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Proton VPN stands out for two main reasons: it’s one of the only virtual private networks (VPNs) to include a free plan with no data limits, and it’s one of the few services majority-owned by a nonprofit. It’s the best VPN in both of those categories, and it makes a strong case for being the best overall. Even if you don’t care about the work of the Proton Foundation, Proton VPN is a service worth using. It’s easy to install and manage, runs like the wind and meets high standards for security and privacy. It has more IP locations in Africa than any of its competitors. It’s even looking toward the future by working toward full IPv6 support. In short, Proton VPN gets our enthusiastic recommendation, especially for torrenting (which it supports on almost every server). It’s not perfect — the apps for Apple systems lag behind their Windows and Android counterparts, and the free servers can be noticeably sluggish — but the cons pale in comparison to the pros. We’ll get into it all below. Editor’s note (7/25/25): We’re in the process of revamping our VPN coverage to provide more in-depth, actionable information and buying guides. Our recommendations, and all the info on this page, are subject to change as the update continues. Check out our revamped ExpressVPN review and NordVPN review to see the new direction, or learn more about how we test VPNs. Proton VPN is a superlative service that’s proven itself willing to fight for your privacy — plus, it unblocks Netflix and keeps your internet fast. Pros Keeps internet speeds fast Physically secured data centers Free plan with unlimited data Cons High proportion of virtual server locations Live chat support only for paid users $3 at Proton VPN Table of contents Findings at a glance Installing, configuring and using Proton VPN Proton VPN speed test: Impacts of VPN Accelerator Proton VPN security test: Watertight protocols How much does Proton VPN cost? Proton VPN side apps and bundles Close-reading Proton VPN’s privacy policy Can Proton VPN change your virtual location? Investigating Proton VPN’s server network Features of Proton VPN Proton VPN customer support options Proton VPN background check: The CERN origins of Proton AG Final verdict Findings at a glance The table summarizes what we found while reviewing Proton VPN, both good and bad. Keep it open in a tab while you comparison shop for a VPN. Category Notes Installation and UI Windows has the best interface, but all apps are smooth Android users get unique preset protocols Browser extensions for Chrome and Firefox can be used for split tunneling on Mac and iOS Speed Retains 88 percent of download speeds and 98 percent of upload speeds Global latency average stays under 300 ms, with 52 ms on the fastest server Security No DNS leaks or WebRTC leaks on any servers Full IPv6 support is available on Android, Linux and browser extensions; Mac, Windows and iOS still block IPv6 to prevent leaks WireShark test showed active packet encryption Pricing Best plan costs $81.36 for two years ($3.39 per month) Free plan includes unlimited data and critical security features, but you can’t choose your server Bundles Proton Unlimited saves money if you want two or more Proton products Privacy policy General Proton policy prevents collection of IP addresses unless a user has violated the terms of service (such as by using a Proton VPN server to abuse another site) No third parties are allowed to handle personally identifiable information Confirmed by Securitum audit in 2024 Virtual location change Unblocked Netflix repeatedly in all five testing locations, with new content proving a successful location change A free server in Romania got into Netflix but had trouble loading the library Server network 154 locations in 117 countries More servers in Africa than any other VPN, plus many others across the globe About two-thirds of server locations are virtual Features NetShield can block just malware, or all malware, ads and trackers Kill switch on all platformsSplit tunneling on Windows, Android and browser extensions only Secure Core servers route VPN through two locations, one of which is physically secured in Iceland, Sweden or Switzerland Almost all paid servers are P2P-enabled Tor over VPN servers in six countries let you access dark web sites from any browser Profiles saves time when you repeatedly need specific connection settings Customer support Most articles in the online help center, while well-written, are invisible unless you use the search function Live chat is only for paying customers, and is unavailable from midnight to 9 AM CET Background check Launched in 2017 by the same company that developed ProtonMail Majority owned by the Proton Foundation, whose board includes the company founders and can resist takeover attempts While ProtonMail has worked with Swiss authorities in the past, Proton VPN is not governed by the same laws that compelled this Claims of a vulnerability in WireGuard’s memory don’t hold water Installing, configuring and using Proton VPN This section explains how it feels to run Proton VPN on the various platforms it supports. As a rule, it’s not difficult. Proton VPN has more features than ExpressVPN, and a couple of them might trip up new users, but you’d have to really scrounge to find an actual inconvenience to complain about. Windows Proton VPN installs easily on Windows — you’ll need to grant it permission to make changes, but that’s it. Once you’ve signed in on the app, you’ll reach one of the best interfaces we’ve tried on a VPN. The server network is immediately visible as both a list and map, and the location search bar, connect button and major features are all laid out around the same window. Proton VPN’s app for Windows. (Sam Chapman for Engadget) It’s honestly amazing how much you can reach from the launch window without anything feeling cluttered. They even squeezed in keyboard shortcuts for the search field. We also love that settings open in the same window, since dealing with both the

[Submitted on 26 Jun 2025 (v1), last revised 22 Jul 2025 (this version, v2)] View PDF HTML (experimental) Abstract:Reasoning, the process of devising and executing complex goal-oriented action sequences, remains a critical challenge in AI. Current large language models (LLMs) primarily employ Chain-of-Thought (CoT) techniques, which suffer from brittle task decomposition, extensive data requirements, and high latency. Inspired by the hierarchical and multi-timescale processing in the human brain, we propose the Hierarchical Reasoning Model (HRM), a novel recurrent architecture that attains significant computational depth while maintaining both training stability and efficiency. HRM executes sequential reasoning tasks in a single forward pass without explicit supervision of the intermediate process, through two interdependent recurrent modules: a high-level module responsible for slow, abstract planning, and a low-level module handling rapid, detailed computations. With only 27 million parameters, HRM achieves exceptional performance on complex reasoning tasks using only 1000 training samples. The model operates without pre-training or CoT data, yet achieves nearly perfect performance on challenging tasks including complex Sudoku puzzles and optimal path finding in large mazes. Furthermore, HRM outperforms much larger models with significantly longer context windows on the Abstraction and Reasoning Corpus (ARC), a key benchmark for measuring artificial general intelligence capabilities. These results underscore HRM’s potential as a transformative advancement toward universal computation and general-purpose reasoning systems. Submission history From: Yuhao Sun [view email] [v1] Thu, 26 Jun 2025 19:39:54 UTC (1,542 KB) [v2] Tue, 22 Jul 2025 06:45:57 UTC (1,525 KB) Read More

It looked like a piece of driftwood floating in muddy floodwaters. But then it grew a pair of eyes that peered above the waterline. As the canoe came closer, the crocodile struck, attempting to topple it. Not knowing what else to do, the woman inside paddled toward a set of trees with branches hanging over the water. When she jumped to grab one, the crocodile leapt, too, pulling her underwater into a death roll. ‘That was the worst part of the whole experience,’ she told the news team that interviewed her in hospital. ‘The part that I still don’t like to remember.’ In February 1985, the Australian eco-philosopher Val Plumwood survived a crocodile attack on a remote river in Kakadu, one of Australia’s largest national parks. After being pulled under three times, she clawed her way up a muddy bank, making a tourniquet to stem the bleeding in her leg. For several hours, she dragged herself through the bush, dreading another attack that never came. Plumwood would have been the 17th person to be killed (and possibly eaten) by a crocodile since 1930 in Australia’s Northern Territory. As the interviewer reminded her, there were two methods for dealing with crocodiles that kill or maul humans: captivity or death. The crocodile that attacked Plumwood had supposedly been shot and killed. Still recovering from surgery, Plumwood told the news team that she thought this act of revenge was ‘basically pointless’. Why is it, she continued, that we think it is outrageous when another animal attacks a human being? Why is this kind of predation seen as something completely outside the naturally ordained order of things? The interviewer paused to clarify: ‘That we’re the dominant species and should never be under attack?’ ‘That’s right. We can’t accept the idea that we are part of the food chain. We eat other species all the time, we do dreadful things to other species and we see that as quite natural, but when we’re attacked by other species and they treat us as food, well, that’s unbelievable. We can’t accept that at all.’ For many centuries, European cultures have conceived of humans as radically separate from nature, formed in the imago Dei, and possessing immortal souls that transcend the natural order. But this human exceptionalism has begun to fray. Science has shown that we are, just like other animals, subject to the surging forces that constitute the natural world. We are immersed in nature. At a microscopic level, we exchange atoms with surrounding objects, and are densely populated by microbial panoplies shared with the things we touch, wear, and consume. We are not independent entities, but vast, shifting communities of living and non-living participants. Human exceptionalism hasn’t been questioned just because it is scientifically wrong. Some thinkers have also considered how this worldview has led to ecological devastation. Pronouncements of human superiority reduce Earth and its species to mere resources for human flourishing. In that sense, human exceptionalism has enabled climate catastrophe and the wanton extinction of other species. The solution, we are often told, involves acknowledging and re-embracing our complex ‘entanglement’ with the world. One influential book promoting this idea is Vibrant Matter (2009) by the American political philosopher Jane Bennett. ‘Some people respond to the proliferation of entanglements between human and nonhuman materialities with a desire to reenforce the boundary between culture and nature,’ she writes in the conclusion. ‘Another response is to accept the mingling …’ For Bennett, this process can be transformative. ‘I believe that encounters with lively matter can chasten my fantasies of human mastery, highlight the common materiality of all that is, expose a wider distribution of agency, and reshape the self and its interests.’ Certain forms of entanglement with the natural world can provoke a nauseating fear From this perspective, embracing entanglement is a moral imperative: overcoming human superiority is the first step toward building a more harmonious relationship with the natural world. Similar accounts appear in bestsellers like Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass (2013), Merlin Sheldrake’s Entangled Life (2020) and Zoë Schlanger’s The Light Eaters (2024). Entanglement as an ethical ideal appears in other popular media, too, revealing a public hungry to explore their connections to the world. Documentaries such as My Octopus Teacher (2020) show humans forging friendships with other species, Japanese animations such as Princess Mononoke (1997) celebrate fragile connections with ecosystems, and big-budget Hollywood films such as Avatar (2009) tell the stories of imaginary beings who are bonded with their planet’s biosphere. But too often this enthusiasm downplays or denies the dark side of entanglement. Connecting to the natural world isn’t always desirable. In fact, certain forms of entanglement can provoke a nauseating fear – a reaction that has been exploited in horror films. Think of the face-hugging Xenomorph from Ridley Scott’s Alien (1979) as it implants an embryo inside the body of one character before bursting from his chest during dinner. Our permeability makes our bodies vulnerable to invasion by hostile agencies, including viruses, bacteria and fungi. Refusing to spray your lawn with pesticides may make you a better neighbour to the plants and animals that rely on insects, but your family might get sick from diseases those insects carry. The boundaries we draw around ourselves often keep us safe, minimise our suffering and stabilise our sense of being distinct individuals. So, what does it really mean to embrace an entangled life? The answer is not straightforward. Truly affirming entanglement means recognising that we are vulnerable, and terrifyingly edible. This is the shocking realisation Plumwood had in 1985, when she awakened to a ‘parallel universe’ in which she was no longer just a person but also ‘food’ for a predator. In the aftermath, she contemplated the tremendous gap between these realities: ‘There is an incommensurability which shuts these two worlds off from each other. They exist as parallel universes, in different dimensions. Yet, we exist in both simultaneously.’ This raises a hard question for those who want to pursue a more intentionally entangled

Following the sale of the popular route-planning platform Komoot to private equity, Josh Meissner examines the troubling mechanics of the community-powered service beyond its friendly brand image. Using Komoot as an example, he explores the broken relationship between corporate capital and our communities. Amid the tension, discover a way forward that’s available to all of us… Imagine going for a ride on your favorite loop through your local woods and stumbling upon a notice of an impending clear-cut. That’s the shock many of us in the European cycling community felt when the news broke that our trusted route platform, Komoot, was sold to the notorious private equity group Bending Spoons on March 20th of this year. Breaking their promise of long-term commitment to the company, Komoot’s six founders sold out the around 150 employees, millions of active users, and the beloved service, making off with the lion’s share of the 300-million-euro deal.1  The employees were the first to get the axe. They signed in one morning to learn that the company many had dedicated up to 15 years of their life to was no more. Eighty percent were fired immediately. I spoke with a few longtime employees in the aftermath, who described it as a rough and cruel betrayal. Komoot, to them, was more than a job; it was a mission and purpose. Many had accepted below-average salaries and uprooted their lives to commit to the outdoor lifestyle and the dream job. Suddenly, they were left scrambling for new work and visa sponsors with just a few months’ pay as severance. The six bosses, meanwhile, pocketed an estimated 20 to 30 million euros each. Over 45 million of us users, mostly in Europe, were similarly betrayed and left in the dark. Now we hear the chainsaws revving as private equity’s playbook of mass firings, squeezing users, and aggressively monetizing the product starts to play out.2 As users and employees, we’ve been komooted: led astray by capital’s algorithm.  Initial reporting questioned the founders’ decisions, correctly warned of the rapacious new owners, and identified possible alternatives to Komoot. These are important points, but they miss the bigger picture. I’ll argue that Komoot is neither a moral failure nor an outlier but the capitalist system of value extraction working exactly as intended for the platform owners. Whether they’re called Komoot, Strava, AllTrails, or Garmin, for-profit corporations squeeze and sell us out when we give them the opportunity. Corporations we depend on are swallowed all the time. Komoot exemplifies just how much we lose to corporations wielding digital technology encroaching on our communities—and in doing so, we discover the grounds for effective resistance right where we are.   Anatomy of a Rug Pull In getting komooted, we feel the pain of not being represented in the companies we work for and the platforms we use. Komoot was supposed to be special, the darling of the German startup scene. A unicorn not only in terms of prospective valuation but also in its good working conditions and a progressive mission of enabling access to the outdoors.3 The owners’ assured their long-term commitment with the mantra “we won’t sell.” The abrupt sale stripped Komoot of its green veneer, revealing hard business as usual. Unusually, none of the employees held stock in the startup, deemed unnecessary or “not possible” by the management.4  We shouldn’t be surprised, because capturing communities with false promises only to sell us out is business as usual in the corporate internet. The founders handled the transition horribly, even by tech industry standards, and the pain and disruption it creates in our lives is real. Yet capital is constantly pulling the rug on online communities—the people of Couchsurfing, Reddit, Twitter, and many more were similarly komooted. For corporations, it’s always profits over people. In financial capitalism, companies themselves become commodities. This pits owners against the people who build the platform in the pursuit of shareholder value. In the official press release of the sale, CEO Markus Hallerman described the 45 million users like a resource that they grew and sold.5 It doesn’t even mention the loyal employees who built the platform into what it is. The new owners, for their part, are “enthusiastic about its future growth potential.” To capital, the corporation is a vehicle for profit; the platform is their plantation. Capitalists see our forests only for their timber value, and they wield the power to impose their limited view on us.6  Unsustainable growth is not just ideology but an imperative, and it’s blatantly unsustainable. In a 2023 interview, Hallerman revealed that Komoot’s revenue was roughly split between recurring subscriptions and new users making one-time payments for map regions, with ad revenue making up a small remainder.7 That means they had to keep signing new users and expanding into new markets to stay in business. Komoot relied on continual growth in a finite world—an impossibility. What cannot continue forever is, by definition, unsustainable.  Driven by the growth imperative, Komoot’s leaders prioritized user base growth and engagement above all else. As I learned, development focused on features that would drive sign-ups and help take over new markets. These ranged from highly compelling features such as the global map with user-generated Highlights and Trail View user photos, algorithmic route recommendations, and human-curated collections, to less savory tactics such as dominating search results with thousands of shoddy algorithmically generated route pages for every destination. Feedback from power users and ambassadors was chronically neglected. The platform was probably approaching a finite user limit in Europe by 2024.8 The sale appears to be a cash-out before growth in Europe inevitably stalled.  Private equity’s business model lies in squeezing the maximum amount of profit from the company until it dies and then throwing it away. Having acquired an expiring business, Bending Spoons immediately started culling the hands who were keeping it alive. They fired the knowledgeable employees with next to no handover and alienated the most passionate users. What’s left is an illusion of a brand, a captive user

At Linaro Connect 2025 Linaro, thanks to its work within the Qualcomm ecosystem, and TUXEDO Computers, showcased an off-the-shelf prototype ARM64 Linux laptop using the Snapdragon X Elite SoC, demonstrating progress in enabling Linux on Snapdragon devices to meet the increasing demand for ARM computing. But wait! This is just the tip of the iceberg of a long journey! Advancements in Linux Support for Snapdragon X Elite: Over the past year, substantial progress has been made in integrating Linux support for Snapdragon X Elite laptops. Qualcomm and many laptop vendors worked together to bring to market a new family of Snapdragon-powered personal computers. This new processor family ticks all the boxes for powerful and productive machines, and the collaboration with Microsoft brought the support for Windows on Arm on these devices as the main operating system (which Linaro has contributed to as well). Unfortunately, like Apple computers, there is no native out-of-the-box Linux support. The effort from Qualcomm and Linaro has been crucial to bring a functional Linux to the new family of ARM64-powered laptops. The engineering experts from Qualcomm, Linaro and the kernel community have made a stable Linux experience possible across many Qualcomm processors, including the newer Snapdragon X Elite. But we are still missing pre-installed Linux laptops. In the x86 processor-based laptop market, many vendors now offer Linux options. State of the art: Where are we now with the Linux support on these Snapdragon laptops? A year after the processor announcement, the current Linux Kernel 6.15 already supports many commercial laptops: Lenovo Yoga 7x Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 Dell XPS 13 Asus Vivobook S15 HP Omnibook x14 Microsoft Surface 13/15 The enablement wouldn’t have been possible without the collaboration between Linaro, Qualcomm, the community, and the laptop vendors. During the last few years, Linaro engineers have contributed to many improvements in terms of functionalities and use cases, including: GPU and 2D/3D acceleration External display output (USB-C DP altmode) USB enablement Audio support Software camera support Thermal management Wi-Fi/Bluetooth/Modem Suspend/resume Contact Us to know more. Currently, the Linux experience on ARM64 laptops lags behind Windows on the same hardware and Linux on x86 laptops. Linaro’s goal is to enhance the out-of-the-box experience, reliability, and overall user experience on Qualcomm-powered laptops running popular Linux distributions, such as Debian and Fedora, by addressing fundamental issues. Watch the Linux ARM64 Compute Laptops BoF discussion at Linaro Connect 2025 Thanks to the changes available in the kernel, Ubuntu community has released an installable Concept Distro for Ubuntu 24.10 and now Canonical is adding ARM64 Laptops support for Ubuntu 25.04 distro and also Fedora is working on it. In other words, the development progress is going in the right direction, distro support is on its way and many people are starting to drive these devices with Linux daily. TUXEDO Computers’ Commitment to Linux on ARM: The integration of Linux on Qualcomm laptops signifies more than just a technical milestone. It has the potential to create a positive impact on the global technology ecosystem and the wider market. This is what the folks at TUXEDO Computers are putting their bets on, a full-fledged laptop with one of the latest and innovative ARM64 processors with Linux. The promise and the commitment from TUXEDO to release a Qualcomm Laptop with pre-installed Linux is a living fact that this operating system is mature enough for desktop use on these devices. Tuxedo directly contacted us for help for technical support to bring up the missing bits on the device, and they sent us two prototypes to develop on. Collaboration between experts from both companies successfully enabled Linux installation and the proper functioning of many features on this device. The unique nature of this case study and its growing interest create new opportunities for developers, businesses, and consumers who require Linux in their Snapdragon X Series family products, paving the way for increased choice and innovation in the ARM64-based laptop space and beyond. ”Many customers are eagerly awaiting an alternative to x86 notebooks, and the new Snapdragon architecture makes this possible for the first time with Linux, offering comparable performance alongside reduced energy consumption. While we are still in the development phase, we can confidently say that users can look forward to long battery life and solid performance in a lightweight, quiet device. We consider our collaboration with Linaro to be highly cooperative and inspiring,” said Herbert Feiler, CEO of TUXEDO. The demo Here is a video of the TUXEDO Elite 14 Gen1 prototype showcased at Linaro Connect 2025: Your browser does not support the video tag. The conference demonstration featured the device connected via a fully functional USB-C port to a keyboard, mouse, and external monitor while charging. To showcase the stability during multitasking use, we were able to browse several internet pages while running classic X86-64 playable 3D games emulated with the X86-64 emulator FEX-EMU. While the device is still a prototype, it requires some manual setup and some of the feature enablements are work in progress, but the main things are all in place, demonstrating the potential use as daily drive use. We made this happen by working together with TUXEDO engineers. We extended the initial support they sent on the Linux Kernel Mailing List with patches that enable more hardware components. Read More

Chandelis Duster Jul. 26, 2025 Nearly 4,000 NASA employees have opted to leave the space agency through the Trump administration’s deferred resignation program, NASA said on Saturday. The cuts amount to an estimated 20% of NASA’s workforce, and will reduce the agency from 18,000 to 14,000 employees, NASA spokesperson Cheryl Warner said in a statement shared with NPR. The total number includes the agency’s loss of 500 other workers due to normal attrition, she said. During a second round of the program, which closed at midnight Friday, 3,000 employees applied to leave the agency, Warner said, following the 870 employees that applied to leave during the first round. The resignations follow the Trump administration’s plan to reduce the federal workforce and implement cuts recommended by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). NPR has reached out to the White House for comment. It’s unclear when the full reduction of the workforce will take effect, Warner said. NASA did not respond to NPR’s questions about how the workforce cuts will affect the agency. The administration has also proposed decreasing NASA’s budget. A fiscal year 2026 budget request released in May would reduce funding for the agency by about 24% (from nearly $25 billion to nearly $19 billion.) But the House and Senate are discussing recommendations that would keep funding for the agency around the current budget. Concerning funding beyond the next fiscal year, however, the agency recently got a boost — reversing earlier proposals to retire some NASA programs. Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act that he signed into law earlier this month, allocates nearly $10 billion in additional funding for NASA through 2032, including backing for Mars missions and plans to return to the moon. The White House’s proposed budget cuts and changes at the agency have faced criticism from scientists and space organizations, including The Planetary Society, a nonprofit led by Bill Nye, “The Science Guy.” “The Planetary Society believes that a great nation deserves a great space program, one that reflects our national ideals and serves the public interest,” the organization said about the White House budget proposal in May. “This proposal doesn’t merely fall short — it actively rejects that promise, undermining the rare opportunity NASA provides to build unity at home and collaboration abroad through American leadership.” On Monday, more than 300 current and former NASA employees signed and sent a letter known as the “Voyager Declaration” to interim NASA administrator Sean Duffy, criticizing “rapid and wasteful changes” at the agency that they say include cuts to programs and research. They also urged Duffy to not implement the proposed cuts and said “they are not in the best interest of NASA.” Copyright 2025 NPR Read More

Serving tech enthusiasts for over 25 years. TechSpot means tech analysis and advice you can trust. In context: Steam is known for its periodic overhauls, which aim to enhance how users interact with its vast catalog of games. The latest update, introduced in the Steam client beta, marks another step in this ongoing process, featuring a redesigned store menu and several new features intended to improve navigation and personalization on the platform. One of the most noticeable changes is the merging of the traditional left column of links with the familiar blue navigation bar. This unified menu consolidates essential destinations, addressing user complaints about the confusion caused by switching between two separate areas. The restructured menu is now accessible from more store pages, ensuring users can easily navigate the site regardless of where they are. The streamlined bar automatically hides as users scroll but reappears with a slight upward scroll, keeping the interface clean yet easy to access. In addition to navigation enhancements, the store’s search function has undergone a significant overhaul. The updated search panel now highlights trending topics, allowing users to explore what’s popular within the community at any given time. It also features a dedicated section for recently viewed games, and search results now include categories, tags, publishers, and more. For users who want to refine their queries, an advanced search page is now easier to locate and offers expanded filtering options. The browsing experience has also been revamped. A broadened Browse tab now allows sorting by popularity, release date, and available discounts. This aims to make it easier to discover new or trending games and promotions. Steam’s recommendation engine is now more centralized, gathering personalized suggestions in one place based on play history, purchases, and community activity. This helps users find games they’re likely to enjoy without needing to navigate through different parts of the platform. Categories and tags, an important part of how users sift through the store’s massive selection, are also being personalized. The new system surfaces genres and themes most relevant to individual users, highlighting hubs of similar games and introducing players to curated groupings based on their own gaming habits. Read More

Serving tech enthusiasts for over 25 years. TechSpot means tech analysis and advice you can trust. Cutting corners: When the United Kingdom began strictly enforcing age verification rules on all adult websites, many predicted a spike in VPN usage – and provider Proton now has the data to prove it. But another unusual and amusing workaround has also emerged. Proton VPN reported a 1,400% increase in logins from the UK on Friday. The company attributed the surge to the stricter enforcement of the Online Safety Act, which mandates stringent ID checks for pornography websites. However, VPNs aren’t the only effective method for accessing restricted sites and social media platforms. The VPN provider also shared a chart showing that Google searches for “Proton” in the UK increased by nearly 100-fold on Friday. Other services, such as NordVPN, have likely also seen increased interest from British users trying to bypass restrictions via international servers. Following the July 25 expansion of the Online Safety Act, Pornhub, XHamster, and other adult websites began displaying age verification gates when accessed from UK IP addresses. Reddit started enforcing the requirement earlier this month. Clicking a button to confirm you’re over 18 is no longer enough. The UK communications regulator, Ofcom, now requires age checks through photos, videos, credit cards, phone numbers, or ID cards. Clicking a button to confirm you’re over 18 is no longer enough. Proton also reported a 1,000% spike in logins from France in June after Pornhub blocked access for French users in response to similar legislation. Texas and several other US states have also begun enforcing age checks. Pretty sure it’s not the footy this time… pic.twitter.com/dQJM87dDaB – Proton VPN (@ProtonVPN) July 25, 2025 Discord has introduced a similar age gate in the UK for users attempting to change settings or access age-restricted channels, but users have already found a workaround. The designers of the age verification system anticipated that people might submit photos of older adults to avoid sharing their own information. What they didn’t anticipate was the increasing realism of modern video game photo modes. Uploading a picture of well-known stock photo model András Arató (aka “Hide the Pain Harold”) can pass the system’s initial check, but it also requires users to open and close their mouths to prove they’re real. You can use Death Stranding’s photo mode to bypass Discord’s age verification https://t.co/o9n0c0lwkI pic.twitter.com/mvYmhZZCVp – Dany Sterkhov 🛡✈ (@DanySterkhov) July 25, 2025 In response, one user shared screenshots from the game Death Stranding, which lets players manipulate facial expressions in its photo mode. PC Gamer confirmed the trick works by holding a phone camera up to a TV displaying the in-game footage. The Online Safety Act has drawn criticism over privacy concerns, but the surge in VPN usage and other clever workarounds, shows that enforcing online age verification is proving difficult, if not impossible. Read More

Serving tech enthusiasts for over 25 years. TechSpot means tech analysis and advice you can trust. Rumor mill: Amazon MGM Studios is moving forward with a television adaptation of the long-running Wolfenstein video game series, Variety has learned. The project, which unites creative forces behind recent video game-to-TV successes (including the team behind Amazon’s acclaimed Fallout series) is being developed under considerable secrecy, with even basic plot details still under wraps. The series is based on the iconic games known for their alternate history narratives set in the aftermath of World War II. Central to the franchise is the battle against a technologically advanced Nazi regime, with most entries following the exploits of American soldier William “B.J.” Blazkowicz. Over the decades, Wolfenstein has been recognized not only for its storytelling – blending science fiction and the occult – but also for pioneering the first-person shooter genre and influencing the evolution of video game storytelling. Patrick Somerville, whose previous credits include Station Eleven and Maniac, is attached as creator, writer, executive producer, and showrunner. He brings to the adaptation a reputation for combining imaginative fiction with character-driven drama. The production team includes Kilter Films, the company behind Amazon’s successful Fallout series, with Jonathan Nolan, Lisa Joy, and Athena Wickham serving as executive producers. They are joined by James Altman of Keyframe Films and Jerk Gustafsson of MachineGames, the current developer of the Wolfenstein franchise. Although the series’ official description remains terse… “The story of killing Nazis is evergreen,” the involvement of MachineGames and Kilter Films suggests an approach rooted in the timeline established by the recent rebooted games. These titles thrust Blazkowicz into a nightmarish version of history, where the Axis powers have won World War II through the use of advanced technology. The storylines blend high-octane action with dark satire, often exploring the consequences of unchecked authoritarian power, a thematic thread likely to carry over into the television adaptation. No release date or casting announcements have been made, and Amazon MGM Studios declined to comment further on the production’s status or schedule. The adaptation comes amid Amazon’s increased investment in video game properties for television. In addition to the hit Fallout series, the company is developing adaptations of titles such as Mass Effect and God of War, reflecting the growing appetite for long-form video game storytelling in the streaming space. The Wolfenstein franchise spans over four decades, most notably marked by the 1992 hit Wolfenstein 3D, which helped popularize the now-standard first-person perspective in action games. More recent titles, including The New Order and Youngblood, have expanded the alternate history premise. Read More

Serving tech enthusiasts for over 25 years. TechSpot means tech analysis and advice you can trust. Editor’s take: The number of services Google has chosen to retire is starting to resemble a digital massacre. While Mountain View excels at launching new products, its track record for long-term support is far less impressive, and that should concern everyone. Google is moving ahead with its previously announced plan to kill off billions of internet links created through its URL shortener service. All URLs using the “goo.gl” domain will stop working entirely by August 25, 2025, returning a standard HTTP 404 error. The company originally deprecated the Goo.gl service in 2018, urging developers and web admins to switch to its newer Firebase Dynamic Links. However, FDL was also eventually deprecated, though Google continued to resolve existing goo.gl links to their original destinations. In 2024, Google confirmed the final shutdown date. The company noted that over 99 percent of shortened links were seeing no traffic, citing a shift in how people access the internet. Google encouraged users to move on to what it called “new and innovative” ways of browsing the web, including app-based experiences. Since Google’s 2024 announcement, goo.gl links have been displaying a warning about the service’s impending shutdown. That message will disappear soon as well, as goo.gl prepares to join the ever-growing graveyard of products and services abandoned by Google over the years. Meanwhile, alternatives like TinyURL continue shortening millions of links daily and show no signs of exiting the market anytime soon. In fact, URL shorteners have become more relevant than ever. With platforms like Facebook, YouTube, and others routinely generating bloated, multi-parameter URLs, condensed links are now essential for sharing content efficiently via messaging apps, custom websites, or QR codes. Goo.gl’s demise also serves as a stark reminder of Google’s unpredictable product strategy. The former “don’t be evil” company has a long history of launching services, pushing users to adopt them, and then quietly pulling the plug just a few years later. Now it’s playing the same game with AI, so enjoy Gemini while it lasts. It might not be long before it’s buried alongside Inbox, Stadia, Google+, and yes, goo.gl. I’ll bet my Google+ page on it. Read More