Month: November 2026

Apple faces Senate scrutiny: $25 million Trump ballroom pledge

After the 2026 midterms, Apple found itself under Senate scrutiny over a $25 million pledge to the planned “Donald J. Trump Ballroom,” a White House project tied to President Donald Trump and funneled through the Trust for the National Mall.

In the wake of the 2026 midterms, Senator Richard Blumenthal asked Apple, Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia, and other companies for voluntary disclosures about donations routed through the Trust for the National Mall for the planned “Donald J. Trump Ballroom.”

The reported total came to about $333 million. Apple and Nvidia led with $25 million each, Microsoft and Palantir pledged $10 million, and Amazon, Meta, and Cisco each put in $5 million.

Critics argue that money moving this way sits outside normal campaign-finance limits and disclosure rules, and Senate investigators are trying to figure out whether companies with business before the government were looking for influence.

Apple, for its part, is already dealing with antitrust pressure, App Store fights, trade questions, and supply-chain issues. Nvidia has its own exposure through export controls and chip policy.

Some observers have raised bribery-law concerns, although no formal allegations have been made. Apple has said its donation was lawful support for national institutions, while other companies either said little or declined to comment.

If you track Big Tech in Washington, this one deserves attention. Similar efforts in 2025 and 2026 went nowhere, but subpoenas could still be on the table once Democrats take control and Senator Richard Blumenthal begins chairing the investigations subcommittee in January 2027.

The push also extends to Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr over media decisions that Democrats say weakened press freedom, and Apple is left facing both reputational and legal risk.

The best noir comic turns 20 and celebrates it with a trailer for its Prime Video series that leaves us speechless

Twenty years ago the writer Ed Brubaker and the artist Sean Phillips joined forces to begin the best noir comic in history: Criminal. With five volumes so far adding up to 38 issues, an absolute critical and commercial success, a landmark title in comics, it will soon be coming to our TV screens. Because it’s going to be adapted into a Prime Video series. And now we’re getting a spectacular trailer.

The best noir comes to Prime Video

The trailer shows everything we need to know: a dark tone and a slight auteur streak that embraces the violence and the evident emotional weight of the comic. Split into two parts, the first will adapt the story “Coward” and will premiere on January 13 and will be directed by Anna Borden and Ryan K. Fleck. The second will adapt the story “Lawless” and will premiere on January 27 and will be directed by Dee Rees.

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What’s more, the cast is full of stars. Showing how much Prime Video believes in it. With Charlie Hunnam, Luke Evans, Adria Arjona and Richard Jenkins as part of the series, what’s undeniable is that the series is going to have a lot of acting talent behind it. Relying heavily on familiar faces to draw in the audience.

About the series, in the first part we’ll follow Leo Patterons and Ricky Lawless, who will have to face their past after a heist goes wrong. And in the second part we’ll follow Tracy Lawless, Ricky’s brother, who will have to return to a life of crime after leaving it behind to help his brother. Two stories that are a perfect way to begin 2027, whether you’ve read the comic or not.

GOG unexpectedly announces Anniversary Editions of seven classic EA games

On November 5 GOG held its first GOG Showcase. At the event they announced that the platform would bring its launcher, GOG Galaxy, to Mac and Linux, that they would introduce a social networking feature on the platform, and that they would start publishing games alongside Retrovibe. But what many people would find more important is the announcement of the re-release of Anniversary Editions of seven classic EA games: six titles from the Wing Commander franchise and Road Rash.

GOG Galaxy Download

EA bringing its past into the present

The two releases that have caused the biggest stir are Wing Commander 3, the most beloved title in the franchise and the one that would give rise to the extraordinary Star Citizen, and Road Rash, a motorcycle racing and action game that was extraordinarily popular in the 90s. But all of them have stood out because they’ve been recreated with high-resolution cinematic scenes after the original tapes used to film the games’ FMV scenes were found. This has made it possible to recreate the games in 4K, something impossible until now.

At the same time, another eighteen games are now available on Steam. Including classics like the entire Ultima franchise or Theme Hospital, these games were available on GOG and have been maintained over the years by the company, but they’re now also available on Valve’s store.

How long the Ultima franchise will remain in these stores is still unclear. Richard Garriot, creator of the franchise, announced last October that he will regain the rights to Ultima in 2027 and that he was in talks with EA about relaunching the games and developing new sequels. So it’s quite possible that this move is part of those talks with Garriot to bring the franchise up to date.

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Toei, the classic studio behind Godzilla and Kamen Rider, sets rules for the use of AI: “it is a tool for expanding the possibilities of expression”

Toei, the studio behind Godzilla, Power Rangers and Kamen Rider, has announced that it’s going to establish a series of specific rules on using AI. The comment came from the studio’s president and CEO, Yoshimura Fumio, during the Taiwan Creative Content Fest in Taipei during a conversation about the future of Kamen Rider and the use of AI at Toei.

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AI for all aspects of the company

Yoshimura has stated that “we’ve put rules in place for the use of generative AI, and this year we’ve started using AI in our film and video production” He added that “we’re already working on things like creating AI-generated backgrounds,” this second point being something that could cause quite a bit of controversy, being something many people may feel alienated by. Even as Yoshimura has stated that “I think AI isn’t something that’s going to take anyone’s job away, but rather a tool to expand the possibilities of expression and business”.

On that front, he has stated that, in fact, at Toei they’ve already started using AI to speed up some office tasks. Using AI to process data and handle internal requests, they want to expand its use to the overseeing merchandise design for their franchises. A use that in the past hasn’t always been as effective as it should be.

At the same time, Yoshimura has set a date for its debut as a video game publisher, coinciding with its 75th anniversary. We’ll see its first video game release in early 2027, called Hino, followed by Killa and Debug Nephemee, which are due in spring. Although Yoshimura hasn’t clarified whether they’ll also make use of AI in their video games.

MacBook Pro PROLED XDR reviews: this is what those who’ve already tried it think

With the introduction of the new MacBook Pro PROLED XDR, Apple has refreshed its most professional laptop with a touch OLED display and a lighter design. Today the first units are arriving and the first reviews are being published. The first analyses especially highlight the quality of the display and the improved portability, let’s see what those who’ve already tried this laptop have to say.

A touch display designed for times when tapping is easier than clicking

David Pierce, from The Verge, values the touchscreen a lot, since it completely changes how you interact with it, for example when working with the Photos app. Kyle Barr, from Gizmodo, agrees and highlights its usefulness when we use iPhone Mirroring, since we get a touch phone directly on the Mac’s screen.

Adobe Photoshop Download

Luke Larsen, from WIRED, however, still prefers the trackpad for working. In most reviews, the touch panel is seen as a very handy addition for certain tasks, but not for all of them. While macOS keeps adapting to this interaction, it doesn’t lose sight of its focus on keyboard-and-trackpad use.

And a PROLED XDER display that impresses at first glance

Chris Welch, from Bloomberg, praises the brightness, the contrast, and the uniformity of the tandem OLED panel. Timothy Beck Werth, from Mashable, joins in, highlighting the depth of its blacks and the intensity of its colors. Without a doubt, PROLED XDR technology makes a noticeable difference compared with previous generations.

Jason Snell, from Six Colors, also takes a look at the Dynamic Island, which brings together playback controls and Live Activities. Because you can touch it, we’re looking at an interaction very similar to what you get on an iPhone.

Lighter and with several notable upgrades

Chance Miller, from 9to5Mac, highlights the lower weight of the 16-inch model. Other reviews point out the speakers’ bass.

Taken together, these are very positive reviews. As expected, since with this generation Apple delivers a well-rounded upgrade to its top-end laptop.

How to get the most out of Adobe Firefly’s free daily generations

Create a free Adobe Firefly account and Adobe will give you free daily generations to use on image, video, and audio creations. If all you want is to try Adobe’s AI and see how it feels, that’s the simplest way in. With a free account, you can use those daily generations to make and edit images, videos, and audio.

So what do those free generations actually cover? And how do you use them without wasting them on throwaway tests? Here’s the practical version.

Adobe Firefly Try now

What are Adobe Firefly’s free generations?

Every time you ask Adobe Firefly to create something, it counts as one generation. Even without a paid plan, Adobe still gives you a limited number of free daily generations across several models, including Firefly, Gemini, and more.

  • Your daily generations reset each day, so unused generations don’t carry over.
  • Your daily allowance can vary depending on the model and the type of generation, with image, video, and audio generations having different limits. You also don’t have to install anything. Firefly runs in your browser, on your phone, and in the official iOS and Android app.

To use those free generations, here’s what to do:

  • Go to the Adobe Firefly page and sign in with your account. If you don’t have one yet, you can set one up for free in a few minutes.
  • Choose what you want to generate. Pick Image for images, Video for videos, or Audio for audio. You can write prompts in more than 100 languages, including English and Spanish.

How to easily generate images with Adobe Firefly

If you’re starting with images, the quickest option is Text to Image. The process is pretty straightforward:

  • Once you’re in Adobe Firefly, choose Image, then click Generate Image.
  • Open the drop-down menu and select the generative model you want. Adobe Firefly Image 5 is trained on licensed and public domain content, and safe for commercial use.
  • Write your prompt, and make it specific. Adobe Firefly gives you up to 750 characters.
  • Since you only get a limited number of generations, check your settings before you generate anything.
  • Click Generate, then download the version you like best in PNG format. With Adobe Firefly’s limited number of free generations, a well-defined prompt can help you get closer to the result you want on the first try. Include details like what’s in the image, where the scene happens, the style, the lighting, the colors, and the framing.

How to edit images with Adobe Firefly

Adobe Firefly doesn’t only make images from scratch. You can use it to edit images you already have, and it doesn’t take long.

  • To begin, click Image and choose Edit image. Then upload your photo. You can upload JPG, PNG, or WEBP images up to 100 MB, with a minimum resolution of 512 × 512 pixels.
  • Describe the changes you want. As with image generation, more detail usually gets you a better result. Firefly also includes a few tools that are more direct and don’t ask for a written prompt at all. One is Retouch and Remove, which lets you paint over part of an image to erase an object. Another is Crop and Expand, which lets you extend the edges of the image.

How to generate videos with Adobe Firefly

With Text to Video, you describe a scene and Adobe Firefly turns it into a short clip. It’s a simple way to make video assets, build clips for social media, or just visualize an idea.

  • Start by selecting Video, then click Generate video.
  • Then choose the generative model. With a free account, you can pick between Firefly Video, which is Adobe’s own model, and other top partner models.
  • After that, write your prompt and explain clearly what you want to see.
  • Before you go further, set the format correctly. If the video is for YouTube, choose Widescreen (16:9). If it’s for TikTok, Reels, or something similar, you’ll want Vertical (9:16). You can also choose the duration, although that depends on the model you picked at the start.
  • Last step: click Generate and download the result.

How to get the most out of Adobe Firefly’s free generations

Adobe doesn’t spell out exactly how many generations you get each day, so it’s smart to be selective. A few simple habits can help you get more out of your daily generations:

  • Write clear, specific prompts before you generate.
  • Check your settings and format before creating an image, video, or audio.
  • Use Firefly‘s editing tools to refine an image rather than starting from scratch when a targeted change is all you need.

Since your generations reset daily, you can also spread your experiments across several days: try image generation one day, explore editing the next, and experiment with video or audio when you’re ready.

Adobe Firefly Try now

Henry Cavill’s Mustache Protocol launches this month for men’s health

Henry Cavill and Google have unveiled Mustache Protocol, a retro 2D side-scroller tied to Movember. Based on what both Google and Cavill have said so far, it’s due out this month, and every play will trigger an $11 donation to men’s charities focused on mental health, suicide prevention, and cancer research. Donations are capped at $500,000.

Steam Download

The game showed up in the first of three planned videos from Google and Cavill, so more details should follow soon. For now, Google is selling it as a bright, old-school throwback built with a Googlebook and Google’s own development tools, with the pitch centered on making game development feel approachable rather than overly technical.

And the footage is pretty committed to the bit.

Cavill is the hero, swinging an electrified mustache comb as his weapon, while anthropomorphic pixel versions of his dogs, Cal and Baggins, show up alongside him. The chunky visuals lean hard into cartoon silliness, which is a sharp turn from the fantasy and sci-fi roles people usually connect with him.

If you’re in the mood for a charity tie-in that’s light, goofy, and still built around a fundraising setup that actually does something useful, this one seems worth checking out.

It’s still slated for sometime this month, but Google and Cavill haven’t said where you’ll be able to play it, and they also haven’t clarified whether qualifying plays will be capped before the other two videos are released.

Democrats could reshape AI in the US after the midterms: data centers go mainstream

In the 2026 U.S. midterms, Democrats took the U.S. Senate 54 to 44. That result pulled the fight over data-center growth and regulation out of policy circles and into the middle of national politics, turning data centers into a voter issue alongside the economy, immigration, and healthcare.

ChatGPT Download

A number of winning Democrats in fast-growing states campaigned on stricter oversight of data-center power use, water use, utility bills, drought pressure, and day-to-day quality-of-life effects. James Talarico framed it as “pro-growth and pro-people”: welcome the investment, yes, but protect workers and local communities rather than let expansion run unchecked.

You can see the backlash in the numbers. Forecasts say data-center power demand could rise 11-fold between 2023 and 2030, hit 12% of total U.S. electricity use by 2028, and push water consumption from roughly 175 billion liters in 2023 to more than triple that by 2030. Talarico also told CNBC that the issue taps into broader frustration over living costs, corruption, weak oversight of tech, distrust in government, and Texas serving as the “epicenter.”

For people living near a proposed or active data-center site, this political shift matters. Residents talk about noise and heat. Supporters point to construction work, jobs, and tax revenue. Critics counter that many of those jobs are temporary, long-term staffing levels are fairly small, and public incentives can end up moving the costs elsewhere. Voters and local officials are already pushing for bans, moratoriums, paid infrastructure upgrades, and more sustainable cooling methods. Meanwhile, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, or FERC, is reviewing interconnection rules, the Environmental Protection Agency, or EPA, still has no national standards in place, and the fight remains largely local.

The political turn also gives fresh context to our video on ChatGPT, where the headline alone points to how fast the AI conversation has moved from a consumer product to a broader policy fight. What was once framed as a software story is now colliding with power grids, water use and local backlash, which is why the debate around data centers feels so much bigger than a single tech rollout.

BlueFlag Security’s 2026 report: 99% of repository tokens never expire

BlueFlag Security just published its 2026 report on token sprawl, excessive repository access, and coding-agent risk, and the numbers are rough. Non-human identities now outnumber developers 8:1. BlueFlag says 99% of tokens never expire, 84% can change code, and 47% sat unused for 90 days. Developers also left 61% of permissions unused, 88% of the most over-permissioned identities could still reach business-critical repositories, and four in five organizations still had inactive admin developers.

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Then there’s the coding-agent piece. The report says a typical organization now uses seven assistants, and some are running more than 30.

That comes with its own mess: 83% had unapproved agents, 68% of their accounts were admins, and 81% had no monitoring in place. BlueFlag also found 28.65 million hardcoded secrets in public GitHub commits in 2025, up 34%. Coding-service leaks rose 81%. And 64% of credentials validated in 2022 were still active in January 2026. On top of that, six code generators made the wrong security call 47% of the time unless they were given explicit security rules.

If you manage repositories, automation, or contractors, this report is one to pull and act on: review access, enforce least privilege, cap token lifetimes, revoke or rotate exposed credentials, limit access tokens, move automation to GitHub Apps or OpenID Connect (OIDC), and apply Zero Trust. Attackers are already going after coding-tool tokens, and the fallout can be remote code execution or straight data theft.

The full BlueFlag Security report is available here.

Google Earth now has a new Play Store icon: subtler and more modern

Google Earth has picked up a new icon on Google Play, giving Google’s mapping app a softer look with a heavier gradient treatment.

Google Earth Download

The basic shape is still there: a circle, along with the familiar linework that hints at the planet. But the updated design tones down some of the wavy lines and leans more into a lavender-blue to bright blue gradient, which gives it a cleaner, more current look.

If you use Google Earth often, you’ll probably notice it, though it hasn’t shown up everywhere yet.

Right now, the new icon is visible in the Google Play Store and on the Google Earth Engine website. The main Google Earth site and the installed Google Earth app icon still use the older version, which makes it look like a broader rollout is still on the way.

The change also lines up with Google’s wider shift toward brighter, gradient-based icons. You can see that across the Google app, Google Workspace, Google Contacts, Phone by Google, and Google Messages.

Google Earth may not get as much attention these days, but Google is still updating it with new data layers and a wider rollout of its built-in flight simulator. Google Earth Pro, meanwhile, has been discontinued by Google.

You can download Google Earth on Android through Google Play, and the web version is also available on Google Earth online.