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Spotify is rolling out a new feature that’s meant to make transitions in between tracks even smoother. If you’ll recall, the streaming service released the ability to create customized transitions within playlists in August last year. It gave people a way to create uninterrupted progressions and eliminate awkward silences between songs. Now, Premium users will be able to make sure the songs in their playlists flow seamlessly even further by reordering tracks based on their keys and BPM or beats per minute.

The new feature can rearrange playlists with one tap. All paying users have to do is tap Mix on one of their playlists and then tap the Edit button. From there, they can scroll down to find the Smart Reorder option. Tapping Smart Reorder will automatically rearrange songs according to their keys and BPM without users having to do anything else. They just have to click Save so that the change to their playlist takes effect.

Spotify says users have streamed over 220 hours of their mixed playlists since it introduced custom transitions last year. It also listed some of the most popular ones on the platform, including The Weeknd’s Wake Me Up transitioning into After Hours and Flo Rida’s Low into Rihann’s S&M.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/music/spotify-can-reorder-your-playlists-by-bpm-and-key-140000101.html?src=rss

Amazon is offering a new way for Alexa+ users to customize the AI assistant's communication style. The company has introduced three personalities for Alexa+, so the assistant can adopt an attitude that is Brief, Chill or Sweet. 

The Brief style will be exactly that: no small talk and no extra conversation. Chill is easygoing and seems to be inspired by caricatures of the surfer/stoner type, while the Sweet mode is almost aggressively perky and chipper. In the audio sample provided, when a user asks "Alexa, how's it going?" the Chill voice responds, "Life’s treating me well – all systems are Zen and the digital universe is spinning in harmony." In contrast, the Sweet one replies, "Absolutely fantastic! I’m radiating pure joy and ready to make your day incredibly amazing!"

The three new personality styles will set alongside the standard Alexa.Amazon

Amazon explained that the three personality styles are based on five metrics: expressiveness, emotional openness, formality, directness and humor. The company may release additional options with different combinations of those sliding scale traits in the future.

For now, users can swap the assistant's vibe from the Alexa app or with the spoken command, "Alexa, change your personality style." Both approaches can also be used to swap back to the classic Alexa voice. All three personalities are available now for all Alexa+ customers.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/amazon-introduces-three-personality-styles-for-alexa-140000602.html?src=rss

Uber is one step closer to going airborne. On Wednesday, the company previewed its air taxi booking service ahead of an expected launch in Dubai later this year. The inaugural Uber Air program will let travelers book Joby Aviation's electric air taxis through a familiar process in the Uber app.

The experience of booking an air taxi will be much like reserving a four-wheeled Uber. In the app, after entering your destination, Uber Air will appear as an option for eligible routes. The Uber app will book a flight and an Uber Black to pick you up and drop you off at a Joby "vertiport."

The process of booking a flying taxi will be instantly familiar.Uber

Joby's air taxis, built exclusively for city travel, can accommodate up to four passengers and luggage. (Uber says size and weight guidelines will be announced closer to launch.) The interior is about the size of an SUV and has "comfortable seating" with panoramic windows. They can travel up to 200 mph and have a range of up to 100 miles. Four battery packs and a triple-redundant flight computer are onboard for safety purposes.

The air taxis aren't (yet) autonomous and will each have a human pilot onboard. That would at least suggest high prices. After all, pilots aren't nearly as cheap as Uber's legion of independent-contractor drivers. But the company insists its air taxi rides will somehow be around as expensive as an Uber Black trip.

Joby's air taxis have "panoramic" windows with a view of the city below.Joby

Dubai is only the beginning of the companies’ plans. The US-based Joby says it's in the final stage of FAA type certification and hopes to launch service in New York and Los Angeles. Globally, it's targeting the UK and Japan as well.

As for how realistic a US launch is anytime soon, well, that's up for debate. On one hand, President Trump signed executive orders last year that would create a pilot program to test such aircraft. But safety and cost considerations may require a grounding of expectations.

The aircraft requires a human pilot, at least in these early stages.Joby

In November, Robert Ditchey, a Los Angeles-based aviation expert and test pilot, told NBC News that he didn't think air taxi service "was ever going to happen" in American cities. "They're dangerous," he warned. "We have had helicopters fail and crash on top of buildings in Los Angeles. We've had helicopters fail at takeoff and landing in airports. They're dangerous not from a fire point of view but in terms of landing on top of people and buildings." In addition, he warned that air taxis can't be developed in sufficient numbers to make them economically viable "unless they are subsidized by a government."

Uber and Joby have partnered since 2019. In 2021, Joby bought the Uber Elevate ride-hailing division, which essentially integrated the companies’ services. Last year, Joby acquired Blade Air Mobility's passenger business, which could open the door to eventually electrifying Blade's routes.

The video below shows one of Joby’s air taxis taking a test flight in Dubai.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/uber-previews-its-dubai-air-taxi-service-130000603.html?src=rss

Ahead of a full release at Mobile World Conference (MWC), Honor has teased the MagicPad 4 that it calls the world's thinnest Android tablet. The new model is just 4.8mm thick (not counting that camera bump), a full millimeter thinner than the MagicPad 3 and slightly less than the 5.1mm iPad Pro and Samsung Galaxy Tab S11, the company revealed.

On top of being thinner, the MagicPad 4 has a new 12.3-inch 165Hz OLED display. While slightly smaller than before, it should be considerably better than the LCD display on the previous model. The new model weighs 145 grams less than before at 450g thanks to that screen and the slightly smaller 10,100 mAh battery (with a 66W fast charger in the box). 

The new tablet is powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 chipset and comes with up to 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. It's equipped with 13MP rear and 9MP front cameras, along with eight speakers for spatial audio. The MagicPad 4 will run MagicOS 10, Honor's flavor of Android 16. There's no word on pricing or availability yet, but we'll likely learn more at the company's press conference on Sunday — along with the company's weird robot revealed yesterday. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/tablets/honor-says-its-48mm-thick-magicpad-4-is-the-worlds-slimmest-android-tablet-114346615.html?src=rss

OpenAI has successfully convinced the court to dismiss the lawsuit filed by Elon Musk’s xAI, accusing the company of stealing its trade secrets. In her decision, US District Judge Rita F. Lin wrote that xAI’s complaint “does not point to any misconduct by OpenAI” and instead attributes all listed misconducts to its eight former employees who “ left for OpenAI at around the same time.”

Lin said that xAI accused two of its former employees of stealing its source code before leaving at a time when they were already speaking to an OpenAI recruiter. However, the company didn’t say if the recruiter told those former employees to do so. xAI’s lawsuit also accuses two other former employees of keeping their work chats on their devices even after leaving, another of refusing to provide certifications related to confidential information after his departure, and another of unsuccessfully trying to access xAI hiring and datacenter optimization information when he was already working for OpenAI.

“Notably absent are allegations about the conduct of OpenAI itself,” the judge noted. xAI didn’t include any information that directly accuses OpenAI of making those employees steal its trade secrets. It also didn’t include allegations that those former employees used any stolen trade secrets after they were already working for OpenAI. To be precise, OpenAI’s motion for dismissal was granted with leave to amend, so the lawsuit may not be completely over just yet. That means xAI can still file an amended complaint addressing what the judge wrote in her decision until March 17, 2026.

OpenAI and xAI have a longstanding feud, and this is just one of the several lawsuits between the two companies. In fact, Musk has an ongoing complaint against OpenAI and Microsoft, accusing the former of violating its nonprofit status. Musk, who was an early funder of OpenAI, is now asking the company for $79 billion to $134 billion in damages from “wrongful gains.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/xais-trade-secret-lawsuit-against-openai-has-been-dismissed-101912599.html?src=rss

Outfitting a kitchen can get expensive fast, but you don’t need high-end appliances or flashy tools to cook more efficiently. Some of the best kitchen gadgets are simple, affordable gadgets that quietly make everyday tasks easier — whether that’s prepping ingredients, measuring accurately or keeping your workspace organized. These are the kinds of tools you reach for again and again, not one-off purchases that end up buried in a drawer.

This guide focuses on inexpensive kitchen gadgets that punch above their price, including practical prep tools, durable measuring essentials and compact helpers that save time without taking up much space. None of them are strictly necessary, but all can streamline your routine and make cooking at home feel a little less like work.

Best cheap kitchen gadgets for 2026

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/home/kitchen-tech/best-cheap-kitchen-gadgets-130049897.html?src=rss

Now that Apple has started blocking users under 18 in certain regions from downloading apps, the company has introduced new age verification tools. Those will help developers "meet their age assurance obligations under upcoming US and regional laws, including in Brazil, Australia, Singapore, Utah and Louisiana," the company said in a news release on its Developer site. 

As of February 24, 2026, users in Australia, Brazil and Singapore won't be able to download apps rated 18+ unless their age is confirmed through "reasonable methods." Apple noted that any apps distributed in Brazil that are declared to contain loot boxes will be updated to 18+. While the App Store can perform those checks automatically, "developers may have separate obligations to independently confirm that their users are adults," Apple wrote. For that, developers can employ the company's Declared Age Range API (on iOS, iPadOS and macOS) to get "helpful signals" about a user's age.  

In Utah as of May 6, 2026 and Louisiana on July 1, 2026, "age categories will be shared with the developer's app when requested through the Declared Age Range API." That API will also provide "new signals," like whether age-related regulatory requirements apply to the user and if the user must share their age range. "The API will also let you know if you need to get a parent or guardian's permission for significant app updates for a child," Apple says. 

Under Utah's new law, users must be over 18 to make a new account with an app store, while underage uses will need to link their account to a parent's in order to get permission to use certain apps. Louisiana and Texas also passed similar laws and California plans to enact age-based rules for app stores in 2027. 

Those rules are designed to protect children from predators, financial harm and other problems. However, critics have described the laws as blunt tools that harm privacy and internet anonymity. "A poorly designed system might store this personal data, and even correlate it to the online content that we look at," the Electronic Frontier Foundation notes. "In the hands of an adversary, and cross-referenced to other readily available information, this information can expose intimate details about us."

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/apple-introduces-age-verification-for-apps-in-utah-louisiana-and-australia-080855449.html?src=rss

LG kicked off the year by unveiling a new lineup of gaming monitors, and today the company has priced out the biggest of the bunch. The UltraGear evo G9 (52G930B) is now available for pre-order, and the massive screen will cost just $2,000. 

Yes, you can buy a perfectly excellent gaming monitor for much less, but $2,000 is a surprisingly low price tag for this 52-inch ultrawide monitor with a 1000R curve, which LG is billing as "the world's largest 5K2K gaming monitor." In addition to its huge size, the G9 can run at a 240Hz refresh rate and offers a 1 millisecond gray-to-gray response rate. Visuals are supported by VESA DisplayHDR 600 and up to 95% DCI-P3 color gamut coverage. 

LG has long done solid work on gaming monitors, and the G9 seems like a good choice for anyone who wants to be seriously immersed in their gameplay. Whether that's for a high-fidelity experience like Microsoft Flight Simulator or for having the maximum coziness in Stardew Valley is up to you.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/accessories/lgs-massive-52-inch-ultra-wide-gaming-monitor-costs-2000-232937759.html?src=rss

Apple's plan to add touchscreens to its premium MacBook Pros is coming into focus. Bloomberg reports that when the new laptops launch this fall, they'll feature a Dynamic Island, not unlike Apple's iPhones, and an interface that changes depending on where you touch your Macbook's screen.

This "dynamic interface" is reportedly designed to make the transition between mouse input and touch input smoother on Apple's new laptops. Bloomberg says that if users touch an onscreen button, the version of macOS running on these new MacBook Pros will be able to pull up a contextual menu "that provides more relevant options for touch commands." Parts of the interface, like macOS' menu bar, will also be able to enlarge to make menu items easier to select with a finger. Those tweaks are on top of the expected features from touchscreen Apple products, like smooth scrolling and the ability to pinch and zoom into and out of images, files and web pages. The only thing missing from these increasingly iPad-like laptops, per Bloomberg, will be a touchscreen keyboard, because they'll already have a more comfortable physical keyboard attached.

To make these new laptops extra enticing, both the 14-inch and 16-inch touchscreen MacBook Pros will feature OLED screens for the first time, likely the reason Apple will be able to include a Dynamic Island-style webcam in the first place. Up until now, the company has offered OLED screens on its iPhones, Apple Watches and more recently the iPad Pro, but it hasn't brought the display technology to laptops. That could reportedly change with these new MacBook Pros.

Plenty of Windows laptops include touchscreens, and Microsoft and its partners have incorporated dynamic interface elements in the past to make these touchscreens more natural to use with Windows. Apple is late to the party in this respect, but it's also potentially set up to succeed. Much of modern macOS already looks touch-friendly, and Apple's has expended significant effort making it possible to port touch-based iPad apps to macOS and develop applications across platforms. That, paired with the right interface, could make the experience of using a touchscreen MacBook nicer out of the box, even if it doesn't get rid of the awkwardness of reaching over your keyboard to touch a screen.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/laptops/apples-touchscreen-macbook-will-reportedly-have-a-dynamic-interface-231929456.html?src=rss

1Password is increasing prices for its individual and family plans. The individual rate is increasing from nearly $36 a year to $48, while the family option will cost $72 instead of $60. In emails sent to users, the business announced that the new rates will take effect for users at their next subscription renewal after March 27. 

It's a sizable price hike, but 1Password hasn't been incrementally inching its fees higher every couple years like we see so often for streaming subscriptions. This is the biggest bump we've seen to its rates in several years, even though the company has been adding ever-more tools for cybersecurity, such as new phishing protections that rolled out last month. Even at the higher cost, it's still one of the best options out there for password management.

Fortunately for those on a budget, we have seen 1Password offer pretty substantial discounts on its plans at times, often cutting the rates by as much as half. The company usually participates in the big deal sprees like Black Friday, but keep an eye out for standalone sales that might pop up year-round.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cybersecurity/1password-plans-are-getting-more-expensive-soon-213236400.html?src=rss

Earlier this month, Discord said it would be enacting an age verification policy. The platform faced some initial concerns from users about turning over their IDs and personal information, particularly given how poorly similar policies have been going elsewhere. Discord announced today it will delay and make some changes to its plans in response to the ongoing backlash.

The first change is that Discord is postponing the global rollout of its age verification plans until the second half of 2026. The company noted that it would meet its legal obligations in places where they exist, likely in those countries that have national laws requiring protections for younger users. But it will not begin the global rollout until it makes some amendments to the offerings.

Discord will offer more alternatives to how users can confirm their ages, including verification by credit card. That should allow people to access age-gated content without sharing an ID or performing a face scan. "If you're among the less than 10 percent of users who do need to verify, we'll give you options, designed to tell us only your age and never your identity," according to a blog post credited to co-founder and CTO Stanislav Vishnevskiy.

The company is also promising more transparency about its vendors for these verification services and their practices. Discord said that it will not work with any partners for face scans unless the tests are performed completely on-device. The blog post noted that Persona, one of the common vendors for facial age estimation services, does not meet that standard and Discord has opted not to work with the brand. 

Finally, Discord is also building a new spoiler channel option so that servers with select age-restricted channels won't have to require all members to verify their ages. It will also publish a technical explainer on its own automatic age determination systems.

We at Engadget have own worries about the wave of age verification laws happening both within the US and globally, but it's somewhat encouraging to see a digital platform at least trying to continue to deliver anonymity while still creating effective protections for teens.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/discord-delays-age-verification-to-address-user-concerns-205500482.html?src=rss

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth will reportedly give Anthropic until Friday to drop certain guardrails for military use, as reported by Axios. The outlet also reported that CEO Dario Amodei met with Hegseth yesterday as the Pentagon ratcheted up pressure on the AI company to give in to its demands.

The makers of Claude have reportedly been offered an ultimatum: Either yield to the government's demands to remove limits for certain military applications, or potentially be forced to tailor its AI model to the government's needs under the Defense Production Act.

Anthropic, for its part, has said that while it was willing to adopt certain policies for the Pentagon, it would not allow its model to be used for mass surveillance of Americans or for the development of autonomous weapons.

Claude is currently the only AI model employed in some of the government's most sensitive work. "The only reason we're still talking to these people is we need them and we need them now. The problem for these guys is they are that good," a defense official told Axios.

The Pentagon is reportedly ramping up conversations with OpenAI and Google about using their models for classified work. ChatGPT and Gemini are already approved for unclassified government use. Elon Musk's xAI also recently signed with the DoD to use Grok in classified systems.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/the-pentagon-has-reportedly-given-anthropic-until-friday-to-let-it-use-claude-as-it-sees-fit-203549467.html?src=rss

Google sent out an AI-generated news alert that included the N-word, according to reporting by Deadline. The push notification featured a link to a story by The Hollywood Reporter regarding an incident at the recent BAFTA Film Awards. The word appeared in the notification under the link.

This was first spotted by Instagram user Danny Price, who accompanied a screengrab with a caption reading "what an interesting Black History Month this has turned out to be." Google has since apologized and said that it has "removed the offensive notification" and is "working to prevent this from happening again."

This story follows the aforementioned BAFTA incident, in which an audience member with Tourette syndrome shouted the N-word when Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo took to the stage to present an award. Tourette syndrome activist John Davidson, who made the comment, said he was "deeply mortified if anyone considers my involuntary tics to be intention or to carry any meaning." The incident has sparked outrage and a renewed discussion on the realities of living with vocal tics.

Asking for more grace for the person who shouted a racist slur instead of for Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo, who had to push through being embarrassed in front of their peers.

But that’s often the expectation — that Black people are just supposed to be ok with being… https://t.co/MqHbC8XwsA

— Jemele Hill (@jemelehill) February 23, 2026

AI makes lots of high-profile errors and this isn't the first time it has ruined a news alert. Apple actually scrapped its own AI push notifications last year when the tool made a series of embarrassing mistakes, including wrongly telling readers that the man accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, Luigi Mangione, had shot himself.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/google-sent-an-ai-generated-push-alert-that-included-a-racial-slur-195951493.html?src=rss

Three years after announcing plans to produce a film based on the viral YouTube short, The Backrooms (Found Footage) in 2023, A24 has released the first teaser for its adaptation. Backrooms, as the film is now called, is directed by the short's original creator, Kane Parsons, and will be released on May 29, 2026.

The teaser offers little to go on for anyone who hasn't watched the original short or the series of videos Parsons made after it, but it is replete with The Backrooms' hallmark: ominous liminal spaces. Layered over footage of stranger and stranger rooms (or perhaps one room becoming the platonic empty retail spaces popularized by short), the voice of Chiwetel Ejiofor tells the film's other star, Renate Reinsve, about a "place" he discovered that's full of rooms.

Parsons' original video is inspired by a creepypasta called "The Backrooms" that originated on the forum 4chan in 2019. The YouTube series expanded on the basic concept of a liminal space that exists outside reality with monsters and a mysterious company researching The Backrooms. It's unclear how much of that larger lore will be incorporated into the feature film adaptation, but since the teaser is missing the digital video filter that gave the YouTube short its distinct look, it seems possible Parsons could be going for something a bit different. Well that, and the fact the film stars two Oscar-nominated actors.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/heres-the-first-teaser-for-a24s-adaptation-of-the-backrooms-194300513.html?src=rss

Waymo had set out some big plans for expanding its autonomous vehicle taxi program across the US in 2025 and it appears to be continuing that pace into 2026. Today, the company announced that the first public riders can begin using its fully autonomous ride-hailing service in Dallas, Houston, San Antonio and Orlando. 

To start, these robotaxi rides will only be available for a small number of people with the Waymo app in those cities. "We will be inviting new riders on a rolling basis to ensure a seamless experience across our initial service areas, as we meaningfully scale our operations ahead of opening our service to everyone later this year," the company said in the blog post announcing the expansion.

Google-owned Waymo is now operating in ten commercial metro areas. It announced its plans to start testing its vehicles in these four US cities in November. The company also began a test phase in Miami at that time, and Waymo's robotaxi service began accepting riders in that locale in January.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/waymo-will-start-offering-robotaxi-rides-in-four-more-cities-192841871.html?src=rss

We're less than a month from the availability of Death Stranding 2: On the Beach on PC, and today Sony released the required specs. Despite designer Hideo Kojima being known for spectacle in his projects, the minimum specs are quite reasonable.

The low graphics preset runs on an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 or AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT 8GB, and that will give players average performance of 1080p at 30 frames per second, which is rough but at least makes the game available for players who haven’t upgraded in awhile. Intel Core i3-10100 or AMD Ryzen 3 3100 are the recommended GPUs for that graphics tier. As is typical for PC gaming, though, the higher end performance options will require beefier internals.

This port of Death Stranding 2 will also boast a few firsts. The title will mark the debut of Pico as an upscaling option on PC. This upscaler was made by Guerilla Games and was also used for the Death Stranding sequel on the PlayStation 5. The game will also be adding support for ultrawide views. The cutscenes can be viewed in a 21:9 aspect ration and gameplay can be displayed at 32:9. This option will be available for both PC and the PS5 versions of the game, and an ultrawide monitor won't be required to enable this view option.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/sony-reveals-the-death-stranding-2-required-pc-specs-184411856.html?src=rss

A new app will notify users if smart glasses are likely nearby. The aptly named Nearby Glasses was developed in response to media coverage outlining how glasses like Meta's Ray-Bans have been used to film people without their consent.

As first reported by 404 Media, the app detects the unique Bluetooth signature emitted by smart glasses and sends a push alert that someone wearing the device may potentially be nearby. “I consider it to be a tiny part of resistance against surveillance tech,” the app's developer Yves Jeanrenaud told 404 Media.

Smart glasses have sparked increased privacy concerns, especially as Meta is reportedly working to add facial recognition technology to its Meta Ray-Bans. OpenAI is also reported to have a pair of smart glasses in the works. It bears mentioning that false positives may occur, including from VR headsets.

Nearby Glasses is currently available on the Google Play Store and GitHub.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/someone-made-an-app-to-warn-you-if-smart-glasses-are-nearby-183359723.html?src=rss

As spicy as the PlayStation State of Play that took place a couple of weeks ago was overall, there was one major first-party game that was notably absent from the showcase: Marvel’s Wolverine. Insomniac Games’ latest superhero blockbuster was already slated for a fall release and now the studio has revealed exactly when you’ll be able to get your claws on it. Marvel’s Wolverine is coming to PS5 on September 15.

That’s it. That’s the announcement. There’s no new trailer to accompany the news, other than a six-second release date reveal video that popped up on YouTube. Insomniac previously said it would reveal more details about Marvel’s Wolverine this spring.

Technically, this release date means that Marvel’s Wolverine will debut in the last week of summer rather than in the fall. Still, it’s one of the relatively few blockbuster games you can expect in the tail end of this year because many major developers and publishers will be staying well clear of GTA VI.

Insomniac’s game will have a couple of months of breathing room before GTA VI soaks up all of the air in the gaming world when it arrives on November 19 — assuming Rockstar doesn’t announce another delay. However, parent company Take-Two plans to rev up its marketing machine for the game this summer, so it’s looking like GTA VI’s release date will hold this time.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/playstation/marvels-wolverine-will-hit-ps5-on-september-15-175500927.html?src=rss

Apple just dropped a full trailer for the fifth season of its hit sci-fi show For All Mankind. This is the first real look at the upcoming batch of episodes, which premiere on March 27. We got an extremely short teaser trailer last month but that only showed a guy on a motorcycle riding across Mars.

This is the first real-deal trailer and it's absolutely stuffed with footage indicating where the next season will take viewers. I'm going to get into some spoilers here, so read at your own risk.

For the uninitiated, For All Mankind is an alternate history show that started with a simple premise. What if Russia landed on the moon before America? That has since ballooned into all kinds of stuff which include, as mentioned above, a potential war on Mars.

For All Mankind is a show famous for its time jumps, and season five takes us all the way to an alternate version of 2012. Many of the show's original surviving characters are still kicking around, but they are old as paste and not exactly fit for high-octane space travel. Remember, the first episode started in the 1960s. Franchise lead Ed Baldwin (Joel Kinnamen) looks particularly dusty.

Much of the footage features newer characters, including the grandson of Baldwin. Season four ended with a Mars colony asserting its independence via asteroid theft. Now it looks like Earth is striking back, which could lead to a full-scale war. This is giving me The Expanse vibes, which is never a bad thing.

The show must be clocking good numbers for Apple TV+, as the streamer recently announced a spinoff called Star City. Details are scant, but it looks to cover similar events of the mainline show from Russia's perspective.

New episodes of For All Mankind air each Friday. This season will feature ten episodes and concludes on May 29.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/for-all-mankinds-latest-trailer-teases-a-war-on-mars-174822481.html?src=rss

A common theme in online age verification laws is the tension between user privacy and preventing children from accessing harmful or inappropriate content. Now the UK is sending a not-so-subtle message to Reddit on the subject, to the tune of £14.5m ($19.6 million). The nation's Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) accused the company of using children’s data and potentially exposing them to inappropriate content.

“Children under 13 had their personal information collected and used in ways they could not understand, consent to or control,” UK Information Commissioner John Edwards wrote in a statement. “That left them potentially exposed to content they should not have seen. This is unacceptable and has resulted in today’s fine.”

In July 2025, Reddit began requiring age verification to access adult content in the UK, in compliance with the Online Safety Act. However, that's only used to block under-18 users from sexually explicit, violent or other mature posts. The platform also prohibits users under 13 from accessing it altogether — and enforcement of that policy is lax. It merely requires users to declare, when signing up, that they're over 13. The ICO (accurately) described the method as "easy to bypass."

In its defense, Reddit told the BBC that it "didn't require users to share information about their identities, regardless of age, because we are deeply committed to their privacy and safety." The company said it would appeal the decision. "The ICO's insistence that we collect more private information on every UK user is counterintuitive and at odds with our strong belief in our users' online privacy and safety," the spokesperson added.

"It's concerning that a company the size of Reddit failed in its legal duty to protect the personal information of UK children," Edwards said. "Companies operating online services likely to be accessed by children have a responsibility to protect those children by ensuring they’re not exposed to risks through the way their data is used. To do this, they need to be confident they know the age of their users and have appropriate, effective age assurance measures in place.”

“Reddit failed to meet these expectations,” he added. “They must do better, and we are continuing to consider the age assurance controls now implemented by the platform.” The ICO also accused Reddit of failing to conduct a data protection impact assessment by January 2025.

The Guardian notes that the £14.5m fine is the third-largest handed down by the ICO. It trails only a £20m fine for British Airways involving a data breach disclosure and an £18.4m penalty for Marriott Hotels for exposing over 300 million customer records in a hack.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/reddit-fined-196-million-over-age-verification-checks-in-the-uk-173705048.html?src=rss