Category: Technology

Amazon’s satellite-based internet service, Leo, will enter service by mid-2026, so says company CEO Andy Jassy. Writing in his annual letter, Jassy claimed Leo would offer download speeds of up to 1Gbps, far more than what Starlink presently offers. Sadly, Amazon declined to offer any more details about what that mid-2026 service would look like. But given select partners have already been kicking Leo’s tyres for a while, we can only hope.

The mega-retailer is making some grand promises, including faster up and download speeds, cheaper cost and direct integration with Amazon’s other products. Of course, the company can also sell itself on the fact it’s a satellite internet provider not owned by Elon Musk. But it will have to buck its ideas up fast, given how far behind in its deployment of satellites it is.

— Daniel Cooper

The other big stories this morning

Dyson just announced its first-ever handheld fan, with a motor that spins up to 65,000 RPM
Don’t put your finger in it.

JBL Live 780NC and 680NC review: Great leaps, greater missteps
As the youth say, ‘mid.’

Sony teases its next-gen True RGB Mini LED TV technology
Yet another brand name to sully the Mini LED waters.

ASUS ZenBook A16 review: A surprisingly light and powerful 16-inch ultraportable

It’s a showcase for the Snapdragon X2 Elite.

ASUS’ ZenBook A16 is a 16-inch ultraportable designed to go toe-to-toe with LG’s Gram Pro 16. It’s equipped with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X2 Elite and designed to address the flaws Devindra Hardawar found in last year’s ZenBook A14. Did it succeed? You’ll have to read his review to get the full story, but he’s certainly happy to have spent the last week using this thing.

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Greece will ban all kids under 15 from using social media

It will begin at the start of 2027.

Greece will ban under 15s from accessing social media, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has announced. Like many nations both in Europe and beyond, officials are concerned about the effect social media is having on children’s mental and physical health. The big platforms will be in charge of enforcing the ban, backed up by the hefty punishments enabled by the Digital Services Act.

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Amazon is cutting off support for older Kindles

Know what doesn’t lose support after a few years? Books.

If you’re still using a Kindle or Fire tablet made in 2012 or before, then it’s going to get a little less useful on May 20. Amazon is discontinuing support for those earlier models on that date, removing the ability to purchase, borrow or download new titles. Thankfully, whatever is on the hardware already will remain, so don’t fret if you’re only a third of the way through Remembrance of Things Past.

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Fender Elie review: Handsome speaker/amp hybrids with excellent clarity

Fancy, but heavy.

Billy Steele has been putting Fender Audio’s new speakers through their paces to find what can only be described as a mixed bag. Excellent audio quality and a wide variety of inputs get high praise, but the heavy weight, exposed wood and limited battery life all dent the paintwork.

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WhatsApp adds a better native interface for CarPlay

About time too.

WhatsApp’s CarPlay interface isn’t the most elegant or easy way to keep in touch with your friends while driving. Meta has, however, given the UI a little polish to help make it a little easier to get something useful done without pulling your attention from the road.

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This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/general/the-morning-after-engadget-newsletter-111524236.html?src=rss 

Google has removed popular psychological horror game Doki Doki Literature Club! from the Play Store. According to Dan Salvato, who led its development team, and publisher Serenity Forge, Google told them the visual novel was removed because it violated its Terms of Service in its depiction of sensitive themes. The game is “widely celebrated for portraying mental health in a way that meaningfully connects deeply with players around the world,” they said in their announcement. Its free version, which came out first, has been downloaded at least 30 million times, while the paid “Plus” version has had at least one million downloads. The visual novel has repeatedly made Engadget’s lists of favorite games over the years.

Doki Doki Literature Club! has the drawing style and the makings of a typical dating sim, but players find themselves confronted with serious themes, including depression and suicide, soon after starting. Its Play listing was appropriately marked as “Mature 17+,” which means that children won’t be able to download it if their devices have parental controls. In addition, the developers clearly communicate that the game tackles serious issues. “This game is not suitable for children or those who are easily disturbed” is the first line of the game. “In-game content warnings for such material can be enabled in the Settings menu at any time,” it also warns players. In settings, there’s link to a page that lists content warnings that apply to the visual novel.

We’ve asked Google for a statement on why the game was removed, and we’ll update this post when we hear back. Salvator and Serenity Forge said they’re doing everything they can to “find a path forward for getting DDLC reinstated on the Google Play Store.” They’re also looking at other methods of distribution for Android devices. At the moment, the game’s Play listing shows that it’s still not available, but it’s still out on Steam, PlayStation, Switch eshop and iOS.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/google-removes-doki-doki-literature-club-from-the-play-store-080615951.html?src=rss 

A film adaptation of Metal Gear Solid is in the works again, this time from filmmakers Zach Lipovsky and Adam B. Stein, the directors of Final Destination: Bloodlines, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The duo are reviving the project at Columbia Pictures as part of a new first-look deal with Sony, the latest attempt in what’s been multiple decades of work to turn the blockbuster stealth game into a blockbuster film.

“Metal Gear Solid was nothing short of a groundbreaking cinematic masterpiece that forever revolutionized video games,” Lipovsky and Stein said in a statement. “We are thrilled and honored to bring Hideo Kojima’s iconic characters and unforgettable world to life.”

Lipovsky and Stein’s horror bona fides helped make Bloodlines a critical and commercial hit when it came out in 2025, and the directors have a variety of other IP-focused genre films in the works, including a sequel to Gremlins for Warner Bros. and an animated Venom movie for Sony. It remains to be seen how exactly the duo will translate Metal Gear Solid‘s unique quirks to film, though.

Metal Gear Solid is heavily indebted to director Hideo Kojima’s own taste in action and spy cinema, while also being in conversation with video games themselves in a way that wouldn’t naturally translate to film. And even if you removed those metatextual rough edges, can it really be Metal Gear Solid without Kojima’s equal parts charming and awkward writing? 

Attempts to create a film version of the game date back to 2006, when Kojima first shared that an adaptation was in the works. Columbia Pictures announced a new version of the film in 2012, with Avi Arad, former head of Marvel Studios, producing. In 2014, Jordan Vogt-Roberts, the director of Kong: Skull Island, was attached to direct that adaptation. And six years after that, Oscar Isaac was reportedly cast as Solid Snake. Arad and his son Ari Arad are still producing this latest take on the game, but with Lipovsky and Stein in charge, that older version of Metal Gear Solid is likely dead. Still, hope springs eternal that we’ll get to see a man hide in a cardboard box on the big screen someday.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/the-metal-gear-solid-movie-is-back-on-with-final-destination-bloodlines-directors-in-charge-214914374.html?src=rss 

Meta is giving users the ability to edit Instagram comments they leave on posts, though only within a 15 minute window after they’re posted. The setup is similar to how the social app handles editing messages, an option it first added in 2024, 11 years after direct messaging was introduced to Instagram in 2013.

You’re only able to edit comments you left with your own account, and the process of actually doing so is easy. Just tap on the word “Edit” under your comment to pull up a text box where you can tweak, rework or embellish what you’ve written, and then press the blue check mark to save it. Meta says comments can be edited as many times as you want in that 15 minute window, so if you need to make more changes, you have that option.

Comments can show up in multiple ways across Instagram — including Stories, as of 2024 — so offering a way to edit them is a welcome addition. The new option is just the latest in a series of changes Meta has introduced to the social app in the last month. Earlier in March, the company announced that it was removing end-to-end encryption from Instagram DMs. At the end of the month, Meta also began testing Instagram Plus, a subscription service that unlocks new features for the app’s Stories feature.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/instagram-comments-can-now-be-edited-within-15-minutes-195000640.html?src=rss 

You may already know that emulators can run Wii games on a Mac. But one developer has flipped the script. Bryan Keller now has an ancient version of the Mac’s operating system running on Nintendo’s 2006 game console (via Kottke). Why? Because they said it couldn’t be done.

The developer first had the idea in 2013 while a sophomore in college. However, they found renewed motivation five years ago when Redditor u/CussdomTidder posted, “There is a zero percent chance of this ever happening.”

Developer Bryan Keller took it personally.

Keller used that as fuel to begin plugging away, “feeling encouraged” by the anonymous contrarian. Thus began the process of porting Mac OS X 10.0 (Cheetah) onto a device designed to play Wii Sports and Super Mario Galaxy.

“Last year, when I saw that Windows NT had been ported to the Wii, I felt a renewed sense of motivation,” Keller wrote. “Even if my lack of low-level experience resulted in failure, attempting this project would still be an opportunity to learn something new.”

Keller didn’t allow something as trivial as a flight to get in the way of the task at hand.

Keller noted that the Wii is a phenomenally hackable console, with other enterprising hackers porting Windows 95 and NT, Linux and NetBSD onto it. Nintendo’s system also runs a PowerPC chip similar to those found in older Macs. “Given this close lineage, I felt confident that the CPU wouldn’t be a blocker,” they wrote. From there, Keller wrote a custom boot loader, patched the kernel and wrote new drivers. They even got the Wii’s USB ports working for mouse and keyboard input.

Tthe developer found the process “deeply satisfying,” especially given the initial doubt. (I’m talking to you, disparaging Redditor.) “In the end, I learned (and accomplished) far more than I ever expected,” Keller wrote. “And perhaps more importantly, I was reminded that the projects that seem just out of reach are exactly the ones worth pursuing.”

For the technically minded, the developer’s blog goes into extensive detail about the process. And full-on madlads can visit Keller’s GitHub to try it for themselves.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/a-maverick-hacker-got-mac-os-x-running-on-a-wii-200800027.html?src=rss 

Developer Klei Entertainment has announced a follow-up to Don’t Starve that adds a new sense of depth to the popular survival game. And that’s in a literal sense: Don’t Starve Elsewhere translates the game’s resource gathering and sanity management to a world with three-dimensional terrain at different elevations, a first for the traditionally flat series.

Don’t Starve Elsewhere doesn’t quite seem like the Super Mario 64 to Don’t Starve‘s Super Mario Bros. but based on the trailer, having actual mountains, cliffs and plateaus does offer plenty of new opportunities to have your world rocked by an unfriendly goat. The game also incorporates new biomes, what looks like plenty of new animals, enemies and bosses and several features that were first introduced as DLC for the first Don’t Starve.

Klei released the original Tim Burton-inspired Don’t Starve all the way back in 2013, and has been remarkably consistent in supporting it with paid DLC introducing new characters, mechanics and biomes over the last 13 years. Additions like multiplayer support, from standalone expansion Don’t Starve Together, and dynamic weather patterns, introduced in Don’t Starve: Shipwrecked, appear to be built into the new game from the start. A mobile spin-off created by Tencent, Don’t Starve: Newhome, was announced in 2020 and appears to still be in active development.

Klei hasn’t announced a release date for Don’t Starve Elsewhere, but if the game is anything like the developer’s previous games, it will be released in early access on PC before it makes its way to a full release on other platforms.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/another-dont-starve-game-is-on-the-way-184400774.html?src=rss