Meta has delivered the first significant update to Threads since the social network launched earlier this month, and you might appreciate it if you're still building your contact list. The company's Cameron Roth has detailed an upgrade to the iOS app that adds a Follows tab to the activity feed, making it easier to see who just followed you. You'll have an easier time following people back. Accordingly, you can open your Instagram follower list to see if you're missing anyone.

The update also adds translations for post text, so you'll have more incentive to follow people who speak unfamiliar languages. You can subscribe to unfollowed users to get notifications without crowding your timeline. There are a few basic interface tweaks as well, such as reposter labels you can tap. The app should be leaner and smoother, particularly when loading or scrolling through your activity feed.

Some of the features are enabled server-side, so don't be surprised if they're not all available immediately. Roth says they should be available by the end of today (July 18th). There's no mention of when Android will get an equivalent update, but we've asked Meta for comment and will let you know if we hear back. The Android beta program offers features before they reach the publicly available app, however.

There are still numerous missing features, and the Threads team is aware of it. You can't yet use a chronological feed, direct messages or hashtags. You can't completely remove yourself from Threads without also deleting your Instagram account. And without a full web version, it's not usually practical to use Threads on a computer. This first update shows that Meta is acting on at least some promises, even if it may take a while to address every issue.

Meta has motivation to act quickly. Threads use is declining after the initial spike, and the absence of some features (such as hashtags and a web app) may keep new users away. Greater parity could help sustain interest while Meta considers a European Union rollout and otherwise prepares for a significant expansion.

The rumors of a commercially-oriented Meta AI model were true. Meta and Microsoft have teamed up to unveil Llama 2, a next-generation large language (very generalized) AI model intended for both commercial and research purposes. The upgraded open source code places a greater emphasis on responsibility. Developers "red-teamed" models (that is, tested them for safety) and created a transparency schematic to detail potential issues. They also include a responsible use guide, and there's an acceptable use policy to prevent abuses like criminal activity, misleading representations and spam.

Meta is releasing both pre-trained and conversation-oriented versions of Llama 2 for free. Microsoft is making it available through the Azure AI catalog to use with cloud tools, such as content filtering. The tool can also run directly on Windows PCs, and will be available through outside providers like Amazon Web Services and Hugging Face.

The original AI model was open source, but intended strictly for academics and researchers. Llama 2 lets companies customize the technology for their own purposes, such as chatbots and image generators. Ideally, this lets companies benefit from the modelling while providing outsiders a way to check for biases, inaccuracies and other flaws. Open source code isn't new in the AI world — Stability's Stable Diffusion is a notable example. However, major rivals like OpenAI's GPT-4 tend to be locked down for the sake of subscription or licensing revenue. There are also concerns that hackers and other bad actors may ignore open source licenses and use those tools for dangerous purposes.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

Developers are taking another shot at a One Punch Man game, but this one is very different than the last major attempt. Anime service Crunchyroll has announcedOne Punch Man: World, an online multiplayer action title headed to Android, iOS and PC. The free-to-play game has you and friends joining the Hero Association to fight a growing wave of villains through missions and raids. You can unlock and play as heroes from the TV show's first season, including Saitama's faithful sidekick Genos, Mumen Rider and Puri-Puri Prisoner. You can relive key moments from the show, too.

Where Bandai Namco's A Hero Nobody Knows was a fighting game, this is more of a Devil May Cry-style action title with combos, dodges and ultimate attacks. You'll spend much of your time ranking up, including through side missions and mini games elsewhere in Z-City. 

One Punch Man: World arrives later this year. You can pre-register for the PC version now. Crunchyroll is working on the game alongside Perfect World, the studio responsible for Persona 5: The Phantom X and Tower of Fantasy.

It's too soon to say how well the game works in practice, including in-app purchases. Having said this, the creators face the same problem Bandai Namco did: how do you balance a game where the main hero, Saitama, can defeat anyone with a single hit? The answer seems to involve holding him back (a video on the official site shows Saitama using many punches to fell an enemy), but you'll likely have to wait for the finished product to know how powerful he really is.

Corsair is hoping to stand out in the enthusiast keyboard space by buying one of its more recognizable brands. The company is acquiring Drop (formerly Massdrop), best known for its customizable mechanical keyboards and key switches. The move will let Corsair "significantly grow" Drop's community-centric keyboard line while creating new products for its in-house brands, including Elgato.

Drop will stay a separate brand inside of Corsair, and it will handle all existing purchases and support. Corsair isn't revealing the financial terms of the deal. In a message to users, Drop's CEO stressed that his firm would still collaborate with "community favorites," but would have a much better time of serving customers outside the US.

The strategy isn't surprising. Gamers and other hobbyists have increasingly delved into custom keyboards with personalized key caps, lighting and switches. You can get a unique keyboard that matches the look of your computer setup while delivering the typing feel you prefer. The Drop purchase gives Corsair a quick way to expand its presence in that market, sparing it the trouble of building up its own resources — or facing Drop as a competitor.

There's fierce rivalry in the category. In addition to Drop, established companies like Keychron, KBDFans and Mode have customizable options. That's not including stock keyboards that offer similar functionality, just without the flexibility. Corsair isn't certain to dominate, but this may help it thrive in a field where tech heavyweights like ASUS and NZXT are increasingly involved.

This could also help Corsair bring personalization to segments where it's still rare. Game streamers and other creators thrive on elaborate setups, but their broadcasting equipment (such as control decks and microphones) rarely offer much in the way of customization. While it's not clear just what Elgato will release, it could claim an edge over challengers.

One of the last traces of the early Xbox era is going away. Microsoft has revealed it's replacing Xbox Live Gold with a Game Pass Core tier on September 14th. The $60 per year (or $10 per month) subscription is necessary to play many (but not all) online multiplayer games on consoles, as before, but it also represents a shift in how the company doles out bonus games.

The company is sunsetting Games with Gold, which offered a steady flow of titles for Live subscribers. Instead, you'll get a base collection of more than 25 games with new entries two to three times per year. Most of them are first-party games like Doom Eternal, Forza Horizon 4 and Halo 5, although you will find the occasional third-party project like Among Us and Human Fall Flat.

If you're already an Xbox Live Gold member, you'll automatically switch to Game Pass Core when it's available. Games with Gold ends on September 1st. However, you'll still have access to any Xbox One games you claimed if you're either a Core or Ultimate member. Redeemed Xbox 360 games are yours to keep even if your subscription lapses.

Microsoft has signalled its intent to change Live Gold for a while. It stopped offering year-long subscriptions in 2020, and ditched Xbox 360 games in 2022. The company planned to raise Gold prices in 2021 before quickly reversing the decision.

The change might be disappointing if you liked Games with Gold's more frequent catalog expansions. While you do get some hits, it's a not-so-subtle way to steer you toward an Ultimate subscription with a much larger selection (including some day-one titles), cloud gaming and an EA Play membership. In that sense, PlayStation Plus Essential (which still offers bonus games every month) may be more appealing if you're open to Sony hardware.

With that said, Sony pulled the PlayStation Plus Collection this spring. Unless you got the selections through other promos, you'll have to pay to revisit some of the PS4 era's best games. Microsoft isn't strictly mimicking Sony's strategy (it's mainly a bid to showcase first-party releases), but this is a rough equivalent if you're just looking for an instant library.

This is a good moment to upgrade your kitchen tech. Amazon is running a sale on Instant Pot appliances that includes steep discounts for shoppers both with and without Prime. Most notably, the Instant Pot 6-quart 5-in1- Dutch oven is down to just $120, or 48 percent off. The Instant Pot Rio (aka the Duo) 7-in-1 cooker, meanwhile, is down to a record low price of $80 (20 percent off).

One of our favorite air fryers, the Instant Vortex Plus, has dropped to $90 (25 percent off) for all customers. The sale also offers good bargains for some of the company's less familiar devices, including toaster oven combos, coffee makers and air purifiers.

The Instant Pot line remains popular for a key reason: they're very helpful "all-in-one" cookers. They offer pressure cooking, slow cooking, yogurt making and other features in an uncomplicated device that doesn't require constant attention. You can make tender pulled pork without waiting several hours, or a sumptuous stew without hovering over a conventional pot. The Vortex Plus, in turn, is an intuitive and large air fryer that can quickly prepare chicken and other meals without as much smoke or odor as some rivals.

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

If you have fond memories of chatting with Reddit friends, you might want to check your archives. Reddit has confirmed userreports that it's removing all chats and messages from before 2023. As the social site explained in June, it's moving to a new chat architecture and believes pulling older messages will enable a "smooth and quick transition" to the new architecture. The change took effect June 30th, but many users only noticed days later.

There may be a way to recover some of those messages, Mashablesays. You can request account data from Reddit through an online form, and the archive might include conversations from before 2023. While it won't be as easy to revisit a priceless chat, it won't necessarily be gone forever.

Users still aren't thrilled, however. While Reddit disclosed the cutoff in a changelog, it didn't notify community members directly. That left some to discover the company's plans only after their message logs disappeared, preventing them from backing up their histories on their own terms.

The move also comes as Reddit is facing a broader backlash. Numerous subreddits conducted a days-long blackout to protest new policies that made it impractical for third-party apps like Apollo to remain active. Since then, users and moderators have taken various actions (such as focusing subreddits on John Oliver photos) to fight back.

More recently, Reddit said it would phase out the existing coin system used to recognize exceptional contributors. You can no longer buy new coins, and all awards and coins will go away after September 12th. The existing approach leads to "clutter" and provides content that some don't believe is all that valuable, Reddit says. While there will be a replacement system, it's expected to be simpler and more direct. That may not thrill longtime fans used to Reddit's sometimes very specific awards and medals.

Did you ever feel that your Assassin's Creed experience wasn't personal enough? Maybe not, but Ubisoft is betting that you'd like to give it a try regardless. The company has teamed up with OWO to release an Assassin's Creed Mirage edition haptic feedback shirt. Put it on and you'll feel parkour, impacts and "exclusive sensations never felt before" — yes, really. You might want to close the door while you're playing, from the sound of it.

OWO's shirt includes haptic points at on your chest, stomach, lower back and arms. The trick is an algorithm that adjusts nine wave parameters to simulate interactions ranging from the wind to a dagger. You can use a mobile app to calibrate sensations in specific games or replace them with your own. Compatible games frequently rely on mods (such as Fortnite and Beat Saber), but there are already a handful of native games like Crisis Brigade 2 Reloaded and Drone War. This is the first major collaboration.

Details of pricing and a release date are yet to come, but the haptic apparel will work with PS4, PS4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and PC. The game will be released October 12th, and the OWO shirt will include a game code. OWO's Founder Edition shirt sold for €499 ($560), but it was also part of a 2,000-unit batch and won't necessarily reflect the final price.

Wearable haptics for games aren't new, but they tend to be experimental efforts. See Sony's Rez Infinite synesthesia suit from 2017 as an example. The Assassin's Creed collaboration won't necessarily take that tech into the mainstream, but it's coming right as the next generation of mixed reality headsets is coming to market. Don't be surprised if haptics gain some traction as immersion becomes more important in AR and VR games.

Don't try to sign up for Threads through a virtual private network (VPN) if you live in Europe. Meta has confirmed that it's blocking European Union users from accessing the new social network through a VPN. As consultant Matt Navarra explains, content, notifications and profiles won't load properly. Some users say they can use Threads without a VPN if they'd previously signed up with one, but you may not want to count on that loophole working.

In a statement, Meta says it's taking "further measures" to stop people from accessing Threads in European countries where the app is unavailable. The company nonetheless says Europe remains a "very important market" and that it hopes to expand availability in the future. The firm doesn't provide a timeline for more rollouts, but the app is currently rough and missing important features like hashtags.

Threads is available for users in over 100 countries, including the US and UK, but not in the EU. The Union considers Meta a technology "gatekeeper" in the region, and the company reportedly wants to be sure Threads' data sharing approach complies with the upcoming Digital Markets Act. Threads is built on Instagram's infrastructure and may import data from that platform. The EU also ruled that Meta has to get permission to show personalized ads, potentially adding more complications.

There's pressure for Meta to expand. Threads racked up 100 million users in less than a week, and is already considered Twitter's greatest threat. Chief executive Mark Zuckerberg notes that growth so far has largely been "organic," without advertising or other familiar promotional tactics. While it's unclear if usage will hold up in the long term, an expansion to the EU could sustain that momentum. Outside analysts believe Twitter traffic is already dropping as a result of users trying or switching to Threads.

If you've used Microsoft productivity suites this millennium, you're in for a big change... visually, at least. After 15 years, Microsoft is replacing the default font in 365 and Office apps, Calibri, with something new: Aptos. It may look like a simple sans-serif font (and it is in default form), but Microsoft is betting that you'll like it thanks to its sheer flexibility.

Aptos works with many languages. There are four different font weights, and serif variants if you need something less hypermodern. Creator Steve Matteson (who made Windows' first TrueType fonts) waxes poetic about Aptos including a "little bit of humanity" and evoking the personalities of Carl Kasell and even Stephen Colbert, but the end result is a font that will theoretically be easy to read and eye-catching whether you're writing a school essay or prepping a company presentation.

Microsoft

The font has already been available as Bierstadt as part of a feedback gathering effort, but is rolling out as the default font in Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint and Word for hundreds of millions of people starting today. Everyone will see it within the next few months. It'll still be available under its old name, as will the four fonts that didn't make the cut (Grandview, Seaford, Skeena and Tenorite). Like Calibri, Aptos will be pinned to the top of the font picker but won't be mandatory.

Yes, it's just a font — like those redesigned Office icons from 2018, Aptos will have zero impact on your ability to get things done. As one of the most noticeable elements of any app, though, the new default font will change the look and feel of tools you might use every day. And like Apple's San Francisco font, it reflects an evolving technological landscape where a typeface has to be le on a wide range of devices and screen sizes.