First-person shooters have become one of the most popular genres in the gaming industry. This has made studios take a different approach to how they release their games. Most modern multiplayer FPS games follow the free-to-play, live-service model, which means they release the game for free and then make their money back through microtransactions and in-game shops.

The Raspberry Pi ecosystem boasts an extensive suite of operating systems, ranging from general-purpose distros like Ubuntu and Kali Linux to more specialized OSes like Batocera, LibreELEC, and OpenWRT. If you’re willing to venture deep into the recesses of the Raspberry Pi ecosystem, you’re bound to come across quirky hidden gems waiting to be used for your tinkering projects.

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Apple Intelligence will be switched on by default, starting in iOS 18.3, iPadOS 18.3, and macOS 15.3. In release candidate notes spotted by 9to5Mac, Apple says it will switch on AI-powered features automatically for new users or those upgrading to the latest versions of its operating systems. The AI update will only apply to devices that support Apple Intelligence, including the iPhone 15 Pro and later, iPads and Macs with the Apple Silicon M1 chip or later, and the most recent version of the iPad mini.For users new or upgrading to macOS 18.3, Apple Intelligence will be enabled automatically during Mac onboarding. Users will have access to Apple Intelligence features after setting up their devices. To disable Apple Intelligence, users will need to navigate to the Apple Intelligence & Siri Settings pane and turn off the Apple Intelligence toggle. This will disable Apple Intelligence features on their device. As Apple’s notes mention, after updating your device, you’ll have to manually disable Apple Intelligence if you don’t want support for features like AI notification summaries, Image Playground, and tools that can rewrite pieces of text running on your device. To turn Apple Intelligence off, you’ll have to head to the Apple Intelligence & Siri Settings pane and then switch off the Apple Intelligence toggle.Last week, iOS 18.3 beta testers spotted an update that will pause AI notification summaries for news and entertainment apps after the feature inaccurately summarized a BBC headline. Apple will also make it easier to identify notification summaries on your iPhone’s lock screen and note that they “may contain errors.”

Oakleys are considered stylish and popular with athletes — which is probably why Meta’s keen to partner. | Photo by Mark Brown/Getty Images Meta may be releasing new Oakley-branded smart glasses later this year, according to a new Bloomberg report. The Oakley-branded glasses, internally referred to as “Supernova 2”, would be based on the brand’s Sphaera glasses. Instead of housing the cameras on the side, the Supernova 2 would shift the camera to the center of the frame. The idea is to appeal to cyclists and other outdoor athletes. The report didn’t detail any other potential features, though the Oakley glasses would ostensibly have similar features to the current Ray-Ban Meta glasses. Oakley, like Ray-Bans, are a subsidiary of eyewear giant EssilorLuxottica. The move to expand Meta’s tech to other brands under EssilorLuxottica’s umbrella is a savvy one. While the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses are good for discreet, everyday wear, they’re a bit heavy for endurance sports and lack certain features like polarized lenses for better visibility. Oakleys are also considered stylish and popular among professional athletes. Conceptually, they’re similar to the now discontinued Bose Frames Tempo, which allowed athletes to have open-ear audio with polarized lenses in a relatively light form factor. That said, if the goal is to appeal to athletes, Meta and Oakley will likely have to address factors like weight, sweat resistance, and battery life. The report also notes that Meta plans on launching a higher-end version of its current Ray-Ban glasses that include a display capable of delivering notifications, running simple apps, and previewing photos.

If you're someone who works with images frequently, there's a good chance you'll want to watermark them at some point. Watermarking makes it clear that images are yours, plus it can be used to add some context to the image.

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge Microsoft and OpenAI announced Tuesday that they have adjusted their partnership so that OpenAI can access competitors' compute. The new agreement “includes changes to the exclusivity on new capacity, moving to a model where Microsoft has a right of first refusal (ROFR),” Microsoft says. “To further support OpenAI, Microsoft has approved OpenAI’s ability to build additional capacity, primarily for research and training of models.”The foundation of their relationship (which runs through 2030) stays pretty much the same — Microsoft keeps its exclusive rights to OpenAI’s tech for products like Copilot, and OpenAI’s API remains exclusive to Azure. They’ll maintain their two-way revenue-sharing setup (it's been reported that Microsoft gets 20 percent of OpenAI’s revenue). Prior to today’s change, OpenAI was locked into using Microsoft’s Azure cloud infrastructure exclusively for its computing needs. The news follows the announcement of a joint venture between Arm, Microsoft, Nvidia, Oracle, and OpenAI to build a system of data centers in the U.S. called Starbase.The models OpenAI hopes to build and the user base it's looking to serve require billions of dollars in compute. It has been previously reported that some OpenAI shareholders felt Microsoft wasn’t moving fast enough to supply OpenAI with computing power, hence why the startup partnered with Oracle back in June (with the blessing of Microsoft) for the necessary compute.There’s been a lot of buzz about Microsoft and OpenAI facing relationship woes after OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was briefly ousted from the company, causing a lot of very public drama. The New York Times reported that the relationship has grown increasingly strained due to financial pressures at OpenAI, concerns about stability, and growing friction between employees at both companies.Last March, Microsoft hired Inflection CEO Mustafa Suleyman to lead its consumer AI efforts, along with most of Inflection’s staff, in a $650 million deal. According to The New York Times report, this move particularly angered some OpenAI leadership, including Altman.OpenAI’s deal with Microsoft also has an unusual escape clause: if OpenAI creates artificial general intelligence (AGI), it could close off Microsoft’s access to some of its most powerful models developed after that point. AGI, reportedly, is defined as a system capable of generating more than $100 billion in profits. This was originally meant to keep such powerful AI from being commercialized, but now OpenAI is reportedly considering dropping this provision, likely to secure more Microsoft funding.

Image: Paramount The fourth Sonic movie now has an official release date: March 19th, 2027, according to Variety. Right around the release of the very successful Sonic the Hedgehog 3 last December, news hit that Sonic the Hedgehog 4 was in the works, but at the time, the movie only had a spring 2027 release window.Sonic films have drawn all-star cast members over the years, such as Jim Carrey as Dr. Robotnik, who has played the role in all three of the movies, Idris Elba as Knuckles, and Keanu Reeves as Shadow. And a post-credits scene for the third movie hints that other fan favorites could join the series (spoilers in that link!), so there might be big casting announcements ahead for the fourth Sonic film.The March 2027 date for Sonic The Hedgehog 4 means it will launch well after The Super Mario Bros. Movie sequel, which is set to debut on April 3rd, 2026.

A video on Nintendo’s Switch 2 website shows how the trigger (or is it a button?) on the back of the Joy-Con controllers disconnects them from the console, as spotted by Polygon.In the video, the trigger is pressed down a tad before a final push releases it from the console. As the Joy-Con moves away, you can also see a small cylinder receding back into the top part of the inside of the controller; to me, that indicates that when you push the trigger, you’re actually pushing out that cylinder to help bump the Joy-Con out. Here’s a GIF of the relevant part of the video: GIF by Andrew Liszewski / The Verge The mechanism to remove the Joy-Con controllers looks similar to what was included in a 3D-printed mockup that accessories-maker Genki brought to CES.However, as for how the controllers actually stay attached to the Switch 2, Nintendo so far hasn’t said if the console uses magnets, as has been rumored. It’s one of many unanswered questions — hopefully, all will be revealed at Nintendo’s Switch 2-focused Direct on April 2nd.

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Netflix is raising prices yet again. In its latest earnings report released Tuesday, the streaming service announced that “we are adjusting prices today across most plans” in the US, Canada, Portugal, and Argentina.Netflix spokesperson MoMo Zhou tells The Verge that the ad-supported tier is increasing from $6.99 to $7.99 per month, while the standard ad-free tier will go from $15.49 to $17.99 per month. Its highest-priced premium tier is also increasing from $22.99 to $24.99 per month. The price hikes will go into effect during subscribers’ next billing cycle, according to Zhou.“As we continue to invest in programming and deliver more value for our members, we will occasionally ask our members to pay a little more so that we can re-invest to further improve Netflix,” the company’s letter to investors says. Netflix last raised the price of its subscription in October 2023. This is also the first time it’s raising the price of this ad-supported plan, which it rolled out in 2022.Netflix added 19 million new subscribers over the past few months — the most in its history during a single quarter — bringing its global total to 300 million. This is the last time Netflix will reveal how many subscribers it added during the quarter, as the company said last year that it would only announce “major subscriber milestones as we cross them” starting in the first quarter of 2025.Even with a subscriber count reaching new highs, and operating income ballooning past $10 billion for the first time, Netflix executives believe the company still has room for growth. The company’s letter to investors says it accounts for less than 10 percent of TV viewing in the countries it’s available in, “which suggests a long runway for growth as streaming continues to expand around the world.”Along with the price hike, Netflix announced that it’s rolling out a new Extra Member with Ads plan, which will allow those on the ad-supported plan to add someone outside their household to their subscription. It currently costs an extra $7.99 per month to add someone outside your household to an ad-free plan.The streamer ended 2024 with a strong content lineup that included new seasons of Squid Game and the League of Legends spinoff Arcane.Netflix’s approach to live content has also gotten more aggressive within the past several weeks, as it has gone from airing “sports-adjacent” events like a golf tournament that paired PGA players with Formula One drivers to full-blown NFL games featuring performances from Beyoncé and Mariah Carey. But Netflix notes that it’s “not focusing on acquiring rights to large regular season sports packages; rather, our live strategy is all about delivering can’t-miss, special event programming.”Despite running into some hiccups, the streamer also touted “record-breaking” viewership numbers for last year’s live boxing match between Mike Tyson and Jake Paul, while its WWE debut with Monday Night Raw locked in 4.9 million views, according to The Hollywood Reporter.Update, January 21st: Added information from Netflix.

Image: The White House (YouTube) A plan to build a system of data centers for artificial intelligence has been revealed in a White House press conference, with Masayoshi Son, Sam Altman, and Larry Ellison joining Donald Trump to announce The Stargate Project. Their companies, Softbank, OpenAI, and Oracle (respectively), along with MGX are listed as “initial equity funders” for $500 billion in investments over the next four years, “building new AI infrastructure for OpenAI in the United States.”According to a statement from OpenAI, “Arm, Microsoft, NVIDIA, Oracle, and OpenAI” are the initial tech partners, with a buildout “currently underway” starting in Texas as other sites across the country are evaluated. It also says that “Oracle, NVIDIA, and OpenAI will closely collaborate to build and operate this computing system.”Separately, Microsoft announced an update to its partnership with OpenAI, saying that the key elements of their deal remain in place through 2030, covering “our access to OpenAI’s IP, our revenue sharing arrangements and our exclusivity on OpenAI’s APIs all continuing forward.” What is changing is that Microsoft says OpenAI has made a “new, large Azure commitment that will continue to support all OpenAI products as well as training.” However, their exclusive arrangement for new capacity is changing so that now Microsoft has a right of first refusal over OpenAI building new capacity.In a press conference announcing the project, which has been rumored since early last year, Son and Altman spoke directly to Trump, insisting that the project only happened because of his election victory.

Image: The Verge President Donald Trump says he’d be open to his buddies Elon Musk or Larry Ellison buying TikTok.“Larry, let’s negotiate in front of the media,” Trump said at a press conference with the Oracle co-founder, SoftBank CEO Masa Son, and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman to announce a $500 billion artificial intelligence infrastructure investment. “What I’m thinking about saying to somebody is, buy it, and give half to the United States of America. Half, and we’ll give you the permit. And they’ll have a great partner, the United States.”“Sounds like a good deal to me, Mr. President,” Ellison said.It’s still not entirely clear how all of this would work, or how the US could legally operate a speech platform without violating the First Amendment. But it’s one of the earliest examples of how Silicon Valley’s coziness with Trump could manifest over the next four years. Trump signed an executive order on Monday instructing his administration not to enforce the law on service providers covered by the forced divestiture bill — which include Oracle, Apple, and Google — for 75 days. But legal experts say the action provides hardly any legal cover for those companies to violate federal law and risk $850 billion in penalties. Even so, Oracle has appeared to rely on Trump’s assurances to help TikTok run in the US after the January 19th sale deadline, though the company has not yet commented on it directly. TikTok’s China-based parent company ByteDance still has other offers on the table, including from billionaire Frank McCourt’s Project Liberty and now, apparently, from YouTube creator MrBeast — whose investor group is receiving legal counsel from a team that includes the brother of Trump’s attorney general pick.As he was leaving the briefing, a reporter asked Trump if he has TikTok on his phone. “No, but I think I might put it there,” Trump responded. “I think I’ll get it right now.”

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