A new trailer has given us our best look yet at the upcoming The Ghost in the Shell anime. While it might not tell us all that much about the direction the show will go in plot-wise, it sure is aesthetically pleasing, with a throwback art style that looks a lot more like the original manga than we’ve seen with other adaptations. The series will be released on Prime Video this July.
The Ghost in the Shell is being produced by Science Saru. The studio hasn’t revealed much about its story, only noting that it’s based on Masamune Shirow’s manga, so it isn’t entirely clear yet how closely it will follow the source material. The franchise has certainly seen its fair share of questionableadaptations over the years. But, this glimpse at the art style seems like a promising indicator. An exact release date hasn’t yet been announced, but July isn’t too far away now.
A hacking group called Handala has gained access to FBI Director Kash Patel’s email account, Reuters reports. The group published content from Patel’s email on their website as proof, including photos of Patel “sniffing and smoking cigars” and “making a face while taking a picture of himself in the mirror with a large bottle of rum.”
TechCrunch was able to independently confirm that at least some of the emails Handala stole were from Patel’s account by checking information used by mail delivery systems that’s stored in an email’s header. Several stolen emails included a cryptographic signature that linked them to Patel’s account. The FBI has also separately confirmed that the Director’s account was hacked. “The FBI is aware of malicious actors targeting Director Patel’s personal email information, and we have taken all necessary steps to mitigate potential risks associated with this activity,” the Bureau told TechCrunch. “The information in question is historical in nature and involves no government information.”
The FBI is offering up to $10 million in rewards for more information about the hackers who targeted Patel’s account. Handala presents as a pro-Palestinian hacking group online, but is believed to be one of several aliases used by cyberintelligence units working for the Iranian government, Reuters writes. Groups affiliated with Iran have targeted officials in the US before. In August 2024, the FBI shared that a separate group, APT42, was trying to gain access to both the Trump and Harris campaigns. Three men associated with APT42 were later charged that September.
Handala has appeared to become more active during the current conflict between the US, Israel and Iran. According to Reuters, the group claimed to be behind a cyber attack on Stryker, a medical devices company, earlier in March. Handala also said it accessed and published personal data from Lockheed Martin employees stationed in the Middle East.
Verizon will waive late fees and offer flexible payment arrangements for workers affected by the partial government shutdown. The carrier has made similar offers in the past, like during the COVID-19 pandemic when it gave customers extra mobile data at no additional cost.
The Department of Homeland Security has been hit the hardest by the partial shutdown, but Verizon’s offer covers any federal worker who’s able to offer employment verification. Verizon says employees can call 1-800-Verizon (1-800-922-0204) to get their late fees waived and set up a payment plan.
The partial government shutdown started in February after Congress failed to pass a new DHS funding bill. The lack of funding has not affected all of DHS’ sprawling organizations equally, however. While the Transportation Security Administration is no longer able to pay its employees — leading to significant delays in airport security lines over the last week — both Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection have been spared thanks to a separate funding pool established by a previous bill.
Lawmakers continued inability to fund DHS also happens to hinge on both agencies. Democratic senators and congresspeople are demanding ICE agents wear body cams and remove masks before making arrests, among other restrictions, and refusing to fund DHS until those restrictions are worked into the bill. Both Republicans and Democrats have also separately proposed funding the entire department except for ICE and CBP, but while that bill passed in the Senate, it hasn’t been taken up in the House.
Apple has confirmed to Engadget that the Mac Pro, the desktop tower-shaped computer that was last updated in 2023, has been discontinued. As 9to5Mac notes, the computer no longer appears in the lineup of Macs on Apple’s website or in its storefront. That means at least for now, the Mac Studio is the Apple’s top-of-the-line professional computer.
The current version of the Mac Pro was introduced in 2019, with a distinct cheese-grater design, Intel chips and a bevy of easily-accessible expansion slots. Apple released the computer as a make-good for several years of inadequately meeting the performance needs of professional Mac users, but its uncontested time at the top of the company’s lineup was short-lived. A year later in 2020, Apple began transitioning to its custom M-series Arm chips, proving Macs could be more powerful and power-efficient by abandoning Intel entirely.
Apple eventually updated the Mac Pro to the M2 Ultra without updating the computer’s design, but by then the writing was on the wall. The far smaller Mac Studio, introduced in 2022, also supported the new chip, and it’s been updated since then while the Mac Pro has languished. Bloomberg reported Apple was planning to retire the Mac Pro in November 2025, so it’s not all that surprising the company quietly pulled the plug only a few months later.
Apple’s effort to cater to professionals, creatives and anyone with a chunk of change to drop on a fast computer lives on through the Mac Studio, and the recently announced Studio Display XDR, itself a replacement for the Pro Display XDR Apple announced for the 2019 Mac Pro. Now all the company needs to do is update the Mac Studio with an M5 Max chip to make it the most “pro” computer Apple offers.
Update, March 26, 6:25PM ET: Added confirmation from Apple that the Mac Pro has been discontinued.
Google is adding a pair of new features to Gemini aimed at making it easier to switch to the AI chatbot. Personal history and past context are big components to how a chatbot provides customized answers to each user. Gemini now supports importing history from other AI platforms. Both free and paid consumer accounts can use these options.
With the first option, Gemini can create a prompt asking a competitor’s AI chatbot to summarize what it has learned about you. The result might include details such as your typical written communication style, your family members’ names or your key preferences. The other AI tool’s summary can then be pasted into Gemini, providing Google’s platform with a preliminary profile.
The second option allows users to import their entire chat history with a different AI assistant into Gemini. Doing so allows people to reference earlier conversations or requests made on a different platform after migrating to the Google option.
Anthropic recently introduced a similar memory import feature, so Google may also be hoping to scoop up some of the people who are dropping OpenAI following its shady-sounding new arrangement with the Department of War. Whatever the motivation, these options should make it easier to have a seamless transition between providers.
It’s been a long wait, but HBO Max has finally arrived in the UK and Ireland, rounding off the streaming service’s European expansion. Oscar-winnersOne Battle After Another and Sinners are both available to stream at launch, alongside Max Original shows like The Pitt. Season three of Euphoria arrives in April, and HBO Max is also home to mega-franchises like The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter, both of which are celebrating their 25th anniversaries in 2026.
Starting today, March 26, UK audiences can choose from three plans. Basic with Ads costs £5 per month, and offers all HBO shows and select Warner Bros. movies at 1080p, with movies that first stream on HBO Max after their theatrical release excluded. Then there’s Standard with Ads for £6 per month, which includes those straight-from-theaters releases and 30 downloads at the same resolution. Both can stream on two devices at a time.
For an ad-free experience you can purchase a Standard or Premium plan. The former has all titles available on two devices, up to 30 downloads and, obviously no ads. Finally, the most expensive £15 per month Premium plan allows streaming on four devices in up to 4K Ultra HD with Dolby Atmos. You also get 100 offline downloads on this tier.
Eligible Sky TV customers will automatically have HBO Basic with Ads rolled into their packages at no extra cost, thanks to an expanded partnership between Sky and Warner Bros. Discovery. This extends to NOW Entertainment subscribers, who will find HBO Max integrated into the NOW app. HBO Max is also now home to TNT Sports in the UK, which streams over 50 matches in the Premier League, as well as being home to the UEFA Champions League and various other sporting competitions, including MotoGP and the Tour de France.
HBO Max launches in the UK as Warner Bros Discovery sets a date for the shareholder vote on its merger with Paramount Skydance, which was finally agreed last month. Netflix was paid a $2.8 billion fee for breaking up its initial well-documented deal to buy the historic studio.
With the release of iOS 26.4, Apple Music’s Playlist Playground can now generate playlists with the help of AI. Best of all, you don’t need an Apple Intelligence-capable iPhone to take advantage of the new feature. As long as you’re a US Apple Music subscriber with your language set to English, you can start using Playlist Playground right now. Here’s how to get started.
How to create playlists using Playlist Playground
A pair of screenshots showing off Apple Music’s new Playlist Playground feature. (Igor Bonifacic for Engadget)
For the time being, there are two ways to access Playlist Playground. For the time being, the company is highlighting the feature within the “Top Picks for You” section of Apple Music’s Home tab. If you don’t see a shortcut there, Apple integrated the feature into the app’s existing playlist creation tool. Just tap the new icon found in the Library tab. If you’re new to Apple Music, the flow looks like this:
Navigate to the “Library” tab.
Tap the playlist creation button.
Write a prompt describing the mood or style of music you want to hear.
To help people get started, Apple provides a selection of sample prompts. One pro tip: it’s possible to use metadata in conjunction with Playlist Playground. For example, after Apple Music generates a playlist, you can tell Apple’s model to edit it by removing any songs released before 2016. Of course, you’re also free to add and remove songs manually as you please.
Once you’re happy with your new playlist, Apple Music treats all Playlist Playground mixes like it does any other playlist, meaning you can save it to your Library, download for offline playback, play it from your Apple Watch and share it with friends and invite them to add songs.
FAQ
What Apple devices is Playlist Playground available on?
As of the writing of this article, Playlist Playground is a beta release only available to Apple Music subscribers in the US with their preferred language set to English. An iPhone or iPad running iOS 26.4, or an Apple Vision headset running visionOS 26.4 is also required.
As Apple releases the feature in more countries and languages, we’ll update this article.
Is Playlist Playground available on Android?
Yes, if you use Apple Music on Android, Playlist Playground is available there too.
How does Playlist Playground work?
When generating mixes, Playlist Playground pulls from both trending data and your personal listening history. Along with other AI-powered Apple Music features like AutoMix and Lyrics Translation, Playlist Playground runs as part of the Apple Music service. That’s one of the reasons Apple can offer it outside of Apple Intelligence-capable devices.
A jury in Los Angeles has found that Meta and YouTube were negligent in a closely-watched trial over social media addiction. The companies were ordered to pay $6 million in damages to the woman who said she was harmed by their addictive features as a child.
The case was brought by a 20-year-old woman, named in court documents as “K.G.M,” who sued Meta, YouTube, TikTok and Snap, saying that she had been harmed by the platforms as a child due to addictive features. TikTok and Snap reached a settlement ahead of the trial.
According to NBC News, Meta was ordered to pay 70 percent of the $3 million in compensatory damages with YouTube taking on the remaining portion. The jury awarded an additional $3 million in punitive damages. “We respectfully disagree with the verdict and are evaluating our legal options,” a Meta spokesperson said in a statement. “We disagree with the verdict and plan to appeal.,” Google spokesperson José Castañeda said in a statement. “This case misunderstands YouTube, which is a responsibly built streaming platform, not a social media site.”
The weeks-long trial has been closely watched because it’s the first of many court cases in which plaintiffs have argued that social media platforms harmed minors due to how they were designed. Meta’s lawyers and executives have disputed the idea that social media should be considered an “addiction.” CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified that the company wants Instagram to be “useful,” and repeatedly accused the plaintiff’s lawyer of “mischaracterizing” his past statements.
“This is the first time in history a jury has heard testimony by executives and seen internal documents that we believe prove these companies chose profits over children,” Joseph VanZandt, one of K.G.M.’s lawyers, said in a statement to The New York Times,
For Meta, it’s the second legal setback in as many days. The verdict comes one day after a jury in New Mexico ruled against Meta in a trial over child safety issues. The company was ordered to pay $375 million in penalties; the company said it would appeal.
Update, March 25, 2026, 11:22AM PT: Added a statement from Google.
Update. March 25, 2026, 2:05PM PT: Added details about punitive damages.
In order to take advantage of the deal, T-Mobile customers simply need to log into the T Life app, navigate to the Benefits tab and then hit Redeem after clicking the banner for a free season of MLB.TV. From there, you just need to download the latest version of the MLB app to your mobile device and sign in or create an account. That said, this is a time-limited offer, so if you want the ability to stream regular season baseball for free, you’ll need claim the deal prior to March 31 at 4:59 AM ET. For anyone on a different carrier, this may be enough time to switch providers and still get in on the savings.
Unfortunately, MLB.TV is subject to blackouts and market restrictions, so depending on where you live and where your favorite team is playing that day, you may not be able to catch every game. Sadly, this includes tonight’s 8:05 PM ET matchup between the New York Yankees and the San Francisco Giants, which is streaming exclusively on Netflix. Even so, with a one-year subscription to MLB.TV currently going for $150, this is one of the best perks available from any of the big cellular carriers.
In addition to full season of games, an MLB.TV subscription also includes access to a collection of baseball documentaries, game streams from previous years, World Series films, highlights, news and more. And with over 1.25 million customers having redeemed last year’s offer, this is potentially one of T-Mobile’s biggest offers of the year, with the company claiming to have delivered more than $1 billion in savings since it first started running the promotion 10 years ago in 2016.
The ESA, NASA and CSA have released new images of Saturn captured by the James Webb and Hubble space telescopes that offer an unprecedented view of the gas giant’s atmosphere. Particularly, comparing shots captured with Hubble against an infrared view from Webb highlights details in the composition and movement of Saturn’s outer layers.
The Hubble images were captured as part of the Outer Planet Atmosphere Legacy program in August 2024, while the Webb images were shot a few months later. “Both sense sunlight reflected from Saturn’s banded clouds and hazes,” NASA says, “but where Hubble reveals subtle color variations across the planet, Webb’s infrared view senses clouds and chemicals at many different depths in the atmosphere, from the deep clouds to the tenuous upper atmosphere.”
Hubble has historically been used to track storms on Saturn, and you can see bands of atmospheric clouds in the telescope’s new photo. The infrared sensors on the Webb telescope are able to highlight even more detail, like the highly-reflective ice of Saturn’s ring, which is practically white in the photo, and grey-green shading on the planet’s poles. The different coloring in the Webb photo could be caused by a “a layer of high-altitude aerosols” scattering light across latitudes, or “charged molecules interacting with the planet’s magnetic field” and causing “auroral activity.”
The visual information from both telescopes is valuable to scientists and should prove to be more valuable over time. “These 2024 observations, taken 14 weeks apart, show the planet moving from northern summer toward the 2025 equinox,” NASA says. “As Saturn transitions into southern spring, and later southern summer in the 2030’s, Hubble and Webb will have progressively better views of that hemisphere.”
