In 2022, Sony unveiled its PlayStation Stars rewards program, which gave dedicated players a chance to earn digital collectibles. Now, less than three years later, Sony has announced that it will be ending the PlayStation Stars program in the near future.Sony praised PlayStation Stars for fostering "a deeper connection with fans around the world." However, the video game company went on to say that after evaluating PlayStation Stars, it decided to bring it to a close. As of today, PlayStation Stars is no longer accepting new members. Existing members who close their membership also won't be able to re-join.The end of the program won't come all at once. Members are still able to level up their PlayStation Stars status and earn more digital collectibles through July 23 at 7:59 AM PT / 10:59 AM ET / 3:59 PM BST. No additional rewards or campaigns will be available after that time. Players will still be able redeem their PlayStation Stars rewards until November 2, 2026. Sony also assured players that they will still be able to access their digital collectibles, "even after these changes take place."Continue Reading at GameSpot

Players love how alluring open-world games are, allowing players to explore massive sandboxes that have a ton of things for players to discover. As one would expect, the vast majority of games in this genre feature combat loops to keep players engaged.

Nvidia is powering a supercomputer at Taiwan’s National Center for High-Performance Computing that’s set to deliver over eight times more AI performance than before.Read More

The trade association backing some of the biggest news publishers in the US slammed Google’s newly expanded AI Mode, which trades traditional search results for an AI chatbot-like interface. In a statement on Wednesday, the News/Media Alliance said the new feature is “depriving” publishers of both traffic and revenue. During Google I/O on Tuesday, the company announced that it’s expanding AI Mode to all users in the US, which appears in a new tab directly within Search. When users enter a query, AI Mode serves up an AI-generated response alongside a list of relevant links.  “Links were the last redeeming quality of search that gave publishers traffic and revenue,” Danielle Coffey, the CEO and president of News/Media Alliance, said in the statement. “Now Google just takes content by force and uses it with no return, the definition of theft. The DOJ remedies must address this to prevent continued domination of the internet by one company.” This week, an internal document disclosed as part of Google’s antitrust trial over its search dominance showed that the company decided against asking publishers for permission to have their work included in its AI search features, as reported by Bloomberg. Instead, publishers must opt out of search results completely if they don’t want their work included in AI features.  Google Search head Liz Reid said during her testimony that allowing publishers to opt out of individual features would add “enormous complexity,” according to Bloomberg. “By saying a publisher could be like, ‘I want to be in this feature but not that feature,’ it doesn’t work,” Reid said. “Because then we would essentially have to say, every single feature on the page needs a different model.”

PlayStation®5 exclusive “DEATH STRANDING 2: ON THE BEACH” is set to launch on 26 June and we are excited to announce that DEATH STRANDING fans in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines will have the special opportunity to meet Hideo Kojima (GAME CREATOR) and Yoji Shinkawa (ART DIRECTOR) at DEATH STRANDING WORLD STRAND TOUR 2 TAIPEI on 6 July 2025. Meet the legends behind the new DEATH STRANDING 2: ON THE BEACH in Taipei as they share their passion and thoughts on their latest PS5 blockbuster. How to Join: 1.        Pre-order physical version of DEATH STRANDING 2: ON THE BEACH (Standard Edition or Collector’s Edition) 2.        Click the registration link here (in English/in Thai) and upload your proof of purchase. 3.        In the same form, answer a couple of questions and submit your contact details. Registration period begins on May 22, 2025 at 00:00:00 (Singapore time) and ends on June 20, 2025, 21:59:59 (Singapore time)  Prize:  A round-trip flight ticket to Taipei, 2-nights hotel stay, and entry to the DEATH STRANDING WORLD STRAND TOUR 2 TAIPEI * * DEATH STRANDING WORLD STRAND TOUR 2 TAIPEI event will be conducted in Mandarin. Please see more details of DEATH STRANDING WORLD STRAND TOUR 2 TAIPEI’s Terms and Conditions here: English/Thai.

Early in Dragon Ball, Master Roshi destroys the moon, setting the stage for many more absolutely wild feats to come in the various Dragon Ball anime and manga series. Planets get blown up left and right, perhaps none more consequential than Frieza destroying Namek — which, of course, took longer to blow than the five minutes he threatened. It’s a dramatic climax to perhaps the best saga in the entire franchise, and when it was done, both viewers and in-universe characters were left thinking the series’ biggest threat to date was done for. Frieza, already sliced in half by his own Destructo Disc-like attack, was blasted — and seemingly killed — by Goku (“You fool!”) and was unable to escape Namek before it went kablooey. And yet, somehow, Frieza survived in a remarkable display of resiliency. In reality, he didn’t die because he needed to be fodder for the series’ next new and mysterious character: Trunks. Because the next time we see Frieza, he gets owned by the teenager’s sword. This is a series where its protagonist flung himself straight through a Demon King as a kid, Buu’s screaming ripped a hole through dimensions, and multiple planets were destroyed throughout. So how in the world can such an intimidating foe get done in by a sword? Easy: rule of cool. When Trunks arrives on the scene, he automatically becomes one of Dragon Ball’s coolest characters. The purple hair, Capsule Corp. jacket, mystery around his identity, and, of course, his sword all make him one cool dude. He’s also the first Super Saiyan we meet after Goku achieved the form (and before the series had a Super Saiyan bargain sale). And to display just how powerful Trunks was, Frieza had to go out like a chump. Frieza’s body survived a lot of damage on Namek, even before he was sliced in half (and once again, Frieza’s final fight took much longer than five minutes). This dude ate a Spirit Bomb to the face and came out of it with, what, a swollen eye? And then a freakin’ sword does him in? Rule of cool. Trunks slicing Frieza in half produces quite the sick-ass shot in the anime. We’re treated to a POV look at Trunks sliding in half before the camera cuts to showing Frieza cleanly coming apart. The two halves then float in the air for a moment, giving us a gory peek at Frieza’s insides, before Trunks decides he isn’t done and puts his sword to further use. He chops Frieza up into chunky fleshy and mechanical bits and then decides to finish him off with a ki blast to the chunks, leaving nothing left of the once-frightening antagonist. We get our first glimpse of who Trunks is here. His time battling the Androids made him all business; he wouldn’t be letting Frieza power up just to test himself. Instead, Trunks cuts down the threat before the threat can harm anyone. This is a sharp contrast to his father, who, of course, later on commits one of the Cell Saga’s worst sins in letting Cell become Perfect. This isn’t the last time we see Trunks use his sword either. He brandishes it in Dragon Ball Super’s Future Trunks Saga against Goku Black, which is perhaps even more ridiculous, as Goku Black has the strength and resiliency of, well, Goku. Who has the God ki by that point. My word, what a wonderful series. Trunks’ sword hits peak cool in that arc as he morphs it into something of a Spirit Bomb to use against Zamasu. Infused with the hope and ki of what’s left of humanity, I buy that his sword can not only hold up in a fight and not shatter, but slice cleanly through Zamasu in what’s kinda become Trunks’ signature move — slicing baddies to bits. When a pervy old man can blow up a moon with his energy, maybe weapons like swords don’t make a lot of sense in the Dragon Ball universe. But because Trunks using his sword to slice bad guys in half is that cool, who’re we to say no?

If you like playing daily word games like Wordle, then Hurdle is a great game to add to your routine. There are five rounds to the game. The first round sees you trying to guess the word, with correct, misplaced, and incorrect letters shown in each guess. If you guess the correct answer, it'll take you to the next hurdle, providing the answer to the last hurdle as your first guess. This can give you several clues or none, depending on the words. For the final hurdle, every correct answer from previous hurdles is shown, with correct and misplaced letters clearly shown.An important note is that the number of times a letter is highlighted from previous guesses does necessarily indicate the number of times that letter appears in the final hurdle. You May Also Like If you find yourself stuck at any step of today's Hurdle, don't worry! We have you covered.Hurdle Word 1 hintA protective covering.Hurdle Word 1 answerSHELLHurdle Word 2 hintTo be in on a secret. Mashable Top Stories Stay connected with the hottest stories of the day and the latest entertainment news. Sign up for Mashable's Top Stories newsletter By clicking Sign Me Up, you confirm you are 16+ and agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Thanks for signing up! SEE ALSO: Wordle today: Answer, hints for May 22, 2025 Hurdle Word 2 AnswerPRIVYHurdle Word 3 hintStrangely.Hurdle Word 3 answerODDLY Hurdle Word 4 hintTo sag. SEE ALSO: NYT Strands hints, answers for May 22 Hurdle Word 4 answerDROOPFinal Hurdle hintBrushed away dirt.Hurdle Word 5 answerSWEPTIf you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more. Topics Gaming

Table of Contents1. Project Astra: Your Universal Personal Assistant2. Gemini in Google Chrome Helps You Manage the Web3. Project Mariner: A Next-Level Shopping Assistant4. Google's Many Enhanced Content Creation Tools5. Google Meet's Real-Time Speech Translation At I/O 2025, Google is showcasing the many improvements to its many AI initiatives that promise science-fiction-like conveniences in the very near future. Sure, we aren't getting Jetsons-style flying cars, but a Rosie the Robot-style assistant who helps with online tasks will be in your home sooner than expected. Google promises AI integrations in Chrome, agentic digital agents that handle online tasks for you, and many more fantastic tools that are poised to change how we communicate, create, and generally get things done. These are the top five upcoming AI-related features that wowed me at Google I/O.1. Project Astra: Your Universal Personal AssistantProject Astra was teased last year as a next-generation AI assistant, and part of the larger Google DeepMind initiative. This "universal AI agent" is designed to understand the world around you and interact with it via various multimodal inputs. Google demonstrated its impressive AI capabilities, showing a user requesting assistance with a bike repair. Astra scoured the internet to locate a PDF manual and a YouTube tutorial, and even called a local bike shop to inquire about a part, seemingly without further user interaction beyond voice commands. It can process information from many sources, interact with apps, and manage multiple tasks while maintaining a natural conversation with you.I consider myself a fairly social person, but I hate making appointments or reservations, regardless of whether they're done online or via telephone. An AI-powered assistant to handle those tasks would be a tech godsend. I could also see myself using it in more everyday circumstances, too. It would be a great tool for finding recipes when I'm bustling around in the kitchen. Project Astra is coming later this year.2. Gemini in Google Chrome Helps You Manage the WebGoogle's Gemini chatbot is comingChrome browser, giving ChatGPT fierce competition. Gemini is currently accessible via a dedicated website and mobile app, but this new integration will enable unique functionalities. You'll be able to ask questions about the current web page you're viewing, summarize content, clarify details, retrieve information from past browsing sessions, and engage with Gemini through voice.Gemini integration while browsing has enormous productivity and accessibility potential. Summarization is nice on its own, but Gemini clarification could assist with your understanding and recontextualize what you're reading. Accessing information from multiple tabs without switching between them can keep you focused on other tasks, too. I see myself using Gemini to brainstorm ideas when browsing or shopping, picking the AI's brain about whatever I'm reading on the page, or fact-checking the copious amounts of information (and misinformation) we parse through every day.Gemini in Chrome is available starting May 21, but only for Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers ($19.99 per month and $249.99 per month, respectively). It's also available in the Chrome Beta, Dev, and Canary channels. Recommended by Our Editors3. Project Mariner: A Next-Level Shopping AssistantProject Mariner is a smart assistant for the Chrome browser available to Google AI Ultra subscribers that can actively browse the internet to perform tasks on your behalf, such as looking up information, conducting research, booking flights and reservations, and making purchases (with permission). Unlike Project Astra, Project Mariner is meant to operate specifically within web browsers, whereas Astra is more general-purpose and multimodal. Google's Project Mariner demo was quite impressive. During Google I/O, Project Mariner was used to search for real estate listings, make reservations, and even help with shopping. As someone thinking about purchasing a home in the near future, my mind boggles at the thought of having an AI assistant comb the internet on my behalf, finding prospective properties for me to compare based on criteria I assign to it. I’m a sucker for deals too, so having the tool search for the best prices, adding it to a shopping cart, and sending it to me for approval sounds like a proper step toward the future. 4. Google's Many Enhanced Content Creation ToolsGoogle has updated two of its most potent creation tools: Imagen and Veo. Imagen 4 (available in Gemini) has 2K resolution image support and enhanced texture rendering for fabric, fur, and water. The goal? More photorealistic images. It also has Google Workspace integration for apps like Docs, Slides, and Vids, letting you generate images directly within workflows. If filmmaking sounds more like your cup of tea, Google launched Veo 3 (available with a $249.99-per-month Google AI Ultra subscription). It offers shockingly polished AI video creation tools that create life-like images.AI-generated content creation is a divisive subject, but from a consumer perspective, I like the idea of powerful creation tools at my fingertips. Granted, they're not readily available to the public yet. Still, the potential is huge, and given time, I expect many of these features to trickle down into consumer hands soon enough.5. Google Meet's Real-Time Speech TranslationReal-time voice translation has always fascinated me; it’s future tech that seemed within our grasp yet just beyond our fingertips. Google is developing near-real-time speech translation for Google Meet, aiming for natural conversations. The current beta version supports English-to-Spanish translation. More languages are planned for release in the coming weeks. This builds on Google's previous experiments with live video-chat translation, as demonstrated at their I/O event. As someone with family across the globe, these Google Meet improvements sound phenomenal. My Spanish is incredibly rusty, so this improved functionality can help me communicate much more easily with my relatives in Europe and South America. Likewise, as new languages are added, I can also start connecting with my non-English speaking family in Germany and Italy. This AI-powered feature requires a Google AI Pro subscription ($19.99 per month).

Paris-based AI startup Veesion has secured €38mn to fuel expansion to the US — where it looks to help cure the country’s shoplifting “epidemic.” Veesion’s AI-based computer vision software is trained to spot gestures in security camera feeds, such as a shopper putting an item in their pocket. If it sees something suspicious, the AI pings the store owner or security guard via an app, where it displays a recording of the activity. The user then makes the final judgment on whether the situation qualifies as theft.  The software comes in a small box that plugs into a shop’s existing CCTV system. To protect privacy, the system only registers human movements, not identifying information like a person’s face or clothing, the company said.  Security cameras are common in most retail outlets. However, Veesion’s CEO and co-founder Thibault David said he thinks they are “completely useless.” Grab that deal “Cameras in shops are rarely used, because they require a human to keep watch on them,” he told TNW. Founded in 2018, Veesion’s AI shoplifter-spotter is already installed in over 6,000 stores in 25 countries, including France, the UK, Brazil and the US, where it is now looking to expand.   In 2022, US retailers reported inventory losses amounting to $112bn (€100bn), $40.3bn (€36bn) of which was attributed to shoplifting. Meanwhile, the UK, with a population around a quarter of the US, is also experiencing a rise in incidents of shoplifting. The country suffered losses of £2.2bn (€2.5bn) in 2023, according to a recent survey by the British Retail Consortium (BRC).  “Shoplifting is a huge pain point for retail stores, especially in the US, which is suffering from a theft epidemic,” said David. However, spotting the crime is just one part of the puzzle — confronting shoplifters is another. According to the same BRC survey, violence and abuse against UK shop workers rose by 50% in 2023, with more than 2,000 such incidents recorded on average per day. In both the UK and the US, enforcement against shoplifters is free-falling.   As retailers struggle to keep pace with rising theft, some are turning to technology for support. While Veesion’s AI doesn’t promise to solve shoplifting outright, it might give store owners better tools to detect it and decide how to respond.  As part of its US expansion plans, Veesion will open an office in Florida that aims to employ about 50 people. One of its co-founders, Benoît Koenig, is also moving across the Atlantic permanently as part of the company’s expanded presence in the country.  Looking ahead, Vession hopes to use its computer vision technology to spot other issues in retail stores, such as falling or slipping risks. It’s also considering expanding to other sectors like manufacturing and healthcare.  AI’s evolution will be a hot topic at TNW Conference, which takes place on June 19-20 in Amsterdam. Tickets for the event are now on sale — use the code TNWXMEDIA2025 at the checkout to get 30% off. Story by Siôn Geschwindt Siôn is a freelance science and technology reporter, specialising in climate and energy. From nuclear fusion breakthroughs to electric vehic (show all) Siôn is a freelance science and technology reporter, specialising in climate and energy. From nuclear fusion breakthroughs to electric vehicles, he's happiest sourcing a scoop, investigating the impact of emerging technologies, and even putting them to the test. He has five years of journalism experience and holds a dual degree in media and environmental science from the University of Cape Town, South Africa. When he's not writing, you can probably find Siôn out hiking, surfing, playing the drums or catering to his moderate caffeine addiction. You can contact him at: sion.geschwindt [at] protonmail [dot] com Get the TNW newsletter Get the most important tech news in your inbox each week. Also tagged with

We may earn a commission from links on this page.If you find running intimidating, know that there is another way to get some fresh air while doing a reasonably intense workout. It’s called interval walking training (IWT), or sometimes  "Japanese walking" or "3x3 walking." It’s a form of HIIT, but it won’t end in you collapsing on the floor, hating your life. Here’s how to do it. How to do the 3x3 "Japanese walking" workoutThe original protocol for this exercise, as published here in 2007 by Hiroshi Nose’s team at Shinshu University in Japan, used a lab test to help people determine how fast they should walk during the workout. Since that’s not practical for most of us, a common substitute is to use perceived effort. During the high intensity portions, you walk a strong, fast pace—about as fast as you can without jogging, and without getting too tired. For the low intensity portions, you walk normally. So here’s the protocol. It’s simple, and it doesn’t require a warmup, so you can just jump right in: Walk for three minutes at a normal speed. Walk for three minutes at high intensity (as fast as you reasonably can).Repeat those two steps for 30 minutes or more.To time those intervals, you can program any smartwatch to beep at three-minute intervals, or just use your phone. I like the free Intervals Pro app on my iPhone; try Interval Timer on Android. In the 2007 study, older adults who did this workout four or more times per week, for five months, ended the study with better aerobic fitness and leg strength than when they started. If you’ve ever wondered whether walking counts as exercise, this certainly does. Why interval walking is the new HIITInterval walking is starting to become more popular. Garmin’s latest lifestyle watch, the Vivoactive 6, comes with walking workouts, which include intervals similar to the ones in the 3x3 workout. You can see examples of Garmin’s walking workouts in my review of the watch here.Why the love for walking? I see a few forces at work here. First, there’s a lot of over-the-top, go-get-em attitudes in the fitness world, especially on social media. If you’ve been through a few rounds of HIIT hype, you may be sick of trying to push yourself harder and harder (or you were so intimidated by the idea that you never tried.) The backlash to high intensity fitness can go a bit too far the other way, telling people (often women who have been told to worry about their cortisol) that they don’t need to lift weights or work hard in the gym; they can just go for walks and do some gentle yoga or Pilates. Take that advice seriously enough, and you won’t end up getting much exercise at all. Interval walking occupies a place in the middle—harder than a hot girl walk or cozy cardio, but easier (and more fun!) than a 12-3-30 treadmill trudge. Interval walking is especially accessible to people who don’t have a gym membership or fitnessy clothes: All you need is a pair of shoes that are comfortable to walk in. And here’s where I think the real magic of walking comes in: It stops you from overthinking your fitness routine, and lets you just get started. You won’t be tempted to overthink about running shoes or fitness watches—you just get out there and walk.