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"GTA for kids" has arrived on Xbox Game Pass, and it's a delightful example of how to treat a younger audience with respect
Game Updates

“GTA for kids” has arrived on Xbox Game Pass, and it’s a delightful example of how to treat a younger audience with respect

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“Kids are quite discerning, actually,” says someone who has never really spent any time with kids, and perhaps doesn’t even know what a child is. My experience with kids has revealed that, no, they aren’t discerning at all. They are happy to watch absolute drivel, demand to be bought ‘toys’ that are little more than sludge, and dress in whatever triple-stained clothes they’ve been wearing for the last week. So, when a game is labelled as an imitation of a huge franchise, but “for kids”, my quality alarm sounds and I expect the worst.

Wobbly Life

Enter Wobbly Life, launched into early access on Steam five years ago, and a year later on Xbox. It’s technically a “GTA for kids”, yes, if you simply don’t want to use many words due to being chronically lazy or rushed – but this would actually be doing a quite wonderful game a massive injustice. It’s essentially an open, knockabout world of activities and exploration, playable by up to four players cooperatively, with a focus squarely on physics, laughs and fun.

As a ‘gamer’ parent (I do know quite a lot about video games, contrary to what people on message boards might say) to an 11-year-old and a four-year-old, I’m immediately narked when a game designed for kids fails to give that audience an ounce of respect. Yes, games for young players should be simpler to grasp, but that’s no excuse to make them buggy, dull, tiresome messes. A lot of these games feel like they are exploiting loved brands for a quick buck, but Wobbly Life couldn’t be trying harder to offer an experience that keeps on delivering.

Over the five years since its initial early access release Wobbly Life has seen update after update, adding new areas, new jobs, new missions, new vehicles, new activities… new pretty much everything. Now on its 1.0 release, on Game Pass (as well as all major platforms), I honestly don’t think there is a better game for kids to mess around with. Part job sim, part life sim, part go into space sim (thanks to the latest update), you might one moment be taking a job delivering newspapers via a nifty truck equipped with a paper shooter, then buying that new house you’ve always dreamed of, then jetting off into space to see what adventures await.

I’ve watched my son play Wobbly Life aged seven to 11, and this game simply has the juice. What this juice is made of is hard to pinpoint, but I think the key ingredient is a commitment to quality. None of the activities, missions, or jobs here are detailed enough to stand on their own, but they do just enough and let kids fill in the blanks. Kids are great at this (my daughter likes to pretend she is an assortment of doughs, then jumps into an invisible oven to bake, the only real-life prop being the dings I make to signify the time is up). You can be a farmer here, not like in Farming Sim, but how a child sees being a farmer, and it’s perfect.

While the big hitters on Roblox bring in an obscene number of players, have you actually seen what the majority of these games are like? Busywork and clicking with the only goal being to accrue enough currency to buy the next macguffin, to allow you to do even more busywork and clicking to buy that same mcguffin, but bigger. The actual gameplay within these games is so narrow it simply funnels kids down these content tunnels, always offering a new carrot tied to an increasingly dazzling stick, with the added peril of premium currency to shortcut that drudgery.

The Space Update is just the latest in what has been a constant stream of big additions to the game. | Image credit: RubberBandGames

Wobbly Life doesn’t care about what players are doing or how. Developer RubberBandGames just keeps on throwing more and more toys into the playpen, then sits back and lets the kids get on with it. I’ve heard my son squeal with joy while playing (often online with friends), and the core gameplay is simple enough for any family member to jump in and have a good time. The fact that this game has 14,500 English reviews on Steam and is currently sat on “Overwhelmingly Positive” says it all.

If there’s any justice in the world of game development (and given the state of job security in this industry, I am leaning towards there not being any), RubberBandGames received a bumper-sized truck full of cash for putting its wonderful game on Game Pass. Beyond that, games like this deserve just as much praise as the headline-grabbers, the triple-As, and the financial quarter heroes. I don’t want my kids playing slop where the ‘content’ is nothing more than a road to profit. Instead, I’ve got four years of brilliant memories tied to Wobbly Life, a game with heart that you don’t need to buy in a store.

A copy of Wobbly Life was purchased by the author.



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Moon Helium Deal Is the Biggest Space Resource Grab Yet
Product Reviews

Moon Helium Deal Is the Biggest Space Resource Grab Yet

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For billions of years, solar winds have bombarded the Moon. Over time, this constant onslaught of charged particles has caused helium-3 to accumulate in the lunar surface. This isotope is rare on Earth, and rising demand from several industries—including quantum computing—has incentivized some companies to explore the possibility of lunar mining.

One such company is Interlune, a Seattle-based startup that aims to extract natural resources—primarily helium-3—from the lunar surface. Interlune eventually hopes to sell its harvested helium-3 to government and commercial customers in the national security, medical imaging, fusion energy, and quantum computing industries—and it just struck a major commercial deal.

The largest purchase of lunar resources yet

On Tuesday, Interlune announced a partnership with Bluefors, a leading manufacturer of dilution refrigerators and one of the world’s largest consumers of helium-3. Its continuous cooling systems use helium-3 to keep quantum computers running at the ultra-low temperatures required for maintaining qubit stability and reliable operation.

As the quantum computing industry moves toward commercialization—with tech giants such as Google, IBM, and Microsoft reporting progress in scaling—the demand for helium-3 is set to rise. Bluefors agreed to purchase up to 10,000 liters of helium-3 annually from Interlune between 2028 and 2037. This substance trades at around $2,500 per liter, according to a 2024 estimate from The Edelgas Group. The deal is the largest purchase of lunar resources to date.

“A majority of the quantum technology industry relies on Bluefors systems to operate and accelerate development,” Rob Meyerson, Interlune co-founder and CEO, said in a company release. “We are excited to help Bluefors continue advancing companies toward unlocking scientific and medical discoveries made possible only by near-absolute-zero temperatures.”

How Interlune plans to mine the Moon by 2028

Meyerson, former president of Blue Origin, founded Interlune in 2020 alongside former chief architect Gary Lai and Harrison Schmitt, the only living member of Apollo 17. Ever since that mission, Schmitt—a geologist—has advocated for humanity to harness the Moon’s helium-3 reserves.

Interlune has spent the past five years working toward that goal. The company has raised over $18 million in venture funding to develop robotic harvesters and launch a demonstration mission in 2027 as well as a pilot plant by 2029, according to SpaceNews.

This funding and the clearly laid-out roadmap are promising, but it remains to be seen whether Interlune will overcome the steep technological, logistical, and financial challenges of lunar mining by 2028. Though the prospect has garnered plenty of buzz in recent years, very few companies have made real progress toward achieving it.

What’s more, some experts argue that the value of mining the Moon’s helium-3 is overblown. The fact is, we don’t know for sure how much is up there. And although the highest concentrations measured in the Apollo and Luna samples are greater than Earth’s, they’re still very low.

For now, the Moon’s helium-3 is more promise than product, but Interlune’s deal with Bluefors signals rising demand from the quantum computing industry—and could mark a major step toward a new era of space resource extraction.



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Nothing Headphone (1) review: Unlike anything else I've ever seen
Game Reviews

Nothing Headphone (1) review: Unlike anything else I’ve ever seen

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The Nothing Headphone (1) sees the trendy smartphone brand take a first stab at the extremely competitive wireless noise-cancelling headphone market. With their £244/$299 price tag, they sit right in the middle of a sector that’s long been dominated by Sony, Bose and others. We’ve also seen some other excellent options including the Cambridge Audio Melomania P100 attempt to break the trend, with varying levels of success.

Nothing has a bit of a reputation for doing things its own way, and the Headphone (1) is arguably the finest example of that. I’ve been testing them for the last couple of months to see if they impress.

Right off the bat, I know that some folks haven’t been too fond of the way these cans look, but I’ll admit that I love them to pieces. It’s a lovely look, and is typical of Nothing’s clever blend of a modern yet industrial feel.

The build quality is strong too, with a pleasant blend of aluminium on the earcups, plus the large, domed plastic pieces on the earcups and some rubberised portions for good measure. I’ve never had a pair of headphones attract so much attention and so many questions from passers-by, not least when I was with a tech-focused crowd at Gamescom with them. If Nothing’s aim was to get people talking, then they definitely have.

The clamping force on the Nothing Headphone (1) is pleasant, with it being tight enough to secure a good fit and seal for the ANC but not too heavy to feel fatiguing for extended periods. The earcups here are deep enough and padded for comfort.

They do lie flat in their quite slender and minimalistic carry case, although I did worry about wearing them around my neck and flat for longer periods, as the corners of the earcups had a tendency to rub against each other.

There is a small annoyance I have with the fact that they lie flat in their case, though. The Headphone (1) actually sit in their case the wrong way – taking them out reveals the right of the headphones to be on the left, and vice versa, meaning you have to turn them around every time you wish to use them. Maybe I’m being a little nitpicky, but it seems like a simple thing to miss.

Another oddity is the position of the pairing button inside the right earcup, which just feels a tad finicky against the plethora of otherwise lovely tactile controls. The right earcup has a proper volume roller (although side to side), plus a rocker switch for skipping tracks or scruibbing through them if you hold down.

The outside of the right earcup has a button that’s customisable in the Nothing X app for things such as voice assistant triggering, cycling through ANC modes or enabling spatial audio. You can also map two functions to the button by having them set to a tap or a hold, respectively.

The Nothing X app is decent for the most part, offering typical means for adjusting ANC levels, fiddling with an EQ and spatial audio handling. The EQ offers both simple modes such as ‘More Bass’ or ‘Vocals’, or you can go into an 8-band custom EQ for more granular control. There are options for enhancing elements such as bass separately, plus you’ll finda low-latency gaming mode for mobile use, too.The spatial audio is based on head tracking, although it felt a little forced and synthetic with the music I listened to. I can see it working better for movies and for games, though. It’s a shame that the app doesn’t have the ear-tuning feature for a custom sound signature for your ears, as it does with Nothing’s in-ear models.

The Headphone (1) offers active noise cancellation, and for the most part, it deals with things such as voices and other ambient noise rather well. There are just some higher-pitched noises that can come through when you don’t have any music playing. I always use my old Bose NC700s as the benchmark for noise cancellation, as they envelop you in silence, which the Headphone (1) doesn’t necessarily do; the ANC is good, but not class-leading. I found the transparency mode to feel a tad synthetic in its approach to relaying noise around me, too.

Connectivity is handled with up-to-date Bluetooth 5.3, and these cans have a decent array of codecs supported. There are the usual suspects of SBC and AAC, plus the more advanced LDAC for wireless hi-res audio on supported devices. Pairing over Bluetooth to either my Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra for some basic Spotify consumption or my FiiO M11S DAP for more critical listening was a doddle. The Headphone (1) can also connect via its bundled USB-C cable and to 3.5mm for wired use, too.

The Headphone (1) impresses with its strong battery life, too. Nothing rates these cans to last for up to 35 hours with ANC on, and up to 80 hours without. My testing was actually ahead of their claims, with general use putting their endurance with ANC on at around 40 hours – so a charge once every working week, which isn’t wholly unreasonable.

And now the important bit – audio. With the name of fellow British brand KEF on the side of the earcup, who helped with the tuning of the 40mm drivers inside, I had high hopes, even if KEF themselves is better known for its speakers than headphones. It has been said elsewhere that KEF’s involvement was purely for tuning’s sake, and all of the hardware and design work for these headphones is all Nothing’s own.

Out of the box, the Headphone (1) has a bit of a darker sound, with the low-end having plenty of extension and depth, as well as some prominence. It works especially well for my usual suite of rock testing tracks, such as Steven Wilson’s Meanwhile. I noticed there was a pleasant weight and depth to his gritty vocal, while the song’s strong bassline felt tight and had a good amount of power behind it.

If you want a little more oomph, you can also dial up the Bass Enhancement a couple of levels in the Nothing X app, which I did when listening to Daryl Hall & John Oates’ One on One, which added a tad more presence where required, but it didn’t fel too overbearing.

The Headphone (1) also excels with its width and accurate directionality that I found to work immensely well in live recordings, such as on a cut of Hotel Hobbies by Fish from a 1999 live album; there is a lot of ambient noise in the recording, be it crowd noise or applause, and the reverb on the song’s intro cymbal work,

In addition, the bongos in Earth, Wind & Fire’s September felt suitably far off to the right, where they should be, while for mobile gaming use, the prominent low end and lovely width helped immersion when playing some COD Mobile on the Honor Magic V5 or streaming some Forza Horizon 5 and such when barreling around Mexico.

I felt the mid-range to be pleasantly smooth and given enough room to breathe above the punchy low end, with a good feel to September Grass from James Taylor with his lovely vocal and warm acoustic guitar work. It’s an easy listen in this range.

The top end felt quite crisp, too, although there was a bit of a darker finish to the usually bright and vibrant percussion on the intro to Steely Dan’s Do It Again. In a similar vein, the cymbal hits in On The Other Side from The Strokes felt a tad pushed back in the mix against the song’s low-end and mid-range elements.

The Nothing Headphone (1) is a curious customer, as you might expect. Its design and feel is top-notch, offering something that’s far-removed from other headphones I’ve tested in and around its price point; they’re comfortable, stylish and look the business. For that price, I might have expected slightly better noise cancelling and a potentially more well-rounded sound, although if you’re a fan of punchy bass and a generally energetic default signature, then I’m sure you’ll like these. I know I’ve definitely enjoyed using them for the last few weeks, and if you can still pick them up at the discounted rate I spotted them at recently, then they’re well worth a go.



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NFT Gaming

Google DeepMind AI Cracks Century-Old Fluid Mysteries, Pointing to New Era in Science

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In brief

  • DeepMind used physics-informed neural networks to find new solutions to Navier-Stokes equations.
  • The AI uncovered a new family of singularities, later proven mathematically correct.
  • The breakthrough could boost weather models, aerodynamics, and climate prediction accuracy.

For centuries, the complex mathematics describing the movement of liquids and gases—from the air rushing over an airplane’s wing to the turbulent currents of the ocean—have stumped the world’s most brilliant minds. These principles are governed by a notoriously difficult set of partial differential equations (or PDEs), known as the Navier-Stokes equations, which remain one of the seven unsolved “Millennium Prize Problems” in mathematics.

Now, researchers at Google’s AI lab, DeepMind, have demonstrated a novel approach that’s yielding fresh insights.

By training a type of AI known as a Graph Neural Network on complex fluid-flow simulations, the system was able to discover “surprising new solutions” to these century-old problems. The achievement “marks the first time a machine learning model has been used to discover new and verifiable solutions to a famous PDE,” according to the DeepMind team.



This is not just a matter of academic curiosity. A deeper understanding of fluid dynamics has profound real-world implications, impacting everything from aerodynamics and weather prediction to naval engineering and astrophysics, experts say.

The ability to more accurately model and predict fluid behavior could lead to the design of more fuel-efficient aircraft and cars, the development of more accurate climate and weather models, and new innovations across numerous scientific and industrial fields.

At the heart of the challenge are phenomena known as “singularities” or “blow-ups,” theoretical situations where quantities like velocity or pressure could become infinite. While seemingly abstract, these scenarios help scientists understand the fundamental limits of the equations. The DeepMind AI proved adept at identifying patterns in the data that led to the discovery of a new family of these mathematical blow-ups, Google said.

The AI’s findings were described as being “more than just a scientific curiosity,” and have since “been mathematically proven to be correct.” If true, it marks a significant step forward in how artificial intelligence can be applied to fundamental science. Rather than simply crunching numbers faster than a supercomputer, the AI acted as a creative partner, identifying subtle patterns that guided human mathematicians toward a verifiable discovery.

The process involved training the AI to spot connections and behaviors in fluid simulations that might be missed by human observers. According to Yongji Wang, the study’s first author and a postdoctoral researcher at NYU, “By embedding mathematical insights and achieving extreme precision, we transformed PINNs [Physics-Informed Neural Networks] into a discovery tool that finds elusive singularities.”

This collaborative approach—where AI provides insights and direction that are then rigorously proven by human experts—is being hailed as a potential new paradigm for scientific research. It suggests a future where AI systems work alongside scientists to tackle long-standing challenges in mathematics, physics, and engineering that have thus far been out of reach.

While the full solution to the Navier-Stokes equations remains a monumental challenge, this breakthrough demonstrates that artificial intelligence may be a key tool in finally cracking it.

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Bitcoin (BTC) Traders Buy More Downside Protection After Federal Reserve Rate Cut: Deribit
Crypto Trends

Bitcoin (BTC) Traders Buy More Downside Protection After Federal Reserve Rate Cut: Deribit

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Bitcoin BTC$115,802.96 traders continue to eye downside volatility, hedging their bullish exposure despite recent positive signals, such as the Federal Reserve’s rate cut, crypto derivatives exchange Deribit’s CEO Luuk Strijers told CoinDesk.

Earlier this week, the U.S. Fed cut interest rates by 25 basis points and signaled an additional 50 basis points of easing expected by year-end. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) unveiled a new generic listing standard for crypto ETFs, which is set to accelerate the approval process.

Meanwhile, Deribit’s DVOL index, which measures the 30-day implied volatility, remains subdued at around 24%, the lowest in two years.

Historically, bullish sentiment is strong in such situations, causing call options – bets on price increases in BTC – to become more expensive than put options, which provide insurance against price declines. However, on Deribit, put options continue to trade at a premium across all time frames.

“Skew across all time frames remains flat to negative,” Strijers explained. “We continue to see demand for puts to hedge downside exposure, while call overwriting flows are pressuring the topside.” Deribit is the world’s largest crypto options exchange, accounting for over 80% of the global activity.

Options skew measures the implied volatility difference between call and put options for a given expiration. A negative skew indicates bearish sentiment, with investors expecting a price drop; a positive skew reflects bullish expectations.

BTC options skew is negative across all time frames. (Amberdata/Deribit)

Currently, the seven, 30, 60, and 90 day skews are slightly negative, with the 180 day skew neutral, according to data source Amberdata.

This indicates persistent concerns about a possible BTC correction.

Investors buying puts may be concerned that the Fed’s easing was already factored into the market ahead of the decision and that a deteriorating economic outlook could reduce demand for riskier assets, such as bitcoin.

“After the Fed’s decision, some of the earlier optimism has faded. The market now seems to be waiting for the next catalyst — whether macro or crypto-specific — to break the stalemate and push option positioning out of its current balance between caution and optimism,” Strijers said.

Sidrah Fariq, global head of retail sales and business development at Deribit, said the persistent put bias represents market maturity.

“In some sense, BTC options are behaving more like S&P index options – a sign of maturity, but also of market caution,” Fariq said.

Additionally, traders writing covered calls – selling call options against their spot holdings to collect premium – which may be contributing to the put bias, particularly in longer-dated options. This strategy generates additional income but can cap upside potential.

Covered call has emerged as a popular strategy among BTC, ETH and XRP traders in recent years.



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A close up of a Dragon Ball Z inspired avatar from Anime Eternal, a Roblox brawler.
Gaming Gear

‘There is a chance that they will stay in Roblox’: Gen Alpha is into PC gaming, but one industry analyst isn’t so sure they’re going to age out of their favorite haunt

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The kids are playing computer games.

According to the latest Global Games Market Report from the analysts at industry intelligence firm Newzoo, Gen Alpha—defined in this case as anyone born in or after 2010—makes up “an increasing share of the player base, especially on PC.”

As a lifelong fan of computer games, this is good news to me. The kids are with us! But the kids aren’t necessarily playing the kinds of games I grew up on: You may have heard of that excruciatingly popular platform called Roblox where kids are pressured to spend their parents’ money in games like “Steal a Brainrot.” (Which, to be fair, does sound like something you’d find on Newgrounds circa 2000, so maybe we’re not all that different.)


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Earlier this week, I spoke to Newzoo director of market intelligence Emmanuel Rosier about what young gamers are up to, and two aspects of his perspective stuck out to me the most:

  • Gen Alpha doesn’t care if it can run Crysis. They’re growing up playing browser games, tablet games, phone games, and games on low-powered family PCs. You can’t win the Minecraft, Fortnite, and Roblox generation over with ray tracing.
  • They aren’t necessarily going to leave Roblox behind. It’s a common assumption, but in Rosier’s personal opinion, it’s not a sure thing that kids will age out of the Roblox ecosystem en masse.

Regarding videogame graphics, Rosier observed in a recent article that Battlefield 6 doesn’t support ray tracing, “not because the tech isn’t there, but because enabling it would exclude too many players.”

“I don’t think 8K is really the next step in the market,” he told me. “I don’t think it’s going to be about that. I don’t think the young people that were born playing on mobile or on tablet care that much about the visuals.”

Pushing graphics settings as high as they’ll go and fighting with Randy Pitchford over frame rates are still aspects of PC gaming today, but I think Rosier is clearly right that we’re no longer in a place where increased graphical fidelity is a primary selling-point for games. PC gaming is just as much something done on a low-spec family computer, or a Steam Deck.

I don’t think the young people that were born playing on mobile or on tablet care that much about the visuals.

Emmanuel Rosier

“The entry barrier on PC is lower than console, because in most families, there is already a computer, there is a laptop,” Rosier said. “But the other thing is that the younger players, they play the free-to-play cheap games that can run on any device. You don’t need a GeForce RTX 5000 to play Roblox. You just need a browser.”

But what about when the kids graduate from Roblox to the games I understand? Rosier, a parent to Roblox-playing teenagers himself, isn’t so sure that’s going to happen.

“I think there was this initial assumption from older people that Roblox is a platform for kids,” Rosier told me. “When they grow up, they will play GTA or Call of Duty and things like that. I’m questioning that perspective.


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“I’d say there is a chance that they will stay in Roblox, because all their friends are still in Roblox, and there is this network effect, that it is difficult to go and play Call of Duty alone, or, you know, you have to convince so many friends to come and play with you and spend $80 or $70 to play a different experience. And I am not sure at this point that once these teenagers, or kids, grow up, that they will start playing different games and feel like it’s a promotion.”

That uncertainty about the Roblox generation’s future as PC gamers is just Rosier’s personal opinion for now, but Roblox games are getting surprisingly sophisticated (they have their own Call of Dutys in there), and the demographic data that Roblox shares does suggest that players stick around.

“We don’t have proof,” he said. “The only thing that we see that is being shared by Roblox is that the average age of the players of Roblox is going up, but I don’t think it’s older players jumping in, it’s just the existing players that are aging and not leaving.”

Ah well, c’est la vie. If you’re looking for me this weekend, I’ll be adapting to the future by playing Break Your Bones, a Roblox game where you “Try to BREAK all of your BONES.”

In related news, another bit of Newzoo’s recent report that interested me was an analysis of videogame release windows, which led the firm to suggest that publishers consider releasing some dang games in May instead of stuffing them all into the end of the year.

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Transfer rumors, news: Man United move for Forest's Anderson
Esports

Transfer rumors, news: Man United move for Forest’s Anderson

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Sep 20, 2025, 04:23 AM ET

Manchester United are set to move for Nottingham Forest’s Elliot Anderson in January, while Liverpool could be set to enter the race for Brighton midfielder Carlos Baleba. Join us for the latest transfer news and rumors from around the globe.

Transfers homepage | Done deals | Men’s grades | Women’s grades

TOP STORIES

– Chelsea’s Maresca on Sterling, Disasi: My dad’s life harder
– Barcelona’s salary cap drops by €112m, dwarfed by Real Madrid
– Sources: Messi, Inter Miami near multi-year extension

Nottingham Forest’s Elliot Anderson has been in fine form. Ritchie Sumpter/Nottingham Forest FC via Getty Images

TRENDING RUMORS

– Nottingham Forest’s Elliot Anderson has emerged as a January target for Manchester United, according to TEAMtalk. With winter moves for Brighton and Hove Albion’s Carlos Baleba and Crystal Palace’s Adam Wharton deemed unlikely, Anderson is regarded as a potential solution to United’s current midfield crisis. Red Devils boss Ruben Amorim is set to be given the funds to try and sign Anderson for around £70 million, although Forest might not be willing to let him go following his impressive start to the season. The 22-year-old made his international debut for England earlier this month, starring in a pair of FIFA World Cup Qualifiers against Andorra and Serbia.

– Liverpool could be set to enter the race for Brighton midfielder Carlos Baleba, TEAMtalk has revealed. The Cameroon international has been heavily linked with Manchester United this summer, but it is reported that their Premier League rivals are now also tracking his progress. A move for Baleba in January isn’t expected to be sanctioned, as Brighton remain “extremely reluctant” to let him go midway through the season. Nevertheless, an offer in excess of £100 million may be enough to secure a deal for the talented 21-year-old next summer.

Editor’s Picks

2 Related

– AC Milan are plotting a €15 million move for Udinese defender Thomas Kristensen in January, says Gazzetta dello Sport. The 6-foot-6 Denmark international has impressed so far this season, and will face off against Milan this weekend where scouts will be watching. Kristensen, 23, was also wanted by Aston Villa this summer, although the Premier League side didn’t officially lodge a bid, and he is under contract at Udinese until June 2028.

– Manchester United pulled out of a move to sign goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma before he chose Manchester City, says the Daily Telegraph. Donnarumma, 26, moved from Paris Saint-Germain for a fee of around £26m in the summer, but the total financial package including his wages would have been around £130m and that was too much for United.

– Newcastle United remain interested in Manchester United midfielder Kobbie Mainoo, says Football Insider. While the Red Devils are unlikely to sanction a loan deal in January, it is thought a “lucrative” offer for a permanent transfer could soften their stance. Mainoo is targeting regular first-team football this season, with the 2026 FIFA World Cup on the horizon. Mainoo, 20, was left out of Thomas Tuchel’s most recent England squad.

EXPERT TAKE

play

1:16

Steve Nicol lays into Maresca over Sterling and Disasi treatment

Steve Nicol lays into Enzo Maresca’s over his treatment of Raheem Sterling and Axel Disasi.

OTHER RUMORS

– Barcelona will target a move for Bayern Munich striker Harry Kane next summer. The Catalan giants will also try and bring his teammate and defender, Dayot Upamecano, to the club in the same window. (El Nacional)

– However, Juventus striker Dusan Vlahovic is not being considered as a possible replacement for Kane. (Bild)

– Real Madrid and Chelsea are set to ramp up a move for AZ Alkmaar midfielder Kees Smit, 19, amid interest from Barcelona and Man United. (Defensa Central)

– Vinicius Junior is “upset” after being left out of the Real Madrid team in midweek, and a departure “can’t be ruled out” if the situation gets any worse. Talks over a new contract have been put on hold in recent months, with his current deal expiring in 2027. (AS)

– Arsenal center back William Saliba is an option for Real Madrid in 2026, despite having brought in Dean Huijsen, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Alvaro Carreras to strengthen the backline this summer. There are “various names on the agenda” but says one of them is Saliba, with Liverpool’s Ibrahima Konaté being a “cheap alternative” as he’ll be out of contract next year. (AS)

– Real Madrid are scouting Inter Milan striker Francesco Pio Esposito, who has drawn comparisons to Joselu within the club. (Defensa Central)

– Jordan Pickford is “getting closer” to extending his contract at Everton. The England stopper’s current deal expires in June 2027, but after making a strong start to the new Premier League season, an extension now seems likely. (Nicolo Schira)

– Charlotte FC winger Kerwin Vargas is on the radar of the City Football Group. However, with the 23-year-old under contract until 2027, Charlotte are in a “strong position” as things stand. (TEAMtalk)

– Liverpool are “more likely” to try and sign Crystal Palace defender Marc Guéhi next summer on a free transfer, rather than in January for a small fee, having seen a late £35m move in the summer fall through. (Football Insider)

– Internazionale are monitoring Leeds goalkeeper Illan Meslier as a free agent option for 2026. (Ekrem Konur)

– An Internazionale scout was also present at Friday night’s game between Lecce and Cagliari to watch goalkeeper Elia Caprile. (Nicolo Schira)

– Juventus youngster Vasilije Adzic was approached by Sassuolo, Palermo and Genoa about a loan move in the summer. (Tuttomercatoweb)

– Tottenham Hotspur manager Thomas Frank has revealed that midfielder Yves Bissouma still has a future at the club, despite being sidelined so far this season. (Sky Sports News)

– West Ham United have “sounded out” Nuno Espírito Santo as a potential replacement for manager Graham Potter. (TalkSPORT)



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Binance’s CZ Says France Has 'Gone Downhill'
GameFi Guides

Binance’s CZ Says France Has ‘Gone Downhill’

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  • Wave of crypto kidnappings 
  • Notre-Dame’s towers reopened 

Changpeng Zhao, the former chief executive officer of cryptocurrency exchange Binance, recently made a pessimistic observation about France, claiming that the European Union’s second-largest economy has gone “downhill” over the last several years. 

Zhao has pointed to a wave of cryptocurrency kidnappings that have occurred in France over the past several years, as well as the controversial arrest of Telegram CEO Pavel Durov that took place last August. 

That said, Zhao hopes that things will get better for one of the leading EU countries. 

It is also worth noting that France also launched a probe into Binance in early 2025, according to Reuters.

Wave of crypto kidnappings 

France has repeatedly made headlines this year in crypto media due to a wave of cryptocurrency-related kidnappings. 

In January, Ledger co-founder David Balland was abducted from his home in central France, with his kidnappers demanding a €10 million ransom. Balland had one of his fingers severed during a kidnapping before being rescued by France’s elite security forces. 

In May, the father of a cryptocurrency millionaire was kidnapped before being rescued by the police. During the same month, the daughter of Paymium CEO Pierre Noizat was attacked by masked men together with her child. The masked attackers unsuccessfully attempted to force her into a van. 

Roughly 25 people connected to the troubling series of kidnappings have been charged by French authorities. New security measures tailored for crypto professionals have also been introduced. 

Notre-Dame’s towers reopened 

Zhao’s criticism of France comes after the reopening of Notre-Dame’s medieval twin towers. It took five years to reconstruct them following the devastating fire that occurred in April 2019. 

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CZ says that Binance donated to the restoration of Notre-Dame “pretty early on,” adding that it is good to see the iconic landmark finally being reopened. 

“Hope it helps to make France a safer country (even if only in some small way),” CZ said.



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Anker 737 Powerbank
Game Updates

This 140W Laptop Power Bank Is a Dream Buy Now That Amazon Has It Back at Black Friday Price

by admin


There are thousands of power banks on Amazon, but most of them fall between 5W and 60W. That is fine if all you do is charge a phone but when it comes to laptops and bigger devices, they are not much use. The Anker 737 power bank is in a league of its own and it is able to charge nearly everything you own – the new iPhone or a MacBook. And right now, Amazon has cut it down to $87 (from $109), an all-time low price under the $100 threshold, which is why that it is currently the best-selling product in its category.

See at Amazon

The Power Bank That Charges Everything

At the core of the Anker 737 lies its huge capacity and speed: Carrying a gargantuan 24,000mAh battery, it has the juice to charge an iPhone 17 Pro from zero all the way up more than four times. Need to charge an iPad Pro or a MacBook? It can do that too, more than once over so you will not be scrambling to find an outlet on road trips. The difference from an average power bank is noticeable day one, because with them you usually need to ration juice.

And there’s the speed: The 737 model supports 140W fast charging via Power Delivery 3.1, something that’s usually reserved for laptop-only charger like devices. This lets you go from nearly dead, empty MacBook to usable in a hurry even when you’ve got other devices along for the ride. To get that kind of speed, you’ll need a 5A USB-C cable and a hefty 140W wall adapter to get the job done. But once you’ve got that, the experience is silky.

Another clever thing is the clever display on the device: Instead of guessing how much battery you have remaining or when you’ll be ready to go again, the digital readout on the screen shows real-time figures like power in and out and an estimate of time remaining to charge. For those who are lugging a number of devices, that sort of openness spares heartache and allows you to plan more effectively.

Yes, portability matters, and despite all its muscle, the Anker 737 still fits into a bag. It’s about 6 inches long and 22 ounces, so it’s easily portable on a vacation and, most importantly, does fit under TSA guidelines for carry-on luggage. That means you can bring it on a plane without any problem, which isn’t the case with most large power banks.

Three charging ports (two USB-C and one USB-A) mean that you can charge a few devices at once so you charge a laptop, phone, and earbuds at the same time instead of switching between them. That sort of freedom when you’re fully powered is what sets the Anker 737 power bank apart from the sea of tiny batteries that only get to keep one or two devices charged gradually. Add on top of that Anker’s excellent two-year warranty and many-year record of customer service, and there’s reassurance in the box.

Power banks are everywhere, but power banks like this one are not. If your definition of peace of mind is never running out of juice on your most important devices, now is the time to buy one.

See at Amazon



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Meta’s Smart Glasses Might Make You Smarter. They’ll Certainly Make You More Awkward
Product Reviews

Meta’s Smart Glasses Might Make You Smarter. They’ll Certainly Make You More Awkward

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On an earnings call this summer, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg made an ambitious claim about the future of smart glasses, saying he believes that someday people who don’t wear AI-enabled smart spectacles (ideally his) will find themselves at a “pretty significant cognitive disadvantage” compared to their smart-glasses-clad kin.

Meta’s most recent attempt to demonstrate the humanity-enhancing capabilities of its face computing platform didn’t do a very good job of bolstering that argument.

In a live keynote address at the company’s Connect developer conference on Wednesday, Zuckerberg tossed to a product demo of the new smart glasses he had just announced. That demo immediately went awry. When a chef was brought onstage to ask the Meta glasses’ voice assistant to walk him through a recipe, he spoke the “Hey Meta” wake word, and every pair of Meta glasses in the room—hundreds, since the glasses had just been distributed to the crowd of attendees—sprang to life and started chattering.

In an Instagram Reel posted after the event, Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth (whose own bit onstage had run into technical problems) said the hiccup happened because so many instances of Meta’s AI running in the same place meant they had inadvertently DDOS’d themselves. But a video call demo failed too, and the demos that did work were filled with lags and interruptions.

This isn’t meant to just be a dunk at the kludgy Connect keynote. (We love a live demo, truly!) But the weirdness, the timid exchanges, the repeated commands, and the wooden conversations inadvertently reflect just how graceless this technology can be when used in the real world.

“The main problem for me is the raw amount of times where you do engage with an AI assistant and ask it to do something and it doesn’t actually understand,” says Leo Gebbie, a director and analyst at CCS Insights. “The failure risk just is high, and the gap is still pretty big between what’s being shown and what we’re actually going to get.”

Eyes of the World

Live Captions seen on the Meta Ran Ban Display.Courtesy of Meta

Clearly, we are a long way from Zuckerberg’s vision of smart glasses being the computing platform that elevates humanity to some higher-thinking, higher-functioning state. Sure, wearing internet-connected hardware on your face can make it easier and faster to access information, and that may help you become—or at least appear to become—smarter or more capable. But as the clumsiness of the Connect demo very publicly demonstrated, the act of simply wearing a chatbot and a screen on your face might cancel out any cognitive advantage. Smart glasses put the wearer at a significant social disadvantage.





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