OnePlus rolls out Android 17-based ColorOS 17 early to four phones, including the OnePlus 13 and 13R. See what's new, supported devices, and US availability.
The post OnePlus 13 Gets Android 17 Early: Rollout Hits Four Phones appeared first on TechRepublic.
The long wait for Cronos: The New Dawn's DLC expansion, Cronos: Lazarus, is almost over, as Bloober Team has revealed its release date and price tag.
The expansion will be released on December 3, 2026, for Xbox Series X|S, PC, and PlayStation 5, and will cost $9.99. Additionally, a Nintendo Switch 2 version of this DLC will be released sometime in the first quarter of 2027.
Cronos: Lazarus will have players step into the role of the Warden, a mysterious character from the base of Cronos: The New Dawn. In this DLC expansion, you will witness the Warden's story from his beginnings as the Pathfinder to how he became who he is now.
Throughout this adventure, you will uncover dark secrets of the Collective, fight hordes of monsters using new weapons and abilities like teleportation and decoy holograms, and fend off the pursuit of a new enemy called the Tracker.
Crono: The New Dawn was one of our favorite Xbox titles last year, and judging by the gameplay deep dive we've seen of this DLC last July and today's Story trailer, it's about to get even better and scarier when Cronos: Lazarus drops on December 3, 2026.
If you haven't played Cronos: The New Dawn yet, now's the best time to jump in, as Bloober Team is offering the game at a 50% discount on all digital storefronts for the Halloween season.
Cronos: The New Dawn: was $59.99 now $29.99
Step into a grim world where time and space have been twisted beyond repair, humanity has mostly turned into ravenous monsters, and the only way to survive is by travelling to the past to extract souls of the living.
• Xbox Store
• SteamView Deal
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The Netherlands plans 25,000 government job cuts as it explores AI savings. See the 2027 timeline and steps for Dutch and EMEA public-sector IT teams.
The post Netherlands Plans 25,000 Job Cuts as Government Turns to AI appeared first on TechRepublic.
Petoi has been shrinking Boston Dynamics down to desk size for almost a decade now. Dr. Rongzhong Li started the company in his dorm lab in 2016, after a video of his open-source robot cat prototype went viral. That cat became Nybble, a laser-cut wooden kitty, and it was followed by Bittle, a palm-sized robot dog that ended up in classrooms, research labs, and a surprising number of home offices. Petoi says it has shipped more than 30,000 robots to over 60 countries, all running its open-source OpenCat framework. Each new model has gotten smaller, smarter, and easier to build, which brings us to the newest pup in the litter.
Meet Quaddle, a palm-sized robot dog that walks, glides, spins, and does backflips using just four servos. That’s half what Bittle uses in its legs and roughly a third of what most quadrupeds need, thanks to a spring-loaded linkage Petoi calls the MinDoF leg, which lets one motor drive both the shoulder and the knee. It weighs about 6 ounces, snaps together without screws, and takes LEGO bricks on its back. You can teach it tricks by physically moving its legs, chat with it, or code it in anything from beginner blocks to ROS. Prices start at $179, which is pretty reasonable for a dog that never needs walking.
Designer: Petoi
Each of Quaddle’s legs hangs off a single servo, with a spring and a four-bar linkage doing the job a second motor normally would. As the servo swings the upper leg, the linkage folds the knee up and straightens it again, turning one rotating shaft into a proper step. Petoi calls this the MinDoF leg, short for Minimal Degrees of Freedom, a degree of freedom being one independent way a joint can move. The spring clips onto different anchor points, changing how stiff or bouncy each leg feels. In Petoi’s tabletop tests, Quaddle walks about one body length per second, turns 90° in a single step cycle, and climbs onto a ledge as tall as its own knee.
Walking machines driven by a single crank go back to Pafnuty Chebyshev, the Russian mathematician whose 1870s linkage turned rotation into a surprisingly lifelike stride. Theo Jansen’s wind-powered Strandbeests on Dutch beaches run on the same basic idea, and Quaddle feels like their tiny, battery-powered cousin. Petoi added one more trick by fitting small bearings to the tips of the feet. Angle the legs just right and those bearings become wheels, letting Quaddle glide across a smooth desk at around three body lengths per second without a single extra motor. Fewer motors also means less weight, less cost, and less battery drain, which is how the whole dog comes in at roughly 6 ounces.
On the Buddy and Scout models, every leg servo reports its position back to the robot, so you can teach Quaddle a move by simply grabbing its legs. Tap to start recording, guide the legs through whatever silly dance you have in mind, and tap again to have it play the motion back. There’s no app or code involved, and Petoi says you can teach it a basic walk in about ten seconds. Recorded moves can be pulled into Petoi’s Skill Composer software for fine-tuning and shared with other Quaddle owners. For a kid, this is probably the fastest route from “I wonder if” to a robot actually doing the thing.
Buddy and Scout split their thinking across two ESP32-S3 chips, one for motion and balance and one for voice chat and smart home control. A physical slide switch cuts power to the AI chip entirely, which is great for privacy and for days when your robot dog gets a bit too chatty. Coding starts with drag-and-drop blocks, moves to Python or MicroPython, and eventually reaches the Arduino C++ firmware. Bigger projects can mount a Raspberry Pi Zero on its back or plug into ROS, the software framework most research robots run on. A browser-based simulator runs the same code as the real robot, so you can test ideas on a laptop or even a phone with no robot in sight.
The top of Quaddle’s shell takes LEGO bricks, and Petoi will publish printable shells and mounts for anyone with a 3D printer. Petoi’s own demos have turned it into a walking LEGO AT-AT, a waddling biped called the NanoDuck, and a rover on Mecanum wheels, which use angled rollers to slide sideways. Power comes from a swappable Nokia-format phone battery, the same BL-5C shape that lived inside Nokia’s famously indestructible early-2000s handsets. Quaddle ships with the bigger 1,800 mAh BL-10C cell, good for roughly 1 to 1.5 hours of walking depending on the model. Plug it into USB-C while you code and it charges as it runs, so marathon debugging sessions are fair game.
Builder PLUS ($179) handles walking and coding, Buddy ($219) adds AI chat and teach-by-hand, and Scout ($269) adds a sensor head that detects gestures, light, distance, and people. All three are priced at $144, $175, and $215, with deliveries starting in December. For context, Petoi’s own Bittle X lists at $279, Unitree’s Go2 starts around $1,600, and Sony’s Aibo launched in the US at $2,900. Petoi spent a decade shrinking big robots down to desk size, and Quaddle shows the smartest way to shrink one further is to give it fewer parts.
The post This palm-sized robot dog has a Nokia battery and a customizable LEGO-compatible back first appeared on Yanko Design.
The Windows Security app is about to be redesigned to align with Windows 11. Soon, you will no longer feel like you've booted up a PC from a decade ago when managing the security features on your computer.
Microsoft discussed several changes that are on the way to the app in its latest release notes. The company started sharing Insider release notes for apps earlier this year, including Calculator, Camera, and Windows Security.
The change log describes several updates to the design and user interface of Windows Security. The app already protects PCs through a collection of tools including Microsoft Defender Antivirus, Windows Firewall, and Smart App Control.
The Windows Security app is already functional and does a good job of protecting PCs. Its security tools are also updated regularly, so it's not as if the app needs to be overhauled from a security perspective.
The current version of Windows Security still relies on navigation, layouts, and visual elements that feel noticeably older than Microsoft's modern Windows 11 apps.
Here's what Microsoft plans to do with the Windows Security app, as outlined by the company:
Those changes are already available to Windows Insiders as long as they're running version 1000.29680.0.1000 of Windows Security.
The refresh should make Windows Security feel far more at home within Windows 11, bringing one of the operating system's oldest-looking built-in apps in line with modern experiences such as Settings.
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I want to say I’m surprised, but every time something like this happens, I’m reminded of all the other wild developments in the space. I just shrug my shoulders because, yes, of course Halo: Combat Evolved has been ported to Roblox. Why wouldn’t it?
Seriously, though, I have no idea what’s going on under the hood here. If I had to hazard a guess, it starts with Claude and ends with AI. It’s a lot like what’s happening with the Nintendo Switch 2 after a jailbreak was found, allowing Mario Kart World to run on Mac. Or how the PS5 got jailbroken, enabling users to play almost every console game bar the Xbox Series on the device. There are valid concerns with both of those scenarios, but Roblox adds another layer to the mix.
As a platform, Roblox is often synonymous with predators, shady business practices, and user-generated content that mimics other games, sometimes before they even release. So, you can imagine that Halo: Combat Evolved not just being mimicked, but straight-up ported, sets a worrying precedent. And Halo isn’t the only thing making the jump.
Over the past 24 hours, I’ve seen Left 4 Dead, Counter-Strike, and even a PlayStation 4 emulator running within Roblox. I’m sure all of these will eventually lead to copyright strikes from Xbox, Valve, and Sony, though.
I don’t know; maybe this is the future. We’re seeing crazy things happen by the day in the gaming space: Halo: CE on the Dreamcast, PC Game Pass on Android, and even Xbox One games running on an iPhone. It truly is wild, and I’m not sure how to feel about how quickly things are pacing.
I love Halo, and I’m glad more people will get to play it via Roblox; the platform has a crazy amount of monthly active users, somewhere in the 300 million range, which is more than Steam, Xbox, or PlayStation. But I can’t help feeling that projects like this open the floodgates for even more chaotic developments.
Given the current cost of games, if people have the opportunity to play something for free in Roblox instead of buying it on Steam, there will definitely be those who take that route. But that’s just my take on things.
Let me know in the comments whether you’re worried or excited about what this opens up, and be sure to take part in our poll!
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Tall, divided windows wrap around Leah’s living room, giving this small home the appearance of a glazed garden pavilion. Offered by Swedish builder Vagabond Haven, the modular design combines an open living area with a separate downstairs bedroom and a sleeping loft. The company’s illustrations show a cottage-like interior, with white paneling, pale wood tones, and space for conventional furniture.
Leah measures 12 meters long and 3.45 meters wide, with a stated living area of 52 square meters, approximately 560 square feet, including the loft. It accommodates four sleepers. This isn’t a towable retreat: its timber structure sits on a steel chassis without wheels, and transportation requires a low-bed truck and crane. Choosing a site means planning for that delivery.
Designer: Vagabond Haven
The exterior uses vertical Thermopine siding beneath a steel-sheet roof. Vagabond Haven specifies 20 centimeters of mineral wool insulation in the walls and roof, alongside triple-glazed windows. Visually, the most consequential decision is concentrating the largest windows around the living area. That treatment gives the shared space a distinct identity, while smaller openings punctuate the more private rooms.
Inside, the illustrated kitchen follows an L-shaped arrangement, with a sink beneath a window and cabinetry extending around the corner. A freestanding dining table seats four beside the tall glazing. Keeping the table separate from the counter provides a dedicated eating surface, though it also occupies circulation space. Appliances and furnishings are configurable, so the pictured arrangement shouldn’t be mistaken for the base specification.
A corridor connects the communal area to the bathroom and main bedroom at the opposite end. That separation is useful: the bed doesn’t have to share the same open room as dinner, television, or visitors. The bedroom illustration includes a double bed, wardrobes, shelving, and a desk. Crucially, the primary sleeping space is downstairs, making the staircase optional for an owner’s nightly routine.
Upstairs, the loft is reached by stairs with integrated cabinets. The illustrated arrangement places a low bed beneath the pitched ceiling, with a desk nearby. Headroom remains the compromise here, particularly toward the roof edges. Roof windows are optional. Downstairs, bathroom choices include a glazed shower, washing machine provision, and flushing, composting, or incinerating toilets.
Leah costs approximately $66,300 unfurnished, $77,500 fully furnished, or $93,100 fully off-grid, excluding VAT. Those distinctions matter when budgeting: the lowest figure isn’t the illustrated, equipped interior. Leah’s strongest spatial choice is giving everyday living and the main bedroom proper downstairs rooms, while reserving the low-ceilinged loft for whoever actually wants to climb upstairs.
The post This Tiny Home Wraps Its Living Room in Glass and Keeps the Main Bedroom Downstairs first appeared on Yanko Design.
Call of Duty has revealed Season 1 for Modern Warfare 4, slated to go live on November 6 at midnight ET. That breaks usual tradition for new seasons, and indeed, it's a 5am launch here in the UK. I won't be getting up that early, that's for sure.
While the intel drop is full of information on what DMZ and multiplayer fans can expect, for those still waiting on knowing more about what's coming to Warzone, there's still a wait to be had.
We know that there will be two new maps joining the rotation. Hajin, the DMZ map, will be joining the battle royale mode alongside the returning Verdansk. Whether it's an exact copy or will be tweaked in some way, we'll have to wait and see. Zodiac, the new Resurgence map we already saw during the beta, and it will join the (sigh) returning Rebirth Island.
Warzone fans will have to wait, though, to find out the full details on what the first integration with Modern Warfare 4 will look like, though.
"Play across two new maps in Call of Duty®: Warzone™ as the Season 1 update brings both Hajin and Zodiac, plus the return of Verdansk and Rebirth Island, additional game modes, gameplay features, and more as Modern Warfare 4 becomes fully integrated with the free-to-play game. Keep your eyes on the Call of Duty blog this Monday, November 2, for a separate post and Roadmapfully covering everything coming to Call of Duty: Warzone in Season 1."
The only other thing we know for sure is that before that time, Call of Duty: Warzone will go offline for good on Xbox One and PS4.
It was already confirmed earlier this year that due to Modern Warfare 4 not being available on last-gen consoles, those platforms would not be able to play Warzone once the integration happened.
Players who want to continue can, of course, still use Xbox Cloud Gaming or alternatives such as NVIDIA GeForce Now, and all their previous purchases in Warzone will be permanently applied to their Activision ID.
It'll be interesting to see what the player reaction to Warzone under Modern Warfare 4 is. DMZ has been received pretty positively, though the PvP elements still feel a little unbalanced in my opinion. But the new movement that came with Modern Warfare 4 definitely rewards a slower, more tactical style of play (for better or worse) but then, we all know that Warzone players love to fly around the map. So who knows?
Nevertheless, we'll know a lot more on November 2.
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Call of Duty has announced Season 1 for Modern Warfare 4 will begin on November 6 at midnight ET, and DMZ is already getting a new map.
Future locations have already been teased for DMZ before the launch of the game, but the first one is already arriving a mere two weeks post-launch.
But it's not just a new map; it's quite different to Hajin and is more reminiscent of Building 21 from the original DMZ.
"A previously undiscovered weapons facility — codenamed X01 — has recently been seized by enemy forces. Recent reconnaissance along the northern border of North Korea has determined an infiltration point, allowing for deployment through Hajin. Current data suggests this facility was a GRANIT Arms black site. It appears comprised of a dimly lit, labyrinthian network of passageways, tunnels, and linking chambers surrounding a clandestine weapons assembly line and other, more surprising locations. Appearing to be fully enclosed from the outside world, ground-penetrating radar has revealed multi-floored vertical traversals, where the only reliable edge you may have is the back-up of your squadmates."
Expect a fairly strong PvP experience, though apparently that's not the worst thing you'll encounter. We're told it "may be unwise to engage them in head-to-head combat" referring not to players, but to the 100 Spirits NK Faction that is active in the vicinity.
Ghost will act as our Watcher for infils into X01, and alongside the map will be new pages of DMZ Orders for players to complete.
X01 will also be home to a bunch of new enemy types, items, and equipment, though the first two are labelled as [CLASSIFIED]. So you'll need to take the plunge and go see for yourself. But it sounds like the best way to dominate X01 will be to plunder the loot within its walls.
Elsewhere, the FOB will be getting some upgrades, with something new and [CLASSIFIED] for the 3D Printer Station, new weapons and gear at the Vendor which apparently are linked to the BlackCell pass from Season 1 (which you also have if you bought the Vault Edition) and new Lieutenants and Commanders added to the Boss Board.
Season 1 for DMZ also promises two events: Threat Briefing and Resupply Run. The former will see you engaging with either The Captain or a Battle Tank, and in each case extracting parts of their respective armor. The more parts you get, the better the rewards.
Resupply Run is a bit like a trolley dash, but in Hajin, with enemies shooting at you. You'll be tasked with finding specific items to trade in for high-value gear such as Self Revive Kits and 3-Plate Armor Vests.
More events are promised throughout Season 1, but it's definitely a positive to see DMZ frontloaded with content so early on. It requires a decent investment of your time, but so far, it looks like it's well worth it.
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The PlayStation 2 was never something you could casually slip into a bag, unless you planned to bring a screen and controller along for the ride. The PlayStation 2 DUO brings those pieces together in an unofficial DIY handheld with an unusual trick. Its screen actually bends in the middle, letting you fold the console when it’s time to put the game away.
There’s plenty of familiar territory around that unfamiliar fold. A purple shell surrounds the display, with a D-pad and the four recognizable PlayStation symbols sitting above two analog sticks. Start and Select occupy the upper corners, while speaker grilles sit below the controls. The arrangement looks reassuringly conventional, which is probably helpful when the screen between your hands is doing something rather unconventional.
Designer: LCLDIY
That screen is a single flexible panel, rather than two separate displays interrupted by a hinge. The project’s earlier development notes describe a 7.8-inch screen salvaged from a foldable phone. It gives the DUO a generous central canvas when opened, without committing the handheld to that same width inside a bag. Of course, making a screen bend doesn’t make its limitations magically disappear.
The panel needs room to curve, and forcing it into a sharp fold would damage it. That requirement shaped the casing and its hinge, leaving a broad bend instead of squeezing the halves completely flat together. It’s a less tidy package than a closed clamshell might suggest, but the extra space has a practical purpose: keeping that delicate display in one piece.
There’s genuine PlayStation 2 hardware inside as well, rather than a newer computer pretending to be Sony’s console. Getting it to fit required cutting down the original motherboard and rearranging its supporting electronics. A 3D-printed enclosure brings everything together, turning equipment once tethered to a television into something you can hold between both hands. The nostalgia extends beyond the buttons, in other words.
The folding body makes the electronics more complicated, of course. Separate control boards occupy the two sides, with a ribbon cable linking them across the center. The trimmed motherboard also carries a small cooling fan and heatsink. There’s quite a bit happening underneath that playful exterior, particularly for a device whose moving parts include the surface you’re supposed to be staring at.
Folding it up reduces the footprint, but doesn’t automatically make this a pocket console. The published project information doesn’t establish its weight, closed dimensions, or battery runtime, so there’s little reason to start planning an entire flight around it. More importantly, this is a completed hobby build, not an upcoming Sony handheld with a price tag and a place on store shelves.
Enclosure printing files and a PCB archive are available on the project page, although they don’t amount to a complete assembly guide. Recreating the DUO still involves board modification and careful work around a flexible display. That might temper the urge to make one immediately, especially if your experience with PlayStation hardware mostly involves inserting discs rather than cutting up circuit boards.
The post This DIY PlayStation 2 Handheld Gives a Foldable Phone Screen a New Job first appeared on Yanko Design.
October is the spookiest time of the year, but there are ways to celebrate apart from dressing up or going to haunts. Developer Joe Finney has turned October into "Tray-tober" by releasing a system tray utility each day throughout the month. All of the projects are on GitHub and available to try for free.
Rather than linking 28 separate utilities, I'll just point you to the Tray-tober page managed by Finney. It has a calendar with links to each tool.
It's easy to overlook parts of Windows 11, such as the taskbar, quick settings area, and system tray. Many people leave them set to their system defaults and only interact with them occasionally. But much like a bag on Halloween, Windows 11's system tray can be filled with goodies.
The tools shared by Finney live in the system tray, though they aren't all focused solely on productivity. For example, Tray Battleship, which brings the classic board game to the system tray, shipped on October 3.
If you agree and like small cool apps in Windows, check out my project where I launched a new Windows tray utility every day in October!https://t.co/I2LKSk1hCGOctober 28, 2026
Other tools from Finney include Tray Converter for converting units, Trayulator (a calculator), and Tray Nudge, which reminds you to complete tasks.
TrayRadar shows you a weather forecast from NOAA, and Traysky lets you scroll through Bluesky right from the system tray. Finney has created quite the library of tools to try.
Since we're close to the end of October, almost all of the system tray tools have shipped. Only three more remain, and I'm curious to see what they are. Perhaps Tray Connect 4 is on the way?
One of my favorite tools is PowerDisplay, which is part of PowerToys. It allows you to adjust the brightness of your external monitor without reaching around for physical buttons. I keep it pinned to the system tray for quick access. Now, I can sneak in a quick game of battleship after adjusting the brightness of my monitor.
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