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Norton VPN review: serious upgrades but not without its limits

by admin August 20, 2025

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Norton has long been a household name for antivirus software, yet despite launching its first VPN, Norton WiFi Privacy, in 2017, it’s never achieved the same pedigree status in the space. Its original iteration, Norton Secure VPN, offered little to shout about, though a recent revamp seems to have set the service on a much more promising path.

Although not yet rivaling the likes of NordVPN, Norton VPN offers surprisingly quick speeds, a super-friendly interface, and a great array of features you’d expect from a top VPN service. While some gaps in the service remain, it’s clear the Norton VPN team is striving to bring the same security pedigree seen on its antivirus software to its VPN, and pretty quickly, too.

We’ve put this new and improved service to the test. Both in day-to-day scenarios and more rigorous, proprietary tests, we’ve uncovered where the service has made great strides, and where it should look next to ensure it reaches the heights its aiming for, all to help you decide whether Norton VPN is the choice for you.

Norton Secure VPN subscription options:

Norton Secure VPN for $29.99 per year

Features

Norton VPN’s recent revamp has seen a host of expectable but mightily important features arrive across several platforms. Plus, it continues to improve its fundamentals – even if some areas still have some work to do.

As far as VPN protocols go, Norton offers OpenVPN, WireGuard, IPSec, and Mimic, its proprietary protocol designed for obfuscation. iOS and Mac users are limited to only IPSec and Mimic, which is disappointing given OpenVPN and WireGuard’s improved capabilities – although IPSec can be fast, WireGuard offers a faster, less device-intensive experience. Luckily, wider support for these protocols is said to be in the works, though an exact release date is unknown.

Users on iOS and macOS have a limited protocol choice, with only IPSec and Mimic available (Image credit: Future)

As for extra features built into Norton VPN, there aren’t any particularly unique choices, though each is beneficial and often seen among top VPNs. Wi-Fi detection allows you to auto-connect to the VPN when connecting to public Wi-Fi. On macOS, it also auto-connects on “compromised networks”. It’s unclear how Norton decides if a network is compromised, but all wireless networks are considered public by default.

Norton also offers ad and tracker blocking. Tracking is blocked at a DNS level to reduce the risk of your data being used for targeted ads while you browse online, and can be turned on by simply toggling the option. Although the tracker appeared to work, its ‘Trackers Blocked’ counter seems to run on a delay, rather than in real time, so while we know 50 trackers were blocked across a period of our testing time, we don’t have any indication of when each was blocked.

Ad blocking is undertaken by a browser extension. Although this means another download and sign-in process, we did find the ad blocker to be effective – even if not quite as effective as dedicated ad-blocker services. Scoring 77% in our tests, it is definitely worth turning on should you use Norton VPN, though don’t expect a flawless display. NordVPN and Surfshark only achieved 84% in our latest tests, and ExpressVPN only achieved 90%, so there isn’t far for Norton VPN to go before leading VPNs in this field.

A key area of improvement has been in Norton VPN’s security-focused features. Firstly, Norton VPN offers a simple-to-use kill switch, ensuring your internet traffic stops immediately when you lose connection to the VPN, preventing you from broadcasting unencrypted traffic over public Wi-Fi networks. If you’d prefer, you can choose whether you’d like to keep your access to local devices over a LAN even when the kill switch is active. The kill switch isn’t enabled by default and requires you to dig through a few menus to set it up, but if you’re on macOS, Norton gives you an easy set of guidelines to follow so you can quickly set it up.

The new Norton VPN app houses all of its improved features in an easy-to-use design resemblant of other Norton products (Image credit: Future)

Outside the kill switch, Norton VPN has added an array of features. In April 2025 alone, Norton VPN gained Double VPN, IP Rotation, Pause VPN capabilities, and the ad-blocking browser extension mentioned above.

Double VPN is available across 8 servers. While your connection options are fixed, for example, USA via Canada, they are bi-directional, and give you access to Australia, Canada, Germany, Japan, New Zealand, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. While it’s not completely customizable, like Surfshark’s Nexus technology allows, its 8 locations put it only two behind NordVPN, which offers 10.

IP rotation also features, something not even NordVPN can say. Only Surfshark also offers IP rotation among the best VPNs. While Norton’s offering isn’t quite as expansive, it does offer servers in the US, Japan, Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, and Germany to use. What’s more, Norton’s offering is much simpler to access, and connects in almost no time at all, no matter the server you pick. In our testing, our IP seemed to change every few seconds, meaning it should be good enough to give you a new IP for every website you visit.

Pause VPN is the final feature worth mentioning. Overlooked by the likes of PIA and ExpressVPN, pause VPN gives you the choice to temporarily end your VPN connection for a set time, with the VPN reactivating once the time ends. This is a great tool should you briefly wish to search for something or use an app outside of the connection without risking forgetting to turn your VPN back on. Norton VPN’s implementation is extremely simple to use, and is easily accessed, though it’d be great to see a minimum pause time shorter than 15 minutes as, frankly, most times when we’ve needed it we’ve been finished in five minutes rather comfortably.

Server Network

Norton VPN’s server network isn’t up there with the very best VPNs quite yet, but it’s seen massive expansion in recent months. Since our last review, Norton VPN has expanded from servers in 29 countries to servers in 65, with 104 total locations. For comparison, Norton VPN now has more locations than Mullvad, which offers 89, and only a few less than Windscribe, which offers 112.

What’s good is the spread Norton VPN offers. 25 locations in the US are great for streaming enthusiasts, plus 6 countries in South America and 5 countries in Africa is superb given the lack of coverage these areas traditionally recieve. Asian coverage is weaker, with only 12 countries, though the most popular locations are included among these.

Given Norton VPN’s rate of increase, it wouldn’t surprise me if its country spread increased further over the coming months. If so, it’d be good to see the service fill the various gaps left in Asia and, since it already has a strong presence in South America and Africa, bulk out its presence in Europe and the US to account for key sites and services located in currently omitted regions.

Norton VPN’s global coverage is especially impressive in South America and Africa, though its Asian coverage could be better (Image credit: Future)

Apps

Norton’s VPN app is available for Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS. It’s also available on Apple TV and Android-based smart TVs. For Android TVs, you need version 10 or later, whereas Apple tvOS requires version 17 or later.

Notably, there’s no Fire TV or Linux support, so if you need to cover your Ubuntu or Linux Mint install, Norton won’t cut it quite yet – there’s not even support for a command-line VPN. Norton does not offer configuration files for OpenVPN or WireGuard either, so there’s no way to use Norton with an unsupported device.

It’s worth mentioning that Norton VPN’s apps have several instances of feature disparity. As highlighted already, iOS and macOS users are already limited in protocol choice, but these platforms also lack split tunneling and some auto-connect functionality. The lack of protocol choice is especially disappointing in this instance, given that other providers have offered OpenVPN and WireGuard on these platforms for a while now.

Otherwise, there’s nothing really to dislike about Norton VPN’s apps on any platform. They’re simple to look at, easy to navigate, and look so unapologetically Norton-like that anyone new to VPNs who’s familiar with its antivirus tools will quickly gain the sense of security often felt when using other Norton tools.

Ease of use

Norton VPN is a breeze to install, likely thanks to the years of experience Norton has with its other products in making complex systems simple to introduce.

Once you’re in, the experience is impressively simple, though at the expense of a couple of handy extra tools. The menus aren’t overcomplicated with features, settings, and data – though the option to set favorites or see the best servers at any time would be nice – the settings are all explained in simple enough terms for beginners, and there’s easy access to any extra tools you might have in your plan, or guides you may need to help set up your VPN connection how you’d like it.

In true Norton fashion, the experience you have is as close to identical as possible across any device you might have, too. This makes Norton VPN a superb choice should you be new to VPNs and looking for easy, quick access to the settings you need, without worrying that your usual server, connection type, or setting may be hiding somewhere new.

Even Norton VPN’s Advanced Servers, meaning its P2P-optimized, double VPN, and IP rotation optimized servers, are easily accessed. With dropdown menus giving you the information you need to understand where you’re connecting to, and any additional routing your connection might take.

Speed and performance

Norton’s speeds are its biggest area of improvement since our last round of testing. Starting with the headlines, we recorded an average speed of 909Mbps download using WireGuard from our testing server in the UK, rivalling the likes of NordVPN, ExpressVPN and Proton VPN as a result.

Our connection to the US wasn’t quite as impressive, as we only recorded speeds of 463Mbps, which is around the middle of the pack. It’s still more than enough to watch multiple 4K streams simultaneously, but it’s a pretty big dropoff compared to our initial UK tests.

How we perform speed tests

(Image credit: Shutterstock)

We test from two different virtual PCs, one in the UK and one in the US. We’re expecting big things out of NordVPN, as both of these servers have a 1 Gbs connection. You can find out more in our VPN testing methodology.

As for OpenVPN performance, Norton didn’t do as well. Our average speeds were around 260-275Mbps, whether connecting to the UK or US, which is also more than enough for most internet activities, but pales in comparison to the speeds we’ve seen elsewhere.

Our latency recordings were about what we’d expect for a top-tier VPN connecting to UK servers. In Norton’s case, 3.5ms. Most of the providers we’ve tested clock in around the 2-5ms mark, which is barely perceivable. One or two milliseconds’ difference won’t make a difference to most internet apps or online gaming sessions.

As for the US connection, Norton tops our list in terms of low latency at 66.6ms, just barely beating out NordVPN to take the top spot. If you’re gaming or running a video call and want your connection to be as responsive as possible while connected to the US, Norton is the ideal solution.

Unblocking

We’ve tested Norton VPN works with them with loads of your favorite streaming services and it worked with them all! Netflix is cracking down on VPNs, but we were able to watch Netflix US, UK, Australia, Canada, and Japan all from our local testing centers. The same goes for Amazon Prime and Disney Plus, however, we weren’t able to access US Youtube.

As for regional providers, it’s a mixed bag but mostly positive results. We were able to access BBC iPlayer, ITV, Channel 4, 7Plus, and 9Now, but TVNZ+ intermittently failed, and we couldn’t access 10Play at all.

Norton VPN does have P2P capabilities, and our testing showed it works reasonably well. It’s worth mentioning that Norton doesn’t support port forwarding, which means that you won’t get incoming requests for sharing when torrenting, limiting your connectivity.

Norton only has two P2P servers, one in the Netherlands and one in Dallas. It’s a far cry away from the full P2P connectivity of a provider like PIA, but even Avast’s competing SecureLine VPN offers eight P2P servers.

On the plus side, Norton does allow you to connect automatically when you boot up a supported P2P app, but you’ll have to enable this option from the settings menu first.

Privacy and security

Norton is clearly taking the necessary steps to ensuring its VPN is secure and private. Its no-logs policy is extensive yet clear, outlining the data collected by the VPN app at any instance, your browsing data is never stored on their servers, including DNS requests, which are instead served by a private DNS server run by Norton, preventing ISP spying, and it’s had its no-logs policy audited to ensure trust.

In August 2024, VerSprite audited Norton’s policy, noting two issues that could result in sensitive user information being disclosed. Norton took the necessary steps to address these issues, and once remedied, VerSprite agreed the no logs policy was both accurate and implemented correctly.

However, Norton does collect some anonymized information from the VPN client. This includes connection timestamps, platform details such as OS and timezone, and crash logs. They also aggregate overall data transmission for network planning. So, if you’re extremely concerned about your privacy, Norton might collect slightly too much information for comfort. As it stands, Norton’s acceptable for day to day browsing, but you might consider Proton VPN instead if you need rock-solid privacy guarantees.

Norton is clearly taking the necessary steps to ensuring its VPN is secure and private.”

Rob Dunne – VPN Editor, TechRadar

Something that may ease some privacy concerns would be if Norton VPN implemented RAM-only servers. These servers wipe when rebooted, meaning you cannot store any data on them, thus eradicating the risk of any user data being available should a data request be submitted by authorities. Not having RAM-only servers isn’t an issue as such, though it adds a layer of trust for users, and is becoming increasingly common among top VPNs.

Given its privacy focus, we wanted to know more about Norton VPN’s proprietary Mimic protocol. In addition to offering obfuscation, Mimic is powered by TLS 1.3 ciphers (AES-256 and ChaCha20), as well as CRYSTAL-Kyber-512 for post-quantum cryptography. It’s good to hear that Norton is already thinking ahead when it comes to quantum security, which puts them significantly in front of most of the VPN industry.

Meanwhile, Norton’s standard VPN protocols, OpenVPN and WireGuard, use AES-256-GCM and ChaCha20-Poly1305 encryption, respectively. These are considered the top encryption methods used by all of the best VPNs, a strong demonstration, therefore, of Norton’s intent to found its service on strong privacy staples.

Customer Support

Norton’s customer support staff are very helpful. There’s a community forum where you can post issues you’re having with Norton VPN, where other members and support staff can pitch in with their own advice. From the interactions we’ve had, they’re very knowledgeable and quite prompt in returning with information.

However, the support materials on the site are a different matter. When you search for help topics on Norton’s website, you’re immediately given an AI prompt for your search, which looks like it’s powered by Gemini. It’s not totally useful when you’re trying to find specific help on a topic, and you have to scroll past it to get to the actual results.

As for the knowledge base, it’s not particularly in-depth – most of the articles consist of bullet point lists and some are thinly-disguised marketing material. If you want help with Norton, we’d stick to contacting their customer support directly through the forum or over the phone. There’s also a 24/7 helpdesk upgrade if you need around-the-clock customer service.

Pricing and plans

Norton offers three tiers of pricing. The standard VPN package starts at $39.99 for the first year, which works out at roughly $3.33 per month. After the introductory offer is over, it renews at $79.99 per year. That makes Norton one of the cheapest VPNs we’ve see.

However, there’s one major limitation: you’re only allowed five device connections (or worse, only one if you’re in some regions including the UK), significantly under the 8-10 you’ll find from most other providers. Surfshark and PIA both go even further, offering unlimited device connections on their cheapest subscription plans. It should also be clarified that Norton’s device limit isn’t a traditional simultaneous connections limit. Instead, Norton’s five device limit refers to the number of devices with the VPN installed. Should you wish to install on a sixth device, you’d instead be asked to remove one of the previous five devices, rather than merely disconnecting from the VPN.

Upgrading your subscription costs an extra $10 per year, making your subscription cost $4.17 per month initially and $109.99 every year after that. There’s no meaningful change to the VPN, but you get extra features from Norton’s security suite, including virus protection, password management, dark-web scanning, 10GB encrypted cloud storage, and AI-powered scam detection.

The Ultimate subscription package will set you back an extra $20 per year, making it $5 per month initially and $129.99 per year after the first. In addition to extra family-safety features for monitoring your child’s devices, the device count is bumped up to 10, so you can take full advantage of Norton’s security features on most of your household’s devices, and you get 50GB of secure storage (or 150GB should you activate auto-renewal).

To its credit, Norton offers an above-average 60-day money-back guarantee and a true 7-day free trial when you sign up. We love 7-day free trials as an entry point into VPNs as they offer a ‘try before you buy’ solution, without some of the hassles caused by a 30-day money-back guarantee. Seeing Norton VPN be one of the first to offer this, then, puts it in good stead to be among the best VPNs for beginners in the future.

Switching from its current install-based device limit also seems like an easy win Norton VPN could take advantage of. While increasing the device limit with more premium plans does help this slightly, removing the confusing of registering and removing devices is an easy way to make the service more accessible to newer users and takes away the sting of the small device limit on the standard plan.

Should you use Norton VPN?

Norton VPN is a rapidly improving VPN. In the space of a few months, it’s brought in a spread of features you’d expect to see in a top VPN, alongside some features some top VPNs don’t think to include. Its performance has risen to a point where it can rival top VPNs like Surfshark and NordVPN, it has apps simple enough for anyone to use, and it brings Norton-pedigree security to make anyone trust its privacy guarantees.

That said, there are several areas it still needs to address. Primarily, sorting the device install limit will add to its already high-value package by reducing connection roadblocks for users. Outside of this, expanding the feature pool, adding Linux and Fire TV support, and eradicating the feature disparities for macOS and iOS users will quickly put Norton VPN among the best value VPNs available if done right.

For many, now might not be the right time to pick up Norton VPN due to any one of the limitations mentioned. That said, it’d be wise to keep an eye on Norton VPN over the coming year or so, as, from what we’ve seen already in 2025, it looks as though the provider could quickly become a high-value, high-security VPN from a name renowned for its security capabilities.

Norton VPN alternatives

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August 20, 2025 0 comments

NFT Gaming

Valantis DEX acquires stHYPE as Hyperliquid staking heats up

by admin August 20, 2025

Valantis has taken a decisive step in the liquid staking market with its acquisition of stHYPE, the second-largest staking protocol on Hyperliquid’s HyperEVM.

Summary

Valantis acquired stHYPE, the second-largest liquid staking token on Hyperliquid.
The deal integrates stHYPE with Valantis’ DEX, targeting deeper liquidity and modular yield features.
Competition with kHYPE sets the stage for an expanding liquid staking market.

Announced on Aug. 19, the deal unifies stHYPE under the Valantis ecosystem. It sets the stage for expanded yield opportunities, deeper liquidity, and a stronger roadmap for Hyperliquid’s (HYPE) decentralized finance environment.

Integration and roadmap

Following the acquisition, Valantis takes complete control of stHYPE’s development, operations, and communication. The shift begins with a foundation phase where stHYPE is migrated to CoreWriter, a system designed to enhance security and transparency by enabling improved monitoring of off-chain infrastructure.

Community incentives will also expand through integrator rewards, ensuring stHYPE continues to be widely adopted across Hyperliquid’s protocols. In the second phase, stHYPE will be transformed into a modular liquid staking token that can support multiple staking addresses and allow new permissionless interactions between DeFi and staking applications.

This modular base is expected to connect staking with trading, lending, and HyperCore’s derivatives markets, giving liquidity providers more ways to participate from a single HYPE deposit.

Hyperliquid staking landscape

stHYPE enters this new chapter at a time of growing competition within Hyperliquid. kHYPE, which commands over a billion dollars in total value locked, has surpassed it as the dominant LST.

Through the acquisition of stHYPE, Valantis hopes to close that gap by transforming its DEX into a hub for liquidity that vertically integrates trading and staking. The strategy also expands the scope of STEX pools, which already support efficient swaps and lending market integrations without waiting through staking withdrawal queues.

Hyperliquid’s liquid staking market appears to be changing, with protocols now competing not only on staking yields but also on depth of liquidity, DeFi integration, and the range of services provided. Valantis sees the merger with stHYPE as an opportunity to gain a stronger presence in a market that continues to attract new participants and innovations.

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August 20, 2025 0 comments

High-resolution image of numerous shiny gold bitcoin tokens stacked together. (Kanchanara/Unplash)

Crypto Trends

Cathie Wood’s Ark Invest Buys $21.2M of Bullish Shares and $16.2M Robinhood Shares

by admin August 20, 2025

Cathie Wood’s Ark Invest has increased its exposure to crypto exchange operator Bullish (BLSH), with the ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK) now holding 1,165,397 shares valued at roughly $73.85 million, according to the firm’s latest holdings disclosure.

The update comes after Ark added 356,346 Bullish shares to ARKK on Aug. 19, a purchase worth about $21.2 million at the close of trading in New York, when the stock settled at $59.51 at close. The buy builds on Ark’s earlier allocation of more than 2.5 million shares spread across three ETFs on the day of Bullish’s debut.

Bullish is the owner of CoinDesk.

Ark also extended its buying spree in Robinhood (HOOD), purchasing 150,908 shares worth about $16.2 million at Tuesday’s close of $107.50.

Robinhood has become one of Ark’s most consistent crypto-adjacent holdings, with Tuesday’s purchase marking the third straight trading day the firm added to its position, following $14 million in buys on Monday and $9 million on Friday.

Read more: Bullish’s $1.15B in IPO Proceeds Was Entirely in Stablecoins—A First for Public Market

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August 20, 2025 0 comments

GameFi Guides

Scaramucci’s Skybridge Capital to Tokenize $300M in Hedge Funds on Avalanche

by admin August 20, 2025

SkyBridge Capital, Anthony Scaramucci’s investment management firm, plans to tokenize $300 million worth of its hedge funds on the Avalanche

network.

The firm is bringing its Digital Macro Master Fund and Legion Strategies on-chain in partnership with tokenization provider Tokeny and its parent, Apex Group, which manages more than $3.5 trillion in assets, according to the press release shared with CoinDesk on Tuesday. Apex acquired Tokeny earlier this year.

The initiative uses the ERC-3643 token standard with operational support from Apex’s Digital 3.0 platform, which handles issuance, administration, and distribution.

SkyBridge’s decision underlines the growing appeal of using blockchain rails to transfer and record ownership of traditional financial instruments like bonds, funds and stocks, a process often dubbed tokenization of real-world assets (RWA). Global banks and asset managers are exploring this technology to cut settlement times, increase transparency and keep markets open around the clock.

Securitization firm VERT Capital announced to tokenize $1 billion of debt and receivables on XDC network and debuted a tokenized credit platform on XRP Ledger, while tokenization specialist Securitize also offers tokens of various funds by Hamilton Lane, Apollo and KKR.

The tokenized RWA market has doubled over the past year, surpassing $26 billion, per RWA.xyz data, and is projected to grow into a trillion-dollar market by 2030, according to reports by McKinsey, Ripple, BCG and others.

“We look forward to bringing our hedge funds into the digital, on-chain era, improving transparency, liquidity, and accessibility for our investors, and demonstrating how traditional finance and blockchain can work together to create smarter, more efficient investment solutions,” SkyBridge Capital founder and CEO Anthony Scaramucci said in a statement.

Avalanche increasingly aims to position itself as a hub for tokenized assets. Bergen County in New Jersey uses the network to digitize property deeds of $240 billion in real estate, combating fraud and cutting processing time.

Read more: Stellar Development Foundation Invests in Archax, Aiming to Boost Tokenization

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August 20, 2025 0 comments

Game Updates

Death By Scrolling Is The New Game From Monkey Island Creator Ron Gilbert

by admin August 20, 2025

Ron Gilbert is primarily known for creating and writing the Monkey Island series, but his collection of credits is impressive and long. His latest game is Death by Scrolling, a pixelated action game that forces player to try and outrun death and other pressing dangers.

In the game you choose between five characters who are stuck in purgatory where you must fight and collect resources on a game field that is constantly chasing you. To succeed, you must not die and collect enough money to pay the ferryman to transport you to safety. It’s safe to assume, with Gilbert’s involvement, that it will also be funny.

Gilbert actually wrote about the game on his personal blog back in February, but Gamescom represents our first thorough look at it.

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August 20, 2025 0 comments

Product Reviews

Today’s Wordle clues, hints and answer for August 20 #1523

by admin August 20, 2025

We’ve got a brand new clue for today’s Wordle all typed up and ready to go. Peek as early as you like—it’s here to help, not instantly give away the August 20 (1523) Wordle answer. Although if you like the sound of that, either because you’re short of time or patience, or it’s just one of those days where your mind feels like it’s made of fluff, then you only have to click your way straight to another happy win.

A clue for today’s Wordle

Stuck on today’s Wordle? Here’s a clue that pertains to the meaning of the word.

If you’re still just as stuck after our clue, scroll down for further hints.

Hints for the August 20 (#1523) Wordle

Our Wordle hints will start vague so as to just give you a bit of a nudge in the right direction at first.

As you scroll down, they’ll offer more and more help towards figuring out today’s word without fully giving it away.

Are there any repeated letters in today’s Wordle?

Two of today’s letters are used more than once, so watch out.

How many vowels are in today’s Wordle?

There’s a single vowel in here, although you’ll want it to do more work than usual.

What letter does today’s Wordle begin with?

It’s a good idea to begin with an “L”.

Did you have a tough time with today’s Wordle? It happens to the best of us. That doesn’t mean you can’t still win, though.

The August 20 (#1523) Wordle answer is…

(Image credit: Future)

This is it. No turning back now!

The solution to today’s Wordle puzzle is…

The meaning behind today’s Wordle answer

Long-necked and long-domesticated llamas are liked for everything from their hair to their ability to carry heavy goods. Lovely.

Previous Wordle answers

Past Wordle answers can give you some excellent ideas for fun starting words that keep your daily puzzle-solving fresh. They are also a good way to eliminate guesses for today’s Wordle, as the answer is unlikely to be repeated.

Here are the last 10 Wordle answers:

August 10: MINTY
August 11: SOUTH
August 12: NOMAD
August 13: KEFIR
August 14: KNELL
August 15: LEVEL
August 16: MATTE
August 17: LOUSY
August 18: ISSUE
August 19: ROWDY

Learn more about Wordle

(Image credit: Future)

How to play Wordle

Wordle’s a daily guessing game, where the goal is to correctly uncover today’s five letter word in six goes or less. An incorrect letter shows up as a grey box. A correct letter in the wrong space turns up yellow. And the correct letter in the right place shows up as green. There’s no time limit to worry about, and don’t forget that some letters might be used more than once.

Get better at Wordle!

What’s the best Wordle starting word?

Generally you want to pick something with a good mix of common consonants and vowels in it as your Wordle opener, as this is most likely to return some early green and yellow letters. Words like SLATE, CHIME, and REACT all work, but feel free to find your own favourite.

Is Wordle getting harder?

(Image credit: Valve)

Wordle is not getting harder!

There will always be the occasional day where the answer is the name of a body part, has a sneaky double vowel, or a word obscure enough to send everyone rushing off to a dictionary. But the daily answers, edited by Tracy Bennett, are still a good mix of common terms and tougher challenges.

Remember that if you’re craving more of a challenge, you can enable Hard Mode under the ⚙️ options menu. This option doesn’t make the words themselves harder, but it requires that “any revealed hints must be used in subsequent guesses.”

How did Wordle begin?

Wordle is the creation of Josh Wardle, and began life as a small personal project before its public release in 2021. From there it’s gone on to become a global phenomenon, attracting a dedicated daily audience, billions of plays, a whole host of competitors, and even a seven-figure sale to the New York Times where it’s become a mainstay of daily games alongside the crosswords and Connections.

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August 20, 2025 0 comments

Game Reviews

More action than RPG, Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 struggles to convince after a few hours’ play

by admin August 20, 2025

I can’t hide it: I’m a little disappointed. The wait for Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 has been an excruciating one. This is the long-awaited follow-up to the flawed but respected Bloodlines 1 from 2004, and it was originally announced in 2019 with a release date of 2020. But it was systematically delayed, then full-on suspended, before being resurrected at The Chinese Room (Still Wakes the Deep) where it’s been reshaped for release. Bloodlines 2 has had problems. The question is: does it still have problems and has it been worth the wait?

Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2

Having played Bloodlines 2 for a few hours in a preview build my answer – frustratingly for you – is I’m not sure. I have mixed feelings. There are things I really like about it – I love how powerful it makes you feel as a vampire from the very beginning of the game; the action feels great – but I’m concerned by how narrow the game is as a role-playing experience. Too often I feel led through metaphorical corridors from point A to B, as though I’m playing a predetermined experience rather than shaping one of my own. I think it’s telling that Paradox is leaning into the “action” part of the “action RPG” descriptor; from what I’ve played, this is more like an action or stealth game, with some RPG elements, rather than the other way around. And given the extensive and exhaustive resource material involved – a tabletop RPG that’s been running for decades – that disappoints me. But there are upsides to this approach.

The things I like, then: Bloodlines 2 wastes no time making you feel cool. You do not wake as a fledgling vampire but an elder one who’s been asleep for a hundred years. From the moment you take control of this character – a character cringingly called “Phyre” (“fire”), and who likes to announce their name at every given opportunity – you can already do incredible things. You can scramble up walls like a spider, even entire buildings if you plan your route right, and leap off the other side, to the ground, and take no damage. You can move with blur-like vampire speed, float through the air, and punch people so hard they float – well, fly – through the air. You can telekinetically grab at objects and then hurl them wherever you want. You can even telekinetically grab people. There’s no gradual build-up of power here: you are, from the beginning, a beast.

Watch on YouTube

It feels great. There’s a snap and a pace and a wallop to everything you do. Even a small thing like climbing up a ladder is sped-up so that it’s like doing it on fast-forward. And as you start to unlock more powers as you level up, which differ slightly depending on which of the game’s six clans you join – I joined the Brujah clan, which are brawlers – the action gets more ridiculous still. (Note: two of the clans you have to pay to unlock, which is grubby.) I have a Lightning Punch ability that rapidly strikes, countless times, anyone who I ‘mark’ nearby to be punched. I pulverize them in a blur of action. I have a charge that makes me thunder towards anyone in my path and pick them up and slam them into whatever I’m running towards. Tactility: there’s a lot of it here.

This is the upside to the game’s somewhat obvious action focus. The more linear approach to levels and situations also means areas have been shaped specially to encourage entertaining, platformer-like traversal, and that they’ve been decorated to a high degree because designers know where the level you’ll be. Take the derelict building you wake up in, for example: there’s only one route through it as you work your way onto the roof, away from inquisitive police, so visually, the crumbling ruin of the place is writ large all around you. Developer Chinese Room showed what flair it has for environmental storytelling in Still Wakes the Deep, on that wonderfully touchable and dilapidated 1970s oil rig, and you can see that expertise here too. The dimly lit griminess of it. The posters on the wall. The graffiti. The walls smeared in blood. It’s exactly the atmosphere a Bloodlines game begs for. The detail in your home-base apartment, a kind of disgusting, makeshift laboratory, is incredible.

This is the male version of the main character Phyre, who I don’t think you can structurally customise. You can change his hair and piercings and clothing but not completely customise who you are. I guess it’s for cinematic reasons. He’s a bit annoying. | Image credit: Paradox / The Chinese Room

Nice though they are to look at, in these areas there’s little you can actually interact with – a problem that carries right across the game. Take the city of Seattle, for instance, where the game’s set. It looks nice, caught as it has been in heavy snowfall, and moody in the dark, lit by pools of streetlight or car headlights. But the only doors you can interact with are the ones that lead to specific quest objectives, of which there are only one or two in the preview build, and the only people you can interact with… Well, you can utter a few words to some people, in an effort to lead them into an alley to drink their blood, which regenerates health or regains special ability charges, or earns you a kind of upgrade currency, but that’s about it. For the most part, it feels like a place filled with non-interactive extras.

This feeling extends to the building environments you enter. There’s a hotel lobby that’s full of people at a Christmas do, but I can’t interact with any of them. Then, when I get to the more gamey areas of the hotel, which are where I’ll fight some packs of low-level vampires – thugs, really – there’s no one else around. These halls and corridors are mostly empty with only occasional clusters of enemies there. It’s a bit dull. Even the more central characters don’t inspire much excitement when you meet them. They’re nice enough to look at but predictable to the point of stereotype – with exception of Tolly, a disfigured nosferatu who injects much needed humour and charisma – and the interactions with them feel stiff. There’s not much intrigue in the dialogue. You can provoke reactions, such as arousal or embarrassment or annoyance, which suggests these things mean something in a gameplay sense, but how that plays out is unclear for now from what I’ve played.

I wasn’t allowed to take my own screenshots so I’ve had to use these supplied ones, which don’t really show the game in action very well. All the same, they highlight some of the nice lighting and atmosphere and character design, which can be very striking. | Image credit: Paradox / The Chinese Room

Thankfully the story does have some intrigue of its own – it’s literally embedded in you. You wake with not so much a voice in your head as a whole other personality, who happens to be – bizarrely but brilliantly – a noir-style private investigator, which prompts an amusing clash of styles between him and his overly dramatic inner monologues, and your surliness. It also allows you an on-board narrator who can explain the world as you adventure through it. Actually, the best part of the preview came when inhabiting the PI-style character through a memory of his, because he had access to a different range of vampire abilities – mind-affecting ones. The gameplay challenge here became extracting information through dialogue from characters who didn’t necessarily want to give it, which was much more interesting than rote battles with uninspiring packs of vampire thugs. It was a glimpse at the sort of thoughtful dialogue interaction I had hoped the game would have.

Look, there’s still hope. This, it’s worth remembering, is a preview build of a game still a couple of months from release, and it’s only the start of the experience – the part that typically lays some ground rules before opening up and letting you do what you want to do. I fully expect this empty-feeling Seattle playground to populate with places to go and people to meet. At least, I hope that’s the case. But I also expect a preview build to be designed to showcase the best parts of the game I’m previewing, and for the beginning of a game to grab and dazzle a player, and convince them to stick around. I did enjoy some of what I played, and I’m willing to give it another go. But I wasn’t grabbed or dazzled.

I’m always wary of critiquing a game for what it’s not, rather than meeting it where it is – and just to emphasise, the focus on action here makes plenty of sense. But this is a sequel to a cult RPG after all, and one based on a major tabletop RPG to boot. In this case it feels valid to crave a little more role-playing, a little more texture and depth to the game’s people and conversations. And so for now, a question mark remains.

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August 20, 2025 0 comments

NFT Gaming

Fed’s Top Banking Regulator Floats Allowing Staff to Hold Crypto

by admin August 20, 2025

In brief

Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman said staff should be allowed to hold small amounts of crypto to gain practical understanding.
Her remarks emphasized blockchain’s potential to reduce friction in asset transfers and called for legal frameworks to evolve in parallel.
Legal experts say her comments mark a regulatory shift, though some warn staff holdings could pose conflict-of-interest risks.

Federal Reserve Vice Chair for Supervision, Michelle Bowman, told a crypto conference in Jackson Hole on Tuesday that she favors allowing central bank staff to hold small amounts of crypto, an idea that, if formally proposed, could alter the Fed’s internal rules and spur debate over how the institution engages with digital assets.

The approach should consider allowing Federal Reserve staff “to hold de minimus amounts of crypto or other types of digital assets,” Bowman told audiences in prepared remarks at the Wyoming Blockchain Symposium on Tuesday.

Bowman framed the conversation as one about tokenization’s role in reducing frictions in asset transfers, highlighting how the technology could streamline ownership changes, cut costs, and expand access to capital markets.

“It is possible that we could see a ‘tipping point’ where the processes themselves are well-established, and legal frameworks have been updated to permit a wider range of activities relying on the new technology,” she explained.

A “similar challenge with blockchain technologies” is that adoption depends not only on technical progress but also on legal and regulatory frameworks keeping pace with how the systems are used in practice, Bowman noted.

“We stand at a crossroads: we can either seize the opportunity to shape the future or risk being left behind,” Bowman said.

Crypto policy and legal observers argue Bowman’s comments amount to more than industry talk, carrying weight beyond the symposium setting.

Her remarks “hint at a more open, balanced regulatory approach,” and “show the Fed moving from caution to curiosity,” which could mean U.S. regulators are leaning on “practical understanding over pure caution,” Vincent Liu, chief investment officer at Kronos Research, told Decrypt.

“Bowman’s remarks cannot be dismissed as mere rhetoric; they represent an inflection point in the U.S. regulatory approach to crypto that we can no longer avoid as a country,” Andrew Rossow, a public affairs attorney and CEO of AR Media Consulting, told Decrypt. “They challenge not only the ‘how’ but the ‘why’ of financial supervision.”

Such a stance would “necessitate rigorous legal frameworks, public debate, and more efficient legislative action to balance practical expertise with the highest standards of integrity and public trust,” Rossow explained.

Yet Rossow also cautions that Bowman’s suggestion raises questions about conflicts of interest.

“Regulators cannot realistically avoid the danger of perceived partiality or diminished public trust if staff directly hold even small amounts of speculative assets,” he said, adding that “practical exposure” and direct crypto ownership may not be the “only effective path to regulatory competence.”

Rossow argued that episodes from Enron to the Silk Road and FTX show how repeated crises expose the dangers of “blind reliance on fear of abuse,” making clear the need to reckon with their lasting significance. “The answers are right in front of us, and they’re hauntingly beautiful,” he said.

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August 20, 2025 0 comments

Crypto Trends

Fed Official Says Staff Should Be Allowed To Hold Crypto

by admin August 20, 2025

The Federal Reserve’s top regulatory official says staff from the US central bank should be allowed to invest a small amount in crypto to help them understand the technology.

Fed vice chair for supervision Michelle Bowman said at a blockchain event in Wyoming on Tuesday that the regulator should consider allowing its staff “to hold de minimus amounts of crypto or other types of digital assets so they can achieve a working understanding of the underlying functionality.”

“We will soon be establishing a framework for supervising issuers of these assets,” she added.

“There’s no replacement for experimenting and understanding how that ownership and transfer process flows.”

Currently, most Fed staffers and their spouses are barred from owning crypto or products that concentrate on crypto, such as exchange-traded funds or shares in crypto companies.

The Fed tightened its rules on all investments in early 2022 after it was revealed that three top officials had unusual trading activity in 2020, as the regulator took action to support the US economy in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Allowing crypto could help recruitment, rulemaking

Bowman said the Fed staff investment restrictions “may be a barrier to recruiting and retaining examiners with the necessary expertise,” and easing the rules would help existing staff better understand the technology.

Michelle Bowman giving prepared remarks at the Wyoming Blockchain Symposium 2025 on Tuesday. Source: YouTube“I certainly wouldn’t trust someone to teach me to ski if they’d never put on skis, regardless of how many books and articles they have read, or even wrote, about it.”

Bowman urges Fed not to “stand still”

In her speech, Bowman said bank regulators had an “overly cautious mindset” and urged them to be less skeptical of new financial products and “recognize the utility and necessity of embracing technology in the traditional financial sector.”

She said some bankers are concerned that blockchain technology threatens traditional business models, but that technology could “change the banking system regardless of how banks and regulators choose to respond.”

“We must choose whether to embrace the change and help shape a framework that will be reliable and durable — ensuring safety and soundness and incorporating the benefits of both efficiency and speed — or to stand still and allow new technology to bypass the traditional banking system altogether,” she added.

“From a regulator’s perspective, the choice is clear.”

Related: New crypto advocacy group debuts at Wyoming summit

Bowman said she recognized the risks in adopting new technology, but those could be offset or “at least determined to be manageable when we recognize and consider the potentially extensive benefits of new technology.”

Trump’s crypto-friendly push

Bowman didn’t specify the types of crypto products or what amounts she would suggest the Fed allow, but her comments are the latest crypto-friendly remarks regulators have taken under the Trump administration.

On Friday, the Fed said it would end a supervision program for crypto and blockchain-related activities undertaken by banks, which the Biden administration set up in 2023.

Trump also signed an executive order earlier this month directing banking regulators to investigate claims of debanking made by the crypto sector and conservatives.

Trade Secrets: Ether could ‘rip like 2021’ as SOL traders brace for 10% drop

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August 20, 2025 0 comments

Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive officer of Meta Platforms Inc., during the Meta Connect event in Menlo Park, California, US, on Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024.

Gaming Gear

Is Meta’s Superintelligence Overhaul a Sign Its AI Goals Are Struggling?

by admin August 20, 2025

Meta is splitting its AI division Meta Superintelligence Labs less than two months after the company announced its formation in June.

The group will be split into four smaller groups, according to a New York Times report. One group will focus on AI research, another one on infrastructure and hardware projects, one on AI products, and another one on building out AI superintelligence, a hypothetical AI system that could outperform human intelligence on any and all scales.

Facebook did not respond to a request for comment.

Superintelligence is Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s holy grail, but the timeline on that could take years, maybe decades, and some experts are skeptical that AI can even reach superintelligence to begin with.

Along with the restructuring, Meta is also looking at downsizing its AI division completely, although no final decision has been made on that. That may not be too surprising given the multi-billion dollar hiring spree summer Meta has been having, which is likely to cause some shareholders concern when the company next releases spending.

The tech giant has poached top talent from OpenAI, Apple, and more the past few months, tempting the engineers with multi-year deals worth millions of dollars. On the company’s latest earnings call, Meta CFO Susan Li said the company’s skyrocketing capital expenditure spend would be driven first by AI investments and then by employee compensation.

Although capex hikes should make investors queasy, the stock soared, because Meta showed huge wins for its ad revenue business, attributing it to AI, and promised even more payoffs in the future thanks to the superintelligence lab.

The company is also apparently moving away from its previous stance that “open source AI is the path forward,” as the tech giant contemplates licensing third-party artificial intelligence models, either by building on “open-source” models or by licensing closed-source models.

Is Meta actually achieving its goals?

The aim with the restructuring is reportedly to streamline Meta’s two top priorities: achieving the storied superintelligence, and to give the company a competitive edge in AI products, which it currently lacks.

Zuckerberg first admitted that the company had fallen behind in the AI race back in April, and sparked a spending and restructuring frenzy.

While AI has been helping the company’s ad revenue business, the same can’t be said for its products. Meta’s consumer-facing AI app is widely disliked by users across the internet for its inconsistencies and shortcomings.

While some investors are hopeful in Zuckerberg’s determination to catch up to competitors in the AI race, and even deliver on superintelligence, the pressure is on for the Meta chief as this is not Zuckerberg’s first rodeo with a multibillion dollar moonshot.

The “Metaverse,” Zuckerberg’s first fringe-idea-baby that had him change the company’s name over it, failed to scale out and delivered poor user adoption, despite the $20 billion poured into building it.

The road to success is mired in ethical concerns

In his quest to achieve his rather ambitious AI goals, Zuckerberg has known practically no boundaries, even sometimes sidestepping ethical ones.

The company has allowed its generative AI assistants and chatbots to engage in “sensual” conversations with minors, affirm racist beliefs and even generate false medical information, according to a Reuters report from last week. A Wall Street Journal report from April found that the company even allowed users to create an AI chatbot called “Submissive Schoolgirl,” pretending to be an 8th grader.

The Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism opened a probe into the company’s AI products on Friday in response to the Reuters report.

A string of legal dramas have followed since. Texas attorney-general Ken Paxton said on Monday that his office will be opening an investigation into Meta over its chatbot’s alleged impersonation of licensed mental health professionals and false claims of confidentiality.

Meta’s AI chatbots were under even more scrutiny this month after one of its chatbots led to a cognitively impaired New Jersey retiree’s death. The chatbot had encouraged the man that she was a real human being and invited him to “her” nonexistent New York apartment.

Meta is scrambling to deliver on its ambitious promises and avoid a second Metaverse debacle, and the pressure is mounting for the company with each capital expenditure bump and restructuring decision. But in this path to success, the methods it uses to achieve superintelligence and AI market domination will be just as, if not more consequential, than whether or not it fails.

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August 20, 2025 0 comments