Recent News from Engadget

Beeper Mini team says a fix is ‘coming soon’ and promises to extend users’ free trials

The Beeper Mini team has apparently been working around the clock to resolve the outage affecting the new “iMessage on Android” app, and says a fix is “very close.” And once the fix rolls out, users’ seven-day free trials will be reset so they can star…

Fortnite Festival tries to bring back the heyday of music gaming

Between Fortnite’s propensity for big-name concerts and Epic’s purchase of Harmonix two years ago, the inclusion of some kind of music-making feature in the game was inevitable. What Epic is releasing today is actually far grander: an entirely new mode…

The Morning After: Battle of the chatbots, part two

Good morning. Do you want this customized PS5? You'll have to work the sunset years of your career at Sony then. That is, apparently, the only way. I'm also taking bets on which chatbot will be the chatbot we all depend on. It's like Yahoo …

The EU has reached a historic regulatory agreement over AI development

Following a marathon 72-hour debate, European Union legislators Friday have reached a historic deal on its expansive AI Act safety development bill, the broadest-ranging and far-reaching of its kind to date, reports The Washington Post. Details of the …

Beeper Mini’s iMessage integration is on the fritz

Beeper Mini, the chat app that reverse-engineered Apple’s iMessage for Android, is having problems. 9to5Google reported Friday the entire Beeper platform is seemingly broken right now, leading to the obvious speculation that Apple has stomped on the bo…

CRISPR-based gene editing therapy approved by the FDA for the first time

In a landmark decision, the FDA greenlit two new drugs for the treatment of sickle cell disease in patients 12 and older, one of which —Vertex’s drug Casgevy — is the first approved use of genome editing technology CRISPR in the US. Bluebird Bio’s Lyfg…

Alan Wake 2 to dispatch a new game plus mode on December 11

Alan Wake 2 won big at last night’s The Game Awards and the developer wasted no time to capitalize on that momentum. Remedy just announced that the game is getting free DLC next week, December 11, in the form of a New Game Plus mode. This has been a lo…

The FTC is reportedly looking into Microsoft’s $13 billion OpenAI investment

OpenAI’s recent drama hasn’t only caught UK regulators’ attention. Bloomberg reported Friday that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is looking into Microsoft’s investment in the Sam Altman-led company and whether it violates US antitrust laws. FTC Cha…

Threads countdown hints at EU launch on December 14

After much speculation and waiting, Threads is finally launching in Europe. Meta’s social media app will likely release in the EU on December 14, just in time to post photos of holiday dinners or whatever. There’s no official announcement by Zuck and t…

Microsoft is hiring dozens of ZeniMax QA contractors as unionized employees

Game studios and publishers have collectively laid off an estimated 9,000-plus workers this year. Microsoft (which itself has laid off workers from Xbox teams in 2023) is bucking the trend to a certain extent by hiring dozens of ZeniMax quality assuran…