Now is a good moment to expand the storage for your PC — or console, or phone. Amazon is running a sale on Samsung SSDs and memory cards, with discounts as steep as 63 percent off. High-end models are particularly good values. The 2TB version of the 980 Pro SSD is down to just $180 (53 percent off), making it a solid bargain for a PC drive or console drive. You can get a 256GB Evo Select microSD card for $20 (52 percent off) to upgrade your mobile device, while the 256GB Pro Endurance microSD card is down to $30 (45 percent off) if you need long-lasting memory for your dash or security cameras.

The 980 Pro is one of our top picks for a PlayStation 5 SSD upgrade, and for good reasons. It's a fast PCIe Gen4 NVMe drive with read speeds up to 7,000MB/s, but it also has a reputation for reliability. You can slip this into your PS5 or PC knowing that it should be useful for the practical lifespan of your system. At $180, the 2TB variant is a better deal than its (similarly discounted) 1TB and 500GB counterparts. You only have to pay a relatively small premium to get ample headroom for more games, apps and media files.

The microSD cards, meanwhile, are easy picks if you need more space while you're on the move. The Evo Select is well-suited to expandable Android phones and tablets, as well as all models of the Nintendo Switch. Spring for the Pro Endurance, meanwhile, and you'll get a card that can record video around the clock for up to 16 years. You might replace your camera before you need new memory.

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Google is giving Stadia users some consolation prizes before the game streaming service shuts down on January 18th. To start, it's planning to release a tool that will enable Bluetooth support on the Stadia controller. You'll have to wait until next week to download it, but this should make the device useful for just about any title that has gamepad support, so long as the platform recognizes the hardware in the first place.

The company has also released a Snake clone, Worm Game, as a final "thanks" to users. It's a simple project the Stadia team has been using for testing since before launch, but it might be worth a try if you want to give the service a proper sendoff.

You're out of luck if you played Destiny 2 on Stadia, however. Bungie has already shut downDestiny 2's Stadia servers, and is giving gamers until January 18th to activate Cross Save and migrate their characters elsewhere. The developer also warns that you shouldn't disable Cross Save after the 18th "for any reason" as long as Stadia is your primary account.

These last-minute announcements likely won't come as a shock. Google announced its shutdown plans in September, and started issuing refunds in November. Other game studios have also been helping with the transition for weeks. IO Interactive recently released a promised Progression Carryover tool for Hitman players, while Ubisoft is offering free PC copies of games purchased through Stadia. If you hadn't already made the leap, you were probably getting ready for it.

The technology behind Stadia will live on after it and Worm Game are just memories. On top of the controller update, Google's Immersive Stream for Games makes the cloud functionality available to other companies. Still, it's a bittersweet moment — the news is a reminder that Google's most ambitious gaming initiative is nearly at an end.

YouTube is rethinking its approach to colorful language after an uproar. In a statement to The Verge, the Google brand says it's "making some adjustments" to a profanity policy it unveiled in November after receiving blowback from creators. The rule limits or removes ads on videos where someone swears within the first 15 seconds or has "focal usage" of rude words throughout, and is guaranteed to completely demonetize a clip if swearing either occurs in the first seven seconds or dominates the content.

While that policy wouldn't necessarily be an issue by itself, YouTube has been applying the criteria to videos uploaded before the new rule took effect. As Kotakuexplains, YouTube has demonetized old videos for channels like RTGame. Producers haven't had success appealing these decisions, and the company won't let users edit these videos to pass muster.

Communication has also been a problem. YouTube doesn't usually tell violators exactly what they did wrong, and creators tend to only learn about the updated policy after the service demonetizes their work. There are also concerns about inconsistency. Some videos are flagged while others aren't, and a remonetized video might lose that income a day later. Even ProZD's initial video criticizing the policy, which was designed to honor the rules, lost ad revenue after two days.

YouTube hasn't said just what it plans to change, so it's not clear if the revised policy will satisfy those affected. For now, creators won't have much recourse beyond watching their use of cuss words. The uncertainty isn't necessarily prompting an exodus, but it is leading some video makers to reduce their dependence on YouTube as a source of income.

Now that Republicans have control of the House of Representatives, they're hoping to set the agenda for crypto. Financial Services committee Chair Patrick McHenry (above) has announced a Subcommittee on Digital Assets, Financial Technology and Inclusion that aims to set policy for technologies like cryptocurrency. Headed by Rep. French Hill, the panel hopes to establish "clear rules of the road" for federal regulators, create policies that bring financial technology to poorly served communities and bolster diversity and inclusiveness in digital assets.

In an interview with Politico, McHenry said he was creating the subcommittee to address a "big hole" in Financial Services' approach to crypto issues. McHenry considers crypto regulation his main legislative priority, and panel chair Hill has led the GOP's investigation of a potential central bank-backed cryptocurrency.

The move comes as regulators struggle to find common ground on crypto. While agencies like the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) agree that digital assets are subject to existing laws, there have been tussles over just who should step in and when. Senators put forward a bill that would create a clear regulatory framework, but it has been stuck in committee.

There's pressure on the House subcommittee to act. The implosion of crypto giant FTX has underscored the risks of letting the technology go unchecked. Officials are also investigating major industry names like Celsius and Coinbase over possible rule violations. Clearer rules would theoretically improve the federal government's responses to violations like these.

It's uncertain how effective the House panel will be. While there are crypto proponents across both main parties, the Democrats' expanded control of the Senate could prevent bills from becoming law if there are any substantial disagreements. Both sections of Congress have to pass and reconcile legislation before it reaches the President's desk. The very existence of the subcommittee suggests that Congress is taking crypto more seriously, however, and there's a chance it could accelerate bipartisan efforts to oversee digital money and tokens.

NVIDIA may have a solution if you've ever caught yourself reading chat during a livestream, or distracted by your notes during a video presentation. The company has updated its Broadcast software with a beta Eye Contact feature that, like Apple's FaceTime, 'fixes' your gaze to keep it focused on your camera. It preserves your blinks and eye color, and will even transition between digital and real eyes when you look far enough off-center.

The developers caution that Eye Contact isn't completely ready, as there are "millions" of potential eye color and lighting scenarios they can't test. You're encouraged to send feedback videos if the technology misbehaves.

Broadcast also has a new vignetting effect that will darken the outer edges of the frame. Existing Blur, Replacement and Remove Virtual Background effects should also be more accurate and reliable thanks to the addition of temporal data that helps the AI make smarter choices. Errors will be subtler, too. NVIDIA is even adding some simple but heavily-requested options to mirror the camera and take screenshots of the webcam.

The tool requires at least a GeForce RTX 2060 video card (or its Quadro equivalent) and 8GB of RAM. NVIDIA recommends at least a Core i5-8600 or Ryzen 5 2600 processor. The Eye Contact function may be uncanny at times — even the best presenters tend to look away now and then, so a constant gaze might be unsettling. This could improve your connection with your audience, though, and may be particularly helpful if you're uncomfortable staring directly at the camera.

Don't worry if Mercedes' insistence on EQ branding for electric cars seems arbitrary — the naming scheme might not last much longer. Sources speaking to the German daily Handelsblatt claim Mercedes will drop the EQ brand as soon as late 2024, when it's expected to debut its next wave of compact cars. Simply put, the company won't have much use for the label when more and more of its cars will be electric.

Mercedes first used the EQ name on production cars with 2019's EQC SUV. Since then, the company has applied the branding to both electrified versions of conventional designs like the EQB as well as unique models like the EQS SUV. Concept cars like the long-range EQXX have similarly stuck to the nomenclature.

In a statement to Reuters, a Mercedes spokesperson said it was "too early" to divulge plans. However, the representative said the automaker would "adapt" the use of the EQ brand as it transitioned to an all-EV lineup by 2030. The identification still plays a key role in the company's current electric vehicle strategy, the spokesperson added.

If the report is true, the rethink won't come as a surprise. While car manufacturers have frequently used names to highlight electric powerplants, such as the Chevy Bolt and Ford Mustang Mach-E, they're starting to rely on more traditional monikers as EVs become more commonplace. Chevy's upcoming electric Blazer is one example. EVs will eventually become the default, and companies won't get to use the presence of an electric motor as a selling point.

Russia is prepping a 'rescue' mission following a coolant leak on a Soyuz capsule docked with the International Space Station. NASA said in a media briefing that Russia's Roscosmos agency will send an empty Soyuz to the station on February 20th as a replacement for the damaged spacecraft. The vehicle was originally supposed to launch in March.

The leaking capsule is expected to return to Earth without a crew sometime in March. It will still carry experiments and other cargo. Cosmonauts Dmitriy Petelin and Sergey Prokopyev, as well as NASA astronaut Frank Rubio, will now remain in orbit for several months longer rather than departing in March as planned.

The affected craft started spraying particles December 14th. The ISS team quickly noticed that an external radiator cooling loop was to blame, and investigators later determined that a micrometeoroid struck the radiator. Roscosmos soon decided the Soyuz was too dangerous to use for a standard crew return. Temperatures would have climbed past 100F on reentry, threatening both occupants and computer equipment. An in-space repair would be impractical as the procedure would be too difficult, according to the agency's Sergei Krikalev.

The ISS crew is still prepared to use the broken Soyuz to evacuate in an emergency. However, that's not ideal when three of the seven people aboard the ISS would likely have to accept elevated risks to come home. A SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule is also docked, but it normally only takes four occupants. NASA's ISS program head Joel Montalbano said at the briefing that there had been talks with SpaceX to see if one of the Soyuz passengers could travel aboard the Crew Dragon if necessary.

Relations between NASA and Roscomos are strained following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Russia said last summer that it would leave the ISS after 2024 to work on its own space station, and the US has been preparing for a possible Russian withdrawal since 2021. However, the capsule leak has effectively forced the two to work closely together — if only briefly.

There wasn't anything particularly sinister about the Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) outage that prompted the Federal Aviation Administration to ground US flights on Wednesday — it appears to have been a relatively simple glitch. As part of its early investigation, the FAA has determined that the outage was prompted by a "damaged database file." The agency is still working to identify the exact causes and prevent repeat incidents, but says there's still "no evidence" of a cyberattack.

The FAA grounded all domestic departures in the US on Wednesday morning after the NOTAM system failed the afternoon before. This was the first such failure in the country, and it prompted hundreds of delays that took hours to resolve. NOTAMs provide important information about potential problems along a flight's path, such as runway closures and temporary airspace restrictions.

The initial findings may be reassuring for those concerned the outage may have stemmed from another critical infrastructure hack. However, it still leaves some unanswered questions about the fragility of NOTAM in the US. A single corrupted file was apparently all it took to disrupt flights nationwide for over half a day — whatever redundancy was in place clearly wasn't enough.

Autonomous transportation assistance isn't limited to cars. Airbus has started testing a pilot assistance feature, DragonFly, that could save an aircraft in an emergency. The system can automatically divert a flight in an emergency. It can not only pick a flight path to the best airport (using factors like airspace rules and weather), but communicate with air traffic control and an airline's operations center. If the pilots are incapacitated, the aircraft can still land safely.

Accordingly, DragonFly can automatically land on any runway using sensors and computer vision algorithms. Pilots can even get help taxiing around airports through technology that translates air traffic control's clearance into usable guidance clues in a companion app. It can assist with speed control and alert pilots to obstacles. Crews can spend more time getting ready for the actual flight.

The testing has so far been limited to one A350-1000 demonstrator aircraft. It could be a while yet before DragonFly reaches production, and regulators (like the Federal Aviation Administration in the US) will need to approve its use.

All the same, this hints at where autonomous flight systems are going. Although completely self-flying airliners might not arrive for a long while, you could see aircraft that require little intervention even in the middle of a crisis. This could also help increase flights to airports with difficult landings (such New Zealand's Wellington Airport) and minimize taxiing-related delays.

If you're determined to listen to high-resolution audio on your phone using high-end earphones, you'll want a DAC — and Astell & Kern thinks it has one of the better options. The company has introduced its third USB DAC, the AK HC3, and this one may finally nail enough features to satisfy most users. It promises very high-quality 32-bit, 384kHz audio like its HC2 predecessor, but you can finally use your headset's microphone. You won't have to choose between pristine sound and making phone calls.

The AK HC3 also uses ESS' newer ES9219MQ dual DAC. A built-in LED even shows if you're using a high-res audio format. The USB-C connection supports Macs, Windows PCs, Android phones and many tablets (including recent iPads), but there's an included Lightning adapter in the box for your iPhone. Android users get a dedicated app to fine-tune the output.

Astell & Kern will sell the AK HC3 for $229, with pre-orders starting January 20th and a release estimated for February 13th. This isn't the absolute highest-quality DAC (Fiio's Q3 can manage 768kHz), but it's better than many mobile options and is relatively easy to carry.

There are two similarly new headphone amps if you're more interested in quality than size. The Acro CA1000T is a second-gen "carriable" model that uses ESS' new high-end ES9039MPRO dual DAC and a triple amp system that lets you switch between dual vacuum tubes, normal amping and a hybrid that combines both technologies. It arrives alongside the HC3, although the $2,299 price will limit it to well-heeled audiophiles.

The AK PA10 portable, meanwhile, is Astell & Kern's first device with a Class-A amp. The choice promises the "best" linear output and a warm, natural sound for 12 hours of battery-powered use. It also won't be cheap when it arrives on February 13th for $599, but it may be worth considering if you want a balance between portability and raw technical prowess.