Author: Gerard Patrick Cadiang

Roblox is facing a bipartisan U.S. Senate investigation over child safety. In a letter, the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism told the company to preserve child-safety records and hand over documents by August 31, 2026. The request followed a probe launched by Sens. Josh Hawley and Dick Durbin into claims that minors were exposed to NSFW content, groomed, and lured into dangerous in-person meetings while Roblox put growth and revenue ahead of protecting them.

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The subcommittee’s letter says the problem may go well beyond a few isolated cases. It points to alleged trading of child sexual abuse material and to predators using Roblox’s social and chat features on a platform with more than 100 million daily users. Many of those users are under 13, according to the letter, and some are as young as five.

Roblox says it sent 65,381 suspected child-exploitation reports to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, or NCMEC, in 2025, more than double the 2024 figure. That doesn’t, by itself, prove misconduct, but it does point to a larger moderation problem. Roblox safety chief Matt Kaufman says the platform is “built on the foundation of safety,” citing parental controls, facial-scan or ID-based age checks, and tighter chat limits. Critics still question whether those measures go far enough.

If your kids use Roblox, keep an eye on this. The platform is still available, but lawsuits in Texas, Louisiana, Florida, and Kentucky, along with a May 2026 Federal Trade Commission complaint from Fairplay and the National Center on Sexual Exploitation, are adding pressure on Roblox to show that it’s actually safe.

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Google Photos on Android just got an update that fixes the drag-to-select bug that had been stopping some people from selecting multiple photos, and the rollout is already live on the Google Play Store.

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Google says this wasn’t an intentional change, just a bug. You could still kick off multi-select in Google Photos with a long press, but once you tried dragging across the grid, the app would often scroll through your library instead of highlighting more items. Cleaning up photos turned into a tedious tap-by-tap chore.

If you’re on a Google Pixel, Samsung, or OnePlus phone, you weren’t the only one seeing it. Reports popped up across forums and social media in late July and early August 2026, and it quickly became clear this was a Google Photos problem. As people compared what was happening on their phones, some even found out for the first time that Google Photos lets you bulk-select images by dragging.

If you regularly delete screenshots, sort pictures into albums, or archive older images, this is the kind of small fix that makes a real difference. For plenty of users, it’ll probably feel more useful than this year’s desktop backup changes or newer additions like Ask Photos and Moods.

You can grab the latest Google Photos update for Android now from the Google Play Store.

ADAC, TÜV, and Vincentric have all published fresh 2026 data on EV reliability and ownership costs. The picture is getting clearer: electric cars are proving more dependable, and the owner results cited across those reports suggest most people who bought one would do it again.

Part of that comes down to the hardware. EVs have fewer moving parts, no oil changes, fewer fluids, and less mechanical complexity overall. ADAC says they now break down less often than gas and diesel cars. Even so, the model-by-model numbers still leave some holes, and the strongest signals in ADAC’s data seem to point to the Tesla Model 3, Nissan Leaf, and Hyundai Kona Electric.

Battery life looks better than a lot of early skeptics thought it would. The latest EV figures in those reports put degradation at roughly 1.5% to 2% per year, with most packs still holding more than 80% of their capacity after 10 years. That makes used EVs a lot easier to evaluate, though newer battery chemistries and cars living in extreme climates still need more time and more data.

If you’re shopping for an EV in 2026, don’t fixate on the battery alone. Software, infotainment, driver-assistance systems, brakes, and suspension matter just as much now. The 2026 ADAC, TÜV, and Vincentric reports show why: over-the-air updates can improve a car, but they can also create problems; TÜV gives the Audi Q4 e-tron and Fiat 500e low defect ratings; the Tesla Model Y does worse in TÜV’s data on brakes and suspension; and Vincentric finds that 44% of EVs cost less to own over five years, even after depreciation. Judge the individual model, not the badge on the hood.

The full ADAC, TÜV, and Vincentric findings are available in their latest reports.

Round8 Studio says Lies of P 2 has entered full-scale development. That puts real pressure on the sequel, because the first game didn’t just land well, it became a commercial and critical hit. Narrative director Kwon Byungsoo calls Lies of P the team’s “starting point,” and says the goal is to go much further this time, not just put out a smaller follow-up.

The expectations are easy to understand. Lies of P sold more than 1 million copies in its first month, then climbed past 4 million by March 2026. People praised the combat, the visual design, and its darker take on Pinocchio. It also picked up Game Awards nominations for Best RPG and Best Art Direction. Kwon Byungsoo says that kind of success leaves Round8 Studio feeling like it has to “do even better next time.”

The sequel is being built in Unreal Engine 5. Art lead Cha Byungjun says the team wants to shut out the outside pressure and get back to the mindset that shaped Lies of P. If you liked the first game, this is one to watch. The earlier reported 2026 target now looks like it may have slipped, and while fans keep coming back to Lies of P’s post-credits Wizard of Oz tease, Round8 Studio still hasn’t confirmed the story direction or a release date.

Recent Android Canary builds have turned up something Android has long been missing: a native app lock. So far, this is the clearest sign that Google is working on a system-level way to protect individual apps in Android. Code found in the Canary builds points to an Android 17 rollout in the second half of 2026, with ways to lock messaging, banking behind a PIN, password, or biometrics. There are also signs of multi-app locking, plus the ability to hide notification content.

That matters because Android users currently have to lean on manufacturer tools or third-party app lockers. Those can depend on overlays or accessibility access, and they’ve taken heat for weak protection, ads, and privacy concerns. A version built by Google and tied directly into Android’s security layer should be more dependable and feel less patched together.

If you regularly hand your phone to family, friends, or children, this native app lock feature is one to watch. It would also be easier than Private Space, since you wouldn’t have to move apps into a separate protected area just to keep them locked down.

Google’s native app lock could be especially helpful in places where phone sharing is common, including India. What’s still unclear is how it will fit alongside similar tools from Samsung, Xiaomi, and OnePlus, or whether every Android 17 device and every region will get it at launch.

For now, the only signs of Google’s native app lock feature are showing up in Android Canary builds.

Netflix’s lineup for August 3 through 9 puts two of the month’s biggest originals front and center this week: The Last House and My Life with the Walter Boys season 3.

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The Last House premieres August 7. Greta Lee and Wagner Moura play parents who’ve been supernaturally sealed inside their home for years, and Louis Leterrier, coming off Fast X, directs. From the look of it, this leans more toward an atmospheric psychological thriller about isolation, fear, and a family coming apart than straight-up gore.

My Life with the Walter Boys season 3 lands August 6 and drops viewers back into Jackie’s love triangle. The show made Netflix’s Top 10 in 88 countries and has already been renewed through season 4, which says a lot about where it sits in the service’s YA lineup. It’s also part of a broader push toward exclusives, rather than relying too heavily on licensed shows that eventually disappear.

You can see that same strategy across Netflix’s bigger August 2026 slate, too. There’s a mix of originals, familiar brands connected to Fast & Furious and Chucky, live sports, and, starting August 3, short-form lifestyle videos in several English-speaking markets.

If you’re looking for the titles people will actually be talking about, this week gives you two clear picks. Go with The Last House if you want something dark and claustrophobic, or line up My Life with the Walter Boys if you’re in the mood for romantic drama. Both are streaming on Netflix.

Nintendo laid out its Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2 strategy in July 2026, and Shigeru Miyamoto put it pretty plainly in Famitsu: the “best” outcome isn’t a clean generational reset. It’s a household with more than one Nintendo console in play, an original Nintendo Switch next to a Nintendo Switch 2.

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That gives you a pretty clear read on what Nintendo is aiming for. The company is leaning into families and enthusiasts using different systems for different roles. The hybrid Nintendo Switch design points that way. So does the Nintendo Switch Online Family Plan. So does Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa’s 2020 note that about 20% of Nintendo Switch sales from October to December 2020 went to households that already owned one. Taken together, it looks like a layered platform.

Miyamoto’s joking lines in the Famitsu interview about living with “minimal effort” and “without having to work” were really getting at development strain. If generations overlap, teams can build for a wider installed base with less friction. They get better continuity, too, and a bigger day-one audience. If you use Nintendo Switch regularly, that part is worth watching.

You can read the interview in Famitsu, but the practical takeaway is straightforward: backward compatibility for original Nintendo Switch physical and digital games, along with existing Nintendo Switch controllers. That also reinforces Miyamoto’s view that distinctive play matters more than raw specs. The Nintendo Switch has lasted nearly nine years, which makes the point pretty well on its own. Meanwhile, reports put Nintendo Switch 2 at 17.37 million units by December 2025, with forecasts of 15 to 17 million in 2025 and more than 80 million by 2028.