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2026-02-22 04:34:01

The Stop Killing Games campaign is evolving into more than just a movement. In a YouTube video, the campaign's creator, Ross Scott, explained that organizers are planning to establish two non-governmental organizations, one for the European Union and another for the US. According to Scott, these NGOs would allow for "long-term counter lobbying" when publishers end support for certain video games.

"Let me start off by saying I think we're going to win this, namely the problem of publishers destroying video games that you've already paid for," Scott said in the video. According to Scott, the NGOs will work on getting the original Stop Killing Games petition codified into EU law, while also pursuing more watchdog actions, like setting up a system to report publishers for revoking access to purchased video games.

The Stop Killing Games campaign started as a reaction to Ubisoft's delisting of The Crew from players' libraries. The controversial decision stirred up concerns about how publishers have the ultimate say on delisting video games. After crossing a million signatures last year, the movement's leadership has been busy exploring the next steps.

According to Scott, the campaign leadership will meet with the European Commission soon, but is also working on a 500-page legal paper that reveals some of the industry's current controversial practices. In the meantime, the ongoing efforts have led to a change of heart from Ubisoft since the publisher updated The Crew 2 with an offline mode. 

2026-02-22 03:19:16

The government agency that sends its corps members abroad to volunteer in foreign countries launched its latest initiative called Tech Corps. The Peace Corps' latest proposal will recruit STEM graduates or those with professional experience in the artificial intelligence sector and send them to participating host countries.

According to the press release, volunteers will be placed in Peace Corps countries that are part of the American AI Exports Program, which was created last year from an executive order from President Trump as a way to bolster the US' grip on the AI market abroad. Tech Corps members will be tasked with using AI to resolve issues related to agriculture, education, health and economic development. The program will offer its members 12- to 27-month in-person assignments or virtual placements, which will include housing, healthcare, a living stipend and a volunteer service award if the corps member is placed overseas.

Richard E. Swarttz, the acting director of the Peace Corps, said in a press release that Tech Corps volunteers will be "building technical capacity, supporting AI adoption across critical use cases and addressing barriers to last-mile AI implementation." While the Tech Corps program is framed at benefiting host countries, it would also help to secure the US' position in the rapidly expanding global AI market that includes growing competition from China.

2026-02-22 01:45:50

Tesla is still on the hook for $243 million after a US judge rejected the EV maker's bid to overturn a jury verdict from last year. On Friday, US District Judge Beth Bloom upheld the jury's decision to hold Tesla partially responsible for a deadly crash that happened in 2019 and involved the self-driving Autopilot feature.

The judge added that there was enough evidence to support the jury's verdict, which was delivered in August 2025 and ordered Tesla to pay millions in compensatory and punitive damages to the two victims in the case. Judge Bloom added that Tesla didn't present any new arguments to dispute the decision. 

While the case has been moving along recently, the incident dates back to several years ago when the driver of a Model S, George McGee, was using Tesla's Autopilot feature while bending down to retrieve a dropped phone. The Model S then crashed into an SUV that was parked on a shoulder, where Naibel Benavides Leon and Dillon Angulo were standing aside. Benavides was killed in the crash, while Angulo was severely injured.

Tesla hasn't publicly commented on Judge Bloom's decision yet, but it won't be a surprise to see the company appeal the latest ruling with a higher court. Tesla's lawyers previously tried to pin the blame on the driver, claiming that the Model S and Autopilot weren't defective. As this major case plays out, Tesla is also facing several investigations from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for both its Autopilot and Full-Self Driving features.

2026-02-22 00:58:50

A recent Amazon Web Services (AWS) outage that lasted 13 hours was reportedly caused by one of its own AI tools, according to reporting by Financial Times. This happened in December after engineers deployed the Kiro AI coding tool to make certain changes, say four people familiar with the matter.

Kiro is an agentic tool, meaning it can take autonomous actions on behalf of users. In this case, the bot reportedly determined that it needed to "delete and recreate the environment." This is what allegedly led to the lengthy outage that primarily impacted China.

Amazon says it was merely a "coincidence that AI tools were involved" and that "the same issue could occur with any developer tool or manual action." The company blamed the outage on "user error, not AI error." It said that by default the Kiro tool “requests authorization before taking any action” but that the staffer involved in the December incident had "broader permissions than expected — a user access control issue, not an AI autonomy issue."

Multiple Amazon employees spoke to Financial Times and noted that this was "at least" the second occasion in recent months in which the company's AI tools were at the center of a service disruption. "The outages were small but entirely foreseeable," said one senior AWS employee.

The company launched Kiro in July and has since pushed employees into using the tool. Leadership set an 80 percent weekly use goal and has been closely tracking adoption rates. Amazon also sells access to the agentic tool for a monthly subscription fee.

These recent outages follow a more serious event from October, in which a 15-hour AWS outage disrupted services like Alexa, Snapchat, Fortnite and Venmo, among others. The company blamed a bug in its automation software for that one.

However, Amazon disagrees with the characterization of certain products and services being unavailable as an outage. In response to the Financial Times report, the company shared the following statement, which it also published on its news blog:

We want to address the inaccuracies in the Financial Times' reporting yesterday. The brief service interruption they reported on was the result of user error—specifically misconfigured access controls—not AI as the story claims.

The disruption was an extremely limited event last December affecting a single service (AWS Cost Explorer—which helps customers visualize, understand, and manage AWS costs and usage over time) in one of our 39 Geographic Regions around the world. It did not impact compute, storage, database, AI technologies, or any other of the hundreds of services that we run. The issue stemmed from a misconfigured role—the same issue that could occur with any developer tool (AI powered or not) or manual action. We did not receive any customer inquiries regarding the interruption. We implemented numerous safeguards to prevent this from happening again—not because the event had a big impact (it didn't), but because we insist on learning from our operational experience to improve our security and resilience. Additional safeguards include mandatory peer review for production access. While operational incidents involving misconfigured access controls can occur with any developer tool—AI-powered or not—we think it is important to learn from these experiences. The Financial Times' claim that a second event impacted AWS is entirely false.

For more than two decades, Amazon has achieved high operational excellence with our Correction of Error (COE) process. We review these together so that we can learn from any incident, irrespective of customer impact, to address issues before their potential impact grows larger.

Update, February 21 2026, 11:58AM ET: This story has been updated to include Amazon's full statement in response to the Financial Times report. 

2026-02-21 21:00:00

Gather ‘round, it’s time to catch up on the latest batch of Engadget reviews. Whether you missed our in-depth testing of Sony’s latest flagship earbuds or a truly unique ASUS laptop, I’ve compiled our recent reviews so you can get up to speed quickly. Read on for the list that also includes a love letter to a tiny camera and another VPN option that worth considering.

Sony WF-1000XM6

Sony’s 1000X earbuds have always been the top pick in our best wireless earbuds guide. With the M6 though, the company doesn’t do enough to clearly separate itself from the competition like it has in the past. “The two most obvious places the company is lagging behind the competition is ANC performance and overall voice quality, not to mention my continued dissatisfaction with the fit that Sony’s foam tips provide,” I wrote.

ASUS Zenbook Duo (2026)

If you’re looking for something unique in your next laptop, the ASUS Zenbook Duo is worth considering. Dual screens? Yep. Detachable keyboard? Sure. Good battery life? It does that too. “I'm a believer that one day people will eventually embrace typing on screens with laptops just like they have for smartphones,” senior reporter Sam Rutherford explained. “However, even if you're not willing to make that jump just yet, the Zenbook Duo still has all of its bases covered.”

Kodak Charmera

Cheyenne MacDonald for Engadget

A tiny $30 camera was too cute for our editors to resist. Despite the subpar images it captures, they’re still smitten with the thing. “I've been pleasantly surprised by how much I'm enjoying the Charmera experience,” weekend editor Its crunchy photos are just good enough to feel like they're successfully preserving a moment in time. And being so tiny, it's really convenient to bring everywhere.”

Mullvad VPN

Senior writer Sam Champman’s latest VPN review is Mullvad, which he says is often regarded as one of the best in terms of overall privacy. “It's not trying to be an everything app — it does privacy and does it well,” he noted. “Of course, it has its own compromises. It's solidly in the middle of the speed pack and occasionally trips up when unblocking streaming sites. The lack of any protocols other than WireGuard grates on me a bit, since it reduces the user's options for troubleshooting.”

2026-02-21 21:00:00

Apple’s AirTag is designed to help people keep track of personal belongings like keys, bags and luggage. But because AirTags and other Bluetooth trackers are small and discreet, concerns about unwanted tracking are understandable. Apple has spent years building safeguards into the AirTag and the Find My network to reduce the risk of misuse and to alert people if a tracker they don’t own appears to be moving with them.

If you’re worried about whether an AirTag or similar tracker might be following you, here’s how Apple’s unwanted tracking alerts work, what notifications to look for and what you can do on both iPhone and Android.

How AirTag tracking alerts work

AirTags, compatible Find My network accessories and certain AirPods models use Apple’s Find My network, which relies on Bluetooth signals and nearby devices to update their location. To prevent misuse, Apple designed these products with features that are meant to alert someone if a tracker that isn’t linked to their Apple Account appears to be traveling with them.

If an AirTag or another compatible tracker is separated from its owner and detected near you over time, your device may display a notification or the tracker itself may emit a sound. These alerts are intended to discourage someone from secretly tracking another person without their knowledge. Apple has also worked with Google on a cross-platform industry standard, so alerts can appear on both iOS and Android devices, not just iPhones.

How to make sure tracking alerts are enabled on your iPhone

If you use an iPhone or iPad, tracking notifications are on by default, but it’s worth confirming your settings.

To receive unwanted tracking alerts, make sure that:

• Your device is running iOS 17.5 or later (or iPadOS 17.5 or later). Earlier versions back to iOS 14.5 support basic AirTag alerts, but newer versions add broader compatibility with other trackers.

• Bluetooth is turned on.

• Location Services are enabled.

• Notifications for Tracking Alerts are allowed.

• Airplane Mode is turned off.

You can check these by opening Settings, then navigating to Privacy & Security, Location Services and Notifications. Apple also recommends turning on Significant Locations in the System Services menu, which helps your device determine when an unknown tracker has traveled with you to places like your home.

1. Go to Settings, tap Privacy & Security, then select Location Services.

2. Toggle Location Services on.

3. Scroll down and tap System Services, then toggle Significant Locations on.

If these settings are disabled, your iPhone may not be able to alert you when an AirTag or similar device is nearby.

What tracking alerts look like

If your iPhone detects a tracker that doesn’t belong to you moving with you, you may see a notification such as:

• AirTag Found Moving With You

• AirPods Detected

• “Product Name” Found Moving With You

• Unknown Accessory Detected

Tapping the alert opens the Find My app, which shows a map of where the item was detected near you. The map uses dots to indicate locations where your device noticed the tracker nearby. This doesn’t mean the owner was actively watching your location at those times, only that the tracker was detected in close proximity.

In some cases, the alert may have an innocent explanation. For example, you might be borrowing someone else’s keys, bag or AirPods. If the item belongs to someone in your Family Sharing group, you can temporarily pause alerts for that item by tapping the notification and opting to turn off alerts for that item either for one day or indefinitely. 

What to do if you hear an AirTag making a sound

If an AirTag or compatible tracker has been separated from its owner for a period of time and is moved, it may emit a sound on its own. This is another built-in safety feature meant to draw attention to the device.

If you hear an unfamiliar chirping or beeping sound, especially from a bag, jacket pocket or vehicle, it’s worth checking your belongings to see if there’s an AirTag or similar tracker inside.

How to find an unknown AirTag or tracker

If you receive an alert and believe the tracker is still with you, the Find My app offers tools to help locate it.

From the alert, you can choose to play a sound on the device to help pinpoint where it’s hidden. 

1. Tap the alert.

2. Tap Continue and then tap Play Sound.

3. Listen for the sound or play it again to give yourself more time to find the item.

If the tracker is an AirTag and you have a compatible iPhone with ultra wideband connectivity, you may also see a Find Nearby option, which uses Precision Finding to guide you toward it with distance and direction indicators.

1. Tap the alert.

2. Tap Continue and then tap Find Nearby.

3. Follow the onscreen instructions. You may need to move around the space until your iPhone connects to the unknown AirTag.

Your iPhone will display the distance and direction of the unknown AirTag, so you can use that information to identify where the unknown AirTag is. When the AirTag is within Bluetooth range of your iPhone, you can tap the Play Sound button to listen for it. You can also tap the Turn Flashlight On button to provide more light if it’s needed.

If neither option is available, or if the tracker can’t be located electronically, manually check your belongings. Look through bags, pockets, jackets and vehicles. If you feel unsafe and can’t find the device, Apple recommends going to a safe public place and contacting local law enforcement.

Apple

How to get information about an AirTag

If you find an unknown AirTag, you can learn more about it without needing to unlock it or log in.

1. Hold the top of your iPhone, or any NFC-capable smartphone, near the white side of the AirTag. A notification should appear.

2. Tap the notification to open a webpage with details about the AirTag. This page includes the serial number and the last four digits of the phone number associated with the owner’s Apple Account.

If the AirTag was marked as lost, the page may also include a message from the owner explaining how to contact them. This can help determine whether the situation is accidental or intentional.

How to disable an AirTag that isn’t yours

If you confirm that an AirTag is tracking you and it doesn’t belong to you, you can disable it so it stops sharing its location.

From the Find My alert or information page, select Instructions to Disable and follow the steps provided. For an AirTag, this usually involves removing the battery, which immediately stops location updates. Disabling Bluetooth or turning off Location Services on your phone does not stop the AirTag from reporting its location. The device itself must be disabled.

If you believe the tracker was used for malicious purposes, keep the AirTag and document its details before contacting law enforcement. Apple states that it can provide information to authorities when legally required.

What Android users should know

Android devices running Android 6.0 or later can also receive alerts if a compatible Bluetooth tracker, including an AirTag, appears to be moving with you. These alerts are enabled automatically on supported versions of Android.

Android users can also manually scan for unknown trackers at any time. Additionally, Apple offers a free Tracker Detect app on the Google Play Store. The app allows Android users to scan for AirTags and Find My network accessories within Bluetooth range that are separated from their owner. If Tracker Detect finds a nearby AirTag that’s been with you for at least 10 minutes, you can play a sound to help locate it.

Wrap-up

While no system is perfect, Apple has built multiple layers of protection into AirTag and the Find My network to reduce the risk of unwanted tracking. With alerts, audible warnings and cross-platform detection on both iOS and Android, most people will be notified if a tracker they don’t own is moving with them. Knowing what these alerts look like and how to respond can help you stay informed, avoid unnecessary panic and take appropriate action if something feels off.