Month: September 2026

AppleCare One Family is now official. Available in the United States, the new plan covers up to six family members’ devices within a Family Sharing group for a monthly fee. Want to try it? We can now sign up for it from our iPhone, iPad, or Mac.

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One AppleCare fee for the whole family

AppleCare One Family costs $49.99 a month and includes AppleCare+, with protection against accidental damage and coverage for theft or loss for the iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch, for up to six family members. Under the plan, we get up to six annual claims for theft or loss, shared across all members.

When we activate the plan, devices with AppleCare and those purchased during the last 60 days are added automatically. We can also add other devices manually, after they pass the required check. These must be up to four years old, while in the case of AirPods and Beats, the limit is set at one year.

The coverage extends to practically all of Apple’s product lineup, though with a maximum of six Apple Vision Pro per subscription. The devices remain covered as long as we keep the subscription active and they connect to Apple’s servers at least once every 12 months.

AppleCare One Family complements AppleCare One, which starts at $19.99 a month for three devices and lets us add devices for $5.99 a month each. It also works with the new Apple Upgrade system, which lets us upgrade our device regularly while we pay for a subscription for the current one. With AppleCare One Family Apple offers broad, predictable coverage for the whole family. An option that can be far more appealing than several separate insurance policies when it comes to keeping our devices protected.

Robert Kirkman’s superhero series Invincible is coming to the UniVersus collectible card game in 2027. It’ll be the franchise’s first big release in a trading-card-game style format.

The Invincible release was first expected to be a smaller preconstructed deck. After strong interest, though, UVS Games has reportedly expanded it into a full booster set, which opens the door to a wider rollout, more deck-building options, and a bigger push at retail and in organized play.

You’ll also be able to mix Invincible cards with UniVersus sets based on Hellboy, Warhammer 40,000, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, My Hero Academia, Street Fighter, DC, TMNT, Cowboy Bebop, Attack on Titan, and Solo Leveling. That puts Invincible alongside the headline additions planned for 2027.

If you play UniVersus or keep up with Invincible, there’s plenty behind the excitement. Season 5 of Prime Video’s Invincible is expected in 2027, and the show is still adding new material beyond the comics. Battle Beast #1 reportedly sold nearly 400,000 copies across multiple printings, more than 1 million Invincible graphic novels have reportedly sold since 2021, and Image Comics even named March 2026 “Invincible Month.”

You’ll be able to pick up the Invincible UniVersus release through UniVersus retailers when the 2027 set arrives.

Twenty years after release, Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King is back in the spotlight, and Samwise Gamgee’s “Well, I’m back” still hits as the movie’s last line and its best one.

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It’s also the last line of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, and that’s part of why it works so well. After armies, monsters, and the destruction of the Ring, you end not on spectacle but on a hobbit stepping through his own front door. That choice gets at why Jackson starts in the Shire and keeps Frodo and Sam, rather than Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli’s battlefield heroics, at the story’s emotional center. History changes because ordinary people keep going.

The line lands for another reason too. Winning doesn’t wipe away the cost. Sam gets to return to ordinary life, as a gardener, a husband, and a father. Frodo doesn’t. That’s why Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh were right to keep the long epilogue and leave out the book’s Scouring of the Shire, which probably would’ve felt deflating on screen after Mount Doom.

If you’re revisiting the trilogy, the 4K remaster is worth picking up, and I still think this one line says more about J.R.R. Tolkien’s World War I sense of homecoming and endurance than any battle scene does.

You can watch Peter Jackson’s 4K release while Warner Bros. keeps pushing the franchise forward with The Hunt for Gollum, Tales of the Shire, and a new open-world RPG.

Game of Thrones: Legends has moved into a new Hand of the King season. It starts on September 23 at 4:00 AM ET and runs through October 21 at 2:00 AM ET, with Jon Snow returning as the King in the North Legendary Champion.

During that same stretch, you can recruit Jon Snow in a limited-time summon event alongside Ned Stark, Sansa Stark, Arya Stark, Robb Stark, and Catelyn Stark. Just don’t take that as some hidden sign from HBO. It doesn’t mean Game of Thrones is coming back, and it doesn’t mean the shelved Snow spinoff has been revived either.

Like most mobile RPGs, Game of Thrones: Legends usually gives out Champion Shards instead of full Legendaries. This banner uses Exalted Tokens, the premium currency added in June 2026, which you can earn through Material Trials, Proving Grounds, Goldroad rewards, or by spending Gold. It also gives you double the Legendary Shard odds compared with the older Splendid Token summons.

If you play Game of Thrones: Legends regularly, this update is probably worth picking up, even if Jon Snow’s on-screen future is still unclear after HBO shelved the Kit Harington sequel. Harington had previously said the team couldn’t find a story strong enough to justify it. He also hasn’t ruled out returning, and you should still expect the character to appear in Game of Thrones: War for Westeros in 2027.

You can get Game of Thrones: Legends on mobile now.

For the first time, the United States has publicly acknowledged that it has deployed space control weapons in orbit. The admission came from US Air Force Secretary Troy Meink, and it is the clearest statement so far that American space weapons are already operating on orbit.

Meink didn’t say what the weapons are, when they were launched, or whether they’ve been tested. He argued that keeping those details secret helps deterrence and protects operational security. Even with those blanks, the statement marks a real shift. For years, space was talked about as a sanctuary. Now it’s being framed as a contested warfighting domain where the United States wants space superiority.

This reaches far beyond military circles. Satellites support GPS, weather forecasting, broadband, finance, surveillance, and battlefield coordination, and the US government says this move is a response to growing Chinese and Russian counter-space threats, including anti-satellite missiles, co-orbital craft, jammers, directed-energy systems, and alleged Russian orbital anti-satellite efforts.

If you rely on space-based services, or if you follow military technology, keep an eye on this. Most analysts think non-kinetic options such as jamming, lasers, or microwaves are more likely than kinetic strikes that create debris, but the legal gray area around the 1967 Outer Space Treaty could still accelerate a space arms race and spill over onto commercial operators and the broader economy.

You can read the announcement in official Pentagon and US Air Force coverage.

Jason Statham’s 2026 thriller Mutiny has climbed to No. 1 on Amazon’s video-on-demand chart, giving the movie a real second wind after a theatrical run that petered out somewhere between a reported $21.9 million and $28 million worldwide, against a reported $40 million budget.

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Part of the problem was timing, and part of it was plain bad luck. Mutiny showed up on Amazon by mistake for several hours before its release, and Lionsgate pushed it to premium VOD less than a month after it opened. The official digital launch came about three weeks after the film first hit theaters.

Critics never fully bought in. Mutiny has been sitting around 50 to 51 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. Audiences were a lot kinder, pushing the Rotten Tomatoes audience score to 86 percent on the strength of its stripped-down action. Statham plays Cole Reed, a former London cop and special forces veteran, sometimes identified as a Royal Marine commando, who’s framed for killing his billionaire employer and dragged into a cargo-ship conspiracy. The movie itself also has an odd bit of history, since it was reworked from a Gerard Butler Plane sequel.

If you’re someone who usually saves these mid-budget, standalone Jason Statham thrillers for home viewing, Mutiny seems like a pretty easy pickup. Its rebound, much like Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre and unlike stronger theatrical performers such as The Beekeeper, says a lot about how Statham’s audience now waits for the digital release, even if the full streaming numbers still aren’t public. You can rent or buy Mutiny now on Amazon and other premium VOD platforms.

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Blizzard has locked in a Switch 2 release for Diablo IV: Age of Hatred Collection, and it’s coming on September 15, 2026.

The package includes the base game, Vessel of Hatred, and Lord of Hatred. On the technical side, Blizzard says you’ll get a Quality Mode that runs at 30 fps, up to 1080p in handheld and 1440p when docked. There’s also a Performance Mode at 40 fps and 1080p in both handheld and docked play, though that 40 fps docked option only works if your display supports 120 Hz.

So far, handheld impressions have been pretty positive. Docked play sounds less convincing. Early hands-on reports point to a softer image, shakier performance, and some input lag once the game’s on a TV.

Blizzard is also building in touchscreen controls for menus and inventory, plus USB mouse and keyboard support, rumble, accessibility settings, GameChat, cross-play, cross-progression, and Battle.net linking. That last part matters if you already have time in Diablo IV, since your purchases, characters, and overall progress will carry over.

If you’re already playing Diablo IV, this Switch 2 version looks like an easy pickup. The catch is that it still needs a constant internet connection.

Blizzard says Nintendo Switch Online won’t be required for everything. You’ll only need it for party play, trading, clans, PvP, and shared-world encounters. The solo campaign, side quests, open-world activities, couch co-op, leaderboards, and seasonal content don’t require it.

The digital version of Diablo IV: Age of Hatred Collection will cost $69.99 on Switch 2. Its launch is lined up with Season of Hell’s Legacy and Diablo’s 30th anniversary. If you want a physical copy, know what you’re getting: the retail release is just a code in a box.

Blizzard also dropped a couple of longer-range teases, including an Amazon class in 2027 and Diablo V sometime around 2029.

Blizzard Entertainment has officially announced Diablo V for spring 2029, and the studio is framing it as a far darker trip through Sanctuary than the last game.

According to Blizzard, players will be stepping into a “fallen Sanctuary,” a world worn down by years of war, corruption, and constant demonic pressure. Strongholds are in ruins, settlements have been overrun, and the people still alive are scraping by in regions warped by disaster. On that first impression alone, Diablo V looks like more than a straight follow-up to Diablo IV.

The first class reveal points to a lineup that pulls from familiar Diablo archetypes while also introducing new class ideas shaped by this harsher version of the world. Blizzard still isn’t saying much about the full roster, though, or about skill trees, progression, endgame roles, and which builds will end up defining party play, solo viability, and the meta.

Since launch is still a long way off, Blizzard will likely keep feeding out details bit by bit on gameplay systems, multiplayer, itemization, and where the story lands in the broader Diablo timeline. A lot of that will land under heavier scrutiny, too, given the reaction to Diablo IV’s live-service updates, seasonal content, and ongoing player feedback.

If you still keep up with Diablo, this early Diablo V reveal is one to keep an eye on. Just don’t expect anything to download yet, beyond that spring 2029 release window.

XChat, X’s standalone messaging app, has disappeared from the App Store and Google Play just a few months after its launch. The app launched as a separate extension of X’s direct messages, it was even presented as a replacement for that feature, although they have remained available in the main app, and now it has simply vanished. This is what we know.

XChat disappears from the two main app stores

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XChat Download

According to 9to5Mac, XChat disappeared first from the App Store and, shortly afterward, also from the Google Play Store. The removal, as far as we know, comes directly from the app’s developer, according to a source familiar with the situation, leaving Apple and Google out of the decision.

XChat launched earlier this year as a standalone version of X’s direct messages, a feature that has become more prominent on the platform. It offered one-on-one and group chats, disappearing messages and end-to-end encryption.

Everything points to a change in strategy

X has kept messaging inside its main application all this time, where even today we can still access our conversations. The disappearance of the dedicated XChat app, therefore, fits with a possible streamlining of the service, once again bringing everything back into one app and/or abandoning the possible plans to separate the social network from its messaging side.

If Elon Musk wanted to make X a superapp, one that offered all its services under a single umbrella, the disappearance of XChat makes sense. While we may be left wondering whether it made sense as a dedicated app in the first place, we’ll have to wait to see how the company’s plans evolve to learn more.