Gearbox has finally shown off a substantial amount of gameplay for Borderlands 4. If you ask me, some promising features are worth diving into. On the other hand, Gearbox seems to be adding mechanics that have me worried. Overall, the gameplay looked solid, but I can't help but think that Gearbox is going easy on the fanbase by implementing mechanics that shouldn't be in the game. Those who have played Ubisoft games or any standard open-world RPG probably know what I'm talking about. Here's what I am worried about in Borderlands 4, and what I hope Gearbox changes before the game's final release.

Chapter 7: Siege - Part 2 in Doom: The Dark Agesfollows the Doom Slayer as he rushes to protect and rescue King Novik against Prince Ahzrak. This map, in contrast to the previous chapter, is extremely linear, reminiscent of a Doom Eternal level. Of course, there are still plenty of secrets you might miss while mowing down demonic hordes.

The Greg Williams preset is the 16th photo filter to come to Leica’s Lux app. | Image: Leica CameraLeica is bringing a new kind of filter effect called “Artist Looks” to its Lux camera app for iPhones, with the first one adjusting your photos to resemble  the style and body of work of celebrity photographer Greg Williams. Artist Looks, like the other color and black-and-white looks in Leica’s app, are essentially one-click filter presets for easy photo editing. It’s the first time Leica Camera has collaborated with a pro on looks designed to mimic their personal aesthetic. In Williams’s case, his Artist Look is lightly inspired by Kodak Tri-X film, converting your color photos to black and white — with the white point shifted a touch to make the whites slightly off-white and yielding a more vintage warm-tone feel.The Leica Lux app update version 1.7 on the iOS App Store will offer the Greg Williams look for Lux Pro account subscribers paying $6.99 per month or $69.99 annually, or included for anyone who buys Leica’s phone grip that now costs $625 post-tariffs.The Lux app is Leica’s dedicated camera app for iPhones, allowing free and paid users to take smartphone pictures with a bit of Leica’s color science. In addition to a selection of Leica-tuned photo filters like Classic, Chrome, and one based on the vintage Leica I Model A camera, the app also offers some signature looks taken from specific Leica lenses. The in-app “lenses” are essentially portrait mode processing recipes modeled after lenses like the 50mm f/1.2 Noctilux or a 35mm f/1.4 Summilux.Leica is also releasing an update to its Fotos app that allows owners of the Leica Q3, Q3 43, SL3 and SL3-S to download the Greg Williams look directly into their cameras. And if you don’t have one of those newer models, the Fotos app can apply the filter to JPG files shot with any Leica with Wi-Fi that can upload images to the app. There’s no paywall for the Artist Look in the Fotos app, other than the barrier to entry of owning an actual Leica.Photo filters and film recipes are nothing new to mobile photography or users of Fujifilm cameras. While Fujifilm leans on its own film stocks for reference in its popular X100 line, other camera-makers typically go the standard route (vivid, neutral, etc.) or get creative, like Panasonic’s Lumix S9 camera and its many custom profiles. This new way of leaning on a pro photog’s own style is certainly novel. It might be cool to see some iconic Leica photographers get their own Artist Look, if I’m ever strolling down the street and feeling a little Elliott Erwitt-y. Though, I imagine some pros may charge a pretty penny to cop their style.

A breach has affected gaming's beloved Valve, with some 89 million records relating to Steam users and 2FA codes being the trove of data up for sale, though we know now that Valve itself didn't suffer the breach. While many were quick to dispel the seriousness of the leak, others questioned whether it was even real. The data references Twilio as the "Vendor Name", though Twilio has denied suffering a breach, and Valve took nearly 24 hours to release a statement aside from confirming to MellowOnline1 that they do not use Twilio's services. I managed to get a copy of the sample data when the news first broke, and having reviewed it, I don't necessarily believe it's as much of a nothingburger as many are making it out to be.

The future of everything from smartphones, to military equipment, to electric vehicles hangs on 17 rare earth minerals and the magnets that they're made into. And China, the world's largest refiner and producer, is tightening its grip and threatening the US' largest automakers. Over the last 30 years, China has methodically cornered the market on mining and refining rare earth minerals, which are used to produce a variety of common items like passenger vehicles and everyday electronics. In the wake of US President Donald Trump's increasingly aggressive trade war, China is leveraging its position as the world's largest producer, at the expense of the American auto industry. "We're within 90 days of this becoming a critical problem for everybody," say Ambrose Conroy, founder of Seraph Consulting and a major investor in Democratic Republic of Congo mining operations."We're within 90 days of this becoming a critical problem for everybody."According to analysts, more than 90 percent of the world's supply of those 17 elements at the bottom of the periodic table are mined, refined, and turned into rare earth magnets in China. After Trump announced tariffs of up to 145 percent on …Read the full story at The Verge.

Home Assistant has gone on to be one of the must-have recommendations for any home lab setup, even if this simply consists of a single network-attached storage (NAS) enclosure. The company behind this impressive platform has launched a preview device called the Home Assistant Voice. It's essentially a smart speaker with some powerful microphones for picking up and using your voice to carry out commands. Unlike Alexa (and some other smart assistants), everything can be processed and carried out locally on your local area network (LAN).

The GB-001 is a modern take on the classic ‘80s boombox with features like Bluetooth and a rechargeable battery. | Image: We Are RewindWe Are Rewind, a Paris-based company that has relaunched the cassette player with modern features like support for wireless headphones and rechargeable batteries, has announced a larger boombox version. Streamlining the design of the portable stereos that were popular in the ‘80s, the €449 (around $500 USD) GB-001 can function as a Bluetooth speaker and stream audio from a mobile device. But its most appealing feature is its ability to play and record to cassettes, potentially reviving the mixtape for another generation.The GB-001’s cassette deck mechanism features a user-adjustable motor with internal speed regulation for accurate playback. It also has a “noise reduction circuit” that emulates Dolby B so it can properly play tapes recorded using that older noise reduction system without any loss in sound quality. It can record on tapes, too, from external sources that include a wired microphone or a pair of mics connected wirelessly over Bluetooth.The GB-001 has four speakers — two “powerful woofers for extended bass response” paired with two “soft dome tweeters for refined voices and treble.” We Are Rewind describes the GB-001 as having a “natural sound signature” so, unlike the boomboxes of the ‘80s, it’s not going to drown out lyrics with overpowering bass. And in keeping with current trends in audio gear, the GB-001 includes a “spatialisation function for a wider, more immersive stereo image.”A rechargeable, user-replaceable 3,000mAh battery provides up to 10 hours of playback through the speakers when playing a tape, or up to 15 using an external audio source. That jumps up to 15 and 28 hours, respectively, when using headphones, but We Are Rewind didn’t specify if that’s through the 3.5-millimeter audio jack or Bluetooth.Even if you’re not in need of its cassette capabilities, the design of the GB–001 still makes it an appealing alternative to Bluetooth speakers that often look like beach toys. It not only has a retro-looking folding carrying handle, it also sports a pair of functional analog VU meters that are backlit with a soft warm glow. For those of us who grew up enamored with the design of stereos from the ‘70s and ‘80s, the VU meters alone could help justify the splurge.

Most people think of 3D printing in terms of figurines, brackets, or cosplay armor. But once you start exploring the weirder side of functional prints, you’ll find plenty of oddball designs that actually solve real problems. Some of them are so surprisingly useful, you’ll wonder why you didn’t print them sooner. Let’s dive into some strange but genuinely practical things that you might never have imagined making out of filament.

Windows 11 was a strange shift in Microsoft's approach to new operating systems. Previously, if you wanted to install a new edition of Windows on your computer, it came down to whether your hardware was powerful enough to handle it. If you could use the new OS without slowing down or crashing regularly, you were all set. If you couldn't, you upgraded.

Chapter 6: Siege - Part 1 in Doom: The Dark Agesintroduces the biggest map in the game yet. Going through an entire battlefield in the city outskirts, the Doom Slayer has plenty of hidden collectibles and secret areas to unlock in order to get 100% completion of this huge, sprawling level.

Chatbot upgrades, hot and fresh.The latest versions of OpenAI’s multimodal GPT AI models are now rolling out to ChatGPT. OpenAI announced on Wednesday that GPT-4.1 will be available across all paid ChatGPT account tiers and can now be accessed by Plus, Pro, or Team users under the model picker dropdown menu. Free users are excluded from the rollout, but OpenAI says that Enterprise and Edu users will get access “in the coming weeks.”GPT-4o mini, the more affordable and efficiency-focused model that OpenAI launched last year, is also being replaced with GPT-4.1 mini as the default option in ChatGPT for all users, including free accounts. Users on paid accounts will also see GPT-4o mini replaced by GPT-4.1 mini in the model picker options. Both GPT-4.1 and GPT‑4.1 mini are optimized for coding tasks and instruction following, and outperform GPT‑4o and GPT‑4o mini “across the board,” according to OpenAI. Both of the new models support a one million context token window — the amount of text, images, or videos in a prompt that an AI model can process — that greatly surpasses GPT-4o’s 128,000-token limit. OpenAI says that speed improvements also make GPT-4.1 more appealing for everyday coding tasks compared to the powerful OpenAI o3 & o4-mini reasoning models it introduced in April.GPT-4.1 and GPT-4.1 mini were made available to developers last month, alongside the GPT-4.1 nano model, which OpenAI described as its “smallest, fastest, and cheapest” offering to date. GPT-4.1 Nano is absent from this model rollout announcement, and it’s unclear when — or if — it’ll be generally available in ChatGPT.

Apple is up to its old tricks again. | Image: The VergeApple is trying to dissuade Europeans from using iOS apps that support alternative payment options by making them look scary. Daring Fireball’s John Gruber spotted that a red exclamation mark icon is being prominently displayed on the App Store listing for Instacar, alongside a message warning users that it doesn’t use Apple’s “private and secure payment system.”Instacar, a three-year-old Hungarian app for checking the mileage and value of used cars, isn’t available on the US App Store. But in Hungary, in the EU, it’s listed as one of the top five apps in the Business category, with thousands of positive reviews — not a typical service that would warrant heightened caution. The only gripe that Apple seemingly has is that Instacar uses an external payment system, and that App Store payment features like purchase history, Family Sharing, and unified subscription management won’t be available on such purchases.“When you create an account on a developer’s external website, you may have to provide personal information, including payment information, directly to the developer or third-party partners,” Apple says in a support page linked from its warning message. “You will be trusting the developer, as well as any partners and payment providers they work with, to handle your information based on their privacy and security controls.”Apple is already facing heat in the EU for its practices around scare tactics. In April, the European Commission issued preliminary findings that Apple “makes it overly burdensome and confusing” for users to install alternative app marketplaces, a process that involves clicking through several scare sheets that ask users to confirm if they want to proceed. This App Store warning message has also appeared in the wake of the recent Epic vs Apple ruling that bans Apple from restricting how developers can link to alternative purchase systems. A notable requirement implemented to address Apple’s scare tactics was that the company cannot interfere with consumers choosing to leave an app with anything beyond “a neutral message” about being directed to a third-party site, though that injunction doesn’t apply outside of the US.