Engadget : Politics

A new report from the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) found that President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice (DOJ) secretly obtained the phone call and text message records of 43 congressional staffers, two members of Congress in 2017 and 2018 and members of the news media. DOJ prosecutors obtained call and text logs from telecommunications companies and third-party providers including Apple through subpoenas, search warrants and court orders.

Engadget : Business

The crowd-sourced review site Yelp unveiled a new feature that uses AI and customer reviews to rate common facets of nightlife and food-related business. The new Review Insights feature is available now on the iOS version of the Yelp app, according to the company’s official blog.

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The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is sending out 629,344 payments worth more than $72 million to Fortnite players as part of a settlement deal with Epic Games, according to an FTC announcement. The $72 million is intended to compensate Fortnite players who were "tricked" into making unauthorized purchases.

Engadget : Travel

Now you’ve got one less thing you have to fish for in your pocket or purse at the airport. Starting today, Google Wallet can carry a digital copy of your US passport and use them at Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) checkpoints.

Engadget : Style

The first Escape Simulator solved the biggest problem with VR puzzle games. Once you’ve solved everything, the game’s over. Unless you can erase specific memories a la Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind style, there’s zero replayability.

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If you’ve been on the fence about buying the urban landscape sim Cities: Skylines II (and given the response following its launch, who could blame you?), here’s your chance to take it for a free test run. Paradox Interactive announced on Bluesky that players can play the city building game for free for a limited time.

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What happens when you combine the satiric spirit of filmmaker Mel Brooks and cram into a parody of the galaxy exploring No Man’s Sky? You get something like Journey to the Savage Planet, a funny, world conquering blaster fest that proves Ian Malcolm’s chaos theory of colonization while also providing a healthy dose of good, ol’ fashioned fart jokes.

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Get ready to have that Will Smith song stuck in your head for the rest of the day because the autonomous taxi company Waymo is going to Miami. Yeah, sorry about that.

Engadget : Environment

Gearheads, rejoice! Forza Motorsport for PC is getting a graphics update on Monday that adds a new realistic lighting system to the game.

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When we took a look at Xreal’s Air 2 Ultra AR glasses earlier this year at CES in Las Vegas, we had positive first impressions but also noted that its success would “ultimately boil down to the range of apps.” Xreal may have come up with a novel way to address this problem with its new One Series of AR glasses: make them connectable to more devices through USB-C.