Playasia, a popular retailer for buying video games, toys, and more from Asia, says that it “does not expect” the Trump administration’s planned import rule changes on Chinese-made goods to apply to “game-related orders” because “those orders will not include Chinese-manufactured goods.”On May 2nd, the Trump administration is planning to end the de minimis exemption that allows imports under $800 to enter the US duty-free and is set to impose new tariffs on goods imported from China.But “the most important piece of information for game collectors to know is that video games are not manufactured in China,” the company says in its post on X. “Video games are currently primarily manufactured in Japan, with few exceptions being manufactured in Southeast Asia.”Playasia also says that “many other categories are very similar to video games in that the products are primarily produced outside of China, such as: game soundtracks, books, and movies.” But the company is planning to add a “country of origin” field to product pages in the “coming weeks.”“Most products on sale at Playasia are not of Chinese-manufacturing origin,” Playasia says. But it will “clarify” the “situation regarding importing” after May 2nd.

Your password is the first line of defense for your online data, regardless of its type. Best practices suggest using a different password for each website and using long, complex passwords with random character strings. Needless to say, that's a lot to remember, and many people skip this part and use only a handful of passwords for all their accounts. That method might be easier, but it leaves you open to unwanted access. Just think: if someone obtained your email password, they might then go on to try the same combination on PayPal. If you don't have a different login, then someone just gained access to your finances.

Duolingo co-founder and CEO Luis von Ahn. | Photo: Getty ImagesDuolingo will “gradually stop using contractors to do work that AI can handle,” according to an all-hands email sent by co-founder and CEO Luis von Ahn announcing that the company will be “AI-first.” The email was posted on Duolingo’s LinkedIn account.According to von Ahn, being “AI-first” means the company will “need to rethink much of how we work” and that “making minor tweaks to systems designed for humans won’t get us there.” As part of the shift, the company will roll out “a few constructive constraints,” including the changes to how it works with contractors, looking for AI use in hiring and in performance reviews, and that “headcount will only be given if a team cannot automate more of their work.”von Ahn says that “Duolingo will remain a company that cares deeply about its employees” and that “this isn’t about replacing Duos with AI.” Instead, he says that the changes are “about removing bottlenecks” so that employees can “focus on creative work and real problems, not repetitive tasks.”“AI isn’t just a productivity boost,” von Ahn says. “It helps us get closer to our mission. To teach well, we need to create a massive amount of content, and doing that manually doesn’t scale. One of the best decisions we made recently was replacing a slow, manual content creation process with one powered by AI. Without AI, it would take us decades to scale our content to more learners. We owe it to our learners to get them this content ASAP.”von Ahn’s email follows a similar memo Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke sent to employees and recently shared online. In that memo, Lütke said that before teams asked for more headcount or resources, they needed to show “why they cannot get what they want done using AI.”Here’s the text of von Ahn’s memo from Duolingo’s LinkedIn post:I’ve said this in Q&As and many meetings, but I want to make it official: Duolingo is going to be AI-first.AI is already changing how work gets done. It’s not a question of if or when. It’s happening now. When there’s a shift this big, the worst thing you can do is wait. In 2012, we bet on mobile. While others were focused on mobile companion apps for websites, we decided to build mobile-first because we saw it was the future. That decision helped us win the 2013 iPhone App of the Year and unlocked the organic word-of-mouth growth that followed.Betting on mobile made all the difference. We’re making a similar call now, and this time the platform shift is AI.AI isn’t just a productivity boost. It helps us get closer to our mission. To teach well, we need to create a massive amount of content, and doing that manually doesn’t scale. One of the best decisions we made recently was replacing a slow, manual content creation process with one powered by AI. Without AI, it would take us decades to scale our content to more learners. We owe it to our learners to get them this content ASAP.AI also helps us build features like Video Call that were impossible to build before. For the first time ever, teaching as well as the best human tutors is within our reach.Being AI-first means we will need to rethink much of how we work. Making minor tweaks to systems designed for humans won’t get us there. In many cases, we’ll need to start from scratch. We’re not going to rebuild everything overnight, and some things-like getting AI to understand our codebase-will take time. However, we can’t wait until the technology is 100% perfect. We’d rather move with urgency and take occasional small hits on quality than move slowly and miss the moment.We’ll be rolling out a few constructive constraints to help guide this shift:We’ll gradually stop using contractors to do work that AI can handleAI use will be part of what we look for in hiringAI use will be part of what we evaluate in performance reviewsHeadcount will only be given if a team cannot automate more of their workMost functions will have specific initiatives to fundamentally change how they workAll of this said, Duolingo will remain a company that cares deeply about its employees. This isn’t about replacing Duos with AI. It’s about removing bottlenecks so we can do more with the outstanding Duos we already have. We want you to focus on creative work and real problems, not repetitive tasks. We’re going to support you with more training, mentorship, and tooling for AI in your function.Change can be scary, but I’m confident this will be a great step for Duolingo. It will help us better deliver on our mission — and for Duos, it means staying ahead of the curve in using this technology to get things done.–Luis

How many Raspberry Pis are too many? Trick question, there is no upper limit. And if you ever feel bad about how many SBCs you have littering your home, you can, at least, take refuge in the fact that you don't own 1,050 of them. Or at least, I hope.

For those who are locked into the Google ecosystem, it can be hard to escape. It's incredibly convenient, and with everything available on all of your devices, it can be hard to find a compelling reason to switch. However, I've finally made the jump to my own self-hosted services, away from Google, and the truth is that it's better.

M.2 SSDs have been the go-to choice for storage for a number of years now, and provide an experience that many feel is far superior to older storage devices. Of course, there are a number of different options that you can go with, but it's important for most to find that sweet spot between performance and price.

As 3D printing develops over the years, we're seeing more and more amazing hardware getting printed on our platters. However, what if I told you that you could 3D print a robotic arm? Okay, so you don't print all of it; there are still some components you need to acquire before you can get it working. But still, you can 3D print the body.

As someone who likes to work in security, I get incredibly frustrated with poor security practices. While most users have nothing to worry about in general, there are still common attack vectors out there that attackers can and will exploit when given the chance. It's essentially a path of least resistance; where there's a possible attack vector in your network and there isn't on another, it's easier to go for the one that's possible, rather than looking for one that might be possible. That's why I plead with you to stop exposing your Internet of Things (IoT) devices to the internet.

Star Wars: Battlefront is a first- and third-person shooter released in 2004. | Image: Pandemic Studios / LucasArtsThe PC gaming platform GOG is adding a bunch of classic Star Wars games to its preservation program, which aims to keep older games playable on modern systems. The games joining the program include: Star Wars: Dark Forces (Classic, 1995)Star Wars: X-Wing Special Edition (1993)Star Wars: TIE Fighter Special Edition (1994)Star Wars: Battlefront (Classic, 2004) Star Wars: Rebel Assault 1 + 2 (1993 and 1995)First announced last November, GOG’s game preservation program includes 162 DRM-free games, such as Breath of Fire IV, Diablo, System Shock 2, and Resident Evil 1-3. GOG maintains these games so that they work on “current and future” Windows systems, and also offers tech support.As another added benefit, preserved titles will remain accessible even if GOG removes them from its store. GOG says it hopes to have “hundreds” of games in the program by the end of this year.You can check out the newly added Star Wars games on GOG’s game preservation webpage, and they’re all currently 75 percent off until May 6th.

Webcams have become an important tool for many, especially as more and more meetings and calls are held online. And while your webcam is most likely going to be okay, it could also most likely be much better. Now, it's easy to splurge over $100 and get great results, but what we're after here is something that achieves roughly the same performance boost but doesn't cost a whole lot.

Windows Vista had it rough. Looking back, it had the misfortune of being the operating system stuck between Windows XP, a legendary OS, and Windows 7, another legendary OS. And while we can argue until the sun sets over whether XP or 7 was the better operating system, you'll find very few that want to debate that Vista was the best of the three.

While your router sends data between devices on your home network, DNS servers do a similar job for the internet, providing a lookup table between human-readable URLs like xda-developers.com to the IP addresses your web browser uses to get data. It's a simple-sounding system that's incredibly complicated underneath the macro view, and most of the time, it works to keep the internet connected.