As the genre continues to grow and expand, fighting games become more defined by the size of their rosters. In an effort to simultaneously add characters and player hype around the game, guest characters are often introduced into the mix. A guest character is an established outsider to the game.

You can now use a feature that's very similar to Android's "circle-to-search" on iPhone. While it's not exactly called that, both the Chrome app and the Google app will now allow you to circle text or images to search whatever's in your selection using Google Lens. The limitation? On Android, you can use the circle-to-search feature across your entire phone, but on iPhones, this feature is limited to the Chrome and Google apps.When you've got a webpage loaded in the iPhone Google app, press the three-dots button in the top-right corner and tap Search this Screen. In Chrome for iOS, open any webpage, tap the three-dots button in the bottom-right corner, and select Search Screen with Google Lens. You'll then see a gradient layer over the webpage, where you can either circle, tap, or highlight the part you wish to search.Google will then use Lens to identify what you're looking at and show search results accordingly. I used it to look up house crows, so I could learn more about a bird that's made a habit of sitting at my window and demanding food, and check what it might like to eat (pretty much everything, it turns out). The new feature is quite fast on both Chrome and the Google app, and it handles multiple different types of queries pretty well. That's to be expected, since Google Lens has been around for a long time and is generally quite dependable.This is really just a new, more intuitive way of selecting subjects to search.I also tried multiple different gestures instead of circling (everything from a tap to drawing an octagon), and all of them worked quite well. If you want to search for one word, tapping or highlighting works best, but for a larger block of text or a part of an image, you can use other gestures. Google does say that you can use any gesture that feels natural, so feel free to use anything that you like.Google also announced that you'll be seeing more AI overviews in Lens search results. You won't be able to block these results here because they're in Google's own apps, but there are many ways to block AI in your favorite browser.

Setting up a new computer is annoying, especially if that computer is running Windows. There are all kinds of frustrating things Microsoft adds to the operating system that you want to remove, and all kinds of apps that you actually want but need to install yourself.WinUtil is a free and well regarded tool maintained by Chris Titus that does all of this at once. With it, you can install dozens of apps by checking a few boxes and run common tweaks, from uninstalling OneDrive to disabling privacy-invasive telemetry.There are two ways to get started. The free way is to run Windows PowerShell as an administrator. To do this, right-click the PowerShell in the Start menu and click "Run as administrator." After that, you need to copy and paste the launch command from the documentation into the shell. If you'd rather avoid that step you can buy an EXE file for $10, supporting the developer in the process.Either way you will be presented with a window broken into five tabs. The first lets you install a wide range of software in just a couple clicks. Simply check the applications you want and then click the Install/Upgrade Selected button. Credit: Justin Pot Now, all of the applications will install without prompting you. There's a progress bar in the top-right corner, or, if you prefer, you can reopen the PowerShell window to watch the installations happen there. Credit: Justin Pot The next tab, Tweaks, lets you make all kinds of adjustments. It's probably best not to check anything unless you understand how it worksyou can click the question mark next to each item for more information. But some of the tweaks that are most useful include bringing back the classic right-click menu, removing the annoying Home and Gallery tabs in Explorer, and disabling Copilot. Check all the tweaks you want, then click Run Tweaks to make those changes. Credit: Justin Pot The right panel has a bunch of common Windows preferences you can configure just by clicking. Here, you can do things like enable dark mode, turn off Bing search in the start menu, and show hidden files.The next tab, Config, lets you install a bunch of common Windows features that aren't included by defaultthink things like .NET or the Windows Subsystem for Linux. You'll find a button for automatically logging into your PC, instead of requiring a password each time, which can be nice for a desktop computer you're not worried about others accessing. There's also quick access to settings panels that are somewhat buried in Windows 11, including the traditional Control Panel. Credit: Justin Pot Another tab, Updates, lets you quickly configure how often updates are installed. By default, Windows will install updates as soon as they're available. You can instead delay security updates by four days and feature updates by two years. This might be a good idea if you value stability over access to the latest features. You can choose to disable all updates, but that's probably not a good idea.Finally, there's Microwin, which makes stripped down versions of the Windows installer. You'll start by downloading a Windows ISO from Microsoft and the tool will remove any features you don't want.It's a lot of features crammed into one little utility. There's even support for exporting your collection of applications and tweaks, allowing you to run an identical process on other computers. You can learn more about that, and get details about all the tweaks offered, by reading the documentation.

A day after it was reported that Denis Villeneuve's third Dune movie starts shooting this summer, developer Funcom announced that its open-world MMO Dune: Awakening arrives on May 20 for PC. You can even get a jump on your journey through Arrakis with a character creator that's available today. Dune: Awakening draws inspiration from Frank Herbert's novels and the 2020s films. (Sorry, no speedo-clad Sting in this one.) However, it takes some detours from the established canon. In the game's version of Dune's world, the Fremen have vanished, Paul Atreides was never born and Lady Jessica obeyed the Bene Gesserit's instructions to give birth to a girl. (In other words, she's a total square.) So, in addition to being a bit of a "What If?" version of the Duniverse, it gives the developers freedom to use familiar environments and characters without having to tread too closely to the lore of the books and films. Handy! Funcom Funcom says you start as a prisoner sent to Arrakis to investigate the Fremen's disappearance. "Following in the footsteps of the mysterious desert tribe, you will learn the true meaning of desert power as you rise from a nameless survivor to becoming an agent of the Atreides or the Harkonnen," the game blurb reads. The character creator you can tinker with today lets you tweak your hero's looks and choose their home planet, caste and mentor (Swordmaster, Bene Gesserit, Mentat or Trooper). True to Dune form, your protagonist will have to put their hand in the box and take the dreaded Gom Jabbar test. (Fortunately, your hand will be on a keyboard or controller, not inside a sci-fi torture test.) You can use your custom character when the full game launches. The tool also includes a benchmark mode, so you'll know whether you need to invest in new PC hardware to play the survival game when it arrives. Dune: Awakening launches on May 20 on Steam. It costs $50, and pre-orders will open soon. The game is also coming to PS5 and Xbox Series X/S, but there's no release date for the console versions yet. You can check out the latest trailer below. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/pc/dune-awakening-will-spice-things-up-on-may-20-184552623.html?src=rss

Its been ten long years since Avatar: The Legend of Korra aired its final episode and over 15 years since Avatar: The Last Airbender bowed out. Now, finally, Nickelodeon has greenlit a sequel series and it sounds pretty awesome. Deadline reports that Avatar: Seven Havens will be a 2D animated 26-episode followup that chronicles the rise of the next Avatar after Korra.Franchise creators Michael DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko are developing the series, so we know it's in good hands. The plot sounds pretty dark. It seems the world has fallen into chaos following a cataclysmic event of some kind. The titular "seven havens" refer to a handful of small civilizations that have managed to weather the storm.Also, the next Avatar will be a female Earthbender. In this world, however, the Avatar is reviled and seen as a harbinger of doom instead of a hero. Thats an interesting twist."This new incarnation of the Avatarverse is full of fantasy, mystery and a whole new cast of amazing characters. Get ready to take another epic and emotional adventure," DiMartino and Konietzko said in a statement.The premiere date and casting information will be released later in the year. We do know that the 26 episodes will be split into two books, or seasons, which is similar to how the original shows handled things. It remains to be seen if the series will cap out at 26 episodes or if thats just the first two chapters. Personally, I wonder if any aged Korra characters will show up.The announcement of Avatar: Seven Havens is just the latest news from the franchise. DiMartino and Konietzko are also working on a trilogy of animated movies, with the first one centering on an adult Aang and friends. That one hits theaters on January 30, 2026. Of course, the Netflix live-action adaptation of the original series still has two more seasons to go.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/theres-a-new-avatar-the-last-airbender-cartoon-coming-to-nickelodeon-182956881.html?src=rss

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Retro gaming is experiencing a revival thanks in large part to people born after the Game Boy era.According to a new survey from Pringles, a popular gaming snack, 66% of Britons have bought retro tech of some kind in the past two years, with 24% of Gen Z now owning a retro games console. Popular retro consoles include Game Boy, first released in 1989 and discontinued in 2003; Super Nintendo Entertainment System, released in 1990 and also discontinued in 2003; and the Xbox original, first released in Europe in 2002 and discontinued in 2009.For 89% of gamers, retro games offer a welcome break from the internet, with 74% agreeing that nostalgic games are more relaxing. Of those surveyed, 77% had hung on to their retro tech for sentimental value. The rest, however, more recently purchased retro games that might have already been discontinued by the time they were born or certainly of gaming age. The youngest in Gen Z wouldve been born in 2012, the same year the Wii U was released; while the oldest of their generation were born in 1997, the same year the Nintendo 64 (N64) and Sony PlayStation were released.Earlier this month, Pringles was in the U.K. promoting a Retro Console Clinic in London, which offered free repairs for retro handheld and home consoles. The pop-up encouraged people to dig out all their retro consoles and bring them down, the Verge U.K. reported, plus gamers were invited to stop by to play classic games for free. I think younger generations have got a lot more stress now; growing up in the social media world is mentally very challenging, Luke Malpass, one of the events engineers, told the Guardian. [Retro video gaming] is their safe place. Its like their escape.Low-tech holds nostalgic appeal and may even offer a solid antidote to our increasingly fast-paced tech-driven society. For 78% of those polled, one reason they enjoy using retro gadgets is because it means theyre not using their smartphone. According to a September 2024 survey conducted by the Harris Poll, 21% of Gen Z adults say they wish smartphones had never been invented.The nostalgia trend shows no sign of slowing down with #nostalgia amassing more than 12.6 million posts on TikTok, many featuring gadgets and games from the 1990s and 2000s. Perhaps its time to dig around for my pink Nintendo DS and see how my Nintendogs are doing.

RepublicanSen. Mitch McConnellannounced on Thursday that he wont seek reelection next year, ending a decadeslong tenure as a power broker who championed conservative causes but ultimately ceded ground to the fierce GOP populism of President Donald Trump.McConnell, thelongest-serving Senate party leaderin U.S. history, chose his 83rd birthday to share his decision not to run for another term in Kentucky and to retire when his current term ends. He informed The Associated Press of his decision before he addressed colleagues in a speech on the Senate floor.Seven times, my fellow Kentuckians have sent me to the Senate, McConnell said, as aides lined the back chamber and senators listened from seats. Every day in between Ive been humbled by the trust theyve placed in me to do their business right here. Representing our commonwealth has been the honor of a lifetime. I will not seek this honor an eighth time. My current term in the Senate will be my last.His announcement begins the epilogue of a storied career as a master strategist, one in which he helped forgea conservative Supreme Courtand steered the Senate throughtax cuts,presidential impeachment trialsand fierce political fights. Yet with his powerful perch atop committees, and nearly two years remaining in his term, McConnell vowed to complete his work on several remaining fronts.I have some unfinished business to attend to, he said.McConnell walked gingerly to the podium, sporting a walking boot. Senators from both sides of the political aisle seemed to listen most intently as he told them that while there are any number of reasons for pessimism, the strength of the Senate is not one of them.The Senate is still equipped for work of great consequence, he told them.As he concluded, Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., motioned for the audience of senators, staff and Capitol visitors be allowed to applaud, which is usually not allowed under Senate rules.Republican senators then lined up to greet McConnell, beginning with Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, who hugged him, and Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, who patted him on the back. He took out a tissue and made a joke, prompting the group to laugh. Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota gave him a warm handshake, and a dozen others senators soon did so as well.Sen. Lindsey Graham said McConnell reshaped the American judiciary, particularly the Supreme Court. He has a lot to be proud of, and I am sure he will work hard to the very end of his term, Graham said.McConnell, first elected in 1984, intends to serve until his term ends in January 2027. The Kentuckian has dealt witha series of medical episodesin recent years, including injuries sustained from falls and times whenhis face briefly frozewhile he was speaking.The famously taciturn McConnell revered the Senate as a young intern long before joining its back benches as a freshman lawmaker in the mid-1980s. His dramatic announcement comes almost a year after his decision to relinquishhis leadership postafter the November 2024 election.McConnells looming departure reflects the changing dynamics of the Trump-led GOP. Hes seen his power diminish on a parallel track with both his health and his relationship with Trump, who once praised him as an ally but has taken tocriticizing him in caustic terms.In Kentucky, McConnells departure will mark the loss of a powerful advocate and will set off a competitive GOP primary next year for what will now be an open Senate seat. Kentucky Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear, seen as a rising star in his party for winning statewide office in Republican territory, has said he has no interest in the Senate. Beshears chief political strategist, Eric Hyers, reiterated that stance Thursday, posting on X: He is not running for the Senate. Beshear is widely seen as a potential candidate for the White House in 2028.Kentucky Republicans considering the race for McConnells seat quickly weighed in with reaction. U.S. Rep. Andy Barr said he would make a decision soon about his future. Former state Attorney General Daniel Cameron seemed to tip his hand, posting on X: Kentucky, its time for a new generation of leadership in the U.S. Senate. Lets do this. Another looming GOP candidate is businessman Nate Morris. One common denominator among them their professed loyalty to Trump and his agenda.McConnell, a diehard adherent to Ronald Reagans brand of traditional conservatism and muscular foreign policy, increasingly found himself out of step with a GOP shifting toward the fiery, often isolationist populism espoused by Trump.McConnell still champions providing Ukraine with weapons and other aid to fend off Russias invasion, even as Trump ratchets up criticism of the country and its leader,Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The senator made it clear Thursday that national defense remains at the forefront of his agenda.He and Trump were partners during Trumps first term, but the relationship was severed after McConnell blamed Trump for disgraceful acts inthe Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack by his supporters. A momentary thaw in 2024 whenMcConnell endorsed Trumpdidnt last.Last week,Trump referred to McConnellas a very bitter guy after McConnell, who battled polio as a child, opposed vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr.s confirmation as the nations top health official. McConnell referred to Trump as a despicable human being and a narcissist ina biography of the senatorby The Associated Press deputy Washington bureau chief, Michael Tackett.Before their falling out, Trump and McConnell pushed througha tax overhaullargely focused on reductions for businesses and higher-earning taxpayers. They joined forces to reshape the Supreme Court when Trump nominated three justices and McConnell guided them to Senate confirmation, tilting the high court to the right.McConnell set a precedent for hardball partisan tactics in 2016 by refusing to even give a hearing to Democratic PresidentBarack Obamas pick of Merrick Garlandto replace the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. Putting the brakes on the Senates advise and consent role for judicial nominees, McConnell said the vacancy should be filled by the next president so voters could have their say.Trump filled the vacancyonce he took office, and McConnell later called the stonewalling of Garlands nomination his most consequential achievement.Later, when liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died weeks before the 2020 presidential election won by Democrat Joe Biden, McConnellrushed Amy Coney Barretts confirmationthrough the Senate, waving off allegations of hypocrisy.McConnell also guided the Senate and Trump through two impeachment trials that ended in acquittals.In the second impeachment, weeks after the deadly Capitol attack by a mob hoping to overturn Trumps 2020 reelection defeat, McConnell joined all but seven Republicans invoting to acquit. McConnell said he believed Trump couldnt be convicted because hed already left office, but the senator also condemned Trump as practically and morally responsible for the insurrection.McConnell over the years swung back and forth from majority to minority leader, depending on which party held power. He defended President George W. Bushs handling of the Iraq war and failed to block Obamas health care overhaul.McConnell, the longest-serving senator ever from Kentucky, ensured that the Bluegrass State received plenty of federal funding. Back home he was a key architect in his partys rise to power in a state long dominated by Democrats.He is married to Elaine Chao, and they have long been a power couple in Washington. The senator referred to her as his ultimate teammate and confidante. Chao was labor secretary for Bush and transportation secretary during Trumps first term, thoughshe resignedafter the Capitol insurrection, saying it had deeply troubled her.Bruce Schreiner and Kevin Freking, Associated Press

Apple iPhone 16e preorders begin on Feb. 21, with the new devices arriving on Feb. 28. Here's where to get the best iPhone 16e preorder deals with wireless carrier incentives and more.Get preorder deals on Apple's new iPhone 16e - Image credit: AppleApple's 2025 iPhone 16e goes up for preorder on Friday, Feb. 21, and if you want the new device right away we've rounded up the best preorder deals. Be sure to check back here and bookmark our iPhone deals roundup as new offers continue to launch once preorders goes live. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums