Kalakshar US

Snapchat can now let your friends know if you’re back home from an outing safe and sound without you having to send a message. The app has launched a new feature called Home Safe, which sends one-time alerts to contacts of your choice. You can only send these alerts to people you already share your location with, and since that off by default, you’d have to activate it on Snap Maps for all your friends or for specific ones. Your friends will only get the notification once, and it will shut off afterward. 

Home Safe sounds especially useful if you and your friends typically check in on each other after meeting up, if you want to let your parents know you’d gotten back home after going out or if you’re a woman who’s asked a friend to make sure you got back safe after a first date. To switch the feature on, tap your Bitmoji on the Snap Map and then “My Home” to set your home location. After that, whenever you want to send someone a notification, just open your conversation with then, tap on the Map icon and then tap the “Home Safe” button. 

The app has had location sharing for a while now, but it has built up the safety feature over the years. It added live location sharing that allows you to share your exact whereabouts to friends in 2022. And last year, it introduced new location tracking abilities to its Family Center, allowing parents to get notifications if their child leaves school or home.

Jim Lanzone, the CEO of Engadget’s parent company Yahoo, joined the board of directors at Snap on September 12, 2024. No one outside of Engadget’s editorial team has any say in our coverage of the company.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/snapchat-can-automatically-let-a-trusted-friend-know-you-got-home-safe-130010806.html?src=rss 

Itch.io has deindexed and hidden all adult games from its browse and search pages to make sure it doesn’t lose the ability to sell with the payment processors it uses. The gaming marketplace, which mainly hosts titles from indie developers, has admitted in an announcement that it wasn’t able to give creators advance notice. It “had to act urgently to protect the platform’s core payment infrastructure,” it said, because the “situation developed rapidly.” 

The website explained that it recently came under the scrutiny of its payment processors after an organization called Collective Shout launched a campaign against Steam and itch.io. Collective Shout, which describes itself as an Australian grassroots campaigning movement, directed its concerns to the gaming marketplaces’ payment processors. It originally focused its campaign around the game No Mercy that revolves around a character engaging in rape and sexual violence. Both itch.io and Steam removed the game back in April. In its open letter to payment processors published earlier this month, however, the group said it “discovered hundreds of other games featuring rape, incest and child sexual abuse” on Steam and itch.io since then. 

Steam already banned “content that may violate the rules and standards set forth” by its payment processors, which mostly affected adult games. Now, itch.io is also clearly heading that way. At the moment, the website is doing a comprehensive audit of its content and will keep adult games delisted until it’s done. After it’s finished, it will introduce new compliance measures and will require creators of adult games to confirm that their titles are allowed under the rules of the payment processors linked to their account.

Itch.io admitted that some games will be permanently removed from its marketplace as part of its review and the new policy it will put in place, but it said its “ability to process payments is critical for every creator” on its platform. “To ensure that we can continue to operate and provide a marketplace for all developers, we must prioritize our relationship with our payment partners and take immediate steps towards compliance,” the website said in its announcement. 

Although No Mercy’s removal from gaming websites is understandably celebrated by a lot of people, users are concerned about the potential effects of marketplaces adopting anti-porn rules. Queer content, for instance, is disproportionately affected by censorship measures and could be tagged as “adult” or “NSFW” even when it doesn’t contain anything sexual. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/pc/itchio-is-removing-nsfw-games-to-comply-with-payment-processors-rules-133045491.html?src=rss 

Sony has entered into a “strategic business alliance” with Bandai Namco holdings, acquiring about 2.5 percent of the Japanese media conglomorate and gaming publisher with a 68 billion yen ($465 million) investment, the companies announced. The aim, Sony said, is to expand the fan community “for IP such as anime and manga around the world and strengthen… engagement, particularly in the anime field where rapid market growth is anticipated.” 

The companies noted that they have historically collaborated on fields like games, anime and music, but plan to extend this into a “broader range of areas.” Bandai Namco specifically called out the “production and distribution of anime and other video content, as well as merchandising.” In other words, the two companies may want to join the current (and successful) trend of creating series and movies from video game and other content. At the same time, they plan to develop and promote new IP in the anime and manga areas, according to the press release. 

The deal lines up with Sony’s recently stated aim to maximize the value of its content across gaming and entertainment ecosystems. And clearly, converting video game IP to films and series has proven to be highly lucrative, from franchises ranging from Minecraft to Mario Bros. to The Last of Us. 

Bandai Namco added that the companies plan to provide “the optimal products and services at the optimal timing in the optimal regions.” In other words, it will focus some content more in some regions than others, depending on demand. Hopefully, we can expect some announcements around new content based on Bandai Namco IP in the near future. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/sony-bought-a-chunk-of-bandai-namco-to-boost-anime-fan-community-engagement-120047367.html?src=rss 

After teasing it earlier this year, Lego has unveiled its Game Boy set. The 421-piece model is a “brick-built replica of the original Game Boy” and has buttons you can press, including the +Control Pad, A and B buttons and Select and Start — though you can’t play games on it, obviously. It even comes with brick replicas of Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening and Super Mario Land game paks, along with corresponding lenticular screens or a Nintendo start screen. 

Once built, you can set the Lego Game Boy and paks on a buildable display stand “for the ultimate piece of retro-inspired home or office gaming decor,” Lego says. Other details you can admire include a contrast adjustment and volume dial, along with the Game Pak slot. 

The Game Boy set is not Lego’s first crack at a Nintendo-based product. Back in 2020, the company released a set based on the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). The new Lego Game Boy set is now available for pre-order on Amazon for $59 with shipping starting October 1, 2025. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/legos-game-boy-set-is-here-sadly-not-playable-122138597.html?src=rss 

Sony is bringing a welcome quality-of-life feature to the PlayStation 5. In the next PS5 system update beta, players will be able to have their DualSense controllers synced with multiple hardware platforms at the same time. That means you could swap a controller from a PS5 to your gaming PC to your smartphone without needing to re-pair the DualSense each time.

Up to four devices can be simultaneously paired with a single controller, and each of them will be mapped to one of the action buttons. To switch between them, first make sure the hardware you want to start using is on, then press the controller’s PS button and the corresponding action button at the same time. Hold for three seconds, and when you see blinking on the controller’s light bar, release both buttons.

It’s the sort of change that may not carry weight for all players. But for those of us who do like to hop between platforms, this is very exciting news. The current beta access is limited to an invite-only guest list, but Sony said it plans to roll out the feature globally “in the coming months.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/playstation/sony-is-finally-making-it-possible-to-pair-a-dualsense-with-more-than-one-device-211715133.html?src=rss 

Current and former members of the FDA told CNN about issues with the Elsa generative AI tool unveiled by the federal agency last month. Three employees said that in practice, Elsa has hallucinated nonexistent studies or misrepresented real research. “Anything that you don’t have time to double-check is unreliable,” one source told the publication. “It hallucinates confidently.” Which isn’t exactly ideal for a tool that’s supposed to be speeding up the clinical review process and aiding with making efficient, informed decisions to benefit patients.

Leadership at the FDA appeared unfazed by the potential problems posed by Elsa. “I have not heard those specific concerns,” FDA Commissioner Marty Makary told CNN. He also emphasized that using Elsa and participating in the training to use it are currently voluntary at the agency.

The CNN investigation highlighting these flaws with the FDA’s artificial intelligence arrived on the same day as the White House introduced an “AI Action Plan.” The program presented AI development as a technological arms race that the US should win at all costs, and it laid out plans to remove “red tape and onerous regulation” in the sector. It also demanded that AI be free of “ideological bias,” or in other words, only following the biases of the current administration by removing mentions of climate change, misinformation, and diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. Considering each of those three topics has a documented impact on public health, the ability of tools like Elsa to provide genuine benefits to both the FDA and to US patients looks increasingly doubtful.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/fda-employees-say-the-agencys-elsa-generative-ai-hallucinates-entire-studies-203547157.html?src=rss