Marvel’s Wolverine will hit PS5 on September 15

Posted on 24/02/2026 by Kris Holt

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

For All Mankind’s latest trailer teases a war on Mars

Posted on 24/02/2026 by Lawrence Bonk

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

Reddit fined $19.6 million over age verification checks in the UK

Posted on 24/02/2026 by Will Shanklin

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

This Portable Power Strip Clamps to Table Edges and Charges 3 Devices

Posted on 24/02/2026 by JC Torres

Working from wherever you can find a seat means accepting certain frustrations, and outlet hunting is near the top of the list. Extension boards solve that at home, but they’re designed for rooms rather than bags, and dragging one to a café or shared studio means arriving with a coil of cable that becomes someone else’s problem. Power infrastructure hasn’t caught up with how people actually work.

Xtend is a personal charging extension concept built around one challenge: making power access portable without making it awkward. The guiding claim is “Power access shouldn’t be bulky,” which is fair when most extension boards still feel designed for a fixed office and are never reconsidered. The concept answers with a compact, desk-edge device you carry rather than leave behind.

Designer: Parth Amlani

Rather than a strip on the floor where cables become trip hazards, Xtend clamps to the table edge and creates an elevated power zone right where you’re working. That’s the main behavioral shift, and it matters. It keeps cables off the ground, reduces accidental unplugging when someone shifts their chair, and gives the whole setup a predictable home, whether you’re there for twenty minutes or a few hours.

A manual retractable wire manages the cable when you pack up, addressing tangles at the source rather than relying on cable ties or zip pouches. The table attachment uses a selfie-stick-inspired locking mechanism for adjusting and securing the device to different desk edge profiles. That’s not a small detail, because portability only works if setup and stow are both quick.

Of course, attaching to a desk edge only matters if it handles what you’re actually charging. Xtend is set up for three devices at once, a top-facing outlet for a laptop charger, and USB ports on the side for phones or smaller devices. That mix reflects how people actually charge at a shared desk, one large draw and a couple of smaller ones, rather than forcing everyone to compete for a single wall strip.

Xtend treats power the way people already treat other portable tools, as something that belongs in a bag and works anywhere. Extension boards have been a room infrastructure for decades, but how people work has changed. A small device that attaches to a desk edge, charges three things, and retracts its own cable before you leave suggests that the power strip category is ready for a rethink.

The post This Portable Power Strip Clamps to Table Edges and Charges 3 Devices first appeared on Yanko Design.

Google claims it’s building data centers that barely use any water

Posted on 24/02/2026 by Andre Revilla

Google is building another data center in Texas and says this one will use "advanced air-cooling technology" to limit water consumption. Google is claiming that water use will be limited to "critical campus operations" like kitchens.

These specifics follow the previously announced two-year $40 billion investment the company has pledged in the Lone Star State. The company is also touting some 7,800 megawatts of net energy generation and capacity it has contracted with utility providers to add to the Texas grid.

The company's resource-conscious commitments come as communities nationwide are pushing back on data center construction, amid concerns that they are raising electric bills, worsening global greenhouse gas emissions and often using gargantuan amounts of fresh water. But don't worry, because OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says the water concerns are "fake" and that "it also takes a lot of energy to train a human."

A growing number of voices in tech, most notably Tesla CEO Elon Musk, have said that building data centers in space would address many of these concerns. But some experts believe the potential environmental downside could be devastating.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/google-claims-its-building-data-centers-that-barely-use-any-water-171411965.html?src=rss

Blizzard finally revealed its long-rumored Overwatch mobile game

Posted on 24/02/2026 by Lawrence Bonk

Blizzard is finally bringing Overwatch to mobile devices, but not exactly in the way you think. The company isn't making a port of the mainline game. Rather, it just announced a spinoff called Overwatch Rush, which is being described as a "top-down hero shooter designed specifically for mobile set in the Overwatch universe."

There have been rumors about an Overwatch mobile game for what seems like a lifetime. Most people assumed this would appear as a straight port, but a brand-new game is also great. It's not being developed by Team 4, the group that works on the mainline game, but is being made internally.

Overwatch Rush features many of the heroes of Overwatch battling on familiar-looking maps, according to a gameplay video. The game offers 4v4 matches, though the characters are more cartoonish and stylized than the mainline game. This is likely to accommodate smaller screens and the top-down view.

This is a mobile game, so the battles are described as "bite-sized" and the controls are touchscreen-based. Blizzard says it's still in the early stages of development but that it's going to offer "fast-paced, on-the-go play, with hero-centric combat and playstyle customization that suits both team and solo players."

Overwatch Rush will be playable soon, as part of a beta testing process. It'll be free to play and available for both Android and iOS whenever the full game is ready to go.

Blizzard says that a "new, separate, dedicated team" will be "focused exclusively" on Overwatch Rush. That's industry code for "we aren't draining resources from the main game to make the mobile spinoff." Oddly, the company recently held a series of panels to discuss the future of its franchises and didn't mention this mobile game.

This isn't the company's first foray into mobile game development. It's had a hand in stuff like Diablo Immortal and Warcraft Rumble.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/blizzard-finally-revealed-its-long-rumored-overwatch-mobile-game-162938590.html?src=rss

Netflix, Disney+ and other major streaming services face stricter UK oversight

Posted on 24/02/2026 by Kris Holt

Netflix, Disney+, Amazon's Prime Video and other major video on-demand (VOD) streaming services are set to face stricter regulation in the UK. Platforms with a monthly average of more than 500,000 UK viewers will be deemed “Tier 1" services that are subject to similar oversight as broadcasters like the BBC and ITV under the eye of media watchdog Ofcom.

Streaming services run by public broadcasters like ITVX and Channel 4 will have to abide by the new rules as well. BBC services such as iPlayer are exempt for now as they’re regulated under the Broadcasting Code, which broadcasters have to adhere to. That said, the UK government plans to update the BBC Framework Agreement so that iPlayer is regulated in the same way as Netflix et al.

The government said the new rules will reflect changes in how people are watching TV. It claimed that 85 percent of people use an on-demand service every month while 67 percent watch live TV. It added that two-thirds of UK households subscribe to at least one of Netflix, Prime Video and Disney.

According to Variety, the rules will not apply to video-sharing platforms such as YouTube, since those are regulated under the Online Safety Act. However, individual channels on such platforms could be subject to the VOD standards code.

Tier 1 platforms will have to adhere to regulations regarding accuracy and impartiality, while ensuring they shield audiences from “harmful or offensive" material. Ofcom will be able to accept viewer complaints over apparent breaches of such rules and carry out investigations. The watchdog will then be able to take action if it determines that there's been a breach of the VOD standards code. That includes fines of up to £250,000 ($337,000) or five percent of "qualifying revenue" per breach.

A public consultation will help shape the VOD standards code. The public and streaming services will have the chance to weigh in on what the rules should be. The standards code will then come into force a year after Ofcom publishes it. The government says "more than 20" platforms will be subject to the code as things stand.

Separately, a VOD accessibility code will be established to bring streaming services further into line with broadcasters. Tier 1 streaming platforms will have to ensure that at least 80 percent of their total catalogues are subtitled, 10 percent have audio descriptions and five percent is signed. They'll have four years to meet the requirements of the accessibility code.

"With UK audiences increasingly favoring on-demand platforms over live TV, we want to ensure that no one is left behind, and that everyone can enjoy the huge range of content available on video-on-demand services," Media Minister Ian Murray said in a statement. "Implementing a new Ofcom-regulated accessibility code for our largest video-on-demand services will give people with disabilities impacting their sight or hearing peace of mind that they’ll be able to stream all their favorite films and TV shows long into the future."

The UK government is implementing these rules for streaming services under the Media Act 2024. Currently, platforms including Prime Video, Disney+, Paramount+, Discovery+, Hayu and ITVX are subject to statutory rules that Ofcom enforces. However, the watchdog has no oversight of Netflix as things stand. That platform's European base is in the Netherlands. As such, the Dutch media regulator oversees Netflix instead.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/netflix-disney-and-other-major-streaming-services-face-stricter-uk-oversight-160121268.html?src=rss

First Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra Camera Samples Are Out

Posted on 24/02/2026 by Geeky Gadgets

Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra camera sample showcasing vibrant colors

The first camera samples of the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra have emerged, offering an early glimpse into its photographic capabilities. While the hardware appears to closely mirror its predecessor, the Galaxy S25 Ultra, Samsung has introduced subtle yet impactful refinements. These changes emphasize a focus on optimizing the user experience rather than pursuing dramatic overhauls, […]

The post First Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra Camera Samples Are Out appeared first on Geeky Gadgets.

Apple’s March 4 Event: Everything to Expect from the New Hardware