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Marathon, Crysis, and six other great FPS games are $25.

2026-10-21T16:14:31-04:00

Humble is now offering the Sci-Fi Exposure bundle at its site, with pledges for all eight games costing $25. You’ll get Bungie’s 2026 version of Marathon (great game), all three remastered Crysis games, RoboCop: Rogue City, and both Ghostrunner games, to name the most notable inclusions. Proceeds are split between Humble, the publishers, and the charity.water non-profit organization.

Some of Laika’s stop-motion puppets have muscles that flex as their arms are animated.

2026-10-21T15:28:27-04:00

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Adam Savage shared a captivating half hour video of him exploring many of the detailed stop-motion puppets Laika Studios created for its new animated film, Wildwood. The studio’s animators already revealed that their puppets now have internal diaphragm’s making them appear to breath, but several of the puppets also have hidden mechanisms in their arms making biceps automatically flex as they’re moved.

Smash Bros in your actual living room.

2026-10-21T15:28:08-04:00

This is so rad — and if you have a Quest 3 or 3S and a copy of Super Smash Bros. Melee (1.02), you can try it too. It’s called Xelee, and yes, the mixed reality part is AI-coded: “Claude wrote every line of code.” The game part is from the Melee decompilation, though. I hope game companies are paying attention to the possibilities in this brave new world!

Google Chrome’s new HTTPS warning rolls out today.

2026-10-19T17:21:49-04:00

As announced last year, Chrome will now show a warning when you visit public websites without an encrypted HTTPS connection. The new warnings will appear the first time you visit a site without a secure connection. If you continue to the site, Google won’t present the warning for another two weeks.

Here’s some of my favorite iPhone Duo reviews.

2026-10-21T12:51:37-04:00

I’ve been absorbing every iPhone Duo review I can find (after ours), so I thought I’d share links to a few others that I liked:

Joanna Stern got a machine to repeatedly fold and unfold the Duo overnight to test the hinge. Super fun video.
In MKBHD’s video, I love the transitions separating chapters.
Michael Fisher, aka MrMobile, showcases a bunch of made-for-Duo apps that make me want to buy the phone immediately.

What have been your favorite reviews?

OpenAI is bringing ChatGPT ads to a lot more countries.

2026-10-21T12:35:38-04:00

The company is launching ads for ChatGPT Free and Go users across 26 countries, including Argentina, Colombia, Peru, Nigeria, South Africa, Serbia, Ukraine, Bangladesh, and Pakistan. Since bringing ads to ChatGPT in the US in February, OpenAI has rapidly expanded its advertising efforts, which now span 89 countries.

[Link: ChatGPT Ads expands to 26 new countries as over 100,000 advertisers have used the platform | https://openai.com/index/chatgpt-ads-expands-26-new-countries/ | OpenAI]

The iPhone Duo might get Apple Pencil support very soon.

2026-10-21T12:03:41-04:00

It’s apparently available in the iOS 27 release candidate, according to Creative Strategies analyst Max Weinbach. Things could always change ahead of the public release full release, but the feature seems likely to make the final cut.

When Apple first announced the foldable, it said Apple Pencil support would arrive “later this year.”

Apple Pencil support is with iOS 27.2 btw

iOS 27.2 RC rolled out Monday, and it works pic.twitter.com/tt3QQbjkZv
— Max Weinbach (@mweinbach) October 21, 2026

GPT‑5.6 Sol was used to identify critical PHP flaw.

2026-10-21T11:45:10-04:00

OpenAI says a security researcher at Calif used GPT-5.6 Sol to identify PHP exploits before attackers did, and has shared a tool that lets developers check if they’re using a potentially vulnerable version of PHP that needs patching. Ami Luttwak, co-founder of Google’s Wiz security team that also helped to identidy the PHP2Shell exploit, told the Wall Street Journal that its “the most severe AI vulnerability that was ever found.”

[Link: Patch the Planet: global response coordination as agents uncover critical vulnerabilities | https://openai.com/index/coordinated-disclosure-of-critical-vulnerabilities/ | OpenAI]

The iPhone Duo, live on The Vergecast, 1PM ET.

2026-10-21T11:22:00-04:00

We have the iPhone Duo. A couple of them, in fact. And we have a lot to discuss. Allison Johnson and I will be live at 1PM talking about The Verge’s Duo review, her experience with the phone, and as many of your questions as we can answer. Come hang! Bring feelings!

PlayStation’s new Pulse Wireless Headset now has a price and release date.

2026-10-21T11:24:36-04:00

First announced in September, the headset has a recommended retail price of $99.99 and will be available starting November 19th (the same day GTA VI launches), with pre-orders opening at 10AM ET on October 29th.

Sony is promising to share more details on the step-up Pulse Edge headset model, which includes active noise cancellation and a detachable boom mic, ahead of its planned launch next year.

[Link: Introducing the next line of PS5 audio products: PlayStation Pulse and Pulse Edge Wireless Headsets | https://blog.playstation.com/2026/09/15/introducing-the-next-line-of-ps5-audio-products-playstation-pulse-and-pulse-edge-wireless-headsets/ | PlayStation.Blog]