Meta appears to have soft-launched a new app called Pocket that's aimed at getting people to vibe-code their own minigames. Mobile developer and reverse engineer Alessandro Paluzzi spotted Pocket and posted about it to X today, but reporting platform AppFigures told TechCrunch that the app has been available on both iOS and Android since June 29. Though the app is listed publicly, it's not available in the US on any of the half dozen phone models associated with our Google accounts, and a help page on Meta's site says the Pocket app is not yet available everywhere. The company has not made any public announcement yet about the launch or where the app is being trialed. We've reached out for comment and will update this post if we receive a response.

The hosting platform wants sites to have more control over how AI companies use their content. Cloudflare has announced plans to automatically block mixed-use web crawlers that index websites for search engines and act as AI agents and trainers at the same time. The company previously offered its customers the optional ability to prevent crawlers from scraping their sites for AI chatbots, but now Cloudflare's stance is becoming more defensive by default. Now that the majority of traffic on the Internet is non-human, we must go further and act faster so that a sustainable ecosystem can emerge, Matthew Prince, Cloudflare's CEO and co-founder shared in a statement. Cloudflare's new tools and partnerships give website owners increased visibility and commercial opportunities and benefit AI companies that have bots with clear and transparent intent.

When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. Just plug it into your laptop's USB-C port and you're good to go. It's "nothing special" in the sense that these hub ports are exactly what you'd need for day-to-day tasks. We already mentioned the 4K HDMI for hooking up a high-def external monitor, but you also get a 5Gbps USB-C data port, double USB-A ports, and SD/microSD card slots. The final port is USB-C with 100 watts of passthrough charging, which means you can keep your laptop fully charged even while using this hub.

When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. With plenty of RAM and storage, this older touchscreen laptop has better specs than almost anything you'll find in this price range today. If you've been desperate for an affordable laptop lately, I'm sorry. Even the much-celebrated MacBook Neo has fallen victim to the price hikes seen across the industry. There's hardly anything left out there but if you're open to a refurbished model, you might just find a diamond in the rough.

Your personal data could be sitting on dozens of websites, fueling spam calls, phishing attempts, scams, and unwanted contact. Optery helps you find it, remove it, and keep watch when it comes back. You may already pay for data removal. Here's what your service probably missed. If you use DeleteMe, Incogni, or a similar service, you've taken a sensible step toward reclaiming your privacy. But there's a reasonable chance dozens of your personal profiles are still sitting online--findable by anyone who searches your name.

Opera introduces Paste Protect, a new security feature that blocks clipboard hijacking attacks where malware intercepts and replaces copied content with malicious code. PCWorld reports this protection specifically targets ClickFix attacks that trick users into pasting harmful commands through fake error messages. The feature runs by default in Opera's desktop browsers, alerting users with red warnings when blocking malicious clipboard content. Clipboard hijacking is a widespread and dangerous type of cyberattack that involves malware monitoring and/or intercepting the contents of your clipboard (where your copy/paste is held). Of the different types of clipboard hijacking attacks, ClickFix has grown into one of the most notorious.

PCWorld reports Microsoft is planning another Windows 11 Start menu redesign for later this year, addressing criticism about the current menu being too large. The redesigned Start menu will be rebuilt with native WinUI for better performance and responsiveness, including a new Low Latency Profile feature. New customization options include resizing toggles between Large and Small modes and the ability to hide specific sections for a more personalized experience. Microsoft revamped the Windows 11 Start menu design last year, a redesign that's still gradually rolling out to users on versions 24H2 and 25H2. While an evolution on the Start menu is sorely welcome, there's been widespread criticism of its new look and behavior, including the fact that it's simply too big and takes up too much screen space .

PCWorld examines whether Microsoft's core productivity apps like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint can withstand disruption from advancing AI technology. External AI applications such as ChatGPT and Claude now offer similar document formatting, content creation, and synthesis capabilities that rival Microsoft's own Copilot feature. The analysis suggests Microsoft's traditional productivity suite may become obsolete as AI chatbots increasingly handle tasks previously requiring dedicated office applications. Are Microsoft's core productivity apps -- Word, Excel, and PowerPoint -- endangered by the rise of AI? That's the point that Bloomberg and its sources addressed in coverage this week, noting that Microsoft is being buffeted by AI disruption as its stock plunges. "Whether Microsoft Word or Excel will be rendered obsolete by AI remains to be seen," said Jack Ablin, chief investment strategist at Cresset Wealth Advisors, which owns the stock, according to Bloomberg. "We don't know what the environment is going to look like in a few years, which opens up very real questions like, will we even use a Microsoft suite anymore?" Keith Fitz-Gerald, principal at the Fitz-Gerald Group, added.

When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. The HP OmniBook Ultra 14 is a luxurious portable laptop that provides solid portability alongside surprisingly excellent performance. The HP Omnibook Ultra 14 is a luxurious portable laptop that provides solid portability alongside surprisingly excellent performance. For a time, it seemed as though the Windows world was going to have to admit defeat at the hands of Apple's almighty silicon. Apple M-series chips are shockingly efficient, which tends to give MacBooks an edge in portability and performance in thin, light laptops.

I ripped open $892 worth of Pokémon packs on my phone in under 15 minutes and walked away with 62 cents. My adrenaline rush felt like the future of gambling. After I tripled my money by pulling pricey Pokémon cards out of digital packs on the Rips app, I immediately knew what I had to do next: keep on ripping. It was time to lock in, boost my volatility settings, and start spending real money opening even more expensive packs. These digital card packs, primed for fast ripping and even faster rewards, are rising in popularity.