Kalakshar US

Threads is testing the option for users to put a 24-hour expiration timer on their posts, after which the post and all replies would disappear, Stories-style. A spokesperson confirmed to TechCrunch that the feature is being tested among a group of users after it was first spotted earlier this summer by developer Alessandro Paluzzi. It sounds a lot like pre-X Twitter’s Fleets, which didn’t exactly catch on. But, the ephemeral format could save habitual post-deleters some trouble.

It comes a few months after Instagram head Adam Mosseri shared that Threads was experimenting with auto-archiving. That optional feature would let users designate a date for their posts to be hidden from the feed. But Threads users in the past have indicated that they largely aren’t into the idea of automatic archiving, and such a feature hasn’t yet shown up on a wider scale. Threads hit the 200 million user mark at the beginning of August, and recently introduced an analytics tool called Insights for users — particularly those with large followings — to keep track of their account’s performance. Meta also said the option to schedule posts is on the way.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/threads-is-testing-disappearing-posts-that-expire-after-24-hours-211329320.html?src=rss 

After more than two months of tests and discussions, NASA has decided that astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams will come home in February 2025 on a SpaceX Crew Dragon, and the Boeing Starliner they flew to the International Space Station on in June will return uncrewed. In a press conference on Saturday, Steve Stich, the program manager for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, said “there was too much uncertainty” around the predictions for Starliner’s thrusters to move forward with a crewed return flight. 

“The decision to keep Butch and Suni aboard the International Space Station and bring the Boeing Starliner home uncrewed is the result of a commitment to safety,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson.

Developing…

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/science/space/starliner-astronauts-will-come-home-in-february-on-a-spacex-crew-dragon-173008021.html?src=rss 

It’s seemed like everyone this summer has been talking about Valve’s in-development MOBA shooter, Deadlock, except Valve itself. Thousands of people have reportedly played it, some of whom have leaked screenshots and gameplay footage. But Valve has remained silent on the subject. Now, the company has finally confirmed the game’s existence with an official Steam page, which notes that Deadlock “is in early development” and in the hands of playtesters. Unfortunately, that’s about it for the details.

Deadlock is still only available to play via invitation. There’s no release date or even release window on the page, and the 22-second teaser it includes isn’t particularly enlightening. But now that Valve is finally acknowledging this thing publicly, we could see more about it soon. Back in May, YouTuber Tyler McVicker, who has long reported on Valve, described Deadlock as what’s “meant to be Valve’s next major competitive game. The next Counter-Strike. The next Dota.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/valve-finally-confirms-its-next-game-deadlock-with-a-bare-bones-steam-page-162836953.html?src=rss 

One Btn Bosses does exactly what it says in the tin, but there’s more to this tongue-in-cheek bullet-hell boss rush than you initially might suspect. You play as a small ship that moves along tracks and battles a string of bosses (quite literally, as you’re fighting your way through the ranks of a peculiar corporation). The only real control you have at your disposal is a single button.

While the visual language draws from Asteroids, it plays a bit like Vampire Survivors, in that your weapon auto fires at your enemy but your agency is even more limited as you can’t move wherever you want. At first, pressing the button will reverse your ship’s direction as you try to avoid attacks (generally, you can take damage three times before you lose a fight). But going the other way means slowing down both your movement and the firing rate. That adds a fun wrinkle to figuring out your approach: play it as safe as possible and take longer to defeat an enemy, or go high risk and try to win as quickly as possible so you can soar up the leaderboard.

As you progress, you’ll unlock different weapons and movement abilities, as well as different color schemes. You can choose your loadout for each round. On the movement front, you might opt to hold the button to dash through enemy attacks without incurring damage or keep it pressed down to build up speed and accelerate in the other direction. In terms of dealing damage, you might opt for a laser that grows more powerful as you pick up sparks or a pickup weapon that only fires when you run across an item on the track. Experiment to figure out works best for you.

Along with the campaign, there’s a separate roguelite mode called Rifts & Developments that randomizes enemy attacks and layouts (it’s possible to memorize the attacks in campaign levels). Here, you have a total of three lives and they aren’t replenished between rounds unless you choose an upgrade that lets you do so. Nothing carries back over from the roguelite mode to the campaign except for XP, so if you’re stuck on a boss and you’re close to unlocking a new weapon, you can switch over to earn some juicy experience to expand your arsenal.

One Btn Bosses is tough, but it never feels unfair. The enemy attacks are as clear as day thanks to the clean art direction. I haven’t felt that I’ve been boxed in between enemy attacks so that losing a life was inevitable — to my eye, all the damage I’ve sustained was my own fault.

In a weird way, One Btn Bosses kind of reminds me of the early days of Twitter, in that one could only be creative on that platform within the confines of a single 140-character message. The limitation that the studio, Midnight Munchies, placed on itself here forced the developers to come up with inventive ways of keeping One Btn Bosses engaging throughout its duration.

Oneside note: this is one of the first batch of games that received backing from Outersloth, a side project of Among Us developer Innersloth. The whole idea behind Outersloth is to offer indie developers an alternative funding model and to help “fun, original and clever games get made.” One Btn Bosses definitely fits the brief.

One Btn Bosses is out on Steam now.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/pc/one-btn-bosses-gets-a-ton-of-mileage-from-single-button-gameplay-140025604.html?src=rss 

Meta has blocked WhatsApp accounts involved in “a small cluster of likely social engineering activity” on the service. In its report, it has revealed that it traced the activity to APT42 (also called UNC788 and Mint Sandstorm), which the FBI previously linked to a phishing campaign that targeted members of the Trump and Harris camps. The company said that the suspicious activity on WhatsApp “attempted to target individuals in Israel, Palestine, Iran, the United States and the UK.” It also seemed to have focused on political and diplomatic officials, which included people associated with both presidential candidates. 

The bad actors on WhatsApp pretended to be technical support representatives from AOL, Google, Yahoo and Microsoft, though Meta didn’t say how they tried to compromise their targets’ accounts. Some of those targets reported the activity to the company, which compelled it to start an investigation. Meta said it believes the perpetrators’ efforts were unsuccessful and that it has not seen any evidence that the targets’ accounts had been compromised. It still reported the malicious activity to law enforcement, though, and shared information with both presidential campaigns. 

Earlier this month, Google also published a report detailing how APT42 has been targeting high-profile users in Israel and the US for years. The company said it observed “unsuccessful attempts” to compromise the “accounts of individuals affiliated with President Biden, Vice President Harris and former President Trump.” While Google described APT42’s attacks as “unsuccessful,” the group had successfully infiltrated the account of at least one high-profile victim: Roger Stone, who is a close political confidante of Trump. The FBI previously reported that he had fallen victim to the phishing emails sent by the Iranian hackers, who then used his account to send more phishing emails to his contacts. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cybersecurity/meta-took-down-whatsapp-accounts-connected-to-iranian-hackers-targeting-the-us-election-140039124.html?src=rss