Business News In Brief

With Valve's impressive work on the Proton tool for Linux and the Mac's Game Porting Toolkit and CrossOver options, few games are truly "Windows only" these days. The exceptions are those with aggressive, Windows-based anti-cheating tools baked in, something that hit back hard against players eager to dive into a new superhero shooter. Marvel Rivals, an Overwatch-ish free-to-play hero shooter released in early December 2024, has all the typical big online game elements: an in-game shop with skins and customizations, battle passes, and anti-cheating tech.

High-speed video of experiments on a robotic hula hooper, whose hourglass form holds the hoop up and in place. Some version of the Hula-Hoop has been around for millennia, but the popular plastic version was introduced by Wham-O in the 1950s and quickly became a fad. Now, researchers have taken a closer look at the underlying physics of the toy, revealing that certain body types are better at keeping the spinning hoops elevated than others, according to a new paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. “We were surprised that an activity as popular, fun, and healthy as hula hooping wasn’t understood even at a basic physics level,” said co-author Leif Ristroph of New York University.

When Honda gave the 11th-generation Civic Hatchback a refresh late last year, among the changes were the addition of a hybrid option to the lineup. There was already a lot to like about Honda's compact, which eschews lamentable trends like an over-reliance on touchscreens for good old-fashioned physical controls. Now, a big efficiency boost makes it even more attractive. The new powertrain is available in the $29,950 Sport Hybrid and the $32,950 Sport Touring Hybrid (the trim we tested).

Although SpaceX founder Elon Musk is known for outspokenness and controversial comments on his social media site X, he has been relatively restrained when it comes to US space policy in recent years. For example, he has rarely criticized NASA or its overall goal to return humans to the Moon through the Artemis Program.

On Thursday, music publishers got a small win in a copyright fight alleging that Anthropic's Claude chatbot regurgitates song lyrics without paying licensing fees to rights holders. In an order, US district judge Eumi Lee outlined the terms of a deal reached between Anthropic and publisher plaintiffs who license some of the most popular songs on the planet, which she said resolves one aspect of the dispute. Through the deal, Anthropic admitted no wrongdoing and agreed to maintain its current strong guardrails on its AI models and products throughout the litigation.

With these Brita systems, filters and filtered water bottles you can enjoy fresh, clean water at home and on the go without breaking the bank.