The European Commission said today that TikTok is facing a fine because its addictive features, including infinite scroll, autoplay, push notifications, and personalized recommendation systems, are breaching the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA).

According to preliminary findings, TikTok has failed to adequately assess how these features could harm users’ physical and mental well-being, including minors and vulnerable adults.

The commission found that TikTok fuels the users’ urge to keep scrolling and shifts their brains into “autopilot mode” by constantly rewarding users with new content, potentially reducing self-control and leading to compulsive behavior.

TikTok has also disregarded important indicators of compulsive use, including the time minors spend on the app at night and how frequently users open it, the commission added.

If the findings are confirmed, the violations could trigger a fine of up to 6% of TikTok’s global annual turnover. To avoid being fined for violating the EU’s digital regulations, the commission said TikTok needs to change its core service design by implementing screen time breaks, adapting its recommendation system, and disabling key addictive features.

“Social media addiction can have detrimental effects on the developing minds of children and teens, said EU tech commissioner Henna Virkkunen on Friday.

“The Digital Services Act makes platforms responsible for the effects they can have on their users. In Europe, we enforce our legislation to protect our children and our citizens online.”

The commission added that while TikTok has some mitigation measures, such as parental controls and screen-time management tools, these are likely ineffective because they are easy to dismiss and require parents to enable them manually.

In November, French prosecutors opened a criminal investigation into TikTok, accusing it of failing to safeguard the mental health of children.

The Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) fined TikTok €530 million (over $601 million) in May 2025 for illegally transferring the personal data of users in the European Economic Area (EEA) to China, in violation of the EU’s GDPR data protection regulations.

Two years earlier, the Irish watchdog slapped TikTok with a €345 million ($368 million) fine for violating children’s privacy by processing their data and employing “dark patterns” during registration and video posting.

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Gaming laptops get expensive fast, especially once you start asking for a sharper display and enough storage to avoid constant uninstalling. That’s why the “good screen, good GPU, sensible storage” tier is where the best deals live. The HP OMEN 16 is $1,059.99, saving you $420 off the $1,479.99 compared value. For a 16-inch machine with a 2K 144Hz panel, RTX 5060, and a 1TB SSD, this is a strong value if you want one laptop that can do games, work, and everything in between.

What you’re getting

This laptop pairs an Intel Core Ultra 7 255H (2025) with 16GB memory, an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060, and a 1TB SSD. The screen is the star: 16 inches, 2K resolution, and a 144Hz refresh rate. That combination is ideal for the kind of gaming people actually do on a laptop: crisp visuals when you’re exploring single-player worlds, and smoother motion when you’re jumping into competitive titles.

The 1TB SSD matters more than it sounds like. Modern games are huge, and a lot of “deal” laptops quietly cut storage to hit the price. Here, you get enough room to keep several big games installed and still have space for school or work files.

Why it’s worth it

This deal hits the practical upgrade trifecta:

• 2K + 144Hz gives you a noticeably nicer experience than basic 1080p panels
• RTX 5060 is the right class of GPU for modern gaming, approaching extreme pricing
• 1TB storage keeps the laptop usable long-term

It’s also a good pick if you want a machine that can double as a productivity laptop. A strong CPU, a high-resolution screen, and plenty of storage make it comfortable for everyday tasks, creative work, and multitasking, not just gaming.

One realistic note: 16GB RAM is fine for most people, but if you plan to stream, edit, and game at the same time, memory is often the first upgrade worth considering later. The good news is that’s usually easier than upgrading a GPU.

The bottom line

At $1,059.99, this HP OMEN 16 is a strong value if you want a sharper 2K 144Hz display, a modern RTX 5060 GPU, and a roomy 1TB SSD in a single laptop that can handle both gaming and daily life. If you only play lightweight games, you can spend less. But if you want a laptop that feels genuinely capable across current titles and won’t feel cramped a year from now, this discount is worth taking.

Trump Mobile is already failing to deliver on some early promises, according to the latest report from The Verge. The report revealed the near-final design of the T1 smartphone and uncovered some major changes with pricing and manufacturing.

The Verge spoke with Don Hendrickson and Eric Thomas, two of the three execs behind Trump Mobile, about the company’s first smartphone, which will get a more expensive price tag and no longer boast being made in the USA. Thanks to a screenshot from the report, we can see that the latest T1 design also changed the camera array, which first resembled the iPhone’s but now has three cameras in a misaligned vertical stack.

As for the price, Hendrickson told The Verge that anyone who paid the $100 deposit will still pay $499 total for the T1 as an “introductory price,” but that later customers could fork up to $999. Thomas also revealed that the T1 smartphone will go through “final assembly” in Miami and no longer be “proudly designed and built in the United States,” as seen in the introductory press release. Instead, the website now shows a description that says, “with American hands behind every device.” We still don’t have a release date — and now we don’t even have a final price — but the website still claims the T1 smartphone will be released “later this year.”

When we cover televisions, we often talk about the most popular 55 and 65-inch versions, but as someone with an 85-inch TV in their guest room, I know the appeal of an oversized screen. Today, I’ve got a deal for you on the larger end of Sony’s Bravia 9 Series screens, with a $900 discount on the 75-inch model, and a massive $1,800 markdown on the 85-inch version.

In addition to taking up an entire wall of your living room, these big screens are also super bright, reaching a stated 3,000 nits of peak brightness. Our reviewer Ryan Waniata, watching Moana, noted that “the sun blazed to near eye-squinting levels.” It’s helped along by quantum dots, which help colors look bright and real, even with the brightness cranked up.

While the viewing angles can’t quite compete with the best OLED screens, Sony has some tricks up its sleeve, like antireflection coating and wide-panel tech, which should make sure everyone on the couch has a good view. The occasional rainbow that pops up as a result is most noticeable with dark scenes in a well-lit room, which isn’t exactly the best viewing condition regardless of screen size or panel type.

It isn’t all perfect, unfortunately. There are only two HDMI 2.1 ports, and only one of them is the eARC port, so it’s likely to be tied up with your sound bar. Sharp-eyed viewers may also spot some uniformity issues, particularly around the edges of the screen.

If you don’t feel like you’re ready for the big leagues, or you just don’t have the space in your living room, the 65-inch model of the Sony Bravia 9 is marked down to $2,000, a $1,000 discount, and is a more average sized display. Still, if you can spare the room on your wall, the 75-inch model is just $2,600 and very impressive, and the 85-inch version, while truly gargantuan, is deeply discounted to $3,000. If you’re not sold on the Sony, make sure to swing by our roundup of the best televisions, which also included OLED and QD-OLED options, or check out the full review of the Bravia 9 to see why we recommend it so highly.

Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

It’s Super Bowl Sunday! Fittingly, today’s Mini Crossword includes some related clues. Read on for all the answers. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.

Mini across clues and answers

1A clue: The Eagles have the only N.F.L. logo that faces this way
Answer: LEFT

5A clue: Statement that’s self-evidently true
Answer: AXIOM

7A clue: Wash vigorously
Answer: SCRUB

8A clue: Classic opera set in Rome
Answer: TOSCA

9A clue: To the ___ degree
Answer: NTH

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: Fourth place in an N.F.L. division, for example
Answer: LAST

2D clue: Former inmate, informally
Answer: EXCON

3D clue: Successful gain of ten yards, when combined with this answer’s direction?
Answer: FIRST

4D clue: Trip to the end zone, when combined with this answer’s direction?
Answer: TOUCH

6D clue: Deg. held by many a C.E.O.
Answer: MBA

Good morning! Let’s play Connections, the NYT’s clever word game that challenges you to group answers in various categories. It can be tough, so read on if you need Connections hints.

What should you do once you’ve finished? Why, play some more word games of course. I’ve also got daily Strands hints and answers and Quordle hints and answers articles if you need help for those too, while Marc’s Wordle today page covers the original viral word game.

England will start their 2026 T20 World Cup campaign against Nepal on February 8 in Mumbai. England has won 2 T20I World Cups so far, first in 2010 and then again in 2022. However, the last time they toured India for an ICC event during the 2023 50-over World Cup, they were knocked out in the group stages after finishing at 7th (out of 10 teams) on the points table. They’ll be keen not to repeat the same mistakes on similar Indian pitches.

If you’re away from home right now you can use a VPN to unblock your usual stream from anywhere.

Crime 101 is ready to stake its claim for a place in the pantheon of crime films.

One of 2026’s crop of new movies, Crime 101, based on Don Winslow’s novella namesake, is billed as a seat-gripping heist thriller that might make for a perfect date night this coming Valentine’s Day weekend. And, with Marvel actors Chris Hemsworth, Halle Berry, Mark Ruffalo, and Barry Keoghan among its A-list cast, it’s certainly got the star power to get bums on seats.

Meta is taking a surprising turn in the world of social apps: it’s testing a standalone version of Vibes, a feature that lets users create and discover AI-generated short videos, and giving it its own dedicated home outside the broader Meta AI app. The move, first reported by TechCrunch, reflects Meta’s belief that AI-created video content might be compelling enough to warrant its own space on your phone.

Originally launched in September 2025 inside the Meta AI experience, Vibes lets people generate or remix short vertical clips using AI tools, then browse a feed populated entirely by synthetic videos. Instead of watching humans film themselves, every piece of content you encounter in Vibes is made, or at least significantly shaped, by AI. That feed has gained enough traction that Meta now wants to see how the concept plays out as a separate app with a more focused environment for video creation and discovery.

What Meta wants from the standalone Vibes app

Breaking Vibes out into its own application could serve multiple purposes. For one, it gives Meta a cleaner, single-purpose platform that’s easier to build around than trying to shoehorn the AI-generated video experience into a multipurpose AI assistant. Meta says that users are increasingly leaning into the format, creating, discovering, and sharing AI-generated clips with friends at a growing rate. Though, to be fair, the company hasn’t shared exact usage numbers yet.

The standalone app’s focus on synthetic vertical video puts it in more direct competition with other emerging AI video platforms like OpenAI’s Sora, which also blends social feeds with AI content creation tools. By giving Vibes its own identity, Meta can experiment with features tailored specifically to video creation, discovery algorithms, and possibly even monetization paths like freemium subscriptions that unlock more advanced creation tools in the future.

Meta is currently testing Vibes in select markets and has kept the rollout modest so far, but early interest suggests the company sees a future where AI-crafted media isn’t just a side project, but a core creative format. Whether users will embrace a world where every scroll is an algorithm’s idea of entertainment, instead of someone’s real-life clip, remains to be seen.