EngadgetModify

2026-01-29 06:29:00

Mark Zuckerberg says there's an end in sight to Reality Labs' years of multibillion-dollar losses following the company's layoffs to the metaverse division earlier this year. The CEO said he expects to "gradually reduce" how much money the company is losing as it doubles down on AI glasses and shifts away from virtual reality.

Speaking during Meta's fourth-quarter earnings call, Zuckerberg was clear that the changes won't happen soon, but sounded optimistic about the division that lost more than $19 billion in 2025 alone. "For Reality Labs, we are directing most of our investment towards glasses and wearables going forward, while focusing on making Horizon a massive success on mobile and making VR a profitable ecosystem over the coming years," he said. "I expect Reality Labs losses this year to be similar to last year, and this will likely be the peak, as we start to gradually reduce our losses going forward."

The company cut more than 1,000 employees from Reality Labs earlier this month, shut down three VR studios and announced plans to retire its app for VR meetings. Meta has also paused plans for third-party Horizon OS headsets. Instead, Meta is doubling down on its smart glasses and and wearables business, which tie in more neatly to Zuckerberg's vision for creating AI "superintelligence." 

During the call, Zuckerberg noted that sales of Meta's smart glasses "more than tripled" in 2025, and hinted at bigger plans for AR glasses. "They're [AI glasses] going to be able to see what you see, hear what you hear, talk to you and help you as you go about your day and even show you information or generate custom UI right there in your vision," he said. 

Developing…

2026-01-29 06:23:52

Patreon creators will need to make some changes soon, thanks to Apple. On Wednesday, Patreon said Apple has renewed its requirement that all Patreon creators must move to subscription billing. The deadline to do so is November 1, 2026.

Patreon's blog post announcing the change made it clear that it had no other choice. "We strongly disagree with this decision," the company wrote. "Creators need consistency and clarity in order to build healthy, long-term businesses. Instead, creators using legacy billing will now have to endure the whiplash of another policy reversal — the third such change from Apple in the past 18 months."

Up to this point, Patreon’s billing model has operated in a gray area, allowing its creators to charge fans outside the App Store without paying Apple’s fees. When the issue first surfaced, TechCrunch described it as stemming from how paid content was accessed (only some creators offered content that could be consumed in-app). On Wednesday, a Patreon representative described the gray area as being “because Apple’s In-App Purchase system doesn’t support some of Patreon’s longstanding billing models.”

But now Apple has reimposed its subscription mandate, eliminating the gray area. "We know that Apple is serious about enforcing this mandate," Patreon wrote. "Late last year, they blocked a Patreon app update and made it clear that in order to remain in the App Store, we have to comply with their billing requirement. Because millions of fans use iOS as their primary way to access Patreon and connect with creators, having our app blocked — or not available in the App Store at all — isn't an option."

Patreon’s "whiplash" description isn't hyperbole. Apple first announced the mandate in 2024. At that time, the deadline for all Patreon creators to make the switch was set to November 2025 — one that Patreon grudgingly accepted. But according to the company, Apple told it last May that the original 2025 deadline was no longer in effect. Now, it appears to have reversed that again.

If there's a silver lining, TechCrunch notes that only 4 percent of Patreon creators are using the affected (legacy) billing models. And fans can still bypass Apple's fees on iOS by joining via their iPhone's web browser. Patreon has much more detail for creators in its announcement post.

Chip Somodevilla via Getty Images

As for Apple, well, this familiar role of "Big, Bad App Store Taxman" pales in comparison to some of its other recent headlines. For starters, there was its removal of the ICEBlock app (and another that logged ICE arrest recordings) in October. At least as concerning is an app category that the “Privacy is a human right” company won't remove. Grok, X and (reportedly) dozens of other apps now allow iPhone owners to "digitally undress" real people, including children. 28 advocacy groups even called on the company to remove them, to no avail.

To top it all off, Tim Cook decided that Saturday — the day Alex Pretti was shot and killed by federal agents — would be a good time to attend the screening of Melania at the White House. He even posed for a selfie with accused rapist Brett Ratner, the film’s director.

Update, January 28, 2026, 5:22 PM ET: This story has been updated to clarify how the Patreon app operated in a gray area before Apple’s changes.

2026-01-29 05:33:11

Researchers using the James Webb Space Telescope have found a galaxy that is offering new data about the early stages of the universe's existence. The latest discovery shared by astronomers is about a bright galaxy dubbed MoM-z14. According to the team, this galaxy existed 280 million years after the Big Bang. 

The sounds like a long time, but in the context of the universe's estimated 13.8 billion years of existence, that's actually one of the closest examples astronomers have found to the Big Bang's occurrence. As a result, MoM-z14 can offer some insights and some surprises about what the early stages of the universe entailed.

"With Webb, we are able to see farther than humans ever have before, and it looks nothing like what we predicted, which is both challenging and exciting," lead author Rohan Naidu of Massachusetts Institute of Technology said. The findings about this galaxy were published in the Open Journal of Astrophysics.

The scientists were able to date MoM-z14 with Webb's Near-Infrared Spectrograph instrument, analyzing how light from the galaxy changed wavelengths as it traveled to reach the telescope. One of the initial questions sparked by this bright galaxy centers on the presence of nitrogen. Some early galaxies, including MoM-z14, have revealed higher nitrogen concentrations than scientists had projected was possible. Another topic of interest is about reionization, or the process of stars producing enough light or energy to permeate the dense hydrogen fog that existed in the early universe. 

“It’s an incredibly exciting time, with Webb revealing the early Universe like never before and showing us how much there still is to discover” said Pennsylvania State University graduate student and team member Yijia Li.

2026-01-29 04:51:00

We’ve somehow almost reached the end of January already, which means it’s time for Sony to divulge the list of PlayStation Plus Monthly Games for February. They are Undisputed, Subnautica: Below Zero, Ultros and Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown. If you have a PS Plus subscription on any tier, you can claim these starting on February 3. After claiming them, these games will stay in your library as long as your PS Plus plan remains active. 

Undisputed (PS5) is a 2024 boxing game with dozens of licensed fighters across several weight classes. They include legendary figures like Muhammad Ali and Sugar Ray Robinson as well as modern greats including Canelo Alvarez and Oleksandr Usyk. 

Subnautica: Below Zero (PS4 and PS5) is a spin-off from adventure survival game Subnautica. It has more land-based areas to explore than the original game and you’ll need to keep an eye on a body temperature meter to make sure you stay warm enough. 

I’ve been meaning to check out Ultros (PS4 and PS5) for a while and its inclusion here is almost enough to make me want to re-subscribe to PS Plus. It's a Metroidvania with a striking neon palette. As for Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown (PS4), that could be a good way for folks to dip back into the long-running combat flight sim series (or try it for the first time) before Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve arrives later this year.

PS Plus subscribers still have until February 2 to add the Monthly Games for January to their library. Those are Need For Speed Unbound, Disney Epic Mickey: Rebrushed and Core Keeper.

2026-01-29 02:32:06

Music hardware and software manufacturer Native Instruments has entered into preliminary insolvency proceedings, according to a report by Create Digital Music. This is the company behind iconic software like Massive, Traktor and Kontakt and hardware like Maschine+. Native Instruments also owns the brands iZotope, Brainworx and Plugin Alliance.

We don't have many specifics as to what this entails and what the future of the company will look like. We do know that an administrator has been appointed to handle restructuring and, potentially, to sell off existing assets. Native Instruments employs hundreds of people and their fates also remain uncertain.

A private equity firm called Francisco Partners owns a majority stake in the company. It also owns majority stakes in entities like GoodRX and Verifone, among others. This isn't the first time Native Instruments has been forced into major restructuring. The company experienced plenty of layoffs and uncertainty between 2019 and 2020 before being purchased by private equity.

Again, we have no idea how this will shake out. It's possible that new investors will jump on board and it goes back to business as usual. It's also possible everything will be scrapped for parts and sold to the highest bidder.

We do know that subsidiary Plugin Alliance seems to be unaffected. It issued a statement on Facebook saying that it isn't involved with the proceedings and that operations will continue as normal. This means new plugins will be released, along with updates for current software.

Everything else is still up in the air. This is troubling for those who have heavily invested in the company's ecosystem of products. I'm one of them. Any hope I had for a hardware refresh of the Maschine+ just went out the window.

If the company's robust line of software goes up for sale, Akai is likely the best bet. It has already begun incorporating Native Instruments software into MPC machines.

2026-01-29 02:00:00

Following its recent AI makeover of Gmail, Google is bringing more Gemini-powered tools to Chrome. Starting today, a host of new features are rolling out for the browser, with more to come over the next few months. 

The first of the new features is a sidebar. Available to all Gemini in Chrome users, the interface allows you to chat with Gemini and keep a conversation going across multiple tabs. Google suggests the sidebar is useful for multitaskers. "Our testers have been using it for all sorts of things: comparing options across too-many-tabs, summarizing product reviews across different sites, and helping find time for events in even the most chaotic of calendars," the company writes. 

Google

The sidebar is also where you access the second new feature Google is adding to Chrome. Following its successful rollout within the Gemini app, Nano Banana, Google's in-house image generator, is available directly inside of the browser. With the addition, you won't need to open a new tab when you want Gemini to make you an AI image. You also won't need to download and upload a file when you want Gemini to edit an existing image for you. Instead, you can complete both of those tasks from any of your open tabs, thanks to the new sidebar.    

Looking forward, Google plans to bring Personal Intelligence, which debuted inside of the Gemini app at the start of January, to Chrome in the coming months. Once the feature arrives, it will allow the browser to remember past conversations you've had with Gemini. In turn, Google says this will lead to a more personalized Chrome. "Personal Intelligence in Chrome transforms the browsing experience from a general purpose tool into a trusted partner that understands you and provides relevant, proactive, and context-aware assistance," the company said.

In the meantime, Gemini in Chrome already supports Google's Connected Apps feature, which allows the assistant to pull information from the company's other services, including Gmail and Calendar. During a press briefing, a Google employee demoed this feature by asking Gemini to pull up the dates of when their children would be on March break. Without telling the assistant where to look, Gemini sourced the correct time frame from the employee's email inbox.    

Google

Last but not least, Google is previewing a new auto browse feature inside of Chrome. In the demo the company showed, an employee asked Gemini to find and buy them the same winter jacket they bought a few seasons ago. The assistant first drafted a plan outlining how best to tackle the request. It reasoned the best place to start was with a search of the employee's email inbox to determine the correct model and size of jacket. It then went shopping.

While Gemini was working on this task, the employee was free to continue browsing in Chrome. At several points in the process, the assistant would stop before continuing to obtain the employee's permission to move forward. For instance, it paused when it needed login credentials, and again when it needed a credit card number to complete the purchase. 

Judging from the demo, it will probably take you less time to do your online shopping and other browser tasks on your own. Google suggests the feature will appeal to those who are creatures of habit. Say you often order the same produce from a grocery delivery service every week, Gemini can automate the ordering. Plus, the feature is in preview, so early testers probably won't be too put off by Gemini's slow pace. In any case, Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers in the US can try auto browse starting today.