huawei's tri-fold phone, reMarkable's Paper Pro tablet, DJI's $200 Neo drone, a new GoPro as well as more concept Lenovo laptops. As you can imagine ..read more

Sam Altman has told OpenAI staff members during their weekly meeting that the company is changing its rather convoluted non-profit corporate structure next year, according to Fortune. The CEO said OpenAI will move away from being controlled by a non-profit entity and will transition into a more traditional for-profit organization. He didn't delve into the specifics of how the company will achieve that goal and what OpenAI's corporate structure will look like exactly. A spokesperson only told Fortune that it remains "focused on building AI that benefits everyone" and that non-profit is "core to ..read more

Apple has revealed it will allow iPad users in the EU to install third-party app stores on their tablets (without having to sideload them) starting on September 16. You'll need to install iPadOS 18, which will be available broadly on Monday, to do so. Back in April, the European Commission designated iPadOS as a "core platform service," meaning that like iOS, the App Store and Safari, the operating system is subject to stricter rules under the bloc's Digital Markets Act. As TechCrunch notes, Apple had six months to update iPadOS so that it complied with the DMA, which included opening up the p ..read more

Apple announced its newest lineup of smartphones during the 2024 iPhone 16 launch event earlier this week. Four new models took center stage: The iPhone 16, the larger iPhone 16 Plus, the high-end iPhone 16 Pro and its big sibling the iPhone 16 Pro Max. Last year, the most notable design change came with the adoption of a USB-C charging port. This year, all four phones are getting a new, multi-function capacitive button on the side. The other big news comes on the inside with the A18 and A18 Pro chips designed to handle all the coming Apple Intelligence features, including the just-announced V ..read more

End-of-summer and back-to-school sales have mostly expired and, while we know Amazon will have another Prime Day sale in October, we don't know when just yet. That makes this just another week of our team hunting and searching for deals all across the world wide web. We actually found quite a few worth considering, with discounts on products pulled from our extensive and growing list of buyer's guides and reviews.  The Apple Watch Ultra 2 (in its original color) is $110 off and the LCD Steam Deck is seeing a rare discount. One of our favorite power banks from Baseus is on sale with a 40 p ..read more

Tales of the Shire, a cozy life sim set in the world of Lord of the Rings, has been delayed until 2025. It was previously set for a release sometime this year. Developer Weta Workshop, who assisted with the effects in all of Peter Jackson’s Middle-earth films, says the delay was necessary to ensure that players experience a fully realized version of its original vision. This is a cozy life sim in the vein of Animal Crossing, Stardew Valley and a million others, but this one is set in In Tolkien's Middle-earth between the events of the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. Mixing the cozy sim formula w ..read more

NASA confirmed on Friday that it’s developing a new lunar time system for the Moon. The White House published a policy memo in April, directing NASA to create the new standard by 2026. Over five months later (government time, y’all), the space agency’s confirmation states it will work with “U.S. government stakeholders, partners, and international standards organizations” to establish a Coordinated Lunar Time (LTC). To understand why the Moon needs its own time zone, look no further than Einstein. His theories of relativity say that because time changes relative to speed and gravity, time move ..read more

In Hollowbody, an early 2000s-style third-person survival horror game by Nathan Hamley (the solo developer behind Headware Games), the true terror comes not from its hideous monsters, but from inhabiting a world where regular people are failed by the system and left to die. Hollowbody is an homage to the PlayStation 2-era classics that helped define the genre. It also adds a “tech-noir” spin; think the first few Silent Hill games, namely Silent Hill 2, and a touch of Blade Runner. It goes heavy on atmosphere, relying almost entirely on tension-building rather than action to create a sense of p ..read more