Scott is a developer who has worked on projects of varying sizes, including all of the PLUGHITZ Corporation properties. He is also known in the gaming world for his time supporting the rhythm game community, through DDRLover and hosting tournaments throughout the Tampa Bay Area. Currently, when he is not working on software projects or hosting F5 Live: Refreshing Technology, Scott can often be found returning to his high school days working with the Foundation for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), mentoring teams and helping with ROBOTICON Tampa Bay. He has also helped found a student software learning group, the ASCII Warriors, currently housed at AMRoC Fab Lab.

Avram's been in love with PCs since he played original Castle Wolfenstein on an Apple II+. Before joining Tom's Hardware, for 10 years, he served as Online Editorial Director for sister sites Tom's Guide and Laptop Mag, where he programmed the CMS and many of the benchmarks. When he's not editing, writing or stumbling around trade show halls, you'll find him building Arduino robots with his son and watching every single superhero show on the CW.

Apple has been forced to make significant changes to its App Store policies following legal battles and regulatory pressure. These adjustments have sparked new opportunities for developers while also leading to ongoing disputes, most notably, Epic Games' unsuccessful attempt to bring Fortnite back to iOS. With Apple continuing to resist broader reforms, the future of app distribution on iOS remains uncertain.

In recent days, reports surfaced claiming that Valve's Steam platform had suffered a major data breach, allegedly compromising over 89 million user accounts. The accusations quickly spread across gaming communities, raising concerns about the security of Steam users' personal information. However, Valve has since denied these claims, stating that no meaningful breach of Steam systems occurred. So, what really happened? Let's break down the allegations, Valve's response, and what this means for users moving forward.

The ongoing antitrust case against Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, has become one of the most significant legal battles in the tech industry. The United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has accused Meta of maintaining an unlawful monopoly in the social media market, particularly through its acquisitions of Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014. The case, which began in April 2025, has drawn widespread attention as regulators seek to determine whether Meta's dominance stifles competition and harms consumers.

Artificial intelligence is transforming the digital advertising landscape, with streaming giants YouTube and Netflix embracing AI-driven ad placements to enhance engagement and optimize revenue. AI-powered advertising allows these platforms to strategically deliver highly personalized, interactive ads that blend into user experiences without feeling disruptive.

Scott is a developer who has worked on projects of varying sizes, including all of the PLUGHITZ Corporation properties. He is also known in the gaming world for his time supporting the rhythm game community, through DDRLover and hosting tournaments throughout the Tampa Bay Area. Currently, when he is not working on software projects or hosting F5 Live: Refreshing Technology, Scott can often be found returning to his high school days working with the Foundation for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), mentoring teams and helping with ROBOTICON Tampa Bay. He has also helped found a student software learning group, the ASCII Warriors, currently housed at AMRoC Fab Lab.

Avram's been in love with PCs since he played original Castle Wolfenstein on an Apple II+. Before joining Tom's Hardware, for 10 years, he served as Online Editorial Director for sister sites Tom's Guide and Laptop Mag, where he programmed the CMS and many of the benchmarks. When he's not editing, writing or stumbling around trade show halls, you'll find him building Arduino robots with his son and watching every single superhero show on the CW.

After nearly a year of anticipation, Microsoft has reintroduced the Recall feature to Windows 11, a tool designed to enhance productivity by allowing users to retrace their digital steps. However, its journey back to the operating system has been anything but smooth. Here's a closer look at the delays, the reasons behind them, and the concerns that have surrounded this controversial feature.

Videogames have been a cornerstone of entertainment for decades, delivering immersive experiences, stunning visuals, and memorable stories. Despite these advancements, one aspect of gaming that has remained surprisingly consistent is its pricing. Standard game prices have hovered around $60 for years - an anomaly considering inflation and rising costs across other industries. However, recent speculation suggests a pending price shift in the gaming landscape.

In the digital age, undersea internet cables form the backbone of global connectivity, transmitting nearly 95% of international data. These cables, stretching over 870,000 miles across the ocean floor, are indispensable for Internet communication, financial transactions, and real-time diplomatic exchanges. However, recent incidents have highlighted their vulnerabilities, raising concerns about the security and resilience of this critical infrastructure.

The video streaming industry has revolutionized how we consume entertainment, offering unparalleled convenience and a vast array of content. However, a recent report from the United Kingdom's Culture, Media and Sport (CMS) Committee has sparked discussions about the future of this industry. The report recommends a 5% levy on the UK subscriber revenue of streaming platforms like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, and Apple TV+. This levy aims to support British television production and ensure the sustainability of culturally significant content. But what does this mean for the pricing of video streaming services?

Scott is a developer who has worked on projects of varying sizes, including all of the PLUGHITZ Corporation properties. He is also known in the gaming world for his time supporting the rhythm game community, through DDRLover and hosting tournaments throughout the Tampa Bay Area. Currently, when he is not working on software projects or hosting F5 Live: Refreshing Technology, Scott can often be found returning to his high school days working with the Foundation for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), mentoring teams and helping with ROBOTICON Tampa Bay. He has also helped found a student software learning group, the ASCII Warriors, currently housed at AMRoC Fab Lab.

Avram's been in love with PCs since he played original Castle Wolfenstein on an Apple II+. Before joining Tom's Hardware, for 10 years, he served as Online Editorial Director for sister sites Tom's Guide and Laptop Mag, where he programmed the CMS and many of the benchmarks. When he's not editing, writing or stumbling around trade show halls, you'll find him building Arduino robots with his son and watching every single superhero show on the CW.

In a move that has sparked both curiosity and criticism, DoorDash has partnered with Klarna to offer customers the option to pay for their food orders in installments. While this "Buy Now, Pay Later" (BNPL) feature may seem like a convenient solution for cash-strapped consumers, it raises significant questions about financial responsibility, societal priorities, and the broader implications for the economy.

In a surprising turn of events, Microsoft published a blog post which inadvertently revealed a new Xbox user interface (UI) update that could completely change the gaming experience across platforms. The accidental publishing of this UI mockup, which was quickly removed, showcased a filter tab for Steam games, hinting at potential integration with this and possibly other game stores like Epic Games. This development has sparked widespread speculation and excitement among gamers, as it aligns with Microsoft's ongoing efforts to create a unified gaming ecosystem.

Google has launched a lawsuit against a group of scammers who manipulated Google Maps by creating or hijacking thousands of fake business listings. This bold move underscores the tech giant's commitment to protecting users from fraud and safeguarding its platform as a reliable tool for finding businesses. The lawsuit, which identifies a Maryland man as the main orchestrator, sheds light on the alarming scale and tactics of this elaborate scam.

In a groundbreaking decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that works generated solely by artificial intelligence (AI) cannot be copyrighted. This unanimous decision, penned by Judge Patricia Millett, has upheld the position of the Copyright Office. This position sent ripples through the creative and tech industries, redefining the boundaries of copyright law in the age of AI.

Scott is a developer who has worked on projects of varying sizes, including all of the PLUGHITZ Corporation properties. He is also known in the gaming world for his time supporting the rhythm game community, through DDRLover and hosting tournaments throughout the Tampa Bay Area. Currently, when he is not working on software projects or hosting F5 Live: Refreshing Technology, Scott can often be found returning to his high school days working with the Foundation for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), mentoring teams and helping with ROBOTICON Tampa Bay. He has also helped found a student software learning group, the ASCII Warriors, currently housed at AMRoC Fab Lab.

Avram's been in love with PCs since he played original Castle Wolfenstein on an Apple II+. Before joining Tom's Hardware, for 10 years, he served as Online Editorial Director for sister sites Tom's Guide and Laptop Mag, where he programmed the CMS and many of the benchmarks. When he's not editing, writing or stumbling around trade show halls, you'll find him building Arduino robots with his son and watching every single superhero show on the CW.

Amazon is set to revolutionize the world of virtual assistants with the launch of Alexa+, the next-generation AI-powered assistant. Packed with cutting-edge features and designed to integrate seamlessly into daily life, Alexa+ promises to be smarter, more conversational, and more capable than ever before. Here's everything you need to know about this exciting new platform, including its features, availability, pricing, and release timeline.

In a significant shift within the realm of digital assistance, Google is set to retire its long-standing Google Assistant by the end of 2025, making way for a more advanced AI, Gemini. This transition marks the end of an era for Google Assistant, which has been a reliable companion for millions of users worldwide. As we bid farewell to this familiar voice, we welcome Gemini, a new AI powerhouse designed to revolutionize our interactions with technology. With enhanced capabilities and personalized features, Gemini promises to deliver a more intuitive and efficient user experience, setting the stage for the future of AI assistance. But, those new features come with some significant drawbacks.

Apple's Siri has been a staple in the world of digital assistants, but recent developments have sparked growing concerns among users and industry experts alike. The much-anticipated AI-powered upgrade for Siri, initially promised for early 2025, has been delayed, leaving many wondering about the future of Apple's virtual assistant.

The gaming world was recently shaken by the announcement of Niantic's $3.5 billion sale of its gaming division to Scopely. Known for its groundbreaking augmented reality (AR) games like Pokémon GO, Pikmin Bloom, and Monster Hunter Now, Niantic's decision to part with its gaming portfolio marks a significant shift in the mobile gaming landscape. While the acquisition promises exciting opportunities for the future of these beloved titles, it has also sparked concerns among players, particularly regarding the potential for expanded microtransactions. Here's a closer look at what this deal means for the future of Niantic's games, the fears it has ignited, and how the gaming community is responding.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has revolutionized the way we interact with technology, particularly in the realm of search engines. These tools promise to deliver faster, more personalized, and contextually relevant results. However, a recent study conducted by the Columbia Journalism Review's Tow Center for Digital Journalism has cast a shadow over these promises, revealing that AI-powered search engines cite incorrect sources a staggering 60% of the time. This alarming statistic raises questions about the reliability of these tools and the potential dangers they pose to users.

Sonos, the audio company renowned for its high-quality speakers, has reportedly canceled its plans for a streaming box, codenamed "Pinewood." This decision, while surprising to some, may have been inevitable given the product's questionable utility and the company's ongoing struggles with its software ecosystem. The cancellation highlights broader challenges for Sonos as it navigates a competitive market and attempts to rebuild trust with its user base.

Scott is a developer who has worked on projects of varying sizes, including all of the PLUGHITZ Corporation properties. He is also known in the gaming world for his time supporting the rhythm game community, through DDRLover and hosting tournaments throughout the Tampa Bay Area. Currently, when he is not working on software projects or hosting F5 Live: Refreshing Technology, Scott can often be found returning to his high school days working with the Foundation for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), mentoring teams and helping with ROBOTICON Tampa Bay. He has also helped found a student software learning group, the ASCII Warriors, currently housed at AMRoC Fab Lab.

Avram's been in love with PCs since he played original Castle Wolfenstein on an Apple II+. Before joining Tom's Hardware, for 10 years, he served as Online Editorial Director for sister sites Tom's Guide and Laptop Mag, where he programmed the CMS and many of the benchmarks. When he's not editing, writing or stumbling around trade show halls, you'll find him building Arduino robots with his son and watching every single superhero show on the CW.

For decades, the name Three Mile Island has been a pejorative slur for disaster. The expression "going Three Mile Island" has meant either something that has gone so far off the rails that it's unsalvageable or someone who has gotten so mad they need to be abandoned. No one has wanted to be associated with the name for any reason. That all changed this week with Microsoft's announcement that they are going to brave the waters and reopen the nuclear power plant to keep its AI operations more energy independent.

Ever since its introduction, Palworld has been destined for a showdown with Nintendo and The Pokémon Company. Out of the box, the game was described as "Pokémon with guns," essentially guaranteeing that they would be targeted eventually. This week, The Pokémon Company and Nintendo finally filed the inevitable lawsuit, however making a surprising claim. While everyone expected a copyright or IP infringement violation, the lawsuit alleges a violation of a patent.

If you have spent any time on social media in recent months, you might have noticed that a lot of the interaction appears to be nonsense. That's because the use of AI-powered bots has increased, both in positive and negative ways. This behavior has led to a theory, "Dead Internet Theory," that suggests that the internet is increasingly becoming sterile and lifeless because of the bots. Seemingly attempting to prove this theory correct is new solo social networking platform SocialAI, in which you are the only human.

The past 2 years has turned Hollywood against itself over the topic of AI in video production. Some people think that AI can help speed up production, from voiceovers to video and script creation. Others fear that their jobs will be in jeopardy due to the technology. While still others worry that taking the humanity out of the art form will remove the art aspect and turn the film industry into a factory. Lionsgate has made its position known with a new relationship with AI company Runway.

Scott is a developer who has worked on projects of varying sizes, including all of the PLUGHITZ Corporation properties. He is also known in the gaming world for his time supporting the rhythm game community, through DDRLover and hosting tournaments throughout the Tampa Bay Area. Currently, when he is not working on software projects or hosting F5 Live: Refreshing Technology, Scott can often be found returning to his high school days working with the Foundation for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), mentoring teams and helping with ROBOTICON Tampa Bay. He has also helped found a student software learning group, the ASCII Warriors, currently housed at AMRoC Fab Lab.

Avram's been in love with PCs since he played original Castle Wolfenstein on an Apple II+. Before joining Tom's Hardware, for 10 years, he served as Online Editorial Director for sister sites Tom's Guide and Laptop Mag, where he programmed the CMS and many of the benchmarks. When he's not editing, writing or stumbling around trade show halls, you'll find him building Arduino robots with his son and watching every single superhero show on the CW.

Last year, Amazon announced that an upgrade was coming to the company's digital assistant, Alexa. The move came at a strange time for the company, as Alexa's future was up in the air. The new upgrade will focus on producing answers that the company hopes will be more relevant using generative AI. Unlike the standard Alexa service, however, this one will not be made available for free. But, if the rumors are correct, this upcharged service will be available soon.

The entire gaming segment of the internet is talking about Sony's recently released multiplayer hero shooter Concord. Normally, this would be a good thing for a newly released videogame, but for Sony this could spell disaster. That's because the conversation is around the potential failure that is Concord.

Yelp has filed suit against Google once again, this time claiming that the company has continually abused its market position to dominate the locals market. This is not the first time the companies have fought in court over local data and search results, but this one appears to be looking to harm Google's trust more than getting them to stop stealing data.

TikTok is known for a lot of things, but its bizarre trends and challenges have become its most controversial. From the more tame trends like the Cinnamon Challenge to incredibly dangerous trends like the Tide Pod Challenge, TikTok has promoted a number of odd things. One of the more dangerous trends was the Blackout Challenge in 2022, which led to several deaths. This week, a court ruled that Section 230 does not insulate the company from fault in relation to the deaths from the Blackout Challenge.

Scott is a developer who has worked on projects of varying sizes, including all of the PLUGHITZ Corporation properties. He is also known in the gaming world for his time supporting the rhythm game community, through DDRLover and hosting tournaments throughout the Tampa Bay Area. Currently, when he is not working on software projects or hosting F5 Live: Refreshing Technology, Scott can often be found returning to his high school days working with the Foundation for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), mentoring teams and helping with ROBOTICON Tampa Bay. He has also helped found a student software learning group, the ASCII Warriors, currently housed at AMRoC Fab Lab.

Avram's been in love with PCs since he played original Castle Wolfenstein on an Apple II+. Before joining Tom's Hardware, for 10 years, he served as Online Editorial Director for sister sites Tom's Guide and Laptop Mag, where he programmed the CMS and many of the benchmarks. When he's not editing, writing or stumbling around trade show halls, you'll find him building Arduino robots with his son and watching every single superhero show on the CW.

In a rising trend among tech companies, connected cooking device company Anova has announced that new user accounts created starting August 21, 2024, will be charged a $2 per month fee. This is a change from the current policy, which includes the application as part of the device's purchase price. Users who already have an account before that date will not be required to pay the fee as a "thank you" for helping the company get started.

After years of battle between Epic Games and Apple, the popular battle royale title Fortnite has finally returned to the iPhone. Joining the game itself is the all-new Epic Games Store, which is now available to iPhone users, bringing access to games and services that may not be available through the native App Store. But, unfortunately, they are only available to iPhone users in the European Union, leaving out much of the overall customer base.

Cox Communications, one of the largest ISPs in the United States, has petitioned the Supreme Court to overturn a previous ruling requiring the disconnection of users accused of piracy. The original case, brought about by Sony, found that Cox had not adequately worked to prevent its users from breaking the law on their network, particularly by terminating the accounts of those who abuse the service.

After more than a decade, Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom may finally be extradited to the United States. The New Zealand Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has officially signed an extradition order for the infamous site owner. However, the extradition is not guaranteed as Dotcom still has some options, and has vowed to continue fighting.

Scott is a developer who has worked on projects of varying sizes, including all of the PLUGHITZ Corporation properties. He is also known in the gaming world for his time supporting the rhythm game community, through DDRLover and hosting tournaments throughout the Tampa Bay Area. Currently, when he is not working on software projects or hosting F5 Live: Refreshing Technology, Scott can often be found returning to his high school days working with the Foundation for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), mentoring teams and helping with ROBOTICON Tampa Bay. He has also helped found a student software learning group, the ASCII Warriors, currently housed at AMRoC Fab Lab.

Avram's been in love with PCs since he played original Castle Wolfenstein on an Apple II+. Before joining Tom's Hardware, for 10 years, he served as Online Editorial Director for sister sites Tom's Guide and Laptop Mag, where he programmed the CMS and many of the benchmarks. When he's not editing, writing or stumbling around trade show halls, you'll find him building Arduino robots with his son and watching every single superhero show on the CW.

If you have ever tried to sell a phone purchased directly from a carrier or tried to keep your phone while switching providers, you have likely experienced the process of unlocking that device. It can be an annoying process that can require going into a carrier store, as I recently had to do. However, the biggest challenge is that each carrier handles if and when you can unlock that device differently. That could all change, if a Federal Communication Commission proposal, which would require carriers to unlock devices at 60 days, goes through.

It's been a strange couple of weeks for videogame streaming. It started with Microsoft announcing a shuffling of the Xbox Game Pass system, including another price increase. Then, Nvidia announced a price decrease (at least temporarily) on GeForce Now, possibly as a tease aimed at Microsoft. But, then a strange announcement that Xbox could launch GeForce Now games from the website, thanks to a new partnership.

In a world increasingly reliant on digital infrastructure, the recent global system failure attributed to CrowdStrike's software update has raised significant concerns about cybersecurity and the robustness of global IT systems. The incident, which primarily affected Windows PCs, has not only highlighted the vulnerabilities inherent in widespread technology but also the interconnected nature of modern software platforms.

In a move that reflects the evolving landscape of digital streaming services, Netflix announced the discontinuation of its ad-free Basic plan, a decision that marks the end of an era for the streaming giant's most economical, commercial-free offering. This change comes as part of a broader strategy to restructure its pricing tiers, compelling customers to embrace the ad-supported Standard Plan at $6.99 or opt for higher-priced, ad-free subscriptions. Now, customers who were on the Basic plan in the United States and France are being forced to choose another plan or lose their accounts.

Scott is a developer who has worked on projects of varying sizes, including all of the PLUGHITZ Corporation properties. He is also known in the gaming world for his time supporting the rhythm game community, through DDRLover and hosting tournaments throughout the Tampa Bay Area. Currently, when he is not working on software projects or hosting F5 Live: Refreshing Technology, Scott can often be found returning to his high school days working with the Foundation for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), mentoring teams and helping with ROBOTICON Tampa Bay. He has also helped found a student software learning group, the ASCII Warriors, currently housed at AMRoC Fab Lab.

Avram's been in love with PCs since he played original Castle Wolfenstein on an Apple II+. Before joining Tom's Hardware, for 10 years, he served as Online Editorial Director for sister sites Tom's Guide and Laptop Mag, where he programmed the CMS and many of the benchmarks. When he's not editing, writing or stumbling around trade show halls, you'll find him building Arduino robots with his son and watching every single superhero show on the CW.

Amazon is known for some bonkers product ideas. One of the more inexplicable products was the Astro robot - a product announced in 2021 that had a huge $2350 price tag and seemingly absolutely no point, or at the best case, no focus. Now, Amazon has informed internal staff that those who made the very large purchase will be left with a bricked robot in just a few months.

The Wii U was certainly Nintendo's most controversial console in history. It divided people from the moment it was announced at E3 2011. Would the screen make the gaming experience better, or would it simply be a distraction? In the end, the console nearly sank the company, with record losses hitting their bottom line before recovering with the Switch. Now, the company has finally put the console out to pasture, as official repairs have ended at Nintendo.

In a staggering revelation, researchers at Cybernews have uncovered what they're calling the largest password compilation ever. The file, titled rockyou2024.txt and released on the Fourth of July, emerged on a popular hacking forum, posted by a user known as ObamaCare. Within this file lies a mind-boggling 9,948,575,739 unique plaintext passwords. This means that there is no encryption and anyone can read the database directly. This collection is the largest database of passwords ever released, making this an unprecedented attack on public safety and security.

Once again, the fate of Paramount is up in the air. The company has struggled in recent years to catch on to modern television trends, perfect its streaming offerings, and produce and maintain programming. Either the company is stretching itself too thin, or they are in over their heads. As such, the company has looked at various options, including selling the company. Now, reports suggest that the goal is not so much to sell the entire company, but to find a company to merge their streaming operations with.

Scott is a developer who has worked on projects of varying sizes, including all of the PLUGHITZ Corporation properties. He is also known in the gaming world for his time supporting the rhythm game community, through DDRLover and hosting tournaments throughout the Tampa Bay Area. Currently, when he is not working on software projects or hosting F5 Live: Refreshing Technology, Scott can often be found returning to his high school days working with the Foundation for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), mentoring teams and helping with ROBOTICON Tampa Bay. He has also helped found a student software learning group, the ASCII Warriors, currently housed at AMRoC Fab Lab.

Avram's been in love with PCs since he played original Castle Wolfenstein on an Apple II+. Before joining Tom's Hardware, for 10 years, he served as Online Editorial Director for sister sites Tom's Guide and Laptop Mag, where he programmed the CMS and many of the benchmarks. When he's not editing, writing or stumbling around trade show halls, you'll find him building Arduino robots with his son and watching every single superhero show on the CW.

When AI technology first hit the mainstream a couple of years ago, the biggest concern came because of where the data came from. It appeared that the models were being trained on data that the companies behind them didn't have permission to train off of. They were scraping websites, blogs, newspapers, artist portfolios, music libraries, and more to train their data. While that was a violation of copyrights in many cases, the next generation of AI is going to find its data in new and even scarier places - your devices.

A couple of months ago, Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) announced that they would be shuttering 16 of the titles under the Adult Swim Games brand. The announcement meant that those titles would no longer be available to play and the games themselves would be lost to time. Now, the company has announced that they have come to an agreement with the independent developers whose games were on the chopping block to return the IP to their creators.

This week, the European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union, initiated an investigation into Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and Threads. The Commission believes that the company and its social networks have not done enough to prevent harm to minors and to verify that minors are not able to access aspects of the company's offerings that they are prohibited from according to the Digital Services Act (DSA).

Bad news everyone! There is yet another streaming service headed your way to steal your money and attention. This service, called Venu Sports, is a partnership between Disney (which owns ABC and ESPN), Fox (which owns Fox Sports), and Warner Bros. Discovery (which owns TBS and TNT). Together, Venu Sports hopes to be your one-stop shop for all things sports without a cable subscription, but there are some notable exceptions that might make that a difficult proposition.

Scott is a developer who has worked on projects of varying sizes, including all of the PLUGHITZ Corporation properties. He is also known in the gaming world for his time supporting the rhythm game community, through DDRLover and hosting tournaments throughout the Tampa Bay Area. Currently, when he is not working on software projects or hosting F5 Live: Refreshing Technology, Scott can often be found returning to his high school days working with the Foundation for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), mentoring teams and helping with ROBOTICON Tampa Bay. He has also helped found a student software learning group, the ASCII Warriors, currently housed at AMRoC Fab Lab.

Avram's been in love with PCs since he played original Castle Wolfenstein on an Apple II+. Before joining Tom's Hardware, for 10 years, he served as Online Editorial Director for sister sites Tom's Guide and Laptop Mag, where he programmed the CMS and many of the benchmarks. When he's not editing, writing or stumbling around trade show halls, you'll find him building Arduino robots with his son and watching every single superhero show on the CW.

When Apple announced its ambitious Vision Pro headset, reactions were mixed, to say the least. Apple envisioned people using the product similarly to an iPhone, wearing these dystopian isolation headsets all day Potential users, on the other hand, saw them as an occasional toy. Because of that disparity, it appears that Apple had ordered too many devices for the demand, and that is being corrected.

Garry's Mod, the popular game design workshop available through Steam, has begun removing content containing anything Nintendo-related. This comes following a takedown notice from Nintendo, as confirmed by the Garry's Mod team. The Steam Workshop contains user-made content spanning 2 decades, making this a long and arduous process.

Over the past 2 decades, the topic of Net Neutrality has come up a number of times. In the early 2000s, the US had a time-limited set of rules, known publicly as Net Neutrality. When those expired, early in the existence of PLUGHITZ Live, a long-running debate was reignited: should the internet be regulated and, if so, by whom? The FTC has claimed power, but that was short-lived. The FCC has claimed power, but that has been struck down twice. Now, the FCC has tried once again to claim authority over the Internet, and the chaos that brings has already begun.

In the past two weeks, the US House of Representatives and the US Senate passed a bill with a timer for TikTok, and President Biden signed it into law. This law sets a timer of 9 months for ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, to sell the social network to a Western company or face an outright ban in the US. If it feels like you're living in a time warp, it's because you sort of are. We've been here before, but this time it looks as if the result will be different.

Scott is a developer who has worked on projects of varying sizes, including all of the PLUGHITZ Corporation properties. He is also known in the gaming world for his time supporting the rhythm game community, through DDRLover and hosting tournaments throughout the Tampa Bay Area. Currently, when he is not working on software projects or hosting F5 Live: Refreshing Technology, Scott can often be found returning to his high school days working with the Foundation for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), mentoring teams and helping with ROBOTICON Tampa Bay. He has also helped found a student software learning group, the ASCII Warriors, currently housed at AMRoC Fab Lab.

Avram's been in love with PCs since he played original Castle Wolfenstein on an Apple II+. Before joining Tom's Hardware, for 10 years, he served as Online Editorial Director for sister sites Tom's Guide and Laptop Mag, where he programmed the CMS and many of the benchmarks. When he's not editing, writing or stumbling around trade show halls, you'll find him building Arduino robots with his son and watching every single superhero show on the CW.

When Amazon first launched Alexa and the accompanying speakers, the company intended for the ecosystem to be the center of a user's digital home life - a similar goal to Steve Ballmer's pivot for the Xbox brand. However, despite the company's constant push into new hardware and new concepts, Alexa is still the system you use to turn on your lights and check the weather. As such, Amazon is scaling back its goals and dropping incentives for developers.

In the world of Pokémon, one of the most popular parts of the game is collecting the full Pokedex. However, anyone who has regularly played any of the games in the series knows that it can be a challenge. There are rare creatures that are hard to find. In some games, like Pokémon GO, some creatures are location-locked, meaning you have to go to another country or continent to find them. This creates a scenario for people to obtain these creatures through illicit means, and that could land you in prison, as it might for one Japanese man.

If you're anything like I am, you've had the same internet service provider (ISP) for years. Sure, I've upgraded plans in that time - 100 Mbps was the maximum you could get when I signed up - but the provider has always been the same. This has been, in large part, because it's a massive challenge to wade through the details of ISP plans when everyone uses marketing terms rather than industry terms to describe their services. At least with the same provider, you know what the words mean. Now Broadband Labels are here to make that comparison between services easier with consistent naming and descriptions - just like the panel on the side of your favorite cereal.

Over the past few years, Star Trek has seen a renaissance of sorts. This has been the first time since the late 1990s that there have been so many active projects within the Star Trek Universe. But, there has been a fear that, like any bubble, it would eventually pop. The past year has seen the end of several projects, and confusion over one, leading to fears that the burst might happen soon. This week, during Paramount's CinemaCon presentation, it was revealed that fan-favorite Star Trek: Lower Decks will end after its upcoming 5th season.

Scott is a developer who has worked on projects of varying sizes, including all of the PLUGHITZ Corporation properties. He is also known in the gaming world for his time supporting the rhythm game community, through DDRLover and hosting tournaments throughout the Tampa Bay Area. Currently, when he is not working on software projects or hosting F5 Live: Refreshing Technology, Scott can often be found returning to his high school days working with the Foundation for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), mentoring teams and helping with ROBOTICON Tampa Bay. He has also helped found a student software learning group, the ASCII Warriors, currently housed at AMRoC Fab Lab.

Avram's been in love with PCs since he played original Castle Wolfenstein on an Apple II+. Before joining Tom's Hardware, for 10 years, he served as Online Editorial Director for sister sites Tom's Guide and Laptop Mag, where he programmed the CMS and many of the benchmarks. When he's not editing, writing or stumbling around trade show halls, you'll find him building Arduino robots with his son and watching every single superhero show on the CW.

Apple hates Epic Games - there is no doubt about that. The company has created policies and procedures to target the popular game studio and publisher specifically. In fact, Apple's heavy-handed approach to their platforms and to Epic Games in particular has led states, countries, and even the EU, to look into their practices and craft new laws around them. In the past few weeks, some of the original actions that spurred the whole battle between titans came back up when Apple banned Epic's developer account for a day, but quickly reversed course.

The reality of the modern gaming industry is one of constant change with ups and downs. Many of those downs come about when a game, which many people poured their hearts and souls into while designing, developing, and playing, is shut down. Everyone in that chain is affected in some way - some more than others. This week, developers and players alike were left disappointed to discover that Adult Swim Games, under the leadership of Warner Bros. Discovery, was planning to delist 16 games from marketplaces in the coming weeks.

After a few years of silence, the US government once again has its sights set on TikTok and its Chinese-owned parent company ByteDance. Following a security briefing, the US House of Representatives quickly submitted and passed the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act. This bill, if passed in the Senate and signed by the President, would start a 60-day timer for ByteDance to divest its ownership in TikTok or face an outright ban in the country.

The lawsuit between The New York Times and ChatGPT maker OpenAI has heated up in the past few weeks. After NYT cited examples of ChatGPT spitting out exact text from NYT articles. This prompted OpenAI to claim that the publication had "hacked" the system in order to get it to do things it shouldn't do. The publication has responded by claiming that it did nothing wrong, only used publicly available capabilities, and exposed ChatGPT as a system of plagiarism.

Scott is a developer who has worked on projects of varying sizes, including all of the PLUGHITZ Corporation properties. He is also known in the gaming world for his time supporting the rhythm game community, through DDRLover and hosting tournaments throughout the Tampa Bay Area. Currently, when he is not working on software projects or hosting F5 Live: Refreshing Technology, Scott can often be found returning to his high school days working with the Foundation for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), mentoring teams and helping with ROBOTICON Tampa Bay. He has also helped found a student software learning group, the ASCII Warriors, currently housed at AMRoC Fab Lab.

Avram's been in love with PCs since he played original Castle Wolfenstein on an Apple II+. Before joining Tom's Hardware, for 10 years, he served as Online Editorial Director for sister sites Tom's Guide and Laptop Mag, where he programmed the CMS and many of the benchmarks. When he's not editing, writing or stumbling around trade show halls, you'll find him building Arduino robots with his son and watching every single superhero show on the CW.

This week, a piece from Food & Wine brought to the internet's attention Wendy's future pricing plans. The company stated that they are investing $20 million to install new digital menu boards across the company. These boards would give the company the ability to dynamically change prices throughout the day. The move was immediately compared to the much-maligned Surge pricing from Uber, but the company claims that it has been misrepresented.

Following the massive layoffs at Microsoft and Activision, the industry has not slowed down. In fact, layoffs have sped up, rampaging the entire industry. Studios and publishers around the world have followed suit, laying off employees, closing studios, and canceling games.

Generative AI has caused a lot of trouble over the past year. Articles have been published with completely false information, headlines that are distasteful at best, and images that blatantly violate intellectual property. And, all of this while likely infringing on the copyright of content producers whose content is being used to train these systems without their knowledge or approval. But one publication - CNET - seems to keep popping up as a perpetrator of these issues, and Wikipedia has taken notice.

The past few months have been filled with rumors and speculation about the potential merger of two of the major corporate streaming and media giants: Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount. The merger, if it had come to fruition, would have created a major rival for top streaming company: Netflix. But, talks appear to have ended before any action was taken.

Scott is a developer who has worked on projects of varying sizes, including all of the PLUGHITZ Corporation properties. He is also known in the gaming world for his time supporting the rhythm game community, through DDRLover and hosting tournaments throughout the Tampa Bay Area. Currently, when he is not working on software projects or hosting F5 Live: Refreshing Technology, Scott can often be found returning to his high school days working with the Foundation for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), mentoring teams and helping with ROBOTICON Tampa Bay. He has also helped found a student software learning group, the ASCII Warriors, currently housed at AMRoC Fab Lab.

Avram's been in love with PCs since he played original Castle Wolfenstein on an Apple II+. Before joining Tom's Hardware, for 10 years, he served as Online Editorial Director for sister sites Tom's Guide and Laptop Mag, where he programmed the CMS and many of the benchmarks. When he's not editing, writing or stumbling around trade show halls, you'll find him building Arduino robots with his son and watching every single superhero show on the CW.

Following the completion of its acquisition of Activision Blizzard, Microsoft has laid off 1900 employees across its gaming division. This was mostly said to be a downsizing of duplicated positions following several acquisitions. However, one of the divisions that seems to have been completely wiped out is the former Activision Blizzard eSports team, which has caused various problems for the company's brands over the years.

For years, Google Search results have offered more than just a title, description, and link to the page. In addition, there has been a link under the result for the cached page. This link allowed you to view a website even if its server wasn't working correctly. Now, however, that option has been removed from Google Search results and the cache itself will soon be deprecated entirely.

When creating content, there are a couple of ways you can handle music. You can use no music, which many users do. You can create the music yourself, which is less common. You can license the music you use, which can be costly. Or, you can use the music licensed through the platform you're using. When it comes to the last, you give up all control and leave yourself open to future copyright violations if those terms change. That is what TikTok users discovered this week after Universal Music Group (UMG) ended its relationship with the video-sharing service.

Scott is a developer who has worked on projects of varying sizes, including all of the PLUGHITZ Corporation properties. He is also known in the gaming world for his time supporting the rhythm game community, through DDRLover and hosting tournaments throughout the Tampa Bay Area. Currently, when he is not working on software projects or hosting F5 Live: Refreshing Technology, Scott can often be found returning to his high school days working with the Foundation for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), mentoring teams and helping with ROBOTICON Tampa Bay. He has also helped found a student software learning group, the ASCII Warriors, currently housed at AMRoC Fab Lab.

Avram's been in love with PCs since he played original Castle Wolfenstein on an Apple II+. Before joining Tom's Hardware, for 10 years, he served as Online Editorial Director for sister sites Tom's Guide and Laptop Mag, where he programmed the CMS and many of the benchmarks. When he's not editing, writing or stumbling around trade show halls, you'll find him building Arduino robots with his son and watching every single superhero show on the CW.

Coming three years after Epic Games sued both Apple and Google over antitrust issues with their App Stores, a federal jury has found that Epic was right in regards to Google. The jury found that Google had illegally tied its services together and used its market position to bully mobile app developers and publishers into using those services at inflated prices.

For many years, we have said that E3, the Electronic Entertainment Expo, was on its last leg. The ESA, the organization that managed the event, has had issues understanding what the event is, who it is for, and why it had been a success. The pandemic hit the event hard, showing the industry that, without E3, there was nothing lost. Since the world began spinning again, the ESA has not figured out how to run another show. Now, they have announced that E3 is dead once and for all.

We've all had the experience of talking about a strange product or service with a friend or family member, and the next thing we know, we're getting bombarded with ads for that same product or service. This experience has led many to claim that their devices are listening to them and using private conversations to create targeted marketing campaigns. While most companies claim that this is science fiction nonsense, CMG Local Solutions, a part of the Cox Media Group, claims that it is doing exactly this. But, are they?

The original version of Mickey Mouse was created in 1928 by Walt Disney. In the decades since then, the character has changed a lot, from adding color to significant modernizations. However, the copyright on the original version of the character expires in 2024, moving Mickey Mouse into the public domain. But, that doesn't mean that all of Mickey Mouse will be public domain, and it doesn't mean that we'll see the character being used to market new and unrelated brands.

Scott is a developer who has worked on projects of varying sizes, including all of the PLUGHITZ Corporation properties. He is also known in the gaming world for his time supporting the rhythm game community, through DDRLover and hosting tournaments throughout the Tampa Bay Area. Currently, when he is not working on software projects or hosting F5 Live: Refreshing Technology, Scott can often be found returning to his high school days working with the Foundation for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), mentoring teams and helping with ROBOTICON Tampa Bay. He has also helped found a student software learning group, the ASCII Warriors, currently housed at AMRoC Fab Lab.

Avram's been in love with PCs since he played original Castle Wolfenstein on an Apple II+. Before joining Tom's Hardware, for 10 years, he served as Online Editorial Director for sister sites Tom's Guide and Laptop Mag, where he programmed the CMS and many of the benchmarks. When he's not editing, writing or stumbling around trade show halls, you'll find him building Arduino robots with his son and watching every single superhero show on the CW.

Since Apple's 2000s renaissance, the company has seemingly tried to get into every industry it can. In addition to computers, the company's initial intention, Apple had gotten into music, cars, and even financial services. Some of the endeavors, such as music, have been huge successes. The iPod and iTunes introduced a new group of consumers to a long-existing product category of portable digital music. But others, like financial services, have been a disaster for the company and its partners. The Apple Card and its issues have caused a breakup between Apple and Goldman Sachs and left the future of the service in question.

Since Netflix first launched Netflix Games, the company has relied heavily on small games and in-house IP. This has included games with the backing of the Stranger Things and Love is Blind brands. Now, Netflix is leveling up its game offerings by bringing in one of the biggest gaming franchises in history: Grand Theft Auto.

It is no secret that children use Meta properties, despite Terms of Service rules and Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) rules against it. The company has long stated that it responds quickly to reports of underaged users, but new data shows that is not true. And, to add insult to injury, the company has sued the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to allow them to monetize those underaged users.

Over the past year, studios and publishers have been canceling projects that are far along in their production. One of the most high-profile cancelations, however, was Batgirl because the movie was at the end of its filming and editing phase, with only VFX left. While there were suggestions that the movie was canceled for tax reasons, like many others this year, new details suggest that the film was never going to work and needed to be shelved.

Scott is a developer who has worked on projects of varying sizes, including all of the PLUGHITZ Corporation properties. He is also known in the gaming world for his time supporting the rhythm game community, through DDRLover and hosting tournaments throughout the Tampa Bay Area. Currently, when he is not working on software projects or hosting F5 Live: Refreshing Technology, Scott can often be found returning to his high school days working with the Foundation for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), mentoring teams and helping with ROBOTICON Tampa Bay. He has also helped found a student software learning group, the ASCII Warriors, currently housed at AMRoC Fab Lab.

Avram's been in love with PCs since he played original Castle Wolfenstein on an Apple II+. Before joining Tom's Hardware, for 10 years, he served as Online Editorial Director for sister sites Tom's Guide and Laptop Mag, where he programmed the CMS and many of the benchmarks. When he's not editing, writing or stumbling around trade show halls, you'll find him building Arduino robots with his son and watching every single superhero show on the CW.

Since Amazon first launched its line of Fire hardware, they have used an altered version of Android, based on the Android Open Source Project, as their Fire OS. This decision allowed the company to get to market quickly and power a wide variety of devices. It also allowed for a robust ecosystem of apps, though not distributed through Google Play. Now, the company wants to move away from Android and into its own home-grown platform, which is codenamed Vega.

Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 just launched this week and Activision is already under fire for the game's performance. In particular, the company has had to pull several of the multiplayer maps because the functionality makes them completely useless.

This week, the controversial online chat service Omegle was shut down. The service has long been a location for inappropriate behavior, including exposing kids to adult content and grooming kids. The site's owners claim that the service is just not feasible, but the real reason may be an agreement as part of a lawsuit settlement.

After months of shutdown, Hollywood is about to get back to work. Following the settlement of the Writers' Strike several weeks ago, the SAG-AFTRA strike has also been resolved. This means that productions that have been halted by both Hollywood strikes are able to resume filming this week.

Scott is a developer who has worked on projects of varying sizes, including all of the PLUGHITZ Corporation properties. He is also known in the gaming world for his time supporting the rhythm game community, through DDRLover and hosting tournaments throughout the Tampa Bay Area. Currently, when he is not working on software projects or hosting F5 Live: Refreshing Technology, Scott can often be found returning to his high school days working with the Foundation for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), mentoring teams and helping with ROBOTICON Tampa Bay. He has also helped found a student software learning group, the ASCII Warriors, currently housed at AMRoC Fab Lab.

Avram's been in love with PCs since he played original Castle Wolfenstein on an Apple II+. Before joining Tom's Hardware, for 10 years, he served as Online Editorial Director for sister sites Tom's Guide and Laptop Mag, where he programmed the CMS and many of the benchmarks. When he's not editing, writing or stumbling around trade show halls, you'll find him building Arduino robots with his son and watching every single superhero show on the CW.

This week, two things happened in the Apple universe: the company announced a refresh for its Mac lineup, and sales numbers for its current Mac lineup were released. The latter certainly indicates that Apple needs the former to increase sales for the company's computers because the latter showed a collapse in sales equaling a roughly 34% decrease year-over-year from 2022 to 2023.

This year's BlizzCon, Blizzard's annual announcement fiesta, comes at an interesting time for the company. It is the first BlizzCon since the approved merger of Activision Blizzard with Microsoft Gaming, and likely the last where Microsoft has no influence on the direction of the company. The company announced what they see as the direction of their products over the short and long term, seeing a plan for Microsoft to benefit from.

A year ago, the crypto-exchange FTX collapsed. It took with it a lot of money, value, cryptocurrency, and trust in the industry. Since then, governments around the world have been investigating and prosecuting the executive leadership of the company over various versions of fraud. This week, former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried was convicted on all 7 counts in the US and now faces over a century behind bars.

Since nearly the day Google purchased YouTube, the company has been fighting against users who have ad blockers installed. They have tried various tactics over the years, such as messages and delays. But now, Google is taking its battle against ad blockers to a new level, blocking users from watching any content on YouTube entirely.

Scott is a developer who has worked on projects of varying sizes, including all of the PLUGHITZ Corporation properties. He is also known in the gaming world for his time supporting the rhythm game community, through DDRLover and hosting tournaments throughout the Tampa Bay Area. Currently, when he is not working on software projects or hosting F5 Live: Refreshing Technology, Scott can often be found returning to his high school days working with the Foundation for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), mentoring teams and helping with ROBOTICON Tampa Bay. He has also helped found a student software learning group, the ASCII Warriors, currently housed at AMRoC Fab Lab.

Avram's been in love with PCs since he played original Castle Wolfenstein on an Apple II+. Before joining Tom's Hardware, for 10 years, he served as Online Editorial Director for sister sites Tom's Guide and Laptop Mag, where he programmed the CMS and many of the benchmarks. When he's not editing, writing or stumbling around trade show halls, you'll find him building Arduino robots with his son and watching every single superhero show on the CW.

A couple of weeks ago, shortly before Microsoft's announcement event for the next generation of Surface devices, Panos Panay announced his departure from the company. The timing was curious, as Panay created the Surface line and has overseen its growth. But, his future was not clear - until this year. Now we know that he is headed to Amazon to oversee devices and services at the company.

Starting on July 14, 2023, SAG-AFTRA (Screen Actors Guild - American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) voted to strike against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP). The strike has been ongoing and, along with the Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike, has brought Hollywood to a complete standstill. Now, the WGA strike has ended, but SAG-AFTRA has decided to add the videogame industry to its list of industries with which they have complaints.

For years, Amazon has been accused of anti-competitive behavior. From price fixing to product duplication, nearly every aspect of the company's business practices has been investigated and scrutinized. Now, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Attornies General from 17 states have filed suit against Amazon claiming that the company uses "anticompetitive and unfair strategies" to drive up prices for both buyers and sellers on the platform and off of it.

On May 2, 2023, the Writers Guild of America began a strike against the big Hollywood studios. The strike essentially meant that most productions were shut down because, without writers, not much could be done. Some productions already had scripts written, which meant filming could continue until SAG-AFTRA also went on strike. This week, the WGA Strike came to an end, meaning that writers can get back to work. But, with the actors still on strike, does it matter at all?

Scott is a developer who has worked on projects of varying sizes, including all of the PLUGHITZ Corporation properties. He is also known in the gaming world for his time supporting the rhythm game community, through DDRLover and hosting tournaments throughout the Tampa Bay Area. Currently, when he is not working on software projects or hosting F5 Live: Refreshing Technology, Scott can often be found returning to his high school days working with the Foundation for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), mentoring teams and helping with ROBOTICON Tampa Bay. He has also helped found a student software learning group, the ASCII Warriors, currently housed at AMRoC Fab Lab.

Avram's been in love with PCs since he played original Castle Wolfenstein on an Apple II+. Before joining Tom's Hardware, for 10 years, he served as Online Editorial Director for sister sites Tom's Guide and Laptop Mag, where he programmed the CMS and many of the benchmarks. When he's not editing, writing or stumbling around trade show halls, you'll find him building Arduino robots with his son and watching every single superhero show on the CW.

Over the past few weeks, a seemingly powerful hacking scheme has been going on in the city of Las Vegas. Casinos from both Caesar's Entertainment and MGM have been brought to a standstill. And, while it would appear to be a sophisticated attack by a group of professionals, the reality is far less impressive. The team behind the attacks is surprisingly young and uses standard social engineering to achieve their goals.

It has been an interesting few weeks for the video game industry. Starfield released with ironic issues rendering a field of stars. The head of Fortnite has left Epic Games. But the one action that happened that has captivated the entirety of the industry is a very weird announcement from Unity Technologies that completely changes the way developers may use the gaming engine and how they will pay for its usage.

We know that AI-generated content is often garbage. The content is often garbled and incorrect, with boilerplate text and details of unrelated events. But an interesting new trend has emerged in recent weeks - purely insulting articles. These articles are beginning to find their way onto mainstream websites - particularly Microsoft Start (MSN News). This includes this week's article calling a former NBA player "useless" for having the audacity to die.

TikTok has often found itself in hot water - sometimes with consumers and sometimes with governments. It seems that nearly every major government in the world has taken an interest in the Chinese-owned company and its practices. Some are interested in the way the algorithm surfaces content, while others are interested in how they store data. The latter is what has led the EU, through Ireland's Data Protection Commission, to fine TikTok $368 million over the handling of children's privacy and data handling.

Scott is a developer who has worked on projects of varying sizes, including all of the PLUGHITZ Corporation properties. He is also known in the gaming world for his time supporting the rhythm game community, through DDRLover and hosting tournaments throughout the Tampa Bay Area. Currently, when he is not working on software projects or hosting F5 Live: Refreshing Technology, Scott can often be found returning to his high school days working with the Foundation for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), mentoring teams and helping with ROBOTICON Tampa Bay. He has also helped found a student software learning group, the ASCII Warriors, currently housed at AMRoC Fab Lab.

Avram's been in love with PCs since he played original Castle Wolfenstein on an Apple II+. Before joining Tom's Hardware, for 10 years, he served as Online Editorial Director for sister sites Tom's Guide and Laptop Mag, where he programmed the CMS and many of the benchmarks. When he's not editing, writing or stumbling around trade show halls, you'll find him building Arduino robots with his son and watching every single superhero show on the CW.

In recent months, AI technologies, especially Generative AI, have become a hot topic. It seems every company wants to provide the service, but consumers are worried about the ethical and legal position of the output. In particular, people are worried about prosecutable plagiarism coming from these systems. In order to help alleviate some of those fears, Microsoft has created the Copilot Copyright Commitment, a promise to take responsibility for any issues from its AI Copilot technologies.

The past decade or so has been rough for the former gaming behemoth: the Electronic Entertainment Expo, better known as E3. The managing organization, the ESA, has been a powder keg of chaos and general incompetence. The COVID-19 pandemic, or more specifically the lockdowns, created massive problems for the already struggling event. ReedPop jumped in to help try to right the ship, but this week, the company said it was ending its relationship with E3 and the ESA was on its own going forward.

Since Elon Musk took over Twitter, things have been chaotic, to say the least. Between name changes, policy changes, and a nearly complete employee change, keeping up with what's going on can be a challenge. One thing that was promised upon takeover was that the new Twitter, which is now called X, would be open, transparent, and less regulated. That hasn't exactly been the reality, and California's content moderation law AB 587 looks to force open the doors revealing the way social networks, including X, work inside.

There is a fine line between what does and doesn't fall under fair use. That line came into clear view this week as the Museum of Classic Chicago TV received a series of copyright strikes from Sony Pictures Entertainment. The strikes revolve around episodes of Bewitched from the 1960s that had been posted to YouTube under the concept of preservation. The strikes would have terminated the channel had SPE followed through on the threat, but backed down when Chief Curator Rick Klein removed the content.

Scott is a developer who has worked on projects of varying sizes, including all of the PLUGHITZ Corporation properties. He is also known in the gaming world for his time supporting the rhythm game community, through DDRLover and hosting tournaments throughout the Tampa Bay Area. Currently, when he is not working on software projects or hosting F5 Live: Refreshing Technology, Scott can often be found returning to his high school days working with the Foundation for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), mentoring teams and helping with ROBOTICON Tampa Bay. He has also helped found a student software learning group, the ASCII Warriors, currently housed at AMRoC Fab Lab.

Avram's been in love with PCs since he played original Castle Wolfenstein on an Apple II+. Before joining Tom's Hardware, for 10 years, he served as Online Editorial Director for sister sites Tom's Guide and Laptop Mag, where he programmed the CMS and many of the benchmarks. When he's not editing, writing or stumbling around trade show halls, you'll find him building Arduino robots with his son and watching every single superhero show on the CW.

Last week, something strange happened in the realm of Right to Repair - Apple changed its position. It was a shock to most people in the industry who have followed Apple's public attacks on users' ability to work on their own devices. This week, however, we've got an even bigger shock, but this time coming out against Right to Repair bill amendments. This new adversary is the always controversial Church of Scientology, or specifically one of its subsidiaries.

Over the past few years, portable gaming has become a big business. Nintendo got it started, but now everyone in the gaming industry wants to participate. From Valve to Sony, many gaming companies are creating their own portable gaming devices. The most recent company to announce is Lenovo, showing off the Legion Go.

Last year, the FCC announced upcoming labeling rules for internet service providers (ISPs). These rules require, among other things, that all fees added to the base service fee for internet service, be individually listed on the bill. ISPs didn't like the idea of these rules and said so. This week, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) responded to complaints by simply telling the companies, too bad, sad story.

If you're a Spectrum cable customer, you might have noticed a series of missing channels. This is because a contract negotiation between Disney and Charter broke down at the last moment. This left Charter without the rights to these channels. Both companies have blamed the other for the issue, and customers are left without access to those networks. Customers have responded negatively in favor of Charter, calling for a boycott of Disney+ in response.

Scott is a developer who has worked on projects of varying sizes, including all of the PLUGHITZ Corporation properties. He is also known in the gaming world for his time supporting the rhythm game community, through DDRLover and hosting tournaments throughout the Tampa Bay Area. Currently, when he is not working on software projects or hosting F5 Live: Refreshing Technology, Scott can often be found returning to his high school days working with the Foundation for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), mentoring teams and helping with ROBOTICON Tampa Bay. He has also helped found a student software learning group, the ASCII Warriors, currently housed at AMRoC Fab Lab.

Avram's been in love with PCs since he played original Castle Wolfenstein on an Apple II+. Before joining Tom's Hardware, for 10 years, he served as Online Editorial Director for sister sites Tom's Guide and Laptop Mag, where he programmed the CMS and many of the benchmarks. When he's not editing, writing or stumbling around trade show halls, you'll find him building Arduino robots with his son and watching every single superhero show on the CW.

Cortana was once one of Microsoft's biggest focuses. Starting as the spotlight feature of Windows Phone, she grew to live within and control everything in the Microsoft ecosystem. But now, Microsoft has changed course, renaming some of the former Cortana services and destroying the rest. And, like the company too often does, leaving the consumers to clean up the mess.

Netflix has been trying to differentiate itself from the competition. Since Netflix created its streaming business, the industry has become incredibly crowded. Everyone needs a hook, and Netflix has gone all in on gaming as that differentiator. But, the mobile game business has not been the company's only intention, and the next phase of Netflix Games hit the App Store this week with a mobile game controller.

Over the past few months, AI, or the falsely named artificial intelligence, has been the topic du jour in the tech world and across all of the media. There have been positive advancements, like the ability to use language processing to summarize an audio file or to create more accurate subtitles for content. But, the majority of the "advancements" have fallen on the dark side of tech. Now, OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT has a web crawler to help it index more of the internet, and publishers are panicked.

When the streaming services first launched, everything was too good to be true. The price per month versus what you got was absolutely in the consumer's favor. Companies were spending more than they were making in an attempt to attract new users. But now, with intense competition, streaming companies are changing the equation to try to be profitable and that means consistent price increases. Disney's streaming services are just the beginning.

Scott is a developer who has worked on projects of varying sizes, including all of the PLUGHITZ Corporation properties. He is also known in the gaming world for his time supporting the rhythm game community, through DDRLover and hosting tournaments throughout the Tampa Bay Area. Currently, when he is not working on software projects or hosting F5 Live: Refreshing Technology, Scott can often be found returning to his high school days working with the Foundation for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), mentoring teams and helping with ROBOTICON Tampa Bay. He has also helped found a student software learning group, the ASCII Warriors, currently housed at AMRoC Fab Lab.

Avram's been in love with PCs since he played original Castle Wolfenstein on an Apple II+. Before joining Tom's Hardware, for 10 years, he served as Online Editorial Director for sister sites Tom's Guide and Laptop Mag, where he programmed the CMS and many of the benchmarks. When he's not editing, writing or stumbling around trade show halls, you'll find him building Arduino robots with his son and watching every single superhero show on the CW.

If you've got a modern iPhone, you now have the opportunity to try out an early build of the next version of Apple's mobile operating system: iOS 17. When Apple releases a new version of iOS, it could be an incremental improvement, or it could be a major step forward. This year is mostly an incremental upgrade, but there are a few really cool tricks that you can try out.

If you are at all involved in gaming, you'll likely recognize the name and even the full introduction, "Larry Hryb, Xbox Live's Major Nelson." He was the man that was usually out front for Microsoft when it came to the Xbox brand. He was at E3. He was at CES. He was on stage. He was on streams. Everywhere that mattered, Major Nelson was there. That will no longer be the case, as Larry Hryb has announced his departure from Microsoft.

Threads is Meta's new Twitter-like social media platform. It's only been out a short while, but usage has already dropped significantly, partially because of a loss of the new factor, but also because of a change made by Meta. Because of the platform's privacy and data policies, the company has had to block the EU, but not VPN access from the EU has had to be blocked as well in an attempt to avoid the wrath of the European Union regulators.

The internet can be a dangerous place. Even when you think you're in a safe place, it can turn out to be dangerous. Take, for example, the seemingly innocuous YouTube channel Miranda Sings. The channel, run by Colleen Ballinger, publishes awkward songs and videos, popular with all ages. However, it turns out that Ballinger might have been a danger to fans, especially younger fans who messaged her. And that was just the beginning of the story.

Scott is a developer who has worked on projects of varying sizes, including all of the PLUGHITZ Corporation properties. He is also known in the gaming world for his time supporting the rhythm game community, through DDRLover and hosting tournaments throughout the Tampa Bay Area. Currently, when he is not working on software projects or hosting F5 Live: Refreshing Technology, Scott can often be found returning to his high school days working with the Foundation for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), mentoring teams and helping with ROBOTICON Tampa Bay. He has also helped found a student software learning group, the ASCII Warriors, currently housed at AMRoC Fab Lab.

Avram's been in love with PCs since he played original Castle Wolfenstein on an Apple II+. Before joining Tom's Hardware, for 10 years, he served as Online Editorial Director for sister sites Tom's Guide and Laptop Mag, where he programmed the CMS and many of the benchmarks. When he's not editing, writing or stumbling around trade show halls, you'll find him building Arduino robots with his son and watching every single superhero show on the CW.

The concept of Apple's "walled garden" has long been a contentious topic. For some users, the idea of a completely contained ecosystem controlled in all aspects by Apple is attractive because it makes the experience more unified. For others, however, the lack of choice and customization is a major turn-off. While Apple fans are happy with their lot in life, the rest of the world is looking to shrink Apple's walled garden one square foot at a time.

The history of video games is one of owning the game forever or until you decide to sell it. This was possible because games came on physical media. But, the switch from physical media to digital distribution as the primary method has rendered this reality almost impossible. That is until now, with the impending release of Robot Cache out of beta and into the public limelight.

For some, the past few months of Twitter have been a challenge. Some had gotten accustomed to Twitter being a safe space where they didn't have to see things they didn't want to read. Since Elon Musk took over and told the internet to "let that sink in," things have changed pretty significantly. With blood in the water, several platforms have been created in order to challenge the blue bird, but none have really had success. That is until Meta's Instagram got involved, launching Threads - a Meta-esque take on Twitter.

This year has been a strange one for Reddit. The company has had to fight legal challenges that didn't involve them but has also created its own mess by changing the way the site's API works. Now, the Reddit team is back on the defensive as a new request for user identities has come from a very familiar source.

Scott is a developer who has worked on projects of varying sizes, including all of the PLUGHITZ Corporation properties. He is also known in the gaming world for his time supporting the rhythm game community, through DDRLover and hosting tournaments throughout the Tampa Bay Area. Currently, when he is not working on software projects or hosting F5 Live: Refreshing Technology, Scott can often be found returning to his high school days working with the Foundation for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), mentoring teams and helping with ROBOTICON Tampa Bay. He has also helped found a student software learning group, the ASCII Warriors, currently housed at AMRoC Fab Lab.

Avram's been in love with PCs since he played original Castle Wolfenstein on an Apple II+. Before joining Tom's Hardware, for 10 years, he served as Online Editorial Director for sister sites Tom's Guide and Laptop Mag, where he programmed the CMS and many of the benchmarks. When he's not editing, writing or stumbling around trade show halls, you'll find him building Arduino robots with his son and watching every single superhero show on the CW.

Over the past few years, Logitech has been on a buying spree. Sometimes the purchases have been of previously powerful brands, like Blue Microphones. Sometimes it has been of growing brands, like Mevo cameras. But, the one thing Logitech has done universally is maintain the existing brands. Blue, Mevo, and ASTRO Gaming have all continued to exist under various Logitech departments. But, it appears that is coming to an end as Logitech is pulling its various brands together under the single Logitech G banner.

This week, Twitch updated its Branded Content Guidelines for streamers. Updating policies is not unusual, but in this case, the company completely took the knees out from under its own creators. This change was so large and so controversial that it risked content creators across the world, including ourselves, leaving the platform for good. Fortunately, the company heard the response and addressed it quickly- though not necessarily quickly enough.

Since Elon Musk first announced his intention to purchase Twitter, there has been no end to the controversies. Despite the chaos and major changes in policy, usage of the platform is still high. Some companies have tried to take on the success of Twitter, giving people who want to use something else a similar experience. So far, other services have failed to gain enough traction to matter. However, Meta is hoping to be the outlier with a planned service called Threads.

When Netflix first announced the coming of a crackdown on password sharing, there were a lot of questions about how it would go over. Customers were unhappy with the idea, as they had long exploited this loophole to save money on the service. Industry experts were split on how customers would ultimately respond. Some thought it would drive subscribers and others thought it would finally slay the beast that is Netflix. It appears the first group was correct, as Netflix has seen the biggest increase in new subscribers in years.

Scott is a developer who has worked on projects of varying sizes, including all of the PLUGHITZ Corporation properties. He is also known in the gaming world for his time supporting the rhythm game community, through DDRLover and hosting tournaments throughout the Tampa Bay Area. Currently, when he is not working on software projects or hosting F5 Live: Refreshing Technology, Scott can often be found returning to his high school days working with the Foundation for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), mentoring teams and helping with ROBOTICON Tampa Bay. He has also helped found a student software learning group, the ASCII Warriors, currently housed at AMRoC Fab Lab.

Avram's been in love with PCs since he played original Castle Wolfenstein on an Apple II+. Before joining Tom's Hardware, for 10 years, he served as Online Editorial Director for sister sites Tom's Guide and Laptop Mag, where he programmed the CMS and many of the benchmarks. When he's not editing, writing or stumbling around trade show halls, you'll find him building Arduino robots with his son and watching every single superhero show on the CW.

Back doors are a common, yet controversial part of the tech industry. Sometimes, they are innocuous ways for the software to transfer data in the background, like doing updates without bothering the user. Other times, they are intended to allow outsiders to access data on your computer or bypass security settings. What is not common is leaving a back door open on hardware, especially something as core to the operation of the world as computer motherboards. However, that is exactly what happened with Gigabyte motherboards.

If you're a fan of the fighting game genre, this week was a big deal for you. The highly anticipated release of the newest edition of the long-running Street Fighter franchise was released and, before the first 24 hours had elapsed, the game had broken a major record on Steam. In fact, it didn't just break it - the game shattered to a point that it will be a challenge to be surpassed.

Reversing a trend leading up to 2018, internet users have begun to really care about their privacy online. As such, the FTC has been investigating potential privacy violations at a higher rate. We've seen them go after Tiktok and YouTube for child privacy violations, the latter changing the way YouTube does business. This week, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Department of Justice (DOJ) have taken aim at Amazon, costing the company over $30 million.

For the second time in 15 years, we find ourselves in the midst of a serious writer's strike in Hollywood. During the 2007/2008 strike, the entertainment landscape was turned on its head. A combination of that and sabotage from another union brought the strike to an end without the Writer's Guild of America (WGA) getting anything it wanted and being set up for failure in modern times. The latest strike, however, is set to end differently, according to the WGA itself.

Scott is a developer who has worked on projects of varying sizes, including all of the PLUGHITZ Corporation properties. He is also known in the gaming world for his time supporting the rhythm game community, through DDRLover and hosting tournaments throughout the Tampa Bay Area. Currently, when he is not working on software projects or hosting F5 Live: Refreshing Technology, Scott can often be found returning to his high school days working with the Foundation for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), mentoring teams and helping with ROBOTICON Tampa Bay. He has also helped found a student software learning group, the ASCII Warriors, currently housed at AMRoC Fab Lab.

Avram's been in love with PCs since he played original Castle Wolfenstein on an Apple II+. Before joining Tom's Hardware, for 10 years, he served as Online Editorial Director for sister sites Tom's Guide and Laptop Mag, where he programmed the CMS and many of the benchmarks. When he's not editing, writing or stumbling around trade show halls, you'll find him building Arduino robots with his son and watching every single superhero show on the CW.

It's always a rough day for users when an internet-connected device unexpectedly goes offline. We remember just a few months ago when Insteon devices went dark without any warning or communication. Customers had no idea what was going on or if there was a way to recover any of the devices they had built their smart homes upon. What rises above this in terms of internet issues is having your router go offline with seemingly no issue or recognition of the problem. This is exactly what Asus router owners experienced this week.

Microsoft has announced another new partnership for its Microsoft Studios games, both current and future: Nvidia. This new partnership will bring Xbox Studios games to another Microsoft competitor, GeForce Now. The partnership will bolster the cloud gaming platform whose business model was forced to change after launch, while also giving Microsoft another outlet for sales of games. Plus, it will look good across the globe - especially in the UK.

A group petitions the ICANN every few years to introduce new Top Level Domains (TLD). These are the last part of a website we're familiar with and use daily. The most common, and the longest-lasting, are .com, .net, and .org. Recently, a new petition to add 8 new TLDs was submitted by Google. 6 of these TLDs are mostly innocuous, but 2 of them will make it easier for scammers to ruin your day (or more likely your parents).

This week, Google announced a new policy surrounding inactive Google accounts. The plan, according to a blog post is to purge accounts that have not been active for at least 2 years. The company has its reasons for the purge, but one concern remained: what would happen to YouTube videos for inactive accounts? Google has clarified and it did not go the way we expected.

Scott is a developer who has worked on projects of varying sizes, including all of the PLUGHITZ Corporation properties. He is also known in the gaming world for his time supporting the rhythm game community, through DDRLover and hosting tournaments throughout the Tampa Bay Area. Currently, when he is not working on software projects or hosting F5 Live: Refreshing Technology, Scott can often be found returning to his high school days working with the Foundation for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), mentoring teams and helping with ROBOTICON Tampa Bay. He has also helped found a student software learning group, the ASCII Warriors, currently housed at AMRoC Fab Lab.

Avram's been in love with PCs since he played original Castle Wolfenstein on an Apple II+. Before joining Tom's Hardware, for 10 years, he served as Online Editorial Director for sister sites Tom's Guide and Laptop Mag, where he programmed the CMS and many of the benchmarks. When he's not editing, writing or stumbling around trade show halls, you'll find him building Arduino robots with his son and watching every single superhero show on the CW.

Over the past few months, the topic of artificial intelligence, and particularly generative AI, have become a significant topic. We've even talked about the past few episodes of Piltch Pointt because of how important it has become. We've seen companies like Microsoft and Google begin integrating the technology into their search tools and in Microsoft's case all of their tools. But, for Apple, there has been essentially zero discussion about the technology, despite the company's existing position with Siri, and it might be because the company has no direction for Siri at all.

It has been just over a year since Microsoft announced its intention to purchase gaming company, Activision Blizzard. The merged company would have brought a ton of games from Activision and Blizzard's catalog to the Game Pass subscription service, making it an even better deal for gamers. The companies even committed to keeping high-profile franchises on competitors' hardware. Despite all of this, the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has decided to block the acquisition, but that doesn't mean this is the end.

As the interest in and usage of artificial intelligence (AI) has increased, so has concern over its safety and future. People ranging from Elon Musk to the engineers at Google have been speaking out over fears about what could happen if AI goes unchecked. Some governments have just begun to think about the future of AI in the world, but the European Union was ahead of the curve and has passed a draft version of the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Act.

If you are a fan of dystopian sci-fi series, then there's some really good news for you. Netflix has announced that Black Mirror season 6 is finally coming this June. The series has managed to address many traditional sci-fi tropes through a lens of the near future, making it ultra-realistic to viewers. And producers are bringing back the same feeling but with changes to the overall themes.

Scott is a developer who has worked on projects of varying sizes, including all of the PLUGHITZ Corporation properties. He is also known in the gaming world for his time supporting the rhythm game community, through DDRLover and hosting tournaments throughout the Tampa Bay Area. Currently, when he is not working on software projects or hosting F5 Live: Refreshing Technology, Scott can often be found returning to his high school days working with the Foundation for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), mentoring teams and helping with ROBOTICON Tampa Bay. He has also helped found a student software learning group, the ASCII Warriors, currently housed at AMRoC Fab Lab.

Avram's been in love with PCs since he played original Castle Wolfenstein on an Apple II+. Before joining Tom's Hardware, for 10 years, he served as Online Editorial Director for sister sites Tom's Guide and Laptop Mag, where he programmed the CMS and many of the benchmarks. When he's not editing, writing or stumbling around trade show halls, you'll find him building Arduino robots with his son and watching every single superhero show on the CW.

Before the topic du jour changed to generative AI, the popular topic in the tech world was the Metaverse. Just like with the AI world, when something becomes incredibly popular, every company wants to get involved because they think it's going to be the next big game changer. Unfortunately, a lot of time and effort are wasted in these pursuits, partially because everyone is trying to duplicate processes. The Metaverse Standards Forum is here to help companies prevent duplicated efforts, and to create a way for different systems to interact and cooperate with one another.

Since Netflix Games launched in 2021, the company has tried to put more focus on the offering. They have acquired the distribution rights to new games and expanded their offering. But it's been clear from the beginning that the brand wanted to have its own games, as well. This week, the company announced a move that will help them on that journey: the hiring of Joseph Staten as Creative Director.

We've talked many times about the issues with social media sites and moderation. Some platforms moderate content fiercely. Some allow nearly anything to go. And some try to find a place in the middle, where they don't focus on it, but do it when needed. And two of those platforms found themselves in the spotlight this week: Discord and Twitter.

Fan fiction can be a challenging space to work within. Technically, you could be violating the copyright of another creator, depending upon the licensing of the original work. Some rights holders don't care - in fact, they encourage fan fiction and extensions of their universe. The estate of JRR Tolkien has long allowed fan fiction in the Lord of the Rings universe, but its recent interactions with author Demetrious Polychron have led to a $250 million lawsuit.

Scott is a developer who has worked on projects of varying sizes, including all of the PLUGHITZ Corporation properties. He is also known in the gaming world for his time supporting the rhythm game community, through DDRLover and hosting tournaments throughout the Tampa Bay Area. Currently, when he is not working on software projects or hosting F5 Live: Refreshing Technology, Scott can often be found returning to his high school days working with the Foundation for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), mentoring teams and helping with ROBOTICON Tampa Bay. He has also helped found a student software learning group, the ASCII Warriors, currently housed at AMRoC Fab Lab.

Avram's been in love with PCs since he played original Castle Wolfenstein on an Apple II+. Before joining Tom's Hardware, for 10 years, he served as Online Editorial Director for sister sites Tom's Guide and Laptop Mag, where he programmed the CMS and many of the benchmarks. When he's not editing, writing or stumbling around trade show halls, you'll find him building Arduino robots with his son and watching every single superhero show on the CW.

If you've never used SwiftKey, you should definitely give it a try. SwiftKey is a keyboard for iOS and Android that replaces the native keyboard. But, more importantly, it gives easy access to a number of features - some unique to the product. Microsoft, who acquired the product in 2016, disappointed many users (including myself) when they announced that October 5, 2022, would be the end of support on iOS. But, after reversing course, it has become yet another target of Microsoft's newest focus feature: Bing.

The past few years have been defined by a couple of trends, with one of the most prominent being subscriptions. It seems like every company wants to offer a subscription service, from media streaming services to regular shipments of razers, you can subscribe to anything. The gaming industry has begun to embrace the concept in earnest, with game subscription services becoming a norm. Ubisoft Plus has brought hundreds of games to PC, and now it is bringing those games to Xbox as well.

It's been nearly 6 months since the complete collapse of FTX, formerly one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world. The company failed because the owner, Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), had been essentially stealing money from the exchange in order to prop up his other project - Alameda. Since filing bankruptcy, the company's assets have been sold and the new owners have been looking for and sometimes finding some of the missing assets, which has created a positive environment within the company.

Since the merger of WarnerMedia and Discovery, Inc., the future of HBO Max and Discovery+ seemed obvious. There was no way that the new Warner Bros. Discovery would maintain two competing platforms - they were always destined to become one. Now we know the name of the future service, its launch date, and some of the new content to expect.

Scott is a developer who has worked on projects of varying sizes, including all of the PLUGHITZ Corporation properties. He is also known in the gaming world for his time supporting the rhythm game community, through DDRLover and hosting tournaments throughout the Tampa Bay Area. Currently, when he is not working on software projects or hosting F5 Live: Refreshing Technology, Scott can often be found returning to his high school days working with the Foundation for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), mentoring teams and helping with ROBOTICON Tampa Bay. He has also helped found a student software learning group, the ASCII Warriors, currently housed at AMRoC Fab Lab.

Avram's been in love with PCs since he played original Castle Wolfenstein on an Apple II+. Before joining Tom's Hardware, for 10 years, he served as Online Editorial Director for sister sites Tom's Guide and Laptop Mag, where he programmed the CMS and many of the benchmarks. When he's not editing, writing or stumbling around trade show halls, you'll find him building Arduino robots with his son and watching every single superhero show on the CW.

Over the past few years, a standard feature has been added to move vehicles - support for Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. These platforms allow you to connect your phone to the car and use a collection of apps on the vehicle's infotainment system. Both experiences are powered by the phone, meaning that the car manufacturers don't have control over the experience. Toyota fought the trend for years, and now GM seems to be going back in time, dropping support for both CarPlay and Android Auto in upcoming vehicles.

For years, we've predicted the eventual end of E3. The event was once the industry's biggest show, with live coverage from the show floor and major announcements made by every studio and console brand in the world. However, over the years mismanagement and changes in priorities have changed the value of participating in the event, for both media and exhibitors. As such, this week's announcement about the cancelation of E3 2023 was not a surprise to anyone paying attention. But, there could be more going on than just a single event cancelation.

Under the last 3 administrations, discussions about the safety of allowing Chinese-designed technology to be part of our daily lives have been fairly constant. Each administration has looked at and worked to prevent the use of different technologies within the government, but the trend has been the same - public and national security concerns. However, the latest attempt to deal with the potential harm of Chinese technology, known as the RESTRICT Act, has other issues that should stop it in its tracks.

This week, just ahead of First Contact Day, Paramount announced some of the future for the Star Trek universe. For many, the announcements came as welcomed news of new shows and renewals. For others, it felt a little like Paramount was milking the franchise in a way reminiscent of Disney and Star Wars/cite>. But, either way, there is a lot more Star Trek on the way.

Scott is a developer who has worked on projects of varying sizes, including all of the PLUGHITZ Corporation properties. He is also known in the gaming world for his time supporting the rhythm game community, through DDRLover and hosting tournaments throughout the Tampa Bay Area. Currently, when he is not working on software projects or hosting F5 Live: Refreshing Technology, Scott can often be found returning to his high school days working with the Foundation for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), mentoring teams and helping with ROBOTICON Tampa Bay. He has also helped found a student software learning group, the ASCII Warriors, currently housed at AMRoC Fab Lab.

Avram's been in love with PCs since he played original Castle Wolfenstein on an Apple II+. Before joining Tom's Hardware, for 10 years, he served as Online Editorial Director for sister sites Tom's Guide and Laptop Mag, where he programmed the CMS and many of the benchmarks. When he's not editing, writing or stumbling around trade show halls, you'll find him building Arduino robots with his son and watching every single superhero show on the CW.

It's no secret that governments around the world have been weary of companies from China, especially technology companies. Fears over ties between Chinese companies and the Chinese Communist Party (the ruling party in the country) have led to investigations and sometimes outright bans on certain brands. Since the administration change in the US, it looked as if a new, softer approach towards China was on the horizon, but that stance has changed quickly as more companies in the US and abroad are being challenged.

When Nvidia GeForce Now first launched, the service essentially supported every game imaginable. However, the company failed to anticipate the response from the game publishers, who had contracts in place with other streaming services. And so, games began to disappear quickly, much to the disappointment of fans. Now, the brand has been working to return its catalog of games to something closer to how it launched.

One thing that we seem to be unable to avoid in the modern world is data security. Every time we turn around, another major company has been hit with a data breach, a malware attack, or even a DDoS attack. And every time, no one is held responsible, except for the consumer, who has to then do a lot of personal work to mitigate the results of the problem. Now, the US government is looking to hold the providers accountable instead of passing the responsibility on to you.

When it comes to intellectual property protection, companies can get incredibly protective. This seems to be even more so the case when it comes to media companies. It could be because their products can so easily be duplicated and shared online through services like BitTorrent, that they feel the need to go further than other industries. This week, we have a case of a film studio requesting user data from Reddit about an unrelated case involving an ISP.

Scott is a developer who has worked on projects of varying sizes, including all of the PLUGHITZ Corporation properties. He is also known in the gaming world for his time supporting the rhythm game community, through DDRLover and hosting tournaments throughout the Tampa Bay Area. Currently, when he is not working on software projects or hosting F5 Live: Refreshing Technology, Scott can often be found returning to his high school days working with the Foundation for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), mentoring teams and helping with ROBOTICON Tampa Bay. He has also helped found a student software learning group, the ASCII Warriors, currently housed at AMRoC Fab Lab.

Avram's been in love with PCs since he played original Castle Wolfenstein on an Apple II+. Before joining Tom's Hardware, for 10 years, he served as Online Editorial Director for sister sites Tom's Guide and Laptop Mag, where he programmed the CMS and many of the benchmarks. When he's not editing, writing or stumbling around trade show halls, you'll find him building Arduino robots with his son and watching every single superhero show on the CW.

Over the past few years, we've seen a growing resentment against Apple and Google and the way they run their mobile platform businesses. People want more control over the way they use their phones and tablets, and these companies do a lot to eliminate some of that capability. As a result, companies and governments around the world have begun to act against Apple and Google in an effort to give more freedom to consumers. This week, a Biden administration report takes the most direct action to protect consumers yet.

One of the big dangers of online gaming is that a game can be killed off on a whim, leaving gamers without any access to the games that they purchased and put time into. In the old days, you could purchase a game and play it potentially forever. In our office, we've got an Atari 2600 and dozens of games, all of which are fully functional and playable. However, today you can make a $60 purchase and within a year, the game's back-end is disabled and the game becomes worthless. As developers and publishers become bored with a game, they decide to abandon it entirely. This week, a surprisingly large number of games announced their end dates.

Last week on The Piltch Point, Avram Piltch discussed ChatGPT and the dangers of generative AI. While using AI to produce written content can be a questionable move, using AI to improve the way we understand the information on the internet is the logical place for the technology to exist. Microsoft has agreed with this sentiment, having invested several times in OpenAI, the organization behind ChatGPT. Now, we expect to see the fruits of those investments when Microsoft changes Bing search in the coming weeks.

Streaming media is a big business these days. Everyone has a streaming service, and some companies have more than one. As competition heats up in the space, we're beginning to see consolidation for companies that have more than one streaming platform. HBO Max and Discovery+ are about to become one service and Disney has said that Hulu and Disney+ will likely become a single offering. Now, Paramount has seemingly decided that it can no longer support more than one service and will merge them into a single offering.

Scott is a developer who has worked on projects of varying sizes, including all of the PLUGHITZ Corporation properties. He is also known in the gaming world for his time supporting the rhythm game community, through DDRLover and hosting tournaments throughout the Tampa Bay Area. Currently, when he is not working on software projects or hosting F5 Live: Refreshing Technology, Scott can often be found returning to his high school days working with the Foundation for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), mentoring teams and helping with ROBOTICON Tampa Bay. He has also helped found a student software learning group, the ASCII Warriors, currently housed at AMRoC Fab Lab.

Avram's been in love with PCs since he played original Castle Wolfenstein on an Apple II+. Before joining Tom's Hardware, for 10 years, he served as Online Editorial Director for sister sites Tom's Guide and Laptop Mag, where he programmed the CMS and many of the benchmarks. When he's not editing, writing or stumbling around trade show halls, you'll find him building Arduino robots with his son and watching every single superhero show on the CW.

In the early days of the pandemic in 2020, a number of industries got hit really hard, but in a good way. Their products and services were so in demand that their inventory completely dried up and the supply chain collapsed. Companies like Logitech saw their webcams in such high demand because of lockdowns that no one could get them. In fact, Avram had to do a roundup of the best alternatives to the Logitech c920, including building your own with a Raspberry Pi. Now, the companies that saw the big sales bumps are seeing a hangover of epic proportions.

In 2022, the Xbox platform definitely suffered. The platform had a lack of exciting first-party titles as well as third-party exclusives. While the hardware started to be easier to get, including massive promotions at stores like Target, PlayStation 5 hardware can still be a challenge to get. This is likely because the excitement around the games coming to PS5 was a lot higher than for Xbox. However, this week Microsoft and Bethesda had a short developer presentation showing off five titles that show the company has refocused its energy on games.

The internet is filled with all sorts of trolls. From the people who comment on Twitter threads specifically to get you riled up to the patent trolls that buy up patents just to sue people, it seems like everyone is looking to annoy someone. However, there is one group that might have the title of King of Trolls, and that is Prenda Law. This company is infamous for its activities and, it would appear, they are back and looking to get themselves into the same trouble as before.

This week, a variety of organizations cut ties with Justin Roiland following the revelation that he was being charged with domestic abuse. The news potentially changes the direction of several projects, including the future of his most high-profile project Rick and Morty. However, studios have responded to the departure, but it is just the beginning of the story.

Scott is a developer who has worked on projects of varying sizes, including all of the PLUGHITZ Corporation properties. He is also known in the gaming world for his time supporting the rhythm game community, through DDRLover and hosting tournaments throughout the Tampa Bay Area. Currently, when he is not working on software projects or hosting F5 Live: Refreshing Technology, Scott can often be found returning to his high school days working with the Foundation for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), mentoring teams and helping with ROBOTICON Tampa Bay. He has also helped found a student software learning group, the ASCII Warriors, currently housed at AMRoC Fab Lab.

Avram's been in love with PCs since he played original Castle Wolfenstein on an Apple II+. Before joining Tom's Hardware, for 10 years, he served as Online Editorial Director for sister sites Tom's Guide and Laptop Mag, where he programmed the CMS and many of the benchmarks. When he's not editing, writing or stumbling around trade show halls, you'll find him building Arduino robots with his son and watching every single superhero show on the CW.

Over the past few years, the plan for Oculus has been confusing. Since the company was purchased by Facebook in 2014, nothing has seemed to go well for the brand. When Facebook became Meta last year, it was believed by some that the company now had a focus, but that does not appear to be so. John Carmack, the company's former CTO, has announced his resignation from Meta with some harsh words for the company.

One of the most surprising announcements of 2021 was that Valve wanted to get into the console business. Valve has explored the hardware and platform business in the past with incredibly disappointing results. The company's Steam Machines project failed. The company also launched the Steam Controller, which was loved by no one. However, the success of the Steam Deck has been so great that Valve is looking to expand its hardware offerings.

It's been a weird week for Twitter. Just days after Elon Musk appointed himself as the company's new CEO (following his purchase of the company, Twitter has made some pretty controversial decisions - and it doesn't look like things are going to calm down anytime soon. This week, Twitter announced that it would be banning all external social media links from its platform. This decision was quickly met with backlash, with many people arguing that it would make it harder for users to share content on Twitter. In a tweet posted earlier this week, Musk asked if he should step down as CEO. The results of the poll were overwhelmingly in favor of Musk stepping down. So, what's really going on at Twitter?

It seems like every day there is a new headline about AI-generated imagery. The technology is becoming more and more advanced, with some people believing that it could take over traditional art forms in the near future. However, as the technology grows, so does the controversy around it. Copyright and intellectual property violations are among the biggest concerns for professionals in the art world, who argue that AI-generated imagery isn't real art. So, what do we do? Should we be paying attention to this new form of art or should we let the professionals decide?

Scott is a developer who has worked on projects of varying sizes, including all of the PLUGHITZ Corporation properties. He is also known in the gaming world for his time supporting the rhythm game community, through DDRLover and hosting tournaments throughout the Tampa Bay Area. Currently, when he is not working on software projects or hosting F5 Live: Refreshing Technology, Scott can often be found returning to his high school days working with the Foundation for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), mentoring teams and helping with ROBOTICON Tampa Bay. He has also helped found a student software learning group, the ASCII Warriors, currently housed at AMRoC Fab Lab.

Avram's been in love with PCs since he played original Castle Wolfenstein on an Apple II+. Before joining Tom's Hardware, for 10 years, he served as Online Editorial Director for sister sites Tom's Guide and Laptop Mag, where he programmed the CMS and many of the benchmarks. When he's not editing, writing or stumbling around trade show halls, you'll find him building Arduino robots with his son and watching every single superhero show on the CW.

Obviously, this week has been absolutely brimming with news from the new Twitter and Chief Twit Elon Musk. From employment problems to the release of the first batch of Twitter Files, it seems like Twitter is always in the news (though the Twitter Files topic seems to be missing from most tech sites as of this writing). However, the story that seems to keep on giving is Elon Musk's comments about Apple. Even though he and Tim Cook have settled their dispute, other tech companies are still coming out to agree with Musk's position.

This week has seen the Super Smash Bros. competitive eSports community fall into disarray. It was announced that the Smash World Tour 2022 championship and the entire 2023 event would be canceled effective immediately. This left players who were attending the 2022 event with expenses already paid out the money and without the ability to complete their season. However, the situation is a lot more complex than it seems from the outside.

LastPass hacked again, this time exposing customer information

DC is in the midst of a makeover. DC Studios has new leadership in James Gunn and Peter Safran, and they're planning on shaking things up for the brand. This is good news for DC fans - Gunn is known for his creativity and willingness to take risks, both of which are sorely needed in the DCU. While Gunn gets to work on his vision for the future of DC, it looks like everyone else wants a say in what that future should be.

Scott is a developer who has worked on projects of varying sizes, including all of the PLUGHITZ Corporation properties. He is also known in the gaming world for his time supporting the rhythm game community, through DDRLover and hosting tournaments throughout the Tampa Bay Area. Currently, when he is not working on software projects or hosting F5 Live: Refreshing Technology, Scott can often be found returning to his high school days working with the Foundation for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), mentoring teams and helping with ROBOTICON Tampa Bay. He has also helped found a student software learning group, the ASCII Warriors, currently housed at AMRoC Fab Lab.

Avram's been in love with PCs since he played original Castle Wolfenstein on an Apple II+. Before joining Tom's Hardware, for 10 years, he served as Online Editorial Director for sister sites Tom's Guide and Laptop Mag, where he programmed the CMS and many of the benchmarks. When he's not editing, writing or stumbling around trade show halls, you'll find him building Arduino robots with his son and watching every single superhero show on the CW.

The next generation of GeForce RTX video cards is here, but unfortunately for users, the RTX 4090 is experiencing a serious issue: the power cables are melting. A lot of early speculation was made about the cause of the problem, but a reason appears to have been identified. And, as we have come to expect with any modern hardware issue, a class action lawsuit has been filed against the company.

The gaming industry in China is strange but potentially lucrative. However, over the past few years, the Chinese government has put into place rules that have made it difficult to release games from outside of the country, as well as to keep a game profitable. Now, Blizzard's relationship with NetEase, their in-country publishing partner, has come to an end, taking with it Blizzard games in China.

There are a lot of issues when trying to compare products, no matter which product category it is. Different companies will use differing terms for the same feature. Some industries enforce a unified naming convention to solve this problem. Other times, the government feels the need to step in to unify an industry. This week, the FCC announced a new marketing convention for internet service providers (ISPs) to make it easier for customers to cross-compare services.

Ticketmaster has had numerous issues over the years. Normally, the issues come about from system availability during high-profile ticket sales. However, none of them have brought the company to the point where they cancel all public sales of tickets for a particular event. This week, that changed when the company canceled the sales of all public tickets for the Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour. This move angered consumers and the government alike.

Scott is a developer who has worked on projects of varying sizes, including all of the PLUGHITZ Corporation properties. He is also known in the gaming world for his time supporting the rhythm game community, through DDRLover and hosting tournaments throughout the Tampa Bay Area. Currently, when he is not working on software projects or hosting F5 Live: Refreshing Technology, Scott can often be found returning to his high school days working with the Foundation for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), mentoring teams and helping with ROBOTICON Tampa Bay. He has also helped found a student software learning group, the ASCII Warriors, currently housed at AMRoC Fab Lab.

Avram's been in love with PCs since he played original Castle Wolfenstein on an Apple II+. Before joining Tom's Hardware, for 10 years, he served as Online Editorial Director for sister sites Tom's Guide and Laptop Mag, where he programmed the CMS and many of the benchmarks. When he's not editing, writing or stumbling around trade show halls, you'll find him building Arduino robots with his son and watching every single superhero show on the CW.

This week has not been a great one for employees in Big Tech. Twitter laid off half of its staff, Meta laid off 13% of its workforce (though a larger number of people than Twitter, which only had 7500 when Elon purchased the company). Now, Amazon has reportedly begun its own round of layoffs. Among these layoffs was the Robotics Team, which has been responsible for the company's robotic ambitions, according to Jamie Zhang, a former member of the team.

Google recently announced that Stadia was dead - or at least that they were finally going to stop artificially animating the corpse. As part of the announcement, the company also said that they would be refunding most user purchases, including game purchases and hardware. This week, Google has begun the process of refunding those fees - a process that will take months and cause headaches for Google and users.

This week, a major crypto crash happened, and the industry got to watch it in real-time. The US-based exchange FTX collapsed in spectacular fashion. With its collapse went billions of dollars in customer assets, an entire cryptocurrency, the security of the infrastructure, and some of the trust in the industry.

Netflix may have started out as a service to send DVDs to subscribers in the mail, but streaming those movies and TV shows is what really put the company on the map. Today, they are a household name, providing licensed content and even original series, such as the new Blockbuster series about its former rival. But, as subscriber growth wanes and competition increases, the company is always looking for ways to cut costs and increase subscription numbers. The newest idea is to wade into the murky waters of live-streamed sporting events.

Scott is a developer who has worked on projects of varying sizes, including all of the PLUGHITZ Corporation properties. He is also known in the gaming world for his time supporting the rhythm game community, through DDRLover and hosting tournaments throughout the Tampa Bay Area. Currently, when he is not working on software projects or hosting F5 Live: Refreshing Technology, Scott can often be found returning to his high school days working with the Foundation for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), mentoring teams and helping with ROBOTICON Tampa Bay. He has also helped found a student software learning group, the ASCII Warriors, currently housed at AMRoC Fab Lab.

Avram's been in love with PCs since he played original Castle Wolfenstein on an Apple II+. Before joining Tom's Hardware, for 10 years, he served as Online Editorial Director for sister sites Tom's Guide and Laptop Mag, where he programmed the CMS and many of the benchmarks. When he's not editing, writing or stumbling around trade show halls, you'll find him building Arduino robots with his son and watching every single superhero show on the CW.

Scott is a developer who has worked on projects of varying sizes, including all of the PLUGHITZ Corporation properties. He is also known in the gaming world for his time supporting the rhythm game community, through DDRLover and hosting tournaments throughout the Tampa Bay Area. Currently, when he is not working on software projects or hosting F5 Live: Refreshing Technology, Scott can often be found returning to his high school days working with the Foundation for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), mentoring teams and helping with ROBOTICON Tampa Bay. He has also helped found a student software learning group, the ASCII Warriors, currently housed at AMRoC Fab Lab.

Avram's been in love with PCs since he played original Castle Wolfenstein on an Apple II+. Before joining Tom's Hardware, for 10 years, he served as Online Editorial Director for sister sites Tom's Guide and Laptop Mag, where he programmed the CMS and many of the benchmarks. When he's not editing, writing or stumbling around trade show halls, you'll find him building Arduino robots with his son and watching every single superhero show on the CW.

Kirk has long had an interest in production, and began his journey by joiining Geek News Central as Todd Cochrane's Executive Producer. That brought him into the Tech Podcasts Network CES coverage in 2018. He has become the team's regular technical director and associate producer since 2019. He has since launched his own show with PLUGHITZ Live Editor-in-Chief Scott Ertz, called GNC Week in Review. This is a weekly quick-fire topical show covering the biggest tech stories of the week in a comedic atmosphere.