Donald Trump’s return to the White House might also prove to be a win for one of his most visible supporters: Elon Musk.

The world’s richest man spent election night in Florida with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort as returns came in.

“The people of America gave @realDonaldTrump a crystal clear mandate for change tonight,” Mr Musk wrote on the social media platform X as Trump’s victory began to appear all but certain.

And at his victory speech at the Palm Beach Convention Center, Trump spent several minutes praising Mr Musk and recounting the successful landing of a rocket manufactured by one of Mr Musk’s companies, SpaceX.

Mr Musk threw his support behind the Republican almost immediately after the assassination attempt on Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania in July.

As one of the president-elect’s most important backers, the tech billionaire donated more than $119m (£92m) to fund a Super PAC aimed at re-electing Trump.

He also spent the last weeks before election day running a get-out-the-vote effort in the battleground states, which included a daily giveaway of $1m to voters in those states. The giveaway became the subject of a legal challenge, though a judge later ruled they could go ahead.

After throwing his name, money, and platform behind Trump, Mr Musk has plenty to gain from Trump’s re-election.

The president-elect has said that in a second term, he would invite Mr Musk into his administration to eliminate government waste.

Mr Musk has referred to the potential effort as the “Department of Government Efficiency,” or DOGE, the name of a meme and cryptocurrency that he has popularised.

The businessman could also benefit from Trump’s presidency through his ownership of SpaceX, which already dominates the business of sending government satellites to space.

With a close ally in the White House, Mr Musk could seek to further capitalise on those government ties.

Mr Musk has criticised rivals including Boeing for the structure of their government contracts, which he says disincentive finishing projects on budget and on time.

SpaceX has also moved into building spy satellites just as the Pentagon and American spy agencies appear poised to invest billions of dollars into them.

Mr Musk’s electric vehicle maker Tesla could meanwhile reap gains from an administration that Trump has said would be defined by “the lowest regulatory burden.”

Just last month, the US agency in charge of regulating road safety revealed it was probing Tesla’s self-driving software systems.

Mr Musk has also come under fire for allegedly seeking to block Tesla workers from unionising. The United Auto Workers filed unfair labour practice charges against both Trump and Musk after the two talked about Musk supposedly firing striking workers during a conversation on X.

Trump has also pledged to lower taxes on corporations and the wealthy.

That’s another promise Mr Musk is likely hoping he will keep.

The fast-paced real-time strategy (RTS) game Battle Aces was inspired by an idea that game director David Kim had while working on StarCraft 2 at Blizzard Entertainment.

“Why can’t there be an RTS game that gets rid of all these tedious clicks and focuses on the fun factors?” Kim recalled thinking. “There was a point during Legacy of the Void’s development where we seriously considered cleaning up all of those things and made an RTS game that’s really focused on the fun. But the conclusion was that we should not switch up what StarCraft 2 is on the last expansion of the game.”

Legacy of the Void was very faithful to the core tenets of StarCraft 2 and is beloved because of that, but Kim hoped to return to that idea for a future Blizzard RTS game. Kim says he prototyped a new RTS game at Blizzard for about six months after Legacy of the Void, but that it was canceled “due to company goals,” joining a myriad of canceled Blizzard Entertainment projects.

Kim has always wanted to return to the RTS space to answer his lingering question about the RTS genre, so he eventually left Blizzard, like many other developers. Now, Kim is leading the development of Battle Aces at Uncapped Games. Revealed at Summer Game Fest earlier this year, it boils down the core concepts of competitive RTS into 10-minute, bite-sized matches. And without all that Blizzard-related baggage and association with the StarCraft IP restraining them, Battle Aces could be one of the most approachable RTS games ever.

Removing what’s not fun

As my Summer Game Fest preview of Battle Aces pointed out, this RTS does a great job of stripping the RTS formula back to its basics. The game clearly lays out every option available to players, making building and commanding units snappy and quick. While Kim says StarCraft 2 is still his favorite game, he admits that parts of the traditional RTS formula likely aren’t anyone’s favorite aspect of the genre and could be removed to create a more fun experience.

Upon closer investigation, Kim believes that people don’t love playing RTS games because they have to constantly remember to manage supply depots, click a build worker button, or manage their amount of production buildings in order to not fall behind and lose. Kim calls those kinds of things “tedious clicks” and stripped them out of Battle Aces. In Battle Aces, players don’t have to worry about building workers, production buildings, or supply depots. They have to keep an eye on the resources they are automatically generating and spend them properly on units they can then be offensive with.

Kim says the ultimate goal of Battle Aces is to create the “most fun RTS” that’s available. This means Battle Aces isn’t as hardcore as something like StarCraft 2 or Stormgate, but that gives it a pick-up-and-play nature that I don’t usually see from RTS games. If you’ve never played an RTS before, Battle Aces will be a good on-ramp as a free-to-play, simplified title in the space.

Building on the fun

In Battle Aces, players have to build a deck of units to bring into the battle. These units are now separated into four different types that all have advantages over one another. Anti-Big units counter Big units, Big units have an advantage over Splash units, Splash units can beat Small units, and Small units are effective against Anti-Big units. That square of unit counters is a core part of Battle Aces’ strategy, as an effective unit deck build and commanding the right kind of unit at the right time are keys to victory. Battle Aces might not be as complex as StarCraft 2, but it’s not as simple as Warcraft Rumble.

Kim has had an idea for an RTS game like this for over a decade, and it shows. Many live service games have touted themselves as the long-awaited approachable entry point to the genre. None of those efforts have panned out, but Battle Aces could because of how aggressively it focuses on stripping away any aspect of RTS gameplay that isn’t fun. It would have been interesting to see that effort pan out with Legacy of the Void, but now is better than never.

The next closed beta for Battle Aces begins for PC on November 7.

Samsung stepped into the wearable industry with its first smartwatch over a decade ago. However, this year the South Korean tech giant stepped up a little bit more with the launch of its first smart ring, the Galaxy Ring (Review), which had a great reception from the public. That’s not all, Samsung is already working on the Galaxy Ring 2, which reportedly could come early next year with several improvements.

Tipster claims the Galaxy Ring 2 is coming earlier than originally planned

Late last month, a leaked Samsung patent hinted that the Galaxy Ring 2 could have a resizing structure. Now, a Korean tipster, Lanzuk (@yeux1122), has spilled some details about the upcoming Galaxy Ring 2 on Naver.

According to the tipster’s post, Samsung could launch the Galaxy Ring 2 a bit earlier than originally planned. However, the Korean blogger hasn’t mentioned any launch window yet. Samsung announced the original Galaxy Ring in January before it launched at the July Unpacked event. Given the claim, we can expect Samsung to launch the next iteration in the first half of 2025.

Apart from the early launch, the tipster adds that the Galaxy Ring 2 might come with a bunch of improvements. According to him, the next Galaxy Ring could feature a thinner design, longer battery life, and more unspecified features. It’s worth noting that the Korean tipster has a good track record with Samsung-related leaks. Still, we want you to take these details with a grain of salt.

Claims about Apple Ring still in development

Besides the next Galaxy Ring, the tipster has made some claims related to some wearable devices Apple is working on. He adds that Apple is still working on a device that he calls a “ring-type wearable” in his blog post. There are claims made about “band-type” and “smart glass-type” wearables in the works.

We can’t confirm whether these details are accurate because the popular Apple insider, Mark Gurman, had previously hinted that Apple has no plans to launch a smart ring. Time will tell if we’ll see a smart ring from Apple. But, one thing is sure, the Galaxy Ring 2 is definitely coming.

US-based glass manufacturer is the company behind Gorilla Glass, a break-resistant glass used to protect screens that’s used on essentially all of the most popular smartphones. Today, the European Commission Corning for anti-competitive practices, alleging that the glassmaker is preventing competition through exclusive supply agreements.

According to the press release, Corning requires mobile phone manufacturers to source all or nearly all of their alkali-AS glass from it, and it also grants rebates to these companies if they do so. Additionally, these phone makers must tell Corning if they receive competitive offers from other glass manufacturers. They aren’t allowed to accept these offers unless Corning cannot match or beat the price.

Similarly, Corning has agreements with companies that process raw glass, forcing them to get all or most of their alkali-AS glass from Corning. They also aren’t allowed to challenge Corning patents.

These charges reinforce how aggressive Corning is in defending its dominant position in the smartphone glass screen market. The latest Apple and Android devices, like the , usually have Gorilla Glass screens, as they’re scratch-resistant and prevent cracking or breaking. While not indestructible, the glass does hold up well against damage. However, Corning’s market dominance coupled with these practices are enough to get the EU’s attention.