A year after first launching in the US, Amazon Luna is expanding to three new regions. Starting today, the cloud gaming service is available in Canada, Germany and the United Kingdom. The expansion marks the first Amazon customers outside of the US have had a chance to try Luna. If you’re a Prime subscriber, the company offers a handful of complimentary games every month. The March lineup features four games, including Megaman 11 and Trails from Zero.

You can access more of the Luna library by subscribing to bundles Amazon calls “Channels.” For instance, the Luna+ channel comes with games like Control, Street Fighter II and Tetris Effect. Pricing varies by market, but in Canada for example, Luna+ costs $13 per month.

There’s also a Ubisoft+ channel that comes with access to all of the publisher’s most popular games, including Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, Watch Dogs: Legion and Rainbox Six Extraction. If you already own some of Ubisoft’s games on PC, you can play those games on Luna provided you have an Amazon Prime or Luna+ subscription.

Notably, today’s announcement sees Luna expanding to three markets where Stadia was available before it was unceremoniously shut down by Google at the start of the year. Judging by the fact Amazon recently removed 53 games from the Luna+ library, the service hasn’t exactly been a homerun for the retail giant, but an expansion is a move in the right direction.

LG is once again expanding its UltraGear line of gaming monitors with a new model. Before you ask: No, the company's latest is not a new OLED screen. But it is interesting for a few reasons. LG is marketing the 49GR85DC-B as a fast ultrawide with class-leading HDR capabilities.

The monitor features a 49-inch VA panel with a 32:9 aspect ratio, 5,120 by 1,440 resolution, 98.5 percent DCI-P3 coverage and an aggressive 1000R curve. It also features a 240Hz refresh rate, a claimed 1ms pixel response time and AMD FreeSync Premium. To top it all off, LG says the 49GR85DC-B is DisplayHDR 1000 certified, suggesting the panel is capable of peaking at an eye-searing 1000 nits of brightness and features some amount of local dimming.

At first glance, it’s a spec list that should make the 49GR85DC-B a homerun for ultrawide gaming fans, but there are a few things to note that may not make it as appealing as it seems. First, there’s the price. LG is asking $1,300 for the 49GR85DC-B. In 2023, that’s a lot for an LCD. Additionally, in my experience, VA panels are never as fast as manufacturers say they are, so don’t be surprised if LG’s latest doesn’t live up to the 1ms response time the company has listed. It's also worth mentioning few games support 32:9 resolutions.

The 49GR85DC-B is available to preorder starting today through LG’s website. If you decide to jump on this one early, the company will send you a complimentary UltraGear Gaming Pad. That's a $200 mouse mat that doubles as a USB hub and features RGB lighting.

Microsoft is preparing to launch an Xbox store on iOS and Android as early as next year, according to Phil Spencer. The head of the company’s gaming division shared the timeline in a Financial Times interview published on Monday, noting the plan is dependent on regulators approving Microsoft’s $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard.

“We want to be in a position to offer Xbox and content from both us and our third-party partners across any screen where somebody would want to play,” Spencer told the outlet. “Today, we can’t do that on mobile devices but we want to build towards a world that we think will be coming where those devices are opened up.”

Microsoft first revealed it was working on an Xbox store for mobile devices in regulatory documents the company filed with the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) last year. At the time, the tech giant didn’t provide a timeline for the plan, noting only its proposed merger with Activision Blizzard would play a critical role. Spencer was more direct on Monday. “The Digital Markets Act that’s coming — those are the kinds of things that we are planning for,” he said. “I think it’s a huge opportunity.”

Under the Digital Markets Acts (DMA), major platforms the European Union designates as “gatekeepers” will be required to open their devices to competing app stores. Last fall, a Bloomberg report said Apple was already at work preparing to make iOS compliant with the legislation ahead of its March 2024 deadline. The EU will allow companies it labels as gatekeepers to appeal the designation, a carveout that could delay enforcement of the law. Additionally, with challenges from the Federal Trade Commission and CMA, there’s no guarantee Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard will close before the new rules apply to Apple and Google, a fact Spencer seemed to acknowledge when interviewed by the Financial Times. However, he said it would be “pretty trivial” for Microsoft to adapt its existing Xbox and Game Pass apps to sell games and subscriptions through mobile devices.

When Google began rolling out Android’s March security patch earlier this week, the company addressed a “High” severity vulnerability involving the Pixel’s Markup screenshot tool. Over the weekend, Simon Aarons and David Buchanan, the reverse engineers who discovered CVE-2023-21036, shared more information about the security flaw, revealing Pixel users are still at risk of their older images being compromised due to the nature of Google’s oversight.

In short, the “aCropalypse” flaw allowed someone to take a PNG screenshot cropped in Markup and undo at least some of the edits in the image. It’s easy to imagine scenarios where a bad actor could abuse that capability. For instance, if a Pixel owner used Markup to redact an image that included sensitive information about themselves, someone could exploit the flaw to reveal that information. You can find the technical details on Buchanan’s blog.

According to Buchanan, the flaw has existed for about five years, coinciding with the release of Markup alongside Android 9 Pie in 2018. And therein lies the problem. While March’s security patch will prevent Markup from compromising future images, some screenshots Pixel users may have shared in the past are still at risk.

It’s hard to say how concerned Pixel users should be about the flaw. According to a forthcoming FAQ page Aarons and Buchanan shared with 9to5Google and The Verge, some websites, including Twitter, process images in such a way that someone could not exploit the vulnerability to reverse edit a screenshot or image. Users on other platforms aren’t so lucky. Aarons and Buchanan specifically identify Discord, noting the chat app did not patch out the exploit until its recent January 17th update. At the moment, it’s unclear if images shared on other social media and chat apps were left similarly vulnerable.

Google did not immediately respond to Engadget’s request for comment and more information. The March security update is currently available on the Pixel 4a, 5a, 7 and 7 Pro, meaning Markup can still produce vulnerable images on some Pixel devices. It’s unclear when Google will push the patch to other Pixel devices. If you own a Pixel phone without the patch, avoid using Markup to share sensitive images.

US law enforcement authorities this week arrested the person allegedly responsible for hacking the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in 2021. As reported by Krebs on Security (via The Verge), FBI agents on Wednesday arrested Conor Brian Fitzpatrick on suspicion of running BreachForums. As Brian Krebs notes, the website’s administrator, “Pompompurin,” is responsible for or connected to some of the most high-profile hacks in recent memory, including multiple incidents involving the FBI.

In 2021, Pompompurin took credit for compromising the agency’s email servers and sending thousands of fake cybersecurity warnings. Pompompurin is also linked to the 2022 breach of the FBI’s InfraGard network, an incident that saw the contact information of its more than 80,000 members go on sale. Separately, Pompompurin is connected to the 2021 Robinhood hack that saw the data of 7 million users compromised, and the 2022 Twitter data leak.

In a sworn affidavit, one of the FBI agents involved in the arrest claims Fitzpatrick identified himself as Pompompurin and admitted to being the owner of BreachForums. The forum rose from the ashes of RaidForums, which the FBI raided and shut down last year. For the moment, BreachForums is still up and running. "I think it's safe to assume [Pompompurin] won't be coming back, so I'll be taking ownership of the forum," said a user named Baphomet. "I have most, if not all the access necessary to protect BF infrastructure and users." Fitzpatrick will appear before a federal court on March 24th.

If you’re in the market for a new Android phone, now is a good time to pick up one of the best at a significant discount. Google has reduced the price of the entire Pixel family, including the flagship 7 Pro. On both Amazon and the Google Store, you can get the Pixel 7 Pro for $150 off. That includes all colorways and storage variants, meaning the 128GB, 256GB and 512GB models are priced at $749, $849 and $949 at the moment. The more affordable Pixel 7 is also $150 off. Once again, all three colorways are included in the sale, as are both storage variants. As a result, you can get the 128GB model for $449 and the 256GB one for $549. When they’re not on sale, those two will set you back $599 and $699, respectively. Last but not least, the Pixel 6a is likewise $150 off, making it $299.

Between the Pixel 7 Pro, Pixel 7 and Pixel 6a, there isn’t a bad choice between them. All three phones are found in Engadget’s smartphone buying guide. If you want a simple, affordable and easy-to-use device, the Pixel 6a is a great choice. It features a bright and vivid 6.1-inch OLED display, IP67-certified water and dust proofing, 6GB of RAM and Google’s in-house Tensor chip. Best of all, like all the other Pixels, the 6a comes with Google’s excellent photo processing software. One thing to note is Google is likely to announce the Pixel 6a’s successor soon. The company is widely expected to debut the phone at I/O 2023 on May 10th.

If you have a bigger budget, both the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro are compelling options too. Of the two, the latter is the one to go for if you love snapping photos. It features a 5x telephoto camera that’s ideal for capturing images of faraway subjects. Additionally, the wide-angle camera can capture macro shots, making it great for getting up close to small subjects like flowers and bugs.

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Disco Elysium, one of the best releases of 2019 and 2021, finally has a dedicated photo mode, but it’s not like the one you find in most games. Announced this week, the game’s new Collage Mode grants players full access to all the characters, environments and props found within the RPG. As you might imagine, you can use that power to pose your favorite NPCs in “a range of silly and sensible poses.” You’re then free to add filters and change the time of day to alter the mood of your capture.

But most interesting of all, Collage Mode gives you the freedom to write your own dialogue for Disco Elysium, and make it look like it came directly from the game. “Fabricate completely new dramas from unforgivable punch-ups to fruity yet forbidden kisses,” developer ZA/UM Studio suggests. “Corroborate your fan fiction with screenshots directly from the game.” Disco Elysium fan fiction will never be the same.

As Eurogamer notes, Collage Mode arrives amid an ongoing public dispute between ZA/UM and a handful of the studio’s former employees. The disagreement dates back to 2022 when three members of the Disco Elysium team – Robert Kurvitz, Helen Hindpere and Aleksander Rostov – said they were fired from their jobs following the studio’s takeover by a pair of Estonian businessmen in 2021. Kurvitz and Rostov went on to accuse ZA/UM’s new owners of fraudulently obtaining control of the company. On Tuesday, ZA/UM published a press release announcing the legal proceedings Kurvitz and Rostov had brought against it had been resolved after a court dropped the case. The two later told Eurogamer the announcement was "wrong and misleading in several respects," and that they would continue pursuing other legal options against their former employer.

Since its release in 2021, one of the most consistent criticisms of Windows 11 has been Microsoft’s handling of app defaults. Compared to Windows 10, the newer OS makes it more complicated for users to move away from the company’s first-party offerings. For example, if you don’t want Edge to open every time you click on a webpage or PDF, you’re forced to launch Windows 11’s Settings menu and change the default app by file and link type. It’s an unnecessarily long process that makes customizing Windows 11 convoluted.

Microsoft is finally addressing some of those criticisms. In a blog post published Friday (via Bleeping Computer), the company said it was “reaffirming our long-standing approach to put people in control of their Windows PC experience.” Microsoft announced a feature it said would ensure Windows 11 users are in control of changes to their app defaults. Later this year, the company will introduce a new deep link uniform resource identifier (URI) that will allow developers to send users to the correct section of the Settings menu when they want to change how Windows 11 responds to specific links and file types.

Microsoft

Microsoft says it will also give users more control over what apps get pinned to their desktop, start menu and taskbar with a new public API that will display a prompt asking you to grant programs permission before they show up on those interface elements. Both features will first roll out to PCs enrolled in the Windows Insider Dev Channel in the coming months before arriving in the public release of Windows 11. Notably, Microsoft says it will “lead by example” and release updates for Edge that will see the browser add support for those features as they become available.

It’s safe to say Diablo IV’s early access weekend hasn’t gone as smoothly as Blizzard likely hoped it would. Shortly after the beta went live on Friday, many players found themselves in lengthy login queues. In my case, I had to wait nearly two hours before I got a chance to play the game, only to be quickly disconnected after about 15 minutes.

Blizzard addressed the issue after players took to social media and the official Diablo IV forums to complain. “The team is working through some issues behind the scenes that have been affecting players and causing them to be disconnected from the servers,” Blizzard said in its initial post on the subject. “This is done so we can ensure stability amongst players who get into the game after the queue process.”

If you’re waiting to play, Blizzard asks that you stay in the login queue so as not to reset your timer. The studio said it would have a more accurate countdown in place by the start of next weekend’s open beta when anyone who wants to try Diablo IV before its June 6th release date can do so. “We are actively working on these issues for this weekend,” Blizzard said. “Once these are resolved, we will be able to increase the influx of players and queue times will be significantly reduced.”

Later in the day, the studio shared an update on the situation, noting it was also working to resolve a handful of other issues that players had filed reports about, including a bug preventing some from joining parties. As of Saturday afternoon, the queue to play Diablo IV was much shorter. I got to the character selection screen in under a minute. “Many players have successfully logged in to the game, but we are aware that some have experienced longer than expected wait times,” Blizzard said. ”As we continue to roll out improvements to our server stability, we expect our players to see continued improvements to the queue time.”

Hiccups are expected during a beta, particularly when a studio stress tests a live-service game like Diablo IV. The last thing Blizzard wants is a repeat of Diablo III’s launch when interest in the game overloaded Battle.net’s login servers, preventing many from playing the game at all.

After 15 years in space, NASA’s AIM mission is ending. In a brief blog post spotted by Gizmodo, the agency said Thursday it was ending operational support for the spacecraft due to a battery power failure. NASA first noticed issues with AIM’s battery in 2019, but the probe was still sending a “significant amount of data” back to Earth. Following another recent decline in battery power, NASA says AIM has become unresponsive. The AIM team will monitor the spacecraft for another two weeks in case it reboots, but judging from the tone of NASA’s post, the agency isn’t holding its breath.

NASA launched the AIM – Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere – mission in 2007 to study noctilucent or night-shining clouds, which are sometimes known as fossilized clouds due to the fact they can last hundreds of years in the Earth's upper atmosphere. From its vantage point 370 miles above the planet's surface, the spacecraft proved invaluable to scientists, with data collected by AIM appearing in 379 peer-reviewed papers, including a recent 2018 study that found methane emissions from human-driven climate change are causing night-shining clouds to form more frequently. Pretty good for a mission NASA initially expected to operate for only two years. AIM’s demise follows that of another long-serving NASA spacecraft. At the start of the year, the agency deorbited the Earth Radiation Budget Satellite following a nearly four-decade run collecting ozone and atmospheric measurements.