The Year End Bonus - Do You Or Don't You?

Telegram is being besieged by malware scams, according to the Web3-focused Scam Sniffer X account. Posting a thread on the Musk run platform, they pointed to data that showed Telegram’s scammers have shifted tactics to deploying malware. Telegram is a communications app, with calls and messaging built in. It’s an alternative to apps like WhatsApp and Signal.

President-Elect Donald Trump, due to be inaugurated on Monday,  is set to appoint multiple pro-crypto candidates to key governmental and advisory positions. These appointments, alongside Trump’s positive stance on cryptocurrency and mounting involvement in the sector, are likely to mark a change in the government’s regulatory stance and policies. Trump’s inauguration will include a ‘crypto ball’, a black-tie event celebrating him as the “first crypto president”.

In a week where another incoming handheld may have taken a little of the spotlight from Valve’s mighty Steam Deck we now have the good news that next week’s Final Fantasy VII Rebirth – the PC iteration – has now been Steam Deck Verified. For such a high-profile game to get Valve’s badge of honor is huge and means we can look forward to some serious Cloud Strife action on the bus – something we could only have dreamed of just a few years ago. Publisher Square Enix is understandably delighted at getting Verified and revealed on its official account on X an amazing, fluffy yellow Chocobo-themed Steam Deck.

Apple has temporarily stopped a news summary feature of Apple Intelligence, the company’s flagship artificial intelligence (AI) service, after several instances of erroneous news summaries being shown to users. Apple’s decision to suspend the service came after a complaint made by the BBC. Apple’s service had generated a news summary branded with the BBC’s logo which falsely stated that Luigi Mangione (the man accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson) had shot himself. This was not the only false news alert generated by Apple’s AI to carry the BBC’s logo.

The Nintendo Switch 2 appears to be shaping up to be what everyone is looking for with fancy new Joy-Cons, a fresh paint job, and if the GPU leaks are true, some serious raw power. In Nintendo’s official reveal of the console, we got a good look at the console coupled with a tease of the very first Switch 2 game – Mario Kart 9. Now this looked like standard Mario Kart on the face of it but after taking a closer look, many are suggesting that 24 player races could be introduced. Mario Kart 9 could be the most innovative entry in the franchise In previous reports, it has been stated that Mario Kart 9 will feature a “new twist” that will change things up from its predecessor, and with this initial tease, it could very well be 24 player lobbies. The main reason pointing toward this being true is that you can clearly see that there are 24 spaces on the start line grid so why would they have been placed in the game if there wasn’t a possibility of 24 karts being on the track? The other potential switch-up is the introduction of gas stations. If you’re eagle-eyed, you may have seen a few frames in the gameplay that almost look like one of the karts has stopped at a Yoshi-themed gas station. Now, this may not mean that you will literally have to go through there to collect gas in order to power your kart and instead, it could just be a new boost system which refills when entering. haven't seen anyone else talk about this but the gimmick of mario kart 9 is definitely a fuel tankkarts have conspicuous fuel tanks now and there's something on this track that doesnt look like an item box it'll be a resource you can use freely to boost pic.twitter.com/bhGnEOe8Xo — chloe (@payapaberii) January 16, 2025 If it is the former though and you will need to take an F1 style pit stop, this would add a serious strategic element to the game that could create a skill gap for competitive online races. Mario Kart 8 has seemingly been around forever, akin to that of Smash Bros.

When Baldur’s Gate 3 scooped the 2023 Game of the Year award it was just rewards for the tremendous hard work that had gone into it to make it such an amazing achievement. That we are sat here in 2025 preparing for the eighth major update of the game shows the commitment that the team at Larian has for its magnum opus, and at the same time, continually pushes the game to even greater heights. While we have no confirmed date for Patch 8, what we do have is information on what it will contain, and also the opportunity to get involved in its early days. One of the big deals of Patch 8 in BG3 is the arrival of cross-play – now you can party up with friends on other platforms for the first time, and Larian need players to test this out.