Lead Hacker

A look at in-game cosmetics you’ll get with the Ultimate edition. | Image: Rockstar Games Rockstar's long-awaited Grand Theft Auto VI is launching November 19th, 2026 for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series S/X consoles. The game will be available digitally at launch, with physical cases containing codes, not discs , so your options for preordering are straightforward. The preloading phase for the game begins on November 12th, which should give you plenty of time to install the game. There are two versions of the game to choose from, the $79.99 Standard and $99.99 Ultimate editions. Both include the same preorder perks. You'll get the Vintage Vice City Pack when the game launches. It's a set of in-game items that includes vehicles, we … Read the full story at The Verge. source https://www.theverge.com/gadgets/960838/grand-theft-auto-gta-6-vi-preorder-editions-buy

Gears of War: E-Day. This is The Stepback , a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more on the bleak state of the video game industry, follow Andrew Webster . The Stepback arrives in our subscribers' inboxes on Sunday at 8AM ET. Opt in for The Stepback here . How it started Microsoft closed out Summer Game Fest with a bang. The company's annual June showcase was packed with crowd-pleasers: Halo , Gears of War , Fable , a translucent Xbox, and even some pleasant surprises like new Persona and Crazy Taxi games. It was the kind of event that harkened back to the boisterous days of E3, when the industry was in a healthier place an … Read the full story at The Verge. source https://www.theverge.com/column/960600/xbox-is-a-disaster

Engineers from Katalyst Space Technologies testing Link. | Image: NASA/Scott Wiessinger The Swift Observatory was launched in 2004, but recent solar storms have pushed its orbit lower, and it's in danger of burning up in Earth's atmosphere as soon as this year. To try and stave off its demise , NASA has enlisted Katalyst Space Technologies. The company's Link spacecraft launched Friday with the goal of intercepting Swift, which has no propulsion system, and boosting its orbit back to its original position. Right now, Swift is circling at an altitude of 224 miles, and Link is aiming to raise that by about 150 miles. Using a three-armed spacecraft to lift a satellite 150 miles higher into orbit is challenging enough, but the spee … Read the full story at The Verge. source https://www.theverge.com/science/961459/nasa-emergency-save-swift-observatory-katalyst-space-technologies

The Matic is our favorite robot vacuum by a pretty comfortable margin. If you’ve been thinking about buying one, you may want to plan on doing it sooner than later. The company will raise its price by $250 on September 9th, going from $1,245 to $1,495. Matic told The Verge that the new price reflects its rising costs for memory and other components for the vacuum, which it says are now tenfold. Those who buy one directly from the company will get a year’s worth of replacement bags worth $96 at no extra cost. Each refill contains 12 bags, and they ship for free. Additionally, Matic has increased their return policy from 60 days to six months. Matic A different kind of robot vacuum and mop, Matic reinvents the floor cleaning machine. Where to Buy: $1245 at Matic Our reviewer Jennifer Pattison Tuohy praised the Matic’s “human-like navigation,” noting in her review that it got stuck only twice during six months of use. In her clutter...

A great concept that falls flat. The Ikko MindOne Pro is delightfully small. I keep calling it a square phone, which isn't quite right; the screen is square, but the phone itself is slightly rectangular. The camera flips up so you can use it for selfies - you can even open it partway to use as a stand or a kind of PopSocket. There's a Clicks-style keyboard accessory that also adds a magnetic ring and a headphone jack. I tried so hard to like it, but this phone is a miss no matter how you look at it. I used it like a normal phone. I downloaded a minimalist launcher and tried using it as kind of a dumb phone. I put the keyboard case on. I took the keyboard case off. Nothing … Read the full story at The Verge. source https://www.theverge.com/tech/960509/ikko-mindone-pro-hands-on

Fanfiction communities are trying to hunt down writers who haven’t written works with their own hands. | Image: Álvaro Bernis / The Verge Over the past week, a new fanworks movement has kicked off, with the aim to root out authors using generative AI. But the detection methods being implemented are questionable, and any fanfic writer could be caught in the crossfire. Broad distaste around the use of Claude, ChatGPT, and other AI tools has long been a thing in creative communities , including the world of fanfiction. Readers and writers have passed around tips for spotting supposedly AI-generated works, citing anything from em dashes to the broad concept of purple prose. But on June 29th, an anonymous X account called @heatedrivalryai promised a seemingly more reliable solution … Read the full story at The Verge. source https://www.theverge.com/tech/960854/ai-fanfiction-ao3-claude-detector