It seems that Instagram is working on a community chat feature that allows people to organize groups of up to 250 people in the app. The so-far unreleased feature was spotted by developer Alessandro Paluzzi, who has a solid track record of uncovering new features within Metas apps.
According to screenshots shared by Paluzzi, it seems that community chats will function similarly to Discord. Individual users can form the chats around specific topics and control who can join, though theres apparently a limit of 250 people per community.
Unlike Instagrams broadcast channels, which allow creators to blast out messages to their followers, anyone who is in the community chat can participate in the conversation. There are also built-in moderation features. Admins can remove messages and members to keep the channel safe, the screenshot says. We also review Community Chat against our Community Standards.
Its not clear when, or if, the feature may launch. An Instagram spokesperson described it as an internal prototype thats not being tested outside the company. But Meta has previously released similar features in its other apps. WhatsApp began experimenting with a Communities feature in 2022, and brought Community Chats to Facebook and Messenger later that same year. Mark Zuckerberg said at the time it was meant to help people find a new way to connect with people who share your interests.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/instagram-is-experimenting-with-a-discord-like-community-chat-feature-234832236.html?src=rss
It was a swing and a miss for the first private attempt at an asteroid mission, but the company is still chalking it up as a win. California startup AstroForge launched a spacecraft dubbed Odin on February 26, but the team lost communication with it shortly after its launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
"The chance of talking with Odin is minimal, as at this point, the accuracy of its position is becoming an issue," the company said in its extensive debrief of the mission. Technical issues occurred at its primary ground station in Australia, but AstroForge said that other problems also could have occurred on Odin to further prevent establishing contact.
Although the launch was a bust, AstroForge maintained optimism about the project as a valuable learning experience for its eventual goal of creating and operating an asteroid mining vehicle. The company is targeting the asteroid 2022 OB5, with the aim of eventually landing on its surface and extracting potentially valuable resources. Odin was built in 10 months for $3.5 million, a sliver of the money and time federal space projects have taken to complete.
AstroForge CEO Matt Gialich had several quotes in the debrief, all peppered with expletives, and he summed up the company ethos as, "At the end of the day, like, you got to fucking show up and take a shot, right? You have to try."This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/science/space/the-first-private-asteroid-mission-probe-is-probably-lost-in-deep-space-224803775.html?src=rss
Google is once again in the crosshairs of Republicans in Congress because of alleged censorship, Bloomberg writes. The House Judiciary Committee has subpoenaed Google's parent company Alphabet and CEO Sundar Pichai for evidence of communication between the tech company and the Biden administration.
The subpoena specifically asks for documents covering communications between Alphabet and the executive branch, along with discussions Alphabet might have had internally or with third-parties about those communications. The Committee hopes to snowball the discovery that the Biden administration made requests to Meta to remove COVID-19 misinformation into a case for "new statutory limits on the executive branchs ability to work with Big Tech to restrict the circulation of content and deplatform users," the subpoena says.
None of these concerns are particularly new. Pichai and other tech CEOs have been brought in front of Congress to explain things like content moderation, censorship and bias before. In the past, it's mostly seemed like a way for members of Congress to get sound bites, but the aggressive, retaliatory nature of the Trump administration might give these new demands more teeth. Helping to pay for Trump's inauguration and showing up for photos didn't get Google protection in the end, assuming it doesn't manage to wriggle out of the ongoing antitrust case against it.
Tech companies might be getting attention from Congress, but the idea that the current administration might want to make censorship demands doesn't appear to be a concern. President Trump has expressed interest in using the Take It Down Act, a bill designed to hold websites liable for hosting and not removing Non-Consensual Intimate Imagery (NCII), to eliminate any kind of speech he dislikes. The disastrous potential misuses of the law have been outlined by activists before, but the bill passed in the Senate and is now waiting to be taken up by the House.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/house-republicans-subpoena-google-over-alleged-censorship-212115140.html?src=rss
ChatGPT on macOS is about to become more useful for coding. With the latest update for the app (version 1.2025.057), ChatGPT can now edit code directly within an integrated development environment no need to copy and paste. You can find the full list of supported IDEs on OpenAI's website, but some of the more notable inclusions are Apple's own Xcode, Visual Code Studio and offshoots of Jetbrains like Android Studio and PyCharm.
According to OpenAI, IDE integration has been one of the most-requested features from macOS users since the company released its "works with app" framework back in November. If you're a Plus, Pro or Team subscriber, you can start using the integration today. As for Enterprise, Edu and Free users, look for the updated app to arrive next week.
ChatGPT for macOS can now edit code directly in IDEs. Available to Plus, Pro, and Team users. pic.twitter.com/WPB2RMP0tj OpenAI Developers (@OpenAIDevs) March 6, 2025
Perhaps unsurprisingly this feature arrives just as "vibecoding" enters the popular lexicon. For the uninitiated, vibecoding is a form of coding that involves using AI tools like ChatGPT (and the power of vibes, of course) to program apps and games. While it might seem like a meme, vibecoding is very much a real thing. In a video titled "Vibe Coding is the Future," Jared Friedman, a managing partner at Y Combinator, said a quarter of the startup accelerator's W25 cohort have a code base that was 95 percent generated by AI.
"This isn't a fad. This isn't going away. This is the dominant way to code. And if you are not doing it, you might just be left behind," Garry Tan, the CEO of Y Combinator, added in the same video. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/chatgpt-for-macos-can-now-directly-edit-xcode-projects-201904659.html?src=rss
If you own one of Victrola's high-end, Sonos-ready turntables from the last few years, your techie record player is about to get more versatile. The company said on Thursday that all of its "Works with Sonos" vinyl turntables will support Bluetooth, Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) and hi-fi Roon streaming through a software update.
The update will dramatically increase the streaming versatility of the Stream Carbon, Pearl and Onyx turntables. Meanwhile, Victrola says the ultra-premium Sapphire player, which also supports those standards, has already received the update. The company says it will install automatically, and the new options will appear in the section of the app where you previously only saw the option to pick a default Sonos speaker.
Nathan Ingraham for Engadget
While the new capabilities are good news for anyone who spent anywhere from $600 to $1,500 on a hi-tech vinyl player, it seems curious (if not infuriating) that the premium gear launched without these capabilities despite having all the requisite hardware. And while the company framed the update as a natural continuation of its mission to help vinyl lovers, you could look at Sonos' calamitous year and speculate that Victrola calculated that hitching too many horses to that post might not be the best idea.
An incomprehensibly botched Sonos app update in May led to months of downward spiraling. Despite numerous attempts to plug holes, the debacle culminated in two rounds of layoffs and the departure of its CEO and chief product officer in January. Although Victrola launched cheaper Sonos-less alternatives to the same turntables months before Sonos' plummet began, it's easy to imagine it nervously eyeing that mess and deciding now is a good time to awaken the Sonos variants' dormant wireless capabilities.
"This update is a major step forward in our mission to blend the warmth of vinyl with the convenience of modern wireless audio," Victrola Scott Hagen wrote in a press release. "The Victrola Stream turntables have been the best option for Sonos users, and now we're extending that same effortless streaming experience to even more audio ecosystems. Vinyl lovers can now enjoy premium wireless flexibility without compromise."
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/audio/victrola-adds-more-wireless-options-to-its-sonos-compatible-turntables-181634084.html?src=rss
It's Thursday, which means there are some more PC games that Amazon Prime members can claim for free. Amazon has also revealed the entire slate of freebies that subscribers can snag throughout March, as well as the games they can stream at no extra cost on Amazon Luna.
Arguably the highest-profile additions of the month are available today in the form of Saints Row: The Third Remastered and Mafia II: Definitive Edition. As ever, nearly every game on the list is for PC, but since Wolfenstein: The Old Blood is claimable via the Microsoft Store, you'll be able to play that one on Xbox as well.
Mortal Shell is an RPG from a few years back that I'd been meaning to check out, so I'll be sure to pick that one up. Elsewhere, The Forgotten City is a mystery RPG that was originally a Skyrim mod. The standalone version debuted a few years ago to critical acclaim.
You typically have about a month to claim each of the games before they leave the lineup (meaning that you can still snag many of the February additions) Here's what you can snap up and when, along with the launcher you can play each game on:
Now
Saints Row: The Third Remastered (GOG)
Mafia II: Definitive Edition (GOG)
Crime Boss: Rockay City (Epic Games Store)
Naheulbeuk's Dungeon Master (Amazon Games App)
March 13
Wall World (Amazon Games App)
Syberia: The World Before (GOG)
Endling - Extinction is Forever (Amazon Games App)
Dark Deity: Complete Edition (GOG)
Beholder 3 (Amazon Games App)
March 20
Wolfenstein: The Old Blood (Xbox and PC via Microsoft Store Code)
Mutazione (GOG)
Figment 2: Creed Valley (Amazon Games App)
Legacy of Kain: Defiance (GOG)
Mortal Shell (Epic Games Store)
March 27
The Forgotten City (Amazon Games App)
Deus Ex: Invisible War (GOG)
Session: Skate Sim (Epic Games Store)
Let's Build A Zoo (Epic Games Store)
Gamedec - Definitive Edition (GOG)
The Wisbey Mystery (Legacy Games Code)
Along with those games that Prime members can claim and keep forever (even if they cancel their plan), subscribers can stream a bunch of other titles via Amazon Luna. Along with staples like Fortnite, Trackmania and a couple of Fallout games, members can stream WRC Generations Fully Loaded Edition, Spitlings, The Jackbox Party Pack 3, Strange Horticulture and the utterly brilliant Overcooked! 2 throughout March. As a reminder, only Prime members in the US, Canada, Germany, United Kingdom, France, Italy, Spain, Austria, the Netherlands and Poland have access to these games on Luna.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/pc/prime-gamings-march-freebies-include-saints-row-the-third-and-mafia-ii-remasters-180008526.html?src=rss
The Nintendo DS is one of the toughest consoles to emulate, for an obvious reason. Its the two screens. This is even an issue with ports. Some developers avoid the problem by mushing everything together onto a single traditional screen, like the recently-released Castlevania Dominus Collection. However, gamers may finally have an affordable emulation solution, thanks to the MagicX Zero 40 handheld console.
On its surface, its yet another handheld emulator, but this one features a four-inch vertically-oriented 800x480 touchscreen display. This should allow players to accurately recreate the experience of playing DS games. Thats great news, as replacement parts for any of the DS's iterations are difficult to come by these days.
The MagicX Zero 40 runs on a 64-bit Android operating system and features 2GB of RAM and a battery that lasts for four to seven hours. As for storage, it supports flash cards up to 512GB. What about 3DS emulation? The specs sheet indicates theres no support for Nintendos follow-up dual-screen handheld, but the Zero 40 will emulate games from all of the standard single-screen systems. These include the PSP, NES, SNES, Dreamcast and many more.
The Zero 40 is expected to be released this April, with an asking price of $75. Pre-orders were open, but are sold out for the time being. Theres another option for a dual-screen emulation, if you have deep pockets. The Ayaneo Flip DS will run Nintendo DS, 3DS and Wii U games, but starts at $739.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/the-magicx-zero-40-handheld-features-a-vertical-display-for-ds-emulation-175820385.html?src=rss
Everything about Sorry Were Closed sets my little punk heart ablaze, from its low-poly 3D graphics and banging original soundtrack, to its casually epic storyline starring heartbroken club kids and horny demons. Sorry Were Closed takes place around a bustling city of neon-splattered nightmares, and if I could, Id move there immediately.
Michelle, an existentially lost and effortlessly cool twenty-something, is introduced to the spiritual world by The Duchess, an archdemon with thigh-high boots and a threatening allure. Michelle is marked as The Duchess love interest and cursed with a powerful Third Eye. The Duchess is cruel and desperate for love, and Michelle still reeling from a breakup that rocked her world three years ago has a limited amount of time to discover why shes been chosen and how to escape the curse with her life intact.
The characters in Sorry Were Closed are raw, funny and authentic, and their relationships are relatably messy. There's Oakley, the diner owner; Marty, the record shop manager; Clarissa, the dancer; Robyn, the local adventurer; Darrel, Oakleys boyfriend and resident douchebag; and of course a cast of otherworldly beings. I feel like I know some of these people in my real life, and as for the rest, Id love to meet them and help them chase their weird fantasies. Everything in this game is super stylish, from the blocky 3D avatars to the detailed, painterly icons that accompany their dialogue boxes. The city is populated by a diverse blend of genders and sexualities, and it feels both perfectly natural and deeply welcoming, like a stunning fever dream of what could be if The Gay Agenda finally got its way.
Again, its a world Id love to live in.
Akupara Games
Michelle spends her time exploring the underworld and chasing the ghosts of The Duchess former victims er, lovers while gathering the strength to fight the archdemon head-on. There are four different endings in Sorry Were Closed, and your decisions to help or hinder your friends will determine how things shake out in a tangible way. Many of the demons and angels in this world have sadistic streaks, and there are multiple scenes of bloody dismemberment and extreme body horror along Michelles journey. Choose your path forward wisely.
The game plays out in a fixed-camera perspective for exploration scenes, and switches to a dual-stick, first-person view for combat. Using a DualSense controller, you enter first-person view by holding down LT, and then shoot or swing with RT, using the right stick to aim. Michelle ends up with three weapons: a wolf-faced axe, a pistol and a shotgun. She also gets a powerful Heartbreaker attack, which builds up as she does damage and eventually allows her to unleash a devastating shot directly at an enemys heart. Collecting ammo and health is a constant task in Sorry Were Closed, and first-person view is useful here, allowing Michelle to break and loot vases.
Akupara Games
Transitioning between third and first person feels nice and smooth, and the game does a great job of infusing classic Resident Evil-style gameplay with modern sensibilities. When its engaged, Michelles Third Eye lets her see and interact with an alternate reality, which appears in a circular pool around her. Demons that get caught in the Third Eye are briefly stunned, and their weak points become visible as stained-glass hearts. Youre only able to shoot weak points when Third Eye is engaged, but you can drop it at any time to attack with impunity. The length of the Third Eye stun can be extended by spending yowzas, the games currency, at the shop, which is run by a floating goat head. There are other basic upgrades for ammo and health capacities, which Michelle carries in the form of water bottles.
As Michelle travels deeper into The Duchess dimension, the environments become more M.C. Escher-like, and there are a series of puzzles to solve when youre not actively battling demons. Theres nothing too tricky here, but there are little fetch quests and physical riddles to solve, and the reality-shifting mechanic of Michelles Third Eye keeps things interesting. Theres a perfect amount of variety in this game, with plenty of space to mess around with each new idea.
Akupara Games
I adore the way Sorry Were Closed plays with perspective. It has standard top-down scenes, sure, but there are also cinematic shots peeking through the gaps in a chandelier, wide angles that show off the scale of some environments, head-on running scenes, and instances of beautiful but impossible physics, especially when The Duchess is involved. In case you couldnt tell, I kind of fell in love with The Duchess, even though I know they would destroy me. Maybe because of that, even.
Sorry Were Closed is campy, relatable, gruesome and gorgeous. You could say the same about The Duchess.
With todays console launch, all versions of the game are getting rebalanced combat areas, improved controller sensitivity, aim assist options, fresh difficulties, a Time Attack mode and New Game+. Sorry Were Closed is now available on PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S, and theres a premium physical edition for Switch and PS5 due out later this year, available to pre-order now. Sorry Were Closed is the debut title from la mode games, a two-person team based in Bournemouth, UK, and its published by Akupara Games.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/sorry-were-closed-ps5-review-oops-i-fell-in-love-with-an-archdemon-170040845.html?src=rss
Apples recently-released M4 Mac mini has dropped to a new record-low price. You can scoop one up for $529 via Amazon, which is a discount of 12 percent. This version ships with 16GB of RAM and 256GB of internal storage. Other models are also on sale, as the one with 16GB/512GB now costs $700 and the beefy 24GB/512GB will now set you back $900 instead of $1,000.
We called the M4 Mac mini "shockingly small" and "incredibly powerful" in our official review, and that stands today. The chip is fast, which makes sense as it's Apples latest effort, and the smaller design doesnt take up much desk space. That leaves plenty of room for a monitor, mouse and keyboard.
We like that these desktops dont go any lower than 16GB of RAM, so any version will excel with music production, light video editing and other creative tasks. For real-deal video editing, you may want to pony up for the extra RAM or go with a model thats been outfitted with the M4 Pro (which arent on sale.)
There are front-facing USB-C and headphone ports, which are nice, and plenty more connection options on the rear. On the downside, theres no SD card reader, which is something that many teensy PCs include. The fan can also get pretty loud during heavy workloads.
Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/apples-m4-mac-mini-drops-to-a-new-record-low-price-161333489.html?src=rss
Reddit has announced several new tools that seem like they were designed to encourage more lurkers to participate in discussions on the website. One of the new tools called Rules Check will make it easy to see if what you're posting potentially goes against a subreddit's rules. Before submitting your post, you can click the wand icon in the lower right-hand corner of the post composer, which you can see in the photo above. Doing that will highlight anything in your post that may be breaking a subreddit's rules. Reddit will start testing the feature on iOS and Android before giving it a wider release.
Another new tool called Post Recovery will show you a prompt if your post has been removed due to community rules. The prompt will contain a notice of removal, along with a link that will enable you to quickly share your deleted post to a more appropriate subreddit. To make sure you're posting in the right community in the first place, Reddit will now suggest relevant communities based on what you write through a drop-down menu on the upper left corner of the composer screen. It will now also show you if a community has requirements, such as account age or minimum karma points, before you can post.
The last tool is perhaps most useful if you promote products and services on Reddit. Post Insights will show you how many views, upvotes, shares and crossposts your posts have gotten, giving you an idea on what works when it comes to post engagement. All these tools other than Rules Check are now available on Reddit's website and mobile app. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/reddits-rule-check-feature-will-help-users-avoid-breaking-subreddit-rules-160001398.html?src=rss
