Author: Mark Conrad Pinton

New reports say The Batman Part II, Matt Reeves’ follow-up to The Batman, has cast Sebastian Stan as Harvey Dent. That seems to put the earlier Victor Zsasz rumors to bed, since Stan had previously been linked to that role instead.

Those same reports also say Stan confirmed the casting himself. Bringing Harvey Dent into Reeves’ Gotham as district attorney, one of Batman’s best-known allies who later becomes an enemy, tracks with the grounded, corruption-heavy world the first film built, even if any eventual Two-Face arc is still just speculation from fans at this point.

And for people who’ve been watching this sequel closely, the other big piece of news is that it finally seems to be moving again. After slipping from October 2025 because of the 2023 Hollywood strikes and an extended writing process, The Batman Part II now appears to be back on course. Reeves is back to direct and co-write with Mattson Tomlin, filming is reportedly underway in Glasgow, Scotland, and there have already been Batmobile sightings around the area. Robert Pattinson, Jeffrey Wright, and Andy Serkis are all said to be returning, while Scarlett Johansson, Charles Dance, and Brian Tyree Henry have been reported in undisclosed and still unconfirmed roles. A few unverified rumors have even linked some of them to Harvey Dent’s family.

The Batman Part II is set to hit theaters on February 18, 2028.

The Pokémon DNS trick is back in the conversation, mostly because fans never really let it die. After Nintendo shut down the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection service in 2014 and official Mystery Gift access disappeared, players figured out they could still reach archived Mystery Gift events without touching the system clock. Point a Nintendo DS or Nintendo 3DS to a fan-run DNS or replacement server, and you can receive preserved distributions in Pokémon Diamond, Pokémon Pearl, Pokémon Platinum, Pokémon HeartGold, Pokémon SoulSilver, Pokémon Black, Pokémon White, Pokémon Black 2, and Pokémon White 2.

Depending on the fan-run server you’re using, you may be able to add event Pokémon and items like Mew, Celebi, and Arceus to your Pokédex. If you missed those promotions back then, it’s an easy workaround to at least try.

This isn’t the same thing as the modern time-travel tricks people use in Pokémon Sword and Shield or Pokémon Scarlet and Violet. In those games, changing the clock can affect raids or outbreaks, but it can’t bring expired online events back. Here, you’re connecting to preserved event data instead, even if some collectors still argue over whether that makes the results merely legal rather than truly legit. You set the workaround up on a Nintendo DS or Nintendo 3DS, but you’ll usually need older Wi‑Fi security like WEP or an open hotspot, which is part of why the trick still feels niche.

Rideshare Simulator’s Steam page has been updated with a much more detailed AI disclosure. That change follows former lead writer Stella Sacco’s August 11, 2026 statement that she had, in effect, been replaced by ChatGPT. The new disclosure says generative tools were used for voice generation, some of the in-game radio music, parts of localization, and passenger mission generation in the optional Free Ride mode.

ChatGPT Download

Saber Interactive still draws a line around the main campaign. The studio says the core story was made by people, not AI: human writers handled the main plot, the characters, and the dialogue. According to the disclosure, AI was used only for supplementary, procedural, or repeatable material.

Sacco’s August 11 statement also argued that the Steam page hadn’t clearly disclosed AI passenger voices under Valve’s transparency rules. The updated language on Steam doesn’t go so far as to confirm her account outright. Still, it says a lot more than Saber Interactive’s earlier denial did.

And that’s really where this story sits now: transparency. If you care about how Steam deals with AI disclosure, this update matters. Valve requires developers to tell players when generative systems are used to shape assets or in-game content, and critics say players weren’t clearly told that from the start.

The backlash picked up even more after Saber Interactive CEO Matthew Karch brushed Sacco aside, said she had been replaced by “someone more talented,” and added that he would’ve been happy to replace her with AI. At that point, this stopped looking like a dispute over one game’s credits and started feeding into the larger industry fight over how much automation game development is supposed to accept.

You can read the updated disclosure on Steam.

Steam Download

Google TV Freeplay, Google’s free streaming section inside Google TV, just got a bigger upgrade in the US. It now includes more than 10,000 free on-demand movies and TV shows, added on top of the live channels that were already there.

That changes the feel of Freeplay quite a bit. Up to now, it leaned mostly on channels. Now there’s a much larger library you can watch without a subscription. Google says the catalog comes through partners such as A24 and Lionsgate, with movies and shows including Lady Bird, Seventeen Again, and Hell’s Kitchen. Google’s also splitting things more clearly with new “Live TV” and “Free movies & shows” tabs, so the two sections don’t blur together.

Google says Google TV now has more than 300 free live channels. Back in December 2025, that number was closer to 250. The update also fits with the broader shift Google started in 2024, when it moved from simply offering free channels to calling the service Google TV Freeplay, part of a bigger push into the FAST market.

If you already use Google TV and just want something free to watch without installing another app, this update makes the platform a lot more useful. Freeplay still trails the bigger free streaming players, though. Tubi says it has more than 40,000 titles, and Roku says The Roku Channel has 80,000.

It’s available now on Google TV devices in the United States. Google still hasn’t said anything about an international rollout.

Several outlets are now saying Netflix’s The Witcher season 5 may have slipped out of 2026 and into 2027. What’s on Netflix reports that the final season no longer appears in Netflix’s public 2026 promotional materials. Netflix still hasn’t confirmed a new date, so for now, 2027 should be treated as a reported window, not an official one.

Netflix Download

Reports from outlets that cover the series also say seasons 4 and 5 were filmed back to back and wrapped in September 2025. That makes this look less like a filming problem and more like a post-production or scheduling delay. That matters because season 5 is supposed to wrap up the main Geralt story during the war.

If you’ve been keeping up with The Witcher, this news lands in a pretty shaky moment for the show. Season 4 reportedly had trouble with both critics and audiences, including a 59% Rotten Tomatoes critic score and a 19% Rotten Tomatoes audience score. Some viewers also said the lore had become hard to follow, and Liam Hemsworth replacing Henry Cavill is still a divisive change among fans.

The longer gap also adds pressure to the spin-offs, including The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep and The Rats: A Witcher Tale, especially after The Witcher: Blood Origin was poorly received.

Whenever it arrives, season 5 will be on Netflix.

Tony Scott’s 2004 Man on Fire is having an unexpected 2026 revival. Netflix’s new Man on Fire series premiered on April 30, climbed to No. 1 on Netflix, and racked up 11 million views in its first four days, according to Netflix.

Netflix Download

That spike is sending people back to Scott’s 2004 film, the same one critics tagged with a 39% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 47/100 on Metacritic. Audiences saw it differently then and still do now: it earned an A- CinemaScore, and it currently holds an 89% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.

The bigger change is how the movie lands today. The old debate over it as a divisive mid-2000s thriller has cooled off, and what’s left feels a lot closer to a cult classic.

Denzel Washington’s John Creasy is still the movie’s emotional center, and if you’re finding Man on Fire through the new Netflix series, it’s well worth your time. It also was never a flop. The film made $130 million worldwide against a $60 million to $70 million budget, then pulled in another $123 million from DVD and VHS sales and rentals.

The things Tony Scott took heat for at the time, the cross-processing, the shifting frame rates, the hard cuts, the saturated color, now read more like an auteur’s signature than a liability. Nostalgia has helped too, especially after Denzel Washington and Dakota Fanning reunited in The Equalizer 3.

The movie is adapted from A.J. Quinnell’s 1980 novel and came after the 1987 Scott Glenn version. If you want to watch it now, Tony Scott’s Man on Fire is streaming on services including Netflix and Starz, while the new Man on Fire series is on Netflix.

JustWatch Download

MasterCraft says Android Auto will come factory-installed on Crest and Balise production boats, starting with select 2027 Conquest and Caribbean models. Apple CarPlay is included too, along with on-water navigation.

Android Auto Download

The company says Crest and Balise are the first boat brands to offer factory-installed Android Auto and Apple CarPlay with marine navigation built in. The draw is pretty clear: a helm that feels a lot more familiar for navigation, music, calls, and messages, rather than the patchwork marine interfaces boaters often end up dealing with.

The navigation side runs through Savvy Navvy. That adds nautical charts, smart route planning, GPS tracking, live weather, and tidal data. Balise boats come with a one-year premium subscription, while Crest boats get one month. This is more than basic phone mirroring, and it fits boating a lot better than a straight carryover from the driving experience.

If you’re in the market for a new boat, this setup looks like something to watch. Aftermarket marine units have supported Android Auto and CarPlay for years, but having major production brands roll it out from the factory could make advanced helm systems feel a lot less intimidating. There are still some missing details, including pricing, display hardware, and how or when this will expand internationally.

It arrives on those select 2027 models as the marine electronics market is projected to grow from $6.77 billion in 2024 to more than $13 billion by 2034. Forecasts for the smart-boat market point the same way, rising from $40.6 billion in 2023 to $80.6 billion by 2033.

DuckDuckGo says its July iOS browser update for iPhone adds Copy Clean Link, a small privacy feature that strips tracking identifiers out of links before you copy and share them.

On iPhone, you trigger it by pressing and holding the address bar in DuckDuckGo’s browser. From there, you can copy a cleaned-up version of the current URL instead of the full one. The result is a shorter link that’s easier to read and less likely to carry tracking data into a text, an eMail, or a social post. DuckDuckGo says Copy Clean Link removes common link-decoration tags, including Meta’s fbclid, Google’s gclid, Microsoft’s msclkid, and UTM parameters. Apple’s WebKit team has described those parameters as one way trackers can establish identity across sites.

What this really changes is sharing. It doesn’t stop all tracking, because any data collection that happens when the page loads may have already happened by the time you copy the link. Copy Clean Link also doesn’t block cookies, scripts, or fingerprinting. And some parameters do have a real purpose, for things like logins, saved searches, language settings, or attribution. Still, privacy advocates say stripping them out can matter, especially if you’re dealing with sensitive information.

If you already use DuckDuckGo on your iPhone, this is a useful update to install. Similar tools are already available in Brave and Firefox, and Apple has its own Link Tracking Protection in Messages, Mail, and Safari Private Browsing. The broader privacy mood matters here too: 73% of U.S. adults feel they have little control over data collection, and 75% of consumers say they won’t buy from companies they don’t trust with their data. The feature is available now in DuckDuckGo’s July iOS browser update.