Another San Diego Comic-Con has come and gone, and while there were no explosive reveals like last year's surprise appearance of Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom, there were quite a few interesting developments. That includes several Star Trek spinoffs, a new sci-fi show on Apple TV Plus, trailers for everything from Peacemaker to Gen V, and a surprising amount of Stephen King.Here's everything notable that you might have missed.Meet Pavi, the new AvatarWe've got our first look at Nickelodeon's newest entry in the animated Avatar franchise, and while Seven Havens doesn't have a firm release date just yet, we now know that Pavi (the new …Read the full story at The Verge.

A laptop from 2017 wasn't most people’s idea of a device upgrade, yet it was exactly what Jessica Nicholson had been looking for. Content with her find, she added it to her online cart and clicked “check out.” The digital receipt recited her purchase: a Lenovo ThinkPad X270 for NZ$170 (~US$102), around a tenth of the cost of her iPad Pro.

Microsoft is starting to comply with the UK’s Online Safety Act by prompting Xbox players to verify their age today. The prompts will be shown to Xbox players who indicate they’re over the age of 18 and will be shown when you sign into an Xbox account in the UK. Microsoft says it’s also exploring bringing similar age verification tools to other countries in the future.To power the age verification in the UK, Microsoft is partnering with Yoti, which is one of the services that hasn’t fallen victim to the Death Stranding photo mode bypass. While the age verification checks are optional right now, they will become a requirement to access a variety of Xbox services in early 2026, when additional parts of the UK’s Online Safety Act come into force.“Starting early next year, age verification will be required for these players in the UK to retain full access to social features on Xbox, such as voice or text communication and game invites,” explains Kim Kunes, vice president of gaming trust and safety at Xbox. If you don’t verify your age between now and early next year, social features “will become limited to friends only” until the age verification process has been completed.“Whether a player verifies their age will not affect any previous purchases, entitlements, gameplay history, achievements, or the ability to play and purchase games, however we encourage players to verify their age via this one-time process now to avoid uninterrupted use of social features on Xbox in the future,” Kunes says.While this is limited to Xbox players in the UK right now, Kunes says, “We expect to roll out age verification processes to more regions in the future.” Microsoft isn’t revealing which other regions will get similar age verification requirements, but Kunes does note that “these methods may look different across regions and experiences.”If you’re in the UK, then you can verify your age for your Xbox account online through Microsoft, where you can use a selfie, a scan of your passport or driver’s license, a credit card check, or a mobile number.

One AI trend you might've noticed lately in browsers is that they're getting more and more AI features. For instance, not too long ago, Opera announced an absolutely futuristic browser called Opera Neon, which can perform tasks for you. Similarly, Perplexity's AI Chromium-based browser, Comet, has been making headlines lately and is built around the same concept as Opera Neon.

There's been a lot of expectation around Windows 12 ever since it was first believed to be coming in 2024. That excitement kind of came and went when Microsoft confirmed the 2024 update was going to be called Windows 11 version 24H2 and there wasn't as much of a break from the existing OS as some had hoped for.

Tractive is offering Whistle users a free replacement pet tracker. | Image: Tractive Tractive, an Austrian company that makes smart location and activity trackers for dogs and cats, is expanding its presence in the US by acquiring a competitor, Whistle, from Mars Petcare. As a result of the acquisition, the Whistle platform is being shut down and its pet tracking devices will stop working on August 31st, 2025. Existing Whistle customers can get a free Tractive tracker as a replacement, while remaining subscriptions “will transfer to your new Tractive device,” according to the Tractive website.The free replacement devices will only be available until September 30th, 2025 and will require Whistle users to register on Tractive’s platform through its website, select a new Tractive subscription, and provide the serial number of their current Whistle tracker.Tractive is also honoring remaining Whistle plans but will be adding the remaining time to new Tractive subscriptions. According to an FAQ the company shared about the acquisition, if you have over two months remaining on an active Whistle plan, your remaining subscription time will be transferred to your new Tractive plan and you won’t be charged immediately. If there’s less than two months remaining, you’ll need to pay for a new Tractive plan at sign up but you’ll get two free months of service (no matter how much time you have left) added automatically. The company’s Basic subscription plan starts at $108 if you subscribe for just one year, but a two year plan is discounted to $144. That includes GPS location tracking, heart and respiratory rate monitoring, bark tracking, virtual fences and escape alerts, and activity and sleep monitoring. The pricier Premium plan is $120 for one year, $168 for two years, or $300 for five years and adds features like family sharing so additional people can track a pet, worldwide cellular coverage, year long location history, and the option to export the GPS data.Although remaining Whistle subscriptions are being honored, Whistle device warranties are not. When the trackers are shut down at the end of August they will no longer be supported. However, the free replacement devices that Tractive is offering will come with their own two year warranties.

An app designed to help women spot the "red flags" of men they date has incidentally put its users at risk. 404 Media reported that Tea was hacked by 4chan users last week, resulting in the selfies and driver's licenses of its mostly women users being posted to 4chan. An independent researcher for 404 Media has since discovered that messages between users discussing infidelity, abortion, and personal phone numbers are also vulnerable to hackers.Tea was founded by software developer Sean Cook, who said he was inspired to create an anonymous whisper network after witnessing his own mother's "terrifying" dating experiences with men. It was al …Read the full story at The Verge.

Another user has reported their Pixel 6A catching fire — but this time, it appears to have occurred after applying Google’s recent battery performance update that was intended to prevent overheating issues, as spotted by Android Authority. In a post on Reddit, a Pixel 6A user says they awoke to a “horrible smell and a loud noise,” which is when they discovered their device on fire while charging atop the nightstand next to them.The Redditor says the device was plugged into a 45W charger for the Steam Deck when it caught fire, melting the phone’s screen and case. “The phone was sitting less than 40 cms away from my head on my nightstand,” u/footymanageraddict says in the post. “Sheets caught on fire. My ac (a floor unit) had damages on its surface from the fire. My throat hurt the whole day from the fumes i inhaled.”Google didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.After several reports of Pixel 6A fires emerged earlier this year, Google released a mandatory software update designed to reduce battery capacity and charging performance after 400 charge cycles. Google also began offering a free battery replacement for eligible devices. This Reddit user says they applied the mandatory update, but they didn’t replace their battery because they had no walk-in replacement options available in their country and could only mail in their device.As noted by Android Authority, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission warned customers last week that Pixel 6A devices may have an “overheating battery” that “could pose a risk of fire and/or burns to a user,” adding that “incidents have occurred resulting in serious burn injuries.”

People across the United Kingdom have been faced with a censored and partially inaccessible online landscape since the country introduced its latest digital safety rules on Friday.The Online Safety Act mandates that web service operators must use "highly effective" age verification measures to stop kids from accessing a wide range of material, on penalty of heavy fines and criminal action against senior managers. It's primarily focused on pornography and content that promotes suicide, self-harm, or eating disorders, but the scope of "priority content" also includes materials related to bullying, abusive or hateful content, and dangerous st …Read the full story at The Verge.

Yep, we're talking about CPU bottlenecks again. The B word is one of the scariest things for the average gamer, so much so that people waste too much time on bottleneck calculators without understanding the phenomenon. Unusually high CPU usage is often shorthand for a CPU bottleneck, but this alone isn't enough to warrant panic attacks and frantic CPU upgrades. You need to realize that a few other scenarios can easily account for high CPU usage without using "CPU bottleneck" as the underlying cause.

If you have a Windows computer, chances are that OneDrive is your preferred cloud storage platform. Since it's integrated tightly with Windows, OneDrive makes it easy to sync your files, create backups of important data, and access them natively on all Windows PCs signed in with the same Microsoft account. Moreover, lots of businesses across the globe use Microsoft's work apps, like Outlook, Teams, OneNote, etc. OneDrive syncs with all of them, too, connecting all the services seamlessly. While using OneDrive is definitely convenient, it comes with its own set of flaws. For starters, it's not free. You need to pay for storage, and the costs can be rather high, depending on your requirements. Then, there's the risk of storing your files on a remote server. Owing to this, I started looking for a solution that could solve both these problems.

Mini PCs are all the rage right now. I know our João Carrasqueira loves using them as a desktop PC replacement, and they have their uses in an office setting, but they can also be excellent for gaming and even creating a home lab. I currently use a GMKtek mini PC as a retro gaming machine for the big screen with Steam loaded and some lighter multiplayer games ready to go. It's brilliant, and the same goes for using one as a network-attached storage (NAS). Although most mini PCs only have limited storage options, they can prove great for building a DIY NAS with external storage.