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The Trump administration has asked the Supreme Court to lift a temporary block on the U.S. Postal Service plan for President Trump's attempt to restrict mail-in voting for the midterm election.

(Image credit: Justin Sullivan)

The 5.3-inch Enough Phone promises Android 17, a removable battery and microSD storage, but the compact smartphone still faces a difficult path to launch.

The post Enough Phone Brings Back the Removable Battery in a Tiny Android Body appeared first on TechRepublic.

IBM Ventures backs BQP as its BQPhy software aims to accelerate enterprise engineering workloads using existing GPU and HPC infrastructure.

The post IBM Ventures Backs BQP to Bring Quantum-Inspired Computing to Enterprises appeared first on TechRepublic.

With $70 million of investment from companies including Qualcomm, the smart ring-maker is planning its next-gen AI wearables.

Acer’s DualPlay Mini combines gaming controls with a physical keyboard, but can the 8-inch handheld replace a travel laptop for everyday work?

The post Acer DualPlay Mini: Can a Gaming Handheld Replace Your Laptop? appeared first on TechRepublic.

ChatGPT can’t climb mountains, but it can give you bad advice on how to do it.

Women in politics and pop culture are paying tribute to Gloria Steinem after her death at 92. Many called her not only an inspiration but a friend.

(Image credit: Monica Schipper)

The US government backs OpenAI and Microsoft in a major copyright fight, arguing AI training is fair use and important to national security.

The post OpenAI Gets US Government Backing in Major AI Copyright Fight appeared first on TechRepublic.

No official cause for the multiple outages has yet been revealed.

China removed 5.6 million pieces of AI-related content as regulators tighten rules for AI models, online platforms, labeling and app stores.

The post China’s AI Crackdown Removes 5.6 Million Pieces of Content appeared first on TechRepublic.

"This I Believe" essay, Gloria Steinem wrote: "I believe that a unique core self is born into every human being — the result of millennia of environment and heredity combined in an unpredictable way that could never happen before or again." Steinem died Wednesday at the age of 92. She's pictured above in 2022.'/>

In 2015, the trailblazing feminist told Fresh Air she that had entered a new phase in life, one in which "you can do what you want." Steinem died Sept. 2 at the age of 92.

(Image credit: John Lamparski)

I compared six leading platforms for B2B revenue teams based on prospecting, CRM, sales engagement, pipeline management, automation, analytics, pricing, and overall fit.

The post Best Direct Sales Software for Revenue Teams in 2026 appeared first on TechRepublic.

The charges represent a rare moment of the Justice Department seeking to hold immigration officers accountable.

(Image credit: Michael Gonzalez)

Fox News suddently announced it had cut ties with anchor Maria Bartiromo after more than a dozen years.

(Image credit: Paul Morigi/Getty Images)

The new model comes with a staggered rollout and strict cybersecurity protections.

Persona 4 was my belated introduction to Atlus's Japanese high school RPG series, so it still has a special place in my heart.

The PlayStation 2 original was, however, also usurped by the greatly expanded and far superior Persona 4 Golden, which is where I racked up my New Game+ playthroughs. Even as I have become more time-poor over the years, I would still dip into its subsequent post-Vita ports.

That does, however, present a problem for Persona 4 Revival. When a perfect expanded version of the game already exists and is available on all current platforms, is a $70 modern remake really needed?

The elephant in the room is that this is also a way for Sega to plug the gap for the long-anticipated Persona 6, though given that it was only given the briefest announcement this year, fans will likely have a much longer wait ahead.

But after about an hour of hands-on time with Persona 4 Revival at Gamescom 2026, I can appreciate the different touches that have gone into making this JRPG classic more palatable to modern audiences, while still preserving key elements of the original.

One more remake

(Image credit: Sega)

Persona 4 Revival's hands-on demo was split into three parts: the first focused on story, the second on its dungeon-based battles, and the last let me choose how to spend several calendar days as a transfer high school student in the rural town of Inaba.

As a remake, it follows a similar approach to Persona 3 Reload. Character models aren't just a huge visual upgrade over their original lower-poly PS2 counterparts; they're even better than Persona 5's and look virtually on par with the character portraits that typically accompany dialogue boxes. Turn-based battles, meanwhile, have been updated to mirror Persona 5's control scheme, where commands are mapped to different buttons rather than scrolling up and down a menu.

Just like Persona 3 Reload, Persona 4 Revival has also updated its audio with a completely new voice cast and a re-recorded soundtrack, including at least one or two brand-new songs. I don't mind so much the decision to recast the roles, especially as several of the original voice actors have become much higher profile (including Troy Baker, Laura Bailey, and Yuri Lowenthal).

Still, the voice of Teddy takes time to get used to because while some may have found his original voice a tad annoying, now he just sounds a bit too much like another teenager rather than a mysterious being inside a mascot suit.

(Image credit: Sega)

From what I played, the story seems to unfold virtually beat-for-beat in line with the original. I think that's fine, and given how long the game already was, the script really doesn't need fleshing out in the same way as the Final Fantasy 7 Remake series, for example. But there are still some interesting changes within that.

The most notable is the more interesting camerawork going on, including close-ups, that make extensive cutscenes more engaging to sit through instead of just lengthy dialogue you might be inclined to skip if you can read faster than the characters speak.

The script itself has also undergone some subtle adjustments in the localization process. It might seem very minor, but I picked up on how Yosuke now addresses the other female students like Chie and Yukiko more formally by their family names, which is closer to how real-life Japanese classmates who aren't close friends behave.

I'm still intrigued by how and to what extent Yosuke's character is updated in Persona 4 Revival, as in the original, he behaves like a creep and is pretty insensitive at times. Given there's a moment in the story demo where he gets annoyed with Teddy and pushes him over, my guess is P Studio is still retaining at least some of the more abrasive side of his personality.

Holding on to the past

(Image credit: Sega)

Persona 4 Revival's visual upgrades apply to the environments too. With a completely free-looking 3D camera, you can appreciate more of the details in the Dojima household, while in the Twisted Shopping District, you can look up and see the strange red and black vortex instead of a sky that indicates you're in the Midnight Channel's parallel dimension.

Nonetheless, the places you go to are still very much as I remember them. Rooms are still separated by loading screens; Inaba's main commercial district has the same businesses, including the item shop that turns into a bar at night. That's also fine for me, as I don't think it would necessarily benefit the game to suddenly expand the real estate.

While seemingly still randomly generated rather than having the bespoke design of Persona 5's palaces, the dungeons you explore have nonetheless been adjusted to be a little less tedious, from having objects you can break to gather resources to a subtle wayfinder if you just want to get to the next floor ASAP. Ironically, I took this as a cue to go the other direction to explore more of the map.

(Image credit: Sega)

When encountering enemy shadows on the map, the game even clearly indicates whether you've got the drop on them to get a pre-emptive attack. Failing that, Persona 4 Revival also adds the ability to guard against a shadow's attack so that you're less likely to start a turn-based battle at a disadvantage.

During battle, the Baton Pass mechanic has also been passed down from Persona 5 and Persona 3 Reload, which allows you to attack again if you've hit an enemy with their weakness, but pass that turn onto another party member who may have the right attack to exploit a different enemy's weakness.

But whereas Persona 3 Reload was criticized for not being a truly definitive remake, given the lack of an option for a female protagonist like in Persona 3 Portable, Persona 4 Revival at least is confirmed specifically as a remake of Persona 4 Golden. That means it will include that expanded version's additional story content, such as Marie, the mysterious and temperamental guest in the Velvet Room.

(Image credit: Sega)

Despite those smart updates, I'm still curious why some other elements have been left untouched. For instance, character portraits were used prominently in JRPGs as they were more expressive than in-game models. But when Persona 4 Revival's character models are better animated and expressive, having these portraits seems arbitrary.

Similarly, when you knock down all enemies and trigger an all-out attack, Persona 4 would originally cover the enemies in a cartoon cloud for comical effect, yet the remake opts to keep this visual despite also having party members running in to perform a lot of flashier animations alongside it.

There might be some nostalgic charm to retaining these conventions, but it also feels unnecessary in the context of a modern remake. Similarly, once my hands-on time was up, I came away impressed with what I had played, yet still not convinced why I would drop $70 on it when Persona 4 Golden is right there for a fraction of the price.

Persona 4 Revival releases on February 18, 2027, on Xbox Series X and Series S, PlayStation 5, and PC.

The Ig Nobel Prizes were awarded this week for humorous yet thought-provoking research. This year, the ceremony came with a twist.

(Image credit: Robert F. Bukaty)

• A Japanese laptop maker has come up with an innovative stand
• It folds out from underneath the notebook to give the device some clearance off the surface below
• This improves cooling the processor by up to 3C / 5.4F, the maker claims, and it could be a trick that other manufacturers adopt

A PC maker in Japan has produced a laptop with a clever twist under the hood — well, under the chassis to be precise.

VideoCardz spotted Iiyama PC's 15-inch gaming laptop on sale at PC Kobo, a Japanese retailer. It has a small stand that folds out from beneath the body of the device, effectively propping up the Level 15FX167 notebook and raising it slightly (by what looks like just under an inch at the highest point).

That clearance allows for better cooling, with more air free to circulate underneath, and Iiyama PC claims that the stand "can lower the CPU operating temperature by up to 3C" compared to when the device is flat on a surface.

The specs of the Level 15FX167 include an Intel Core Ultra 9 Processor 185H, 16GB of RAM, and an Nvidia RTX 5060 GPU with a 1TB SSD.

Analysis: every degree counts

(Image credit: PC Kobo / Iiyama PC)

A difference of 5.4F / 3C might not sound like a whole lot, but it's a useful bit of extra thermal headroom when it comes to a gaming laptop. Remember that portable devices require all sorts of head-scratching in terms of the design of the cooling system, fans, vents, heatsinks and so forth. Every fraction of a degree that can be eked here or there all adds up to better performance ultimately.

As Iiyama PC points out, the tilted angle that the built-in stand provides is also ergonomically sound for a better typing experience, too.

Of course, the idea of an integrated stand is nothing new in the world of laptops, but this implementation is a novel one, as opposed to the traditional kickstand that you see on the likes of Microsoft's Surface devices.

It's one of those ideas that, when I first set eyes on it, I thought to myself, how has this not been done before? Then I had to check that it hadn't been done before, and indeed it hasn't, as far as I can tell. (Although the Asus Ergolift design is in a similar vein, but it's built directly into the notebook's hinge).

The question is, will other laptop makers take notice, and might we see this on devices outside of Japan eventually? Perhaps, and I'll be interested to see a review of this Iiyama PC notebook. My only concern is whether the stand might be a weak point in terms of the possibility of it breaking, so a reviewer should be able to give us a good idea of any fragility therein.

And in case you were wondering, yes, Iiyama is the same brand that makes the famous monitors, sitting under the same parent company.

• Microsoft warns of Teams‑based campaign where attackers impersonate IT staff
• Victims tricked into granting remote access, leading to malware, lateral movement, and ransomware
• Defenses: verify support contacts, train staff, harden Teams, and use Defender Safe Links/ZAP

Microsoft is warning about an ongoing hacking campaign that starts with a Teams message and ends with a ransomware infection and data theft.

In a new in-depth report published on the Microsoft blog, it was said that unnamed threat actors were reaching out to their targets at various enterprises via a Teams chat, while impersonating IT staff.

They were coercing their victims into granting remote access via screen sharing or remote monitoring and management tools and once received, used their access to install malware loaders and various other implants.

How to defend against Teams-borne phishing

The malware was just the first stage of the attack. Subsequent stages include host reconnaissance, security-product and virtualization discovery, and “periodic desktop screen capture”. In other words - mapping out the landscape and conducting espionage.

The crooks would then enumerate domain accounts, servers, and users, through native tools and Active Directory Service Interfaces (ADSI) queries and begin moving laterally.

The final step includes identifying and extracting valuable data, followed by a ransomware infection.

Microsoft does not name the perpetrators, and mostly refers to them as “threat actors”. It makes sense, since the “fake IT support via Teams” technique is being used by multiple groups at this moment. Russia’s Cozy Bear, FIN7, and Storm-1811 are probably the most obvious examples.

The world’s biggest extortionists - ShinyHunters - are also known to use Teams to trick victims into granting access, but this group rarely deploys an encryptor and instead just focuses on data exfiltration.

Whoever the attackers are, and whoever they’re after, one thing is for certain - the risk in the enterprise environment has never been greater.

That is why Microsoft advises reinforcing user education by establishing internal helpdesk authentication phrases, and by training employees to recognize external-tenant indicators.

The company also urges enterprises to verify unsolicited support contact, and to harden Microsoft Teams and email against social engineering. “Use Microsoft Defender for Office 365 with Safe Links and Zero-hour auto purge (ZAP) so malicious messages and URLs are neutralized at time of click and removed after delivery,” Microsoft urges.

Does every existing IP need a movie adaptation? The answer is no, of course, but I'm quietly confident in the upcoming live-action version of hit Hideo Kojima franchise, Death Stranding.

Why? Well, let's start with the concept. In the game, courier Sam must reconnect a broken America after an apocalyptic event merged the worlds of the living and the dead. Add in distributor A24 and the man who directed Pig and The Death of Robin Hood — which is now in UK cinemas after its June US release — and you've surely got gold.

However, there's one immediate snag. While we don't know much, we do know that the new movie won't follow the same premise as the existing Death Stranding games.

In fact, according to director Michael Sarnoski, not only is it a standalone movie, but will be made with a lot of creative freedom — and something about the way he explains this makes me nervous.

'I need the space to find authorship and find the things that I really believe in'

"I actually like to make things difficult for myself," Sarnoski tells me. "I like to do projects where the initial instinct is 'Oof, that could be a really bad idea.' Another Robin Hood movie? A prequel to a horror franchise? I like things where it could be easy to miss the mark."

This in itself is a concerning statement. I prefer it when my movie directors don't go into an adaptation thinking that things could potentially go horribly wrong. Whatever happened to positive mental attitude?

"I like the challenge," he continues. "I like finding the humanity in things that otherwise could not work. On Death Stranding, they're giving me a lot of freedom to tell the story that I want to tell separate from the core video game stories. It's its own standalone thing. I need the space to find authorship and find the things that I really believe in... I'm really excited about it."

Playing devil's advocate here, creative freedom could be a good thing. If fans expect a movie to replicate its original source material exactly, nobody ends up winning. But with so few details to go on, we've got to keep our fingers crossed that good decisions are made in the meantime.

But is Sarnoski concerned about appealing to existing fanbases, or is he happy to stick to his guns? "A little bit of both," he responds. "I feel the pressure, but I have to set that aside and focus on what creatively excites me. I can't make stuff as a reaction to what I think someone else wants — it has to come from a place of love and fascination."

Make of that what you will, folks... and watch this space.