2026-02-10 05:54:23
Another day, another wave of gaming layoffs. Today it's Riot Games with the announcement that it's cutting jobs on its pair-based fighting game 2XKO. For context, a representative from Riot confirmed to Game Developer that about 80 people are being cut, or roughly half of 2XKO's global development team.
"As we expanded from PC to console, we saw consistent trends in how players were engaging with 2XKO," according to the blog post from executive producer Tom Cannon. "The game has resonated with a passionate core audience, but overall momentum hasn’t reached the level needed to support a team of this size long term."
The console launch for 2XKO happened last month. Cannon said the company's plans for its 2026 competitive season have not altered with the layoffs. He added that Riot will attempt to place the impacted people at new positions within the company where possible.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/riot-games-is-laying-off-half-of-the-2xko-development-team-215423279.html?src=rss2026-02-10 05:21:45
House Judiciary Committee member Jamie Raskin (D-MD) has asked the US Department of Justice to turn over all its communications with both Apple and Google regarding the companies' decisions to remove apps that shared information about sightings of US Immigrations and Customs Enforcement officers. Several apps that allowed people to share information about where they had seen ICE members were removed from both Apple's App Store and Google's Play Store in October. Politico reported that Raskin has contacted Attorney General Pam Bondi on the issue and also questioned the agency's use of force against protestors as it executes the immigration policy set by President Donald Trump.
"The coercion and censorship campaign, which ultimately targets the users of ICE-monitoring applications, is a clear effort to silence this Administration’s critics and suppress any evidence that would expose the Administration’s lies, including its Orwellian attempts to cover up the murders of Renee and Alex," Raskin wrote to Bondi. He refers to Minneapolis residents Renee Good and Alex Pretti, who were both fatally shot by ICE agents. In the two separate incidents, claims made by federal leaders about the victims and the circumstances of their deaths were contradicted by eyewitnesses or camera footage, echoing violent interactions and lies about them that occurred while ICE conducted raids in Chicago several months ago.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/doj-may-face-investigation-for-pressuring-apple-google-to-remove-apps-for-tracking-ice-agents-212145181.html?src=rss2026-02-10 04:00:37
If you're looking to up your privacy game on the internet in the new year, you can do so for a little less than usual thanks to ExpressVPN's latest deal. Its two-year plans are up to 81 percent off right now: the Advanced tier is on sale for $88 for two years, plus four additional free months. The Basic plan is where you'll see the biggest discount: it's $68 for two years, plus the same four additional free months.
We’ve consistently liked ExpressVPN because it’s fast, easy to use and widely available across a large global server network. In fact, it's our current pick for best premium VPN. One of the biggest drawbacks has always been its high cost, and this deal temporarily solves that issue.
In our review we were able to get fast download and upload speeds, losing only 7 percent in the former and 2 percent in the latter worldwide. We found that it could unblock Netflix anywhere, and its mobile and desktop apps were simple to operate. We gave ExpressVPN an overall score of 85 out of 100.
The virtual private network service now has three tiers. Basic is cheaper with fewer features, while Pro costs more and adds extra perks like support for 14 simultaneous devices and a password manager. Advanced sits in the middle and includes the password manager but only supports 12 devices.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/expressvpn-two-year-plans-are-up-to-81-percent-off-right-now-180602205.html?src=rss2026-02-10 03:30:37
Mattia Ozbot via Getty Images
The 2026 Winter Olympics are taking place in Italy this year, with all the action taking place in Milan and the Alpine city of Cortina. This year marks the fourth time Italy has hosted the Winter Games; most recently, Turin hosted in 2006. Of the 16 sports featured at the Winter Olympics, 15 will return, including figure skating, hockey, luge, speed skating, and one entirely new sport, snow mountaineering. (Will it be as big a hit as the 2024 Summer Games' new addition, breaking? It remains to be seen.)
Live coverage of every event at the Olympic Winter Games Milan Cortina 2026 will be available to stream on Peacock — though thanks to the time difference between Italy and the U.S., to watch many of the events live, you'll have to wake up (or stay up) until 2AM or 3AM ET. Primetime replays and select live coverage will air on NBC. Here's what else you need to know about watching the 2026 Winter Olympics.
Dates: Feb. 6 - Feb. 22
TV channel: NBC
Streaming: Peacock
The Winter Olympics officially begin with the opening ceremony on Feb. 6, although some events will start as early as Feb. 4). The Milano Cortina 2026 games will run through Feb. 22. The closing ceremony of the 2026 Winter Olympics will take place in the Arena di Verona on Feb. 22.
The 2026 Winter Olympics will be held in Northern Italy, primarily in Milan and also the Alpine mountain resort town of Cortina d'Ampezzo, where events like bobsled, skeleton, alpine skiing, curling, para snowboard, and more will take place.
The 2026 Winter Olympics will air on NBC and stream live on Peacock.
The Milano Cortina 2026 opening ceremony will be held on Feb. 6, 2026. Due to the time difference, the ceremony will kick off around 2PM ET/11AM PT.
This year's Olympic Games are in Italy, which is 6 hours ahead of U.S. Eastern Time. Meaning that some events will start bright and early for U.S. viewers, and live coverage will likely wrap up around 4PM ET each day. NBC will have primetime replays of the biggest moments each night.
All times Eastern.
Wednesday, Feb. 4 (early competition starts)
Curling (round robin) – 2AM (Peacock – Live)
Curling (round robin) – 8AM (Peacock – Live)
Alpine skiing training – 3–6AM (Peacock – Live)
Thursday, Feb. 5
Curling (round robin) – 2AM (Peacock – Live)
Curling (round robin) – 8AM (Peacock – Live)
Freestyle skiing qualifications – 4AM (Peacock – Live)
Snowboard qualifications – 6AM (Peacock – Live)
Friday, Feb. 6 – opening ceremony
Curling (round robin) – 2AM (Peacock – Live)
Figure skating (team event short programs) – 6AM (Peacock – Live)
Snowboard slopestyle qualifications – 6AM (Peacock – Live)
Speedskating (early distances) – 8AM (Peacock – Live)
opening ceremony – 2PM (Peacock – Live)
opening ceremony – 8PM (NBC – Primetime)
Saturday, Feb. 7
Alpine skiing (men’s downhill) – 3AM (Peacock – Live)
Snowboard slopestyle finals – 6AM (Peacock – Live)
Speedskating medals – 7AM (Peacock – Live)
Figure skating (team free programs) – 8AM (Peacock – Live)
Hockey (group play begins) – 10AM (Peacock – Live)
Sunday, Feb. 8
Alpine skiing (women’s downhill) – 3AM (Peacock – Live)
Freestyle skiing moguls finals – 6AM (Peacock – Live)
Figure skating (pairs short program) – 8AM (Peacock – Live)
Luge (singles runs) – 9AM (Peacock – Live)
Hockey (group play) – 12PM (Peacock – Live)
Monday, Feb. 9
Biathlon sprint – 5AM (Peacock – Live)
Speedskating medals – 7AM (Peacock – Live)
Figure skating (pairs free skate – medals) – 8AM (Peacock – Live)
Curling (round robin) – 9AM (Peacock – Live)
Skeleton (heat 1–2) – 11AM (Peacock – Live)
Tuesday, Feb. 10
Alpine skiing (giant slalom) – 4AM (Peacock – Live)
Snowboard halfpipe qualifications – 6AM (Peacock – Live)
Figure skating (men’s short program) – 8AM (Peacock – Live)
Curling (round robin) – 10AM (Peacock – Live)
Wednesday, Feb. 11
Nordic combined – 4AM (Peacock – Live)
Freestyle skiing aerials finals – 6AM (Peacock – Live)
Figure skating (men’s free skate – medals) – 8AM (Peacock – Live)
Speedskating medals – 11AM (Peacock – Live)
Thursday, Feb. 12
Alpine skiing (slalom) – 4AM (Peacock – Live)
Snowboard halfpipe finals – 6AM (Peacock – Live)
Figure skating (ice dance rhythm dance) – 8AM (Peacock – Live)
Curling (medal round qualifiers) – 10AM (Peacock – Live)
Friday, Feb. 13
Biathlon pursuit – 5AM (Peacock – Live)
Figure skating (ice dance free dance – medals) – 8AM (Peacock – Live)
Skeleton finals – 10AM (Peacock – Live)
Hockey (quarterfinals) – 12PM (Peacock – Live)
Saturday, Feb. 14
Alpine skiing (team combined) – 4AM (Peacock – Live)
Cross-country skiing distance race – 6AM (Peacock – Live)
Figure skating (women’s short program) – 8AM (Peacock – Live)
Speedskating medals – 11AM (Peacock – Live)
Sunday, Feb. 15
Snowboard cross finals – 6AM (Peacock – Live)
Figure skating (women’s free skate – medals) – 8AM (Peacock – Live)
Luge relay – 11AM (Peacock – Live)
Hockey (semifinals) – 1PM (Peacock – Live)
Monday, Feb. 16
Freestyle skiing dual moguls – 6AM (Peacock – Live)
Cross-country skiing team sprint – 8AM (Peacock – Live)
Curling (medal games) – 10AM (Peacock – Live)
Tuesday, Feb. 17
Biathlon relay – 5AM (Peacock – Live)
Speedskating team pursuit – 7AM (Peacock – Live)
Hockey (placement games) – 12PM (Peacock – Live)
Wednesday, Feb. 18
Alpine skiing (final technical events) – 4AM (Peacock – Live)
Freestyle skiing big air – 6AM (Peacock – Live)
Curling (gold medal match) – 9AM (Peacock – Live)
Thursday, Feb. 19
Cross-country skiing marathon – 6AM (Peacock – Live)
Snowboard parallel events – 8AM (Peacock – Live)
Hockey (bronze medal games) – 1PM (Peacock – Live)
Friday, Feb. 20
Biathlon mass start – 6AM (Peacock – Live)
Speedskating final medals – 8AM (Peacock – Live)
Figure skating gala – 1PM (Peacock – Live)
Saturday, Feb. 21
Men’s hockey gold medal game – 12PM (Peacock – Live)
Women’s hockey gold medal game – 3PM (Peacock – Live)
Men’s hockey gold medal game – 8PM (NBC – Primetime)
Sunday, Feb. 22 – closing ceremony
Cross-country skiing final event – 6AM (Peacock – Live)
closing ceremony – 2PM (Peacock – Live)
closing ceremony – 8PM (NBC – Primetime)
While Peacock is the best way to watch the Winter Olympics, there are other options if you restrict yourself to the NBC broadcasts. As our guide to the best live TV streaming services to cut cable notes, both YouTube TV and Hulu + Live TV are excellent options, but you'll want to skip Fubo until and unless the service resolves its contract dispute with Comcast, as NBC channels remain unavailable for now.
2026-02-10 03:17:56
Users on ChatGPT's free and Go plans in the US may now start to see ads as OpenAI has started testing them in the chatbot. The company announced plans to bring ads to ChatGPT. At the time, the company said it would display sponsored products and services that are relevant to the current conversations of logged-in users, though they can disable personalization and "clear the data used for ads” whenever they wish.
“Our goal is for ads to support broader access to more powerful ChatGPT features while maintaining the trust people place in ChatGPT for important and personal tasks,” OpenAI wrote in a blog post. “We’re starting with a test to learn, listen and make sure we get the experience right.”
These ads will appear below at the bottom of chats. They're labeled and separated from ChatGPT's answers. Ads won't have an impact on ChatGPT's responses.
Ads won't appear when users are conversing with ChatGPT about regulated or sensitive topics such as health, mental wellbeing or politics. Users aged under 18 won't see ads in ChatGPT during the tests either. Moreover, OpenAI says it won't share or sell users' conversations or data to advertisers.
A source close to the company told CNBC that OpenAI expects ads to account for less than half of its revenue in the long run. Currently the company also takes a cut of items bought through its chatbot via the shopping integration feature. Also according to CNBC, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told staff on Friday that the company will deploy "an updated Chat model" this week.
The tests come on the heels of Anthropic running Super Bowl ads that poked fun at OpenAI for introducing advertising. Anthropic's spot asserted that while “ads are coming to AI,” they won’t appear in its own chatbot, Claude.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/openai-starts-testing-ads-in-chatgpt-191756493.html?src=rss2026-02-10 02:54:20
Ring aired a Super Bowl ad touting its Search Party feature that didn't quite get the intended buzz. Instead, the commercial scared the pants off of anyone concerned about a mass surveillance state.
The feature is advertised as a way to reunite missing dogs with their owners, a noble cause indeed, but Search Party does this by turning individual Ring devices into a surveillance network. Each camera uses AI to identify pets running across its field of vision and all feeds are pooled together to potentially identify lost animals. I've never seen a slope quite so slippery, as the technology could easily be rejiggered to track people.
Government: how can we get Americans to accept constant surveillance?
— mark david (@M___D____M_____) February 9, 2026
Ring: Puppies
Americans: PUPPIES!!!!!!
It's also worth noting that this isn't a new feature. Search Party was first announced last year. In that time it has been used to find 99 lost dogs in 90 days of use, according to Amazon CEO Andy Jassy. Approximately ten million pets go missing in America each year. Many people aren't keen on helping to create a surveillance state for a tool with what looks to be around a 0.005 percent success rate. That percentage is sure to rise with mass adoption, but you get the jist.
With that said, many Ring users are looking for a way to disable the feature, as it's enabled by default. Engadget has got you covered.
Thankfully, this is fairly easy to do. Just open the Ring app and tap the menu in the top-left corner. Next, select Control Center. Then, tap Search Party and toggle the settings to Disable for both Search for Lost Pets and Natural Hazards. Repeat this process for each camera.
PSA: If the Ring search party commercial weirded you out during the Super Bowl, it is very easy to turn off
— Nick Veronica (@NickVeronica) February 9, 2026
1. In the menu, go to Control Center
2. Scroll down to Search Party
3. Go into whichever options are available in your area (not pictured)
4. Tap the blue icon to turn off pic.twitter.com/L3qaxu2pJQ
There has also been some confusion as to what Ring will share with law enforcement agencies. If you want to go a step further, delete all of your saved videos by tapping the History icon and then "Delete All."
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/heres-how-to-disable-rings-creepy-search-party-feature-185420455.html?src=rss
