Utah's new App Store Accountability Act will force companies like Apple and Google to verify the ages of new App Store users in the state.Utah's new App Store Accountability Act will force tech companies to implement age verification measures.The law, signed by Utah Governor Spencer Cox on Wednesday, was created to protect children and prevent them from accessing age-inappropriate content. Under the App Store Accountability Act, Apple will be required to implement age-verification measures, and the company is already well prepared.In February 2025, Apple published a whitepaper detailing the age assurance features it would be implementing. Through a new developer API, Apple will make it easier for parents to set up App Store accounts for their children. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

Hello Games landmark support for No Mans Sky continues with Update 5.6, Relics, now available on all platforms. If the mechs, underwater exploration, derelicts, living ships, and more werent enough, you can now engage in paleontology. Check out the trailer below.While scouring the universe, you can now happen upon ancient bones. By assembling them, you can recreate the creatures bodies with hundreds of unique parts to discover. Of course, you can sell these to Fossil Collectors, join the Galactic Palaeology Society, hunt down bone caches and more. Accessing the dig sites wont be easy, though, as mysterious Guardians will rise up to stop you.You may also encounter the risen bones of creatures and can indulge in new recipes which provide different benefits. Stone effigies also await to be discovered and there are even massive boneworms to battle.Check out the patch notes below and full details here. No Mans Sky is available for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch and PC.5.6 Patch NotesCollect and Display SkeletonsPlanetary fossil beds now contain a vast array of specific bone formations.Each of these bones can be placed as a decorative base part, either individually or mounted on a display plinth.Larger display plinths allow a collection of bones to be reassembled into a complete skeleton, allowing the design and reassembly of ancient and extinct beings.Completed displays can be packaged into an easily transportable module, allowing them to be re-deployed in other locations, traded with other players, or sold on the galactic market.A new planetary dig-site building has been added, serving as a hub for interested fossil collectors.The icon for planetary fossils has been improved.A small tutorial mission has been added to guide new palaeontologists.A new palaeontology section has been added to the guide.Fossil ExchangeA fossil collector has been added to the Space Station.Surplus fossils can be exchanged with the fossil collector, allowing players to target specific skeleton components for their designs.The fossil collector will barter for items in their collection, allowing individual inventory items to be swapped.Relics ExpeditionExpedition Eighteen, Relics, will begin shortly and run for approximately six weeks.Rewards include new posters, decals and titles; a living stone suit customization set; the unique Basilisk Crown staff; a mysterious skeletal companion; and the exclusive Living Stone jetpack.Stone GuardiansFossil beds are now watched over by a vigilant stone eye, ready to protect the bones from those who would exhume them.Disturbing the vigilant eye may yield valuable rewards, but comes at the cost of awakening the guardians.Two forms of stone guardian awaita huge living statue, and a whirling storm of re-animated rock.Huge guardian statues have been added to relic worlds.Skeletal LifeformsA new and highly rare skeletal lifeform has been added to some planets.Some planets are now home to the elusive titanic bone-wormQuality of Life and User InterfacePlanets in your current system can now be marked from the discovery page, adding a marker to the starship navigation systems.Added an accessibility option to increase the contrast in mission-critical UI panels.Fixed an issue that could cause the camera to move erratically back and forth while inside high-ceilinged rooms in player bases.Nearby NPCs that have specific unseen interactions will now be highlighted with a marker.Added a new water state for ocean worlds with significantly larger waves.Various volumetric and other atmospheric effects no longer play on planets without an atmosphere.Story details from the In Stellar Multitudes mission now appear in the Journey Records page in the catalogue.Reduced the number of corrupt drones that attack player settlements.The space station marker is now dynamically offset, preventing the marker from obscuring the station while at a distance.Fixed a number of minor text issues in some extractor UIs.Fixed a number of minor text and icon issues in shop interactions.Fixed an issue that caused companions that were set to use no accessories to have a random accessory assigned after re-summoning them.Fixed an issue that caused the starship to too-aggressively lock on to markers when engaging the pulse engine.An organic version of the Teleport Receiver has been added for use in living starships.Fixed an issue that caused the repair requirements for several living starship technologies to all be the same.Lingering on-screen display messages that report pulse drive errors will now clear as soon as a successful pulse drive engagement is detected.Save SystemSignificantly improved the compression used for saved games, improving filesizes and upload/download times for players in the cross-save beta.Created a section for cross-save settings within the general Options menu.Players in the cross-save beta are now alerted to situations where uploads are timing out, and can manually adjust how long the game will wait for a successful upload before detecting a timeout and cancelling.CookingNew fossil-related cooking recipes have been added.Base storage container inventories are now accessible while cooking.Fixed an issue that prevented access to the nutrient processors internal storage while on a freighter or the Exo-Skiff.Fixed a number of issues while cooking the Exo-Skiff, including progress resetting or incorrect items appearing in various slots.Cronos grill on the Space Anomaly can now be used by several players at once.Fixed an issue that made it impossible to cook jellied eels.Abandoned Mode ImprovementsMulti-Tools found in abandoned mode are now always free, but start with damaged slots.Settlement-related missions will no longer start in abandoned mode.Abandoned space stations now have access to Exosuit, starship, and Multi-Tool upgrade stations.Additional salvage boxes have been added around abandoned space stations containing valuable upgrades and inventory expansion modules.Purple systems are now unlocked automatically in abandoned mode.In abandoned mode, crashed freighter containers and other buried caches can now contain additional valuable upgrades.OptimizationIntroduced a number of optimizations to planetary prop rendering.Introduced an optimization to dynamic physics groups.Introduced a significant memory optimization for nav mesh generation.Introduced a number of minor texture memory optimizations.Introduced an optimization for loading large bases.Introduced a number of optimizations for text display, particularly in the Journey Records pages.Introduced an optimization to the various catalogue and guide pages.Other Bug FixesFixed a number of issues that could occur when warping on board another players freighter.Fixed an issue that could cause water creatures to be generated for a planet that would never have deep enough water for those creatures to spawn.Fixed a number of mission blockers in They Who Returned.Fixed an issue that could cause some bases to become invisible when constructed at the waters surface on ocean planets.Fixed an issue that could cause PC players to appear jerky in cross-platform multiplayer.Fixed a rare issue that could cause players settings to reset in VR.Fixed an issue that could cause NPCs to sink into the floor.Fixed an issue that could cause a softlock when browsing the Exocraft inventory.Fixed a rare hang on load when returning to a savegame that was saved while in an Exocraft after playing in multiplayer.Fixed a rare crash related to camera shakes.Fixed a memory-related crash on PlayStation 5.Fixed a number of rare crashes related to mesh scaling.Fixed a number of rare maths-related crashes.Fixed an issue that could cause some planetary props to pop in.Fixed a number of Mac-specific rendering issues.Fixed a rare issue that could cause saves to reach a max size and stop saving on Nintendo Switchsaves can now expand as required.Fixed an issue that could cause multiple ships to become docked to the same landing pad.Improved the placement positioning of decorative base building props.Fixed a number of text clipping issues in large popups.Fixed an issue that could cause a teleport destination to have two copies of a mission marker added.Fixed an issue that could make interactions difficult on freighters that were summoned a long way from the centre of the solar system.Fixed a number of issues affecting markers and planet labels when entering atmosphere.Fixed a rare issue that could cause empty systems to generate incorrect information about their potential Atlas Stations.Fixed an issue that could cause the galaxy map to incorrectly choose a purple system as part of its path to a distant star when purple systems are not unlocked.Fixed an issue that could cause players to start in a purple system when arriving in a new galaxy, when purple systems were not unlocked.Fixed an issue that caused the water effects from the Nautilon submarine to remain in the world after summoning the sub to a new location.Fixed an issue that prevented Exocraft laser effects from playing correctly in multiplayer.Fixed an issue that could cause erratic torso movements in Sentinel mechs.Fixed an issue that could cause the ship to hover as if above water when reloading on a planet.Fixed a number of inconsistencies in creature descriptions, where creatures would be described as being from the wrong environment.Fixed an incorrect texture being used for the Titan expedition in the expedition history screen.Fixed a number of decals and posters from previous expeditions being missing from the catalogue.Fixed an issue that caused a number of unusable and legacy items to be included in the catalogue.

Sony has revealed its next slate of free games for PlayStation Plus Essential (and, by extension, Extra and Premium) subscribers. Starting April 1st until May 5th, theyll receive RoboCop: Rogue City on PS5, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre on PS4 and PS5, and Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth Hackers Memory on PS4.Developed by Teyon, RoboCop: Rogue City occurs between the second and third movies in the franchise, with RoboCop investigating a conspiracy. As a more old-school first-person shooter, your mission is to clean up Old Detroit, whether that involves completing an investigation or gunning down crooks. A standalone expansion, Unfinished Business, is out in Q3 2025, so its the perfect time to dive in.The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is an asymmetrical horror game based on the series first film. Players can control Survivors attempting to escape the Slaughter Family or embody the killers and hunt them down.Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth Hackers Memory follows the base games story and offers more than 320 Digimon. You control Keisuke Amazawa, who dives into the Digital World to clear his name in a more mature story.

The Mauritius ornate day gecko (Phelsuma ornata) is a diurnal species of gecko in the family Gekkonidae, the common geckos. It occurs in Mauritius, on the main island up to an elevation of 300 metres (980 feet) and on most of the surrounding islands. The species feeds on insects and nectar from flowering plants. It has a typical length of 10 to 13 centimetres (3.9 to 5.1 inches), and can be bluish green, with a back covered with red coloured dots and a head with a T-shaped pattern. This Mauritius ornate day gecko was photographed on the le aux Aigrettes, an islet of the southeastern coast of the main island.Photograph credit: Charles J. SharpRecently featured: Francis Scott Key Bridge collapseKefermarkt altarpieceHyacinth macawArchiveMore featured pictures

March 27: Day of the Union of Bessarabia with Romania (1918)Ball-and-stick model of sildenafil1884 Outraged by a jury's decision to convict a man of manslaughter instead of murder, a mob in Cincinnati, Ohio, began three days of rioting.1899 PhilippineAmerican War: American forces defeated troops commanded by Philippine president Emilio Aguinaldo at the Battle of Marilao River.1998 The Food and Drug Administration approved the drug sildenafil (chemical structure pictured), better known by the trade name Viagra, as the first treatment approved in the United States as a treatment for erectile dysfunction.1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia: A U.S. Air Force F-117 stealth aircraft was shot down by a Yugoslav Army unit.2020 North Macedonia became a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).Jonathan Jennings (b.1784)Doug Wilkerson (b.1947)Elisheva Bikhovski (d.1949)T.Sailo (d.2015)More anniversaries: March 26March 27March 28ArchiveBy emailList of days of the yearAbout

Cool FindsTreasure Trove of 800 Exceptional Iron Age Artifacts Discovered in EnglandThe collection, which dates to the first century C.E., includes items ranging from elaborately decorated horse harnesses to ornate cauldrons Researchers spent three months excavating the site. Durham UniversityElaborately decorated horse harnesses, ceremonial spears, ornate cauldrons, bridle bits and hundreds of other 2,000-year-old artifacts have been unearthed in England.Experts say the hoard is one of the largest and most significant Iron Age finds in all of the United Kingdomand it has the potential to reshape historians understanding of wealth, travel, status and trade among Britains tribes during that period.The discovery wasannounced Tuesday by Historic England, Durham University and the British Museum.It has been a once-in-a-lifetime find for everyone involved, says Keith Emerick, an inspector of ancient monuments at Historic England, the British government agency that funded the excavations, to theGuardians Mark Brown. A copper alloy harness fitting found in the cache Durham UniversityA metal detectorist named Peter Heads stumbled upon the hoard in December 2021. He was using the device to scan the ground in a field near Melsonby, a village in North Yorkshire in northeast England.When Heads started digging, he realized hed discovered something importantand he decided to get in touch withTom Moore, an archaeologist at Durham University.When Moore arrived at the site, he also immediately realized the significance of the find. He approached Historic England and secured 120,000 (roughly $155,000) to excavate the area. That work took place in 2022, and researchers have been analyzing the more than 800 items in the cache ever since.The artifacts likely date back to the period when the Roman emperorClaudius was invading Britain. Experts think the items belonged to theBrigantes, a tribe that controlled much of northern England during the Iron Age.Researchers found at least 14 horse harnesses, which were likely used to pull ancient chariots or wagons. The harnesses were decorated with colorful glass and Mediterranean coral, which suggests their owner was a wealthy, high-status individual with connections throughout Europe and the Roman world. Many items had corroded together into a tangled mass over the years. Durham UniversityThey also unearthed iron tires and other vehicle parts, as well as a cauldron that was likely used as a wine mixing bowl. The cache includes the first evidence of four-wheeled wagons in Iron Age Britain, which raises new questions.Were going to have to spend years thinking, what did these vehicles look like, where did they come from? Moore tells the Guardian.Over time, some of the artifacts had corroded together to form a tangled mass, which researchers had to carefully extract. They suspect these items may have been placed in a bag together.Many of the artifacts had been burned or deliberately broken, which adds to the theory that they belonged to an elite person. They may have been included in a funerary pyre, though researchers didnt find any human remains.This is symbolicit is not just throwing something away, Moore tells the LondonTimes Jack Blackburn. It is something were familiar with from the Iron Age where people ritually destroyed things. What weve got here is it on a grand scale.Help Us Save The Melsonby HoardWatch on The discovery of such obvious symbols of wealth and power is significant for another reason: It complicates the long-held assumption that northern England was poorer than the southern part of the country during the Iron Age.They challenge our way of thinking and show the north is definitely not a backwater in the Iron Age, Moore tells the Guardian. It is just as interconnected, powerful and wealthy as Iron Age communities in the south.Together, the artifacts are worth 254,000 (about $330,000). The Yorkshire Museum is launchingfundraising efforts to keep the items in England. In the meantime, some of them will be displayed at the museum starting this week.By acquiring the hoard, we will be able to make it accessible to everyone, says Andrew Woods, senior curator at the museum, toBBC News Jessica Bradley. Working in partnership with others, we can learn more about this fascinating period, why the hoard was buried, how the objects may have been used, as well as the identity of their owners.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Ancient Civilizations, Ancient Rome, Archaeology, Artifacts, British History, Cool Finds, England, European History, History, Roman Empire

Saturn's iconic rings are not always clearly visible from Earth. NASA / JPL-Caltech / Space Science InstituteOn Sunday afternoon, Saturns iconic rings vanished from our skies.Dont worrythe planets rings are still intact. But from Earths vantage point, a temporary phenomenon called a ring plane crossing is causing them to appear nearly invisible to our eyes.Saturn completes an orbit around the sun every 29.4 years. Because the planet rotates on an axis of 26.7 degrees, our view of its rings changes depending on where the Earth and Saturn are in their orbits. Sometimes, we have a great view of the rings broad surface. In this case, were seeing just their narrow edgeand they reflect so little light that its as though they arent there.They literally almost disappear, says Sean Walker, an associate editor at Sky & Telescope, to Denise Chow at NBC News. Normally you see the rings around Saturn, but when you have an edge-on view, it looks like a hair-thin line of light just cutting across.Need a visual guide? The best way to illustrate this is to get your sheet of paper, and hold it horizontallyparallel to the groundat eye level, astrophysicist Jonti Horner wrote in an article for the Conversation in 2023. Now, move the paper down towards the ground a few inches. What do you see? The upper side of the paper comes into view. Move the paper back up, through your eye line, to hold it above you and you can see the underside of the paper. But as it passes through eye level, the paper will all but disappear. The Hubble Space Telescope captured these two distinct views of Saturn, with a ring plane crossing depicted on the right. Reta Beebe (New Mexico State University), D. Gilmore, L. Bergeron (STScI), NASA/ESA, Amanda S. Bosh (Lowell Observatory), Andrew S. Rivkin (Univ. of Arizona/LPL), the HST High Speed Photometer Instrument Team (R.C. Bless, PI), and NASA/ESAWhen this happens in the solar system, giving Earth the narrowest glimpse of the rings, its known as a ring plane crossing. The phenomenon also offers skywatchers and scientists an opportunity to get a better view of Saturns moons. Many of Saturns moons were actually discovered during ring plane crossings, including its largest, Titan.When we have these ring plane crossings, the light that normally reflects off Saturns rings is no longer glaring back toward Earth, adds Walker to NBC News. That means you can detect a lot more of the smaller moons.Right now, Saturn is near the sun from our perspective, making it tough for astronomers to see it at all. But in September, the planet will reach oppositionan alignment opposite the sun that offers the best time for viewing. The rings will gradually come back into full view, though theyre expected to appear narrow for another short period in November.Ring plane crossings with Saturn happen every 13 to 15 years, so youll have a chance at seeing another one in 2038. At that time, the planet will be much more visible during the phenomenon.After each of these crossings, Saturns disappeared rings will come back. But in millions of years, its rings will be gone forever. The chunks of rock and ice that make up the rings are being pulled into the planet by its gravityscientists call this ring rain.Saturn's Rings Are DisappearingWatch on We estimate that this ring rain drains an amount of water products that could fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool from Saturns rings in half an hour, said James ODonoghue, a planetary scientist previously at NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center, in a 2018 statement.In 2023, researchers estimated Saturns rings have somewhere between 15 million to 400 million years leftbefore they disappear for goodand a second study found they might be much younger than astronomers thought.Considering the planets vast age of roughly four billion years, were quite lucky to see a ring in the first place, Sascha Kempf, aphysicistat the University of Colorado Boulder who led the second study, told Science News Nikk Ogasa at the time.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Astronomers, Astronomy, NASA, Outer Space, Planets, Saturn, Sky Watching Guide, Solar System, Sun

The 2025 Game Developers Conference (GDC) drew nearly 30,000 registered attendees to San Francisco last week, about the same as last year.Read More

Members of a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee met Wednesday to discuss whats typically a highly bipartisan topic: protecting kids online. But in a far-from-typical political climate, the mood was tense and confrontational.Republican lawmakers are eager to revive a handful of bipartisan bills like the Kids Online Safety Act, which House Republican leadership blocked at the finish line last year. Many Democrats on the panel support these proposals, calling them an urgent response to a social crisis. But theyre raising a new question: as the Trump administration ignores congressional statutes and Supreme Court precedent to gut the federal government, will there be anyone left to enforce these laws?Last week, President Donald Trump abruptly and under current law, illegally attempted to fire the two sitting Democratic commissioners on the Federal Trade Commission, Rebecca Kelly Slaughter and Alvaro Bedoya. The move left two Republicans on the commission, with one more expected to soon be confirmed. Like many agencies across the federal government, the FTC has seen recent staff cuts, though in far smaller numbers than many of the most prominent targets of the right. Even in the minority party, Slaughter and Bedoya warn that their removals will thwart transparency and accountability for any decisions made in their absence, and theyre planning to sue to return to their work. Without dissenting voices in the room, Slaughter and Bedoya have warned, theres no one to push back and illustrate what alternative paths the FTC could have taken, or provide important context to the agencys decisions. Im going to be even more worried about actions taken to withdraw settlements, modify settlements, [and] votes taken to not sue a company, Bedoya told reporters outside the hearing room. If theres an action brought up to the commission, and the commissioners say no, that never becomes public.We had in place what was needed to protect our children, ranking member of the commerce subcommittee Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) said in her opening remarks. And thats why I am absolutely furious right now that there has been this effort to fire the two members of the FTC. The Democratic minority invited Slaughter to testify alongside witnesses invited by Republicans, including representatives from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE), and Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC) the latter, as one Democrat pointed out, contributed to Project 2025. Bedoya, though not formally invited, sat behind his colleague in the hearing room. This hearing is about children. Its not about whats going on here in Washington, DCRepublicans painted the FTC firings as a distraction. This hearing is about children. Its not about whats going on here in Washington, DC, said full committee Chair Brett Guthrie (R-KY). When reporters outside the hearing room asked about the attempted firings, subcommittee Chair Gus Bilirakis (R-FL) said hes focused on the hearing today. Rep. Erin Houchin (R-IN) apologized to parents in the audience for the things that are being taken away from this conversation not being focused on protecting children, but instead on someones job at the FTC. Houchin complained that a reporter had stopped her in the hallway to ask about the agency. Shame on the media if the only thing they cover from today is the FTC, because children are dying, she said.But Democrats argued that laws are useless without effective enforcement, which they believe is under threat. The FTC would be primarily in charge of enforcing two major bills that passed through the House Energy and Commerce Committee last year: KOSA and the Children and Teens Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA 2.0) We can talk about the importance of passing new legislation here in this hearing, said KOSA co-sponsor Kathy Castor (D-FL). But she questioned how they could regain trust in Republicans if you take the cops off the beat, you give the Big Tech CEOs a front row seat to the inauguration, [and] you block the KOSA and COPPA that was hammered out over years of work in this committee?The questions about rule of law and who will enforce it extend far beyond the FTC. In empowering Elon Musks pet project, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Trump has deputized the richest man in the world to slash the federal workforce, and seek to shut down agencies created by congressional statute. Trump has asserted power over what are supposed to be independent agencies, including the FTC, and loyalists hes appointed to run them have so far welcomed him to do so. Many experts say we already are or soon could be in a constitutional crisis, as Trump appears willing to flout everything from a law seeking to ban TikTok to court orders.Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ), ranking member of the full committee, even pointed out that Republicans were the reason KOSA didnt pass last year. Lets not kid the people here to suggest that these bills are going to become law, he said. The bottom line is we passed KOSA and we passed COPPA out of this committee last session and the House Republican leadership refused to bring these laws to the floor. And you know why? Theyre in the pocket of Big Tech. And Big Tech does not care at all about kids.KOSA and COPPA 2.0 both garnered criticism that, as written, they could infringe on speech and privacy. But this criticism could extend to virtually any child safety law.Slaughter echoed Democrats sentiment to reporters after the hearing. You cant meaningfully address kids online safety in bills that would empower the FTC to enforce kids online safety, if you dont talk about whether the FTC is a functional body consistent with the design of Congress, she said.See More:

Nothings Ear (a) stand out with their bright yellow colorway, but theyre also available in black and white.From the AirPods Pro to the Shokz OpenRun Pro 2, Amazons Big Spring Sale has ushered in a number of surprisingly good deals on wireless earbuds. Neither of the aforementioned picks is probably the best option if youre working with a tight budget, though, fortunately, there are cheaper alternatives. Right now for example, the already inexpensive Nothing Ear (a) are on sale at Amazon starting at $77.50 (around $23 off), which is a new all-time low.Nothings entry-level earbuds deliver solid value for the price, which is why they remain our favorite pair of earbuds for under $100. They combine decent active noise cancellation with enjoyable sound, which you can further fine-tune using Nothings mobile app. The water-resistant buds also come with three sizes of swappable silicone tips, which allow for a more secure and comfortable fit (should you find the right size).Whats more, the ANC earbuds offer multipoint Bluetooth pairing, Fast Pair (for Android), and a low-latency gaming mode the latter of which is relatively rare at this price point. They also sport ChatGPT integration, so if you own a Nothing phone, you can ask the AI tool questions on the go using your voice. Or, you know, not.Read our Nothing Ear (a) hands-on impressions.