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Japanese toymaker Takara Tomy is releasing a Poké Ball virtual pet toy so you can fulfill your dreams of carrying your favorite Pokémon around with you everywhere. I don’t know how this one slid under my radar when it was announced at the end of August (perhaps because all my attention has been on Tamagotchi Paradise) but now that I’ve seen it, I must have it. While it appears to be a Japan-only release, the product page shows it will have an English language option in the menu. Pre-orders are open (though currently sold out on Amazon Japan), and the device will ship on October 11, according to Essential Japan. The toy costs ¥7,480 or about $51 — but I shudder to think how much that number will jump with tariffs factored in. Per the listing, there are seven partner Pokémon you can care for: Pikachu, Eevee, Sprigatito, Fuecoco, Quaxly, Lucario and Sylveon. And if you pet the device, they’ll react. There are also 150 other Pokémon to interact with, though it’s unclear what the extent of those interactions will be beyond battles (and… washing?). Regardless, l hope Wooper is one of them. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/this-pettable-poke-ball-is-a-tamagotchi-style-toy-with-over-150-pokemon-inside-and-i-need-it-now-215047740.html?src=rss

While scientists are still working to understand the effects an extended trip to space can have on the human body, research in recent years has suggested that astronauts may experience some pretty dramatic changes on both the physiological and psychological levels. In the latest study led by a team at University of California San Diego, researchers found signs of accelerated aging in human stem cells that spent roughly a month in space.  The research focused on hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs), which are crucial in the formation of blood and immune cells. Stem cells were sent to the International Space Station for stays of 32-45 days using specially developed nanobioreactors to monitor them. Another set remained on Earth at the Kennedy Space Center. The cells that went to the ISS showed a host of changes, including reduced self-renewal abilities, greater susceptibility to DNA damage and inflammation in the mitochondria. However, the damage didn’t appear to be permanent. The team notes that the changes were at least partially reversed when the cells were removed from the space environment.  “Space is the ultimate stress test for the human body,” Catriona Jamieson, director of the UC San Diego Sanford Stem Cell Institute, said in a statement. “These findings are critically important because they show that the stressors of space — like microgravity and cosmic galactic radiation — can accelerate the molecular aging of blood stem cells. Understanding these changes not only informs how we protect astronauts during long-duration missions but also helps us model human aging and diseases like cancer here on Earth.”  This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/human-stem-cells-age-more-rapidly-in-space-study-finds-145651426.html?src=rss

The Square Enix team behind Final Fantasy Tactics — The Ivalice Chronicles didn’t just remaster the iconic strategy RPG, they had to go through the trouble of remaking the source code from scratch, according to Bloomberg. In an interview with Bloomberg‘s Jason Schreier, the game’s director Kazutoyo Maehiro explained the arduous process of designing The Ivalice Chronicles, which is set to release at the end of the month. When getting to work on the remake, Maehiro and his team discovered they had to rebuild the source code from the ground up since it was lost thanks to the industry’s unstandardized practices in the ’90s, according to Bloomberg. When translating Final Fantasy Tactics from Japanese to English for the global release, the company would overwrite the original Japanese version’s code. For Maehiro, that meant the team had to undertake a ground-up overhaul and recreate the source code by playing the original game that released in 1997, consulting the game’s master disc and looking at the 2011 version called Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions, according to Bloomberg. Maehiro also said during a PAX West 2025 panel that the team gleaned a lot of lost info from fan-made databases. Revealing more of the behind-the-scenes decisions for The Ivalice Chronicles, Maehiro told Bloomberg about the debate surrounding Count Cidolfus Orlandeau. Better known as Cid, and appropriately nicknamed Thunder God Cid, this overtuned character joins you later in the game, but many fans complained about him being overpowered. Instead of nerfing Cid, Maehiro told Bloomberg that keeping this character’s power level the same would better represent the storyline since “his role in the story is being that very powerful character who joins your party.” To quell any concerns of Cid being too broken, Maehiro told Bloomberg that the team decided to buff the other characters to even things out. Looking ahead, Maehiro also hinted at exploring sequels for the Final Fantasy Tactics franchise or even brand new games in the strategy RPG genre, given that The Ivalice Chronicles does well, according to Bloomberg. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/the-ivalice-chronicles-team-had-to-remake-the-original-final-fantasy-tactics-source-code-from-scratch-190253342.html?src=rss

Starting September 9, Porsche and Audi will be the latest non-Tesla brands to utilize the Supercharger network. The two automakers announced that some of their owners will get adapters that allow them to charge via the NACS port, which Tesla developed and opened up to other automakers. The rollout comes after the Volkswagen Group, which owns both Porsche and Audi, announced that it would implement NACS compatibility for Volkswagen, Audi, Porsche and Scout Motors in December 2023. Porsche / Ashton Stan Porsche is kicking off its NACS adoption with a “soft launch,” where existing owners of Taycan and Macan Electric models have to reserve a free NACS to DC adapter with the My Porsche app to connect to the Tesla Supercharger network. During this initial phase, drivers of compatible Porsche EVs have to use the Tesla app at Superchargers, but will eventually be able to charge with the My Porsche app in “the coming months,” according to Porsche. Like Porsche, Audi is getting its own branded adapter that will arrive with newer 2025 model year options, including its Q6 e-tron, A6 Sportback e-tron and e-tron GT. Notably, Audi said its Q4 e-tron won’t currently have access to Tesla Superchargers. For Porsche, any Taycan and Macan Electric from model year 2026 onward will include a free NACS adapter. However, Porsche EVs from model year 2024 or older will have to buy the adapter from Porsche’s online shop or dealerships, which will go for $185. Porsche and Audi are also working on software updates to show Tesla Superchargers on their navigation systems. Despite Porsche and Audi now gaining access to the Supercharger network, Volkswagen Group’s other subsidiaries, including Lamborghini and Bentley, still haven’t committed to adopting NACS. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/evs/porsche-and-audis-evs-can-now-recharge-on-any-tesla-supercharger-in-north-america-173333649.html?src=rss

8BitDo makes some of our favorite gaming accessories, and right now you can get one of its Nintendo Switch 2 controllers for the lowest price we’ve seen yet. A deal on Amazon shaves 14 percent off the 8BitDo Ultimate 2 controller’s usual $70 price tag, bringing it down to $60 — and with a coupon you can apply before checkout, it drops a bit more to $54. The discount only applies to the white color option. The Ultimate 2 Bluetooth controller is one of the best Switch 2 accessories out there. (It’s also compatible with PC). This controller has TMR joysticks for greater sensitivity and durability, and has trigger mode switches to flip between linear Hall Effect triggers and non-linear tactile triggers. It’s a great option for those who prefer an Xbox-style controller. The Ultimate 2 charges on an included charging dock, and it’ll automatically reconnect to the console when you pick it up. It’s also customizable using the Ultimate Software, so you can adjust the button mapping, joystick and trigger sensitivity, vibration and more. It offers three custom profiles so you can save the different configurations. You can play around with the visual effects too. The Ultimate 2 controller has RGB rings around the joysticks with multiple lighting modes to choose from, including Fire Ring Mode, Light-tracing and Rainbow. You can further adjust the colors with the Ultimate Software as well. It’s a versatile controller that offers a lot of bang for your buck. If you’ve been thinking about picking up a good third-party controller for your new Switch 2, you can’t go wrong with the Ultimate 2. Follow @EngadgetDeals on X for the latest tech deals and buying advice. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/8bitdos-ultimate-2-controller-for-switch-2-is-on-sale-for-only-54-170940439.html?src=rss

Two authors have filed a lawsuit against Apple, accusing the company of infringing on their copyright by using their books to train its artificial intelligence model without their consent. The plaintiffs, Grady Hendrix and Jennifer Roberson, claimed that Apple used a dataset of pirated copyrighted books that include their works for AI training. They said in their complaint that Applebot, the company’s scraper, can “reach ‘shadow libraries’” made up of unlicensed copyrighted books, including (on information) their own. The lawsuit is currently seeking class action status, due to the sheer number of books and authors found in shadow libraries.  The main plaintiffs for the lawsuit are Grady Hendrix and Jennifer Roberson, both of whom have multiple books under their names. They said that Apple, one of the biggest companies in the world, did not attempt to pay them for “their contributions to [the] potentially lucrative venture.” Apple has “copied the copyrighted works” of the plaintiffs “to train AI models whose outputs compete with and dilute the market for those very works — works without which Apple Intelligence would have far less commercial value,” they wrote in their filing. “This conduct has deprived Plaintiffs and the Class of control over their work, undermined the economic value of their labor, and positioned Apple to achieve massive commercial success through unlawful means.” This is but one of the many lawsuits filed against companies developing generative AI technologies. OpenAI is facing a few, including lawsuits from The New York Times and the oldest nonprofit newsroom in the US. Notably, Anthropic, the AI company behind the Claude chatbot, recently agreed to pay $1.5 billion to settle a class action piracy complaint also brought by authors. Similar to this case, the writers also accused the company of taking pirated books from online libraries to train its AI technology. The 500,000 authors involved in the case will reportedly get $3,000 per work. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/apple-faces-lawsuit-over-alleged-use-of-pirated-books-for-ai-training-160016161.html?src=rss

The Pokémon series has had staying power ever since its debut in the 1990s, but it has felt especially popular in recent years, thanks to Pokémon GO and the resurgence of the trading card game. Given that more Pokémon fans are experiencing new ways to play, it’s the right time for developer Game Freak to refresh the video game series. The upcoming Pokémon Legends: Z-A looks to do just that with a more action-oriented focus on a Pokémon trainer’s journey. At a special Nintendo showcase during PAX West 2025 in Seattle, I spent some limited time with Pokémon Legends: Z-A and its revamped combat system that ditches turn-based combat for real-time action. So far, this new entry in the long-running series is showing promise for a follow-up that could shake up the pokémon meta in the right direction. Set in the Paris-inspired Lumiose City, Pokémon Legends: Z-A focuses on a new trainer coming into their own as they improve their skills and expand their roster of pokémon. However, Lumoise City has a darker mystery brewing after an unknown force is causing several pokémon to enter a frenzied state that triggers their Mega Evolution mysteriously. As the protagonist rises in the ranks, they’ll soon come to find out what’s behind the rise of rogue pokémon. Speaking as a lapsed Pokémon fan who occasionally revisits the series for its more interesting entries, I’ve found that Pokémon games tend to be very familiar, stopping a few steps shy of reaching a broader scope that many players have imagined Pokémon games to be since watching the animated shows. Recent Pokémon games like Legends: Arceus and Scarlet/Violet have moved the series forward in the right ways, and Legends: Z-A is continuing that trend by focusing more on the moment-to-moment actions of being a trainer. Real-time combat is a significant game changer in Legends: Z-A, and it’s a shift that many returning players will need to adjust to. Arceus set the foundations of a more open-ended style of player activity, but it still reverted to the turn-based tactical approach when the combat kicked in. Legends: Z-A moves away from that. The demo started with a nighttime training session, in which I had to engage in several pokémon fights with trainers in a designated battle zone in the back alleys of the city. This led me to round corners and find trainers waiting for a fight, employing either a direct approach or more sneaky methods. During my demo, I was given the team of Chikorita, Weedle, Mareep, and the flying pokémon Fletchling. When you engage in a fight, your trainer stays locked onto their enemy pokémon, with your chosen fighter right at your side. During these fights, you move around in real-time and have active skills that are on cooldowns. This sounds pretty standard for games, but for a Pokémon game, it’s quite the adjustment, one that I really liked after a few matches. What’s interesting about Pokémon Legends: Z-A is that it’s turned Pokémon into an action RPG, somewhat akin to a smaller-scale Xenoblade Chronicles. In addition to having to engage the right skills at the right time, I also had to dodge enemy attacks to keep my pokémon from taking heavy damage. This action-focused approach gives you far more options in how you want to engage enemies, and there are even opportunities to sneak up on unsuspecting trainers to engage in a sneak attack to start the fight off well. It seems odd at first, but it’s honestly quite amusing to see trainers get walloped by a pokémon’s attacks. Nintendo The next phase of the demo focused on another of Pokémon Legends: Z-A’s other innovations – boss fights with rogue pokémon. As you start to track them down, you’ll eventually face off against them in battle, and they’ll even activate their Mega Evolved forms. The boss fight I encountered with Rogue Mega Absol felt right out of other role-playing games, like Final Fantasy or Nier: Automata, and Legends: Z-A presents them as showstopping encounters where you have to subdue these powerful enemies in a special battle zone. The battle was made especially exciting was the addition of the pokémon Lucario joining the fight.I could also activate their own Mega Evolution for a temporary buff – like Final Fantasy’s limit breaks, but for pokémon. Pokémon Legends: Z-A, much like its predecessor Arceus, takes a new approach to a traditional Pokémon adventure, focusing on interactive exploration and engagement with the world. I liked how it felt like a stylized JRPG, with the addition of quirky side characters and an epic boss fight to clear. It’s very strange to play a Pokémon RPG without turn-based combat, but I found its most laid-back approach to be fair and engaging. There has often been a desire among Pokémon fans that the series needs a shake-up to reach greater heights, but it has been clear that this is an ongoing process and won’t happen all at once. Pokémon Legends: Z-A does hang onto the familiar premise of a trainer’s journey in the Pokémon world, but a more action-oriented approach to commanding your Pokémon does show some solid promise, and could very well be a strong step forward for the series. And as a lapsed Pokémon fan, it’s definitely one I’ll be keeping an eye on. Pokémon Legends: Z-A will be released on October 16, 2025 for the Nintendo Switch and Switch 2. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/nintendo/pokemon-legends-z-a-hands-on-135651443.html?src=rss

Welcome to our latest recap of what’s going on in the indie game space. Folks, it’s here. You know it’s here. So, we’ll touch on it, but briefly. Some developers and publishers opted not to delay their games out of this week (others have done that to get some breathing space from you-know-what), so there are several other newcomers to highlight. Before we get there, there’s a sale worth mentioning on a PC storefront that does not offer Hollow Knight: Silksong. The Epic Games Store’s End of Summer Sale is running until September 18 and there are some pretty solid deals. Cyberpunk 2077 is 65 percent off for the base game and 50 percent off for the ultimate edition, which includes the Phantom Liberty DLC (which is also 30 percent off for those who have the base game already). Other discounts of note include Red Dead Redemption 2 (75 percent off), Grand Theft Auto V Enhanced (50 percent off), Assassin’s Creed Shadows (33 percent off), The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Complete Edition (80 percent) and Alan Wake 2 (70 percent off). A bunch of PlayStation games are on sale too, including Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 (20 percent), The Last of Us Part 1 (50 percent), Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut (33 percent), God of War (60 percent off) and God of War Ragnarok (20 percent). You’ll get 20 percent back in Epic Rewards on your purchases too. The Epic Games Store offers totally free games every week (no need to have a subscription for those!), and the freebies tend to be for well-known games whenever there’s a major sale on the store. Right now, you can pick up an all-timer in Monument Valley for exactly zero dollars. You have until 11AM ET on September 11 to claim the classic puzzle game. When that game cycles out, Epic Games will rotate three more titles into its lineup: Monument Valley 2, Ghostrunner 2 (which I enjoy very much but am terrible at) and a strategy game called The Battle of Polytopia. Again, you’ll have a week to claim those. Meanwhile, if you have an Amazon Prime subscription, there’s usually a solid selection in the Prime Gaming library. Games you claim here are yours to keep forever, even if you don’t maintain your Prime membership. Amazon offered up a particularly tasty one this week in the shape of Into The Breach, a hugely acclaimed strategy game, but there are plenty of others to check out. And speaking of games you can play right now… New releases Yes, Hollow Knight: Silksong is finally here. It’s out on consoles and PC for $20 and it’s included with Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass. It’s broken storefronts and probably some controllers that players have hurled at the wall after dying to a tough boss.  After a seven-year wait, Silksong is by some distance the highest-profile indie game to arrive in 2025 so far. Perhaps if we start mentioning another long-awaited game — say, Kingdom Hearts 4? Beyond Good and Evil 2? — it may arrive sooner rather than later. Or in, like, another five years. I made a few attempts to play Hollow Knight, but bounced off quickly each time. I’ll be sure to give Silksong a proper go, though.  It might be the case that Silksong isn’t quite your thing. Never fear, there’s lots of other new stuff from this week for you to dive into. If a game pops up that reminds me of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (aka the best game of all time) in terms of looks, I’m duty bound to mention it. Fortunately, Rogue Labyrinth seems like it could be fun to play too. This action-narrative roguelite from Tea Witch Games and publisher indie.io hit Steam this week. It usually costs $15, but it’s 20 percent off with a limited-time launch discount. Another thing that’s very much in Rogue Labyrinth‘s favor is that your weapon is a smacking stick, which you can use to turn objects (including vanquished enemies) into projectiles. The combat is a blend of bullet-hell dodging and hack-and-slash action. Being a roguelike, there’s randomization when it comes to things like the arenas, enemies and powers you’ll encounter on each run. The game is also said to feature dynamic narrative systems and you’ll forge alliances with other characters as you try to survive a lethal reality show. Although so many other indie games scrambled to get out of the way of Silksong, Hirogami stuck to its September 3 release date. I had to chuckle when a press release with a title of “3D origami platformer Hirogami refuses to fold” hit my inbox last week. An easy pun, but I appreciated it. Anyway, this is indeed a 3D platformer with an origami focus. You can flatten out your character into a sheet of paper so that a gust of wind can send you soaring to an elevated platform. You can transform into an armadillo to roll through enemies, an ape to explore treetops and a frog to jump higher. That seems like a real bananza of animal transformation options. Hirogami is available now on Steam, Epic Games Store and PS5. Fling to the Finish has been out on PC for some time, and now this co-op platform racing game from SplitSide Games and publisher Daedalic Entertainment has swung over to consoles. You and a friend are tethered by an elastic rope that will inevitably snag on parts of the environment. But you can actually use this to your advantage to swing your teammate onto a ledge or send you both hurling through the air. The obstacle-filled courses bring to mind Fall Guys, while the items that players can deploy to slow down race leaders remind me a bit of the Mario Kart games. Fling to the Finish does support solo play, as well as local and online multiplayer, where communication will be key (cross-play is available too). As was the case with Overcooked, you

Meta is finally fixing how threads work on its social network Threads. Prior to this, there was no real way to know how long a thread was or even if a post was part of a longer discussion. The company has made “several changes that display threaded posts more clearly.” These include a new “view more” label that indicates a post is part of a longer thread. This is an easy way to instantly know if someone’s thoughts continue past an initial post. Meta There’s also a new design element that automatically stacks posts back-to-back when clicking into a series. Each of these posts now displays a number that shows its place in the thread, along with the total number of posts in a given thread. That sounds much easier than manually adding something like “part one of 12” to each post. These tools are rolling out soon for both mobile and web users. The platform recently reached the significant milestone of 400 million active monthly users. Meta has been busy adding new features to accommodate the growing audience, like the ability to attach lengthy text documents of up to 10,000 characters. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/meta-is-fixing-threads-on-threads-190123221.html?src=rss

The European Commission has announced that it will fine Google €2.95 billion, or around $3.5 billion, for violating European Union antitrust laws and “distorting competition in the advertising technology industry.” The decision follows a similar ruling from earlier in 2025, where a US federal judge concluded that Google maintains a monopoly in online advertising technology. Google displays ads in search results, but it also has a dominant position as a software provider for online advertisers and publishers looking to sell ad space and place ads. The Commission’s main issue is with the way Google’s ad buying tools (Google Ads and DV 360) interact with its ad exchange software (AdX) and ad publisher servers (DFP) in seemingly preferential ways. Google appears to favor its AdX ad exchange by “informing AdX in advance of the value of the best bid from competitors which it had to beat to win the auction,” according to the Commission. It also found that “Google Ads was avoiding competing ad exchanges and mainly placing bids on AdX,” maintaining the dominance of Google’s ad exchange even if an alternative is a better option for advertisers. The Commission is giving Google 60 days to share how it plans to address those issues or face an “appropriate remedy” for violating antitrust law. That could just be the fine, but might also include a forced sale of some or all of Google’s adtech business. Lee-Anne Mulholland, Google’s Global Head of Regulatory Affairs, shared that the company will appeal the decision in the following statement provided to Engadget:  “The European Commission’s decision about our ad tech services is wrong and we will appeal. It imposes an unjustified fine and requires changes that will hurt thousands of European businesses by making it harder for them to make money. There’s nothing anticompetitive in providing services for ad buyers and sellers, and there are more alternatives to our services than ever before.” $3.5 billion is a staggering amount of money, but it’s not technically the most Google’s been charged for violating EU laws. In 2018, the company was fined $5.04 billion for forcing mobile network operators to pre-install Google apps on phones. Though Google has been under an increasing amount of scrutiny in the last decade for its business practices, it so far hasn’t faced many structural remedies for what has been called anticompetitive behavior. For example, a US court found Google was a monopolist in online search in 2024, but a judge recently ruled that the company wouldn’t have to sell off Chrome or stop paying Apple to make Google the iPhone’s default search engine. EU regulators have historically been more persistent than their US counterparts, and the European Commission is reportedly investigating Google for at least one other advertising-related issue, but it remains to be seen if there’s any punishment that will actually faze the company. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/eu-fines-google-35-billion-over-adtech-antitrust-violations-183701640.html?src=rss