New York Attorney General Letitia James sued video game developer and publisher Valve Corporation for using game loot boxes to facilitate illegal gambling activities among children and teenagers.

Valve operates Steam, one of the largest digital game distribution services in the world, offering access to thousands of games for millions of users worldwide. At the time this article was published, Steam was reporting over 29 million players online, with nearly 7.5 million playing a game.

Attorney General James said the gaming giant is violating the state’s gambling laws by offering players the opportunity to win random virtual prizes that can be exchanged for real money, in a process described as being similar to a slot machine.

“Illegal gambling can be harmful and lead to serious addiction problems, especially for our young people,” said James. “Valve has made billions of dollars by letting children and adults alike illegally gamble for the chance to win valuable virtual prizes. These features are addictive, harmful, and illegal, and my office is suing to stop Valve’s illegal conduct and protect New Yorkers.”

The lawsuit targets loot boxes in Counter-Strike 2, Team Fortress 2, and Dota 2 that award players with random items, such as weapon skins or character accessories. However, the odds of winning rare items are allegedly deliberately skewed by Valve to make them far more valuable, leading the total value of market items to balloon to an estimated $4.3 billion as of March 2025, according to Attorney General James.

Some individual items (such as AK-47 skins) have even fetched prices of over $1 million, making Steam accounts a frequent target for hackers and scammers.

The lawsuit also highlights the potential harm to children, as they may be drawn into loot box purchases to win rare items and boost social status within gaming communities. “Children who are introduced to gambling are four times more likely to develop a gambling problem later in life than those who are not,” according to research cited in the Wednesday press release.

Attorney General James has asked the court to permanently bar Valve from operating loot box features in the state, to require the company to return all profits generated by the practice, and to impose fines for the alleged violations.

In January 2025, Genshin Impact developer Cognosphere (aka Hoyoverse) agreed to pay $20 million to settle a U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) lawsuit over unfair marketing of loot boxes to minors, obscuring the actual costs. andmisleading the players about the odds of winning prizes.

BleepingComputer reached out to a Valve spokesperson for comment, but a response was not immediately available.

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ASUS gaming laptops have been the cream of the crop for some time now, as evidenced by my review of last year’s Zephyrus G14 and Strix G16. Building on that momentum, the Taiwanese laptop maker has announced its 2026 Creator lineup in India under the campaign “Built for Originals.” The new portfolio expands ASUS’s AI-powered laptop range with three key models: the ProArt GoPro Edition (PX13), the limited-edition ROG Flow Z13-KJP in collaboration with KOJIMA PRODUCTIONS, and the 2026 TUF Gaming A14. Here’s everything you need to know about them.

ProArt GoPro Edition (PX13)

The ProArt GoPro Edition (PX13) is made for people who need serious editing performance on the move. It runs on the AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 processor with up to 50 TOPS NPU and supports up to 128GB LPDDR5X memory. Up front, you get a 13-inch 3K touchscreen display with 100% DCI-P3 color coverage and Pantone validation, along with stylus support. ASUS has also added a dedicated GoPro hotkey for faster editing workflows, along with creative tools like ASUS DialPad, StoryCube AI for media organization, and MuseTree for AI-assisted idea mapping.

Weighing just 1.39 kg and featuring a 360-degree hinge, the PX13 is clearly built for portability. Buyers also get a hard-shell carry case and modular memory foam packaging designed to securely store GoPro accessories. As part of the launch, ASUS is offering a GoPro MAX2 bundle (worth ₹62,500) at a 35% discount for ProArt GoPro Edition buyers. The bundle includes the GoPro MAX2 360 camera, extension pole, two Enduro batteries, and a 64GB SanDisk microSD card.

ROG Flow Z13-KJP

The ROG Flow Z13-KJP is a limited-edition 2-in-1 gaming device created in collaboration with KOJIMA PRODUCTIONS and artist Yoji Shinkawa. Inspired by the Ludens sci-fi aesthetic, the device features CNC-milled aluminium, carbon fiber detailing, custom keycaps, laser-etched vents, and themed packaging. Under the hood, it packs an AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 processor with Radeon 8060S graphics and up to 128GB of LPDDR5X unified memory. The 13.4-inch 2.5K ROG Nebula display supports a 180Hz refresh rate, 3ms response time, 100% DCI-P3 color gamut, and 500 nits brightness.

Advanced vapor chamber cooling and dual Arc Flow fans should help sustain performance in its compact chassis. Buyers will also receive a complimentary PC game code for DEATH STRANDING 2: ON THE BEACH, redeemable via Armoury Crate. Pre-orders begin at 12 PM on February 26, 2026, with availability starting March 4. ASUS is also offering a 2-year warranty extension and 3 years of accidental damage protection (worth up to ₹27,299) for ₹1 as a pre-order benefit. The ROG Flow Z13-KJP starts at ₹3,79,990.

TUF Gaming A14 (2026)

The 2026 TUF Gaming A14 is positioned as a portable performance machine for entry- to mid-level creators and gamers. It is powered by the AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 392 processor with Radeon 8060S graphics and integrates a 12-core Zen 5 CPU with RDNA 3.5 graphics. It comes with 32GB LPDDR5X unified memory and a 1TB PCIe 4.0 SSD, with an additional 2280 NVMe slot supporting up to 2TB expansion. The 73Wh battery supports fast charging and Type-C charging for better portability.

Despite its power, the laptop weighs just 1.48 kg and measures 1.69 cm thin. The 14-inch 2.5K display features a 165Hz refresh rate, 3ms response time, 100% sRGB coverage, and AMD FreeSync Premium support. The device is MIL-STD-810H certified and includes ports such as USB 4 and a microSD card reader. The TUF Gaming A14 starts at ₹1,79,990 and will be available via ASUS Exclusive Stores, ASUS eShop, Flipkart, Amazon, Croma, Reliance Digital, and other retail outlets.

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Micro-scale 3D printing demands a fundamentally different approach to CAD design compared to traditional macro-scale work. With feature sizes smaller than a strand of hair and tolerances measured in single-digit microns, the margin for error is virtually zero. Engineers working in medical devices, electronics, photonics, and microfluidics need to rethink how they handle tolerances, geometry, wall thickness, and support structures when designing at this scale. This whitepaper walks through practical, field-tested tips — from setting appropriate tolerances and reinforcing thin walls to designing functional microfluidic channels and choosing the right materials — so you can reduce failed prints, shorten iteration cycles, and move from concept to validated prototype with confidence.

I should probably add the disclaimer that I like to cook, was a professional chef for many years, and my family of five rarely eats anything other than home cooked meals. But I get it. Many people are looking for a way to eat healthier in the midst of busy schedules, and maybe have never learned how to cook, or want to follow some specific diet like keto that requires a lot of research, planning, and effort.

In those situations I can see the appeal of a solution like Factor. Dial in what you want, it shows up, you microwave it, eat, and you’re on your way without caving and ordering pizza for the third time this week.

While Factor’s meals are generally enjoyable and reasonably tasty—for whatever reason, the dishes tending toward Mexican food seemed to be better than the rest—there’s just no denying that eating food out of segmented plastic tray is, um, uninspiring. At the very least, put your heated results on a real plate. It’ll taste better that way. Trust me, there’s a reason your plate is carefully arranged when it reaches your table at the fancy restaurant. Aesthetics matter.

Photograph: Scott Gilbertson

Factor’s proteins, especially the meats, were the highlight of most of the meals. Options I tried included a meatball and pasta dish with green beans, a bunless burger, shrimp pasta with some zucchini, a faux grits meal (cauliflower grits), and a chicken taco bowl. In every case, the protein was quite tasty, the sauces were a mixed bag, while the vegetables fared less well in the whole, cook it, pack it, ship it, reheat it process. Green beans were especially what I could call “grim”, rather than the “vibrant and fresh” that I suspect Factor was going for.

But you need to step back from the aesthetic experience and remember the context in which these meals exist. This is not fine dining or even a home cooked meal, but a healthy alternative to frozen microwavable meals high in artificial ingredients and often with unnecessary added sugars. When you remember that, Factor start to look not only better, but downright appealing.

from the the-failure-is-the-system dept

We’ve been saying this for years now, and we’re going to keep saying it until the message finally sinks in: mandatory age verification creates massive, centralized honeypots of sensitive biometric data that will inevitably be breached. Every single time. And every single time it happens, the politicians who mandated these systems and the companies that built them act shocked—shocked!—that collecting enormous databases of government IDs, facial scans, and biometric data from millions of people turns out to be a security nightmare.

Well, here we go again.

A couple weeks ago, Discord announced it would launch “teen-by-default” settings for its global audience, meaning all users would be shunted into a restricted experience unless they verified their age through biometric scanning. The internet, predictably, was not thrilled. But while many users were busy venting their frustration, a group of security researchers decided to do something more useful: they took a look under the hood at Persona, one of the companies Discord was using for verification (specifically for users in the UK).

What they found, according to The Rage, was exactly what we would predict:

Together with two other researchers, they set out to look into Persona, the San Francisco-based startup that’s used by Discord for biometric identity verification – and found a Persona frontend exposed to the open internet on a US government authorized server.

In 2,456 publicly accessible files, the code revealed the extensive surveillance Persona software performs on its users, bundled in an interface that pairs facial recognition with financial reporting – and a parallel implementation that appears designed to serve federal agencies.

Let me say that again: 2,456 publicly accessible files sitting on a government-authorized server, exposed to the open internet. Files that revealed a system performing not a simple age check, but a ton of potentially intrusive checks:

Once a user verifies their identity with Persona, the software performs 269 distinct verification checks and scours the internet and government sources for potential matches, such as by matching your face to politically exposed persons (PEPs), and generating risk and similarity scores for each individual. IP addresses, browser fingerprints, device fingerprints, government ID numbers, phone numbers, names, faces, and even selfie backgrounds are analyzed and retained for up to three years.

The information the software evaluates on the images themselves includes “Selfie Suspicious Entity Detection,” a “Selfie Age Inconsistency Comparison,” similar background detection, which appears to be matched to other users in the database, and a “Selfie Pose Repeated Detection,” which seems to be used to determine whether you are using the same pose as in previous pictures.

This was the same company checking whether a teenager should be allowed to use voice chat on a gaming platform.

Beyond offering simple services to estimate your age, Persona’s exposed code compares your selfie to watchlist photos using facial recognition, screens you against 14 categories of adverse media from mentions of terrorism to espionage, and tags reports with codenames from active intelligence programs consisting of public-private partnerships to combat online child exploitative material, cannabis trafficking, fentanyl trafficking, romance fraud, money laundering, and illegal wildlife trade.

So you wanted to verify you’re old enough to use voice chat, and now there’s a permanent risk score somewhere documenting whether you might be involved in illegal wildlife trafficking.

What could go wrong?

As the researchers put it to The Rage:

“The internet was supposed to be the great equalizer. Information wants to be free, the network interprets censorship as damage and routes around it, all that beautiful optimism. And for a minute it was true.”

[….]

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“The state wants to see everything. The corporations want to see everything. And they’ve learned to work together.”

Discord, to its credit, has now said it will not be proceeding with Persona for identity verification. And to be fair, Discord and similar internet companies are in an impossible position here—facing mounting regulatory pressure in multiple jurisdictions to verify ages while being handed a market of vendors who keep turning out to be security nightmares. But this is part of a pattern that should be deeply familiar by now.

Just last year, Discord’s previous third-party age verification partner suffered a breach that exposed 70,000 government ID photos, which were then held for ransom. Discord said it stopped using that vendor. Then it moved to Persona, which was already raising concerns due to connections to Peter Thiel. Now Persona’s frontend is found wide open on a government-authorized server, and Discord is dropping them too.

See the pattern? Discord keeps swapping vendors like someone frantically rotating buckets under a leaking roof, apparently hoping the next bucket won’t have a hole in it. But the problem was never the bucket. The problem is the hole in the roof — the never-ending stream of age-verification government mandates.

And this brings us to the bigger, more important point that almost nobody in the “protect the children” policy crowd seems willing to engage with honestly. Every single time you mandate age verification, you are mandating the creation of a centralized database of extraordinarily sensitive personal information. Government IDs. Biometric facial data. The kind of data that, once breached, cannot be “changed” like a password. You get one face. You get one government ID number. When those leak—and they will leak—the damage is permanent.

Even the IEEE Spectrum Magazine is now publishing articles that detail how age verification undermines any effort to protect children by putting their privacy at risk.

These systems fail in predictable ways.

False positives are common. Platforms identify as minors adults with youthful faces, or adults who are sharing family devices, or have otherwise unusual usage. They lock accounts, sometimes for days. False negatives also persist. Teenagers learn quickly how to evade checks by borrowing IDs, cycling accounts, or using VPNs.

The appeal process itself creates new privacy risks. Platforms must store biometric data, ID images, and verification logs long enough to defend their decisions to regulators. So if an adult who is tired of submitting selfies to verify their age finally uploads an ID, the system must now secure that stored ID. Each retained record becomes a potential breach target.

Scale that experience across millions of users, and you bake the privacy risk into how platforms work.

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We have been cataloging these breaches for years. In 2024, Australia greenlit an age verification pilot, and hours later a mandated verification database for bars was breached. That same year, another ID verification service was breached, exposing private info collected on behalf of Uber, TikTok, and more. Then came the Discord vendor breach last year. And now Persona.

This keeps happening because it has to keep happening. It’s the inevitable result of a system designed to aggregate the exact kind of data that attackers most want to steal. Computer scientists and privacy experts have been sounding this alarm for years.

And what makes this even more galling is that these age verification systems don’t even accomplish what they claim to accomplish.

Take Australia’s infamous ban on social media for under-16s, the poster child for this approach. It’s been a complete failure on its own terms: plenty of kids have already figured out ways around the ban, while those who can’t—particularly kids with disabilities who relied on social platforms for community—are being actively harmed by their exclusion. As the security researcher who helped discover the Persona leak, Celeste, told The Rage:

“Normies won’t be able to bypass these,” while less benevolent people “will always find ways to exploit your system.”

So we’ve built a system that fails to keep out the people it’s supposedly targeting, while successfully creating permanent biometric dossiers on millions of law-abiding users. Not great!

Meanwhile, what’s happening at the legislative level is perhaps even more cynical. Governments around the world are pushing harder and harder for mandatory age verification online. And as these mandates create a captive market worth billions of dollars, a whole ecosystem of venture-backed “identity-as-a-service” startups has sprung up to serve it. Persona, valued at $2 billion and backed by Peter Thiel’s investment network, is just one of many. These companies make grand promises about privacy-preserving verification, get contracts with major platforms, and then — whoops — leave 2,456 files exposed on a government server.

And, of course, these very firms are now lobbying for stricter age verification mandates. They’ve positioned themselves as protectors of children while actively working to expand the legal requirements that guarantee their revenue stream.

Lawmakers mandate an impossible task, VC-backed startups pop up to sell a “solution,” those startups then lobby for even stricter mandates to protect their market, and the cycle repeats.

“Child safety” has simply become the marketing department for a rent-seeking surveillance industry.

As long as the law demands that these biometric gates exist, the “security” of the data they collect will always be a secondary concern to “compliance” with the mandate. Companies will keep rotating through vendors, each one promising that their system is the one that won’t leak, right up until it does. And the age verification industry will keep lobbying for stricter laws, because every new mandate is another guaranteed revenue stream.

The researchers who exposed Persona’s frontend hope their findings will serve as a wake-up call. Given the track record, it probably won’t be. Discord dropping Persona changes nothing—the next vendor will collect the same data, make the same promises, and eventually suffer the same breach. Because the problem was never which company holds your biometric data. The problem is that anyone is being forced to hand it over in the first place.

Filed Under: age verification, data breaches, privacy, security

Companies: discord, persona

These F&B chains are winning over the taste buds of Singaporeans

“I support foreign F&B [brands] over local ones.”

It’s a statement that sparked debate on a Reddit thread—and it reflects a growing trend in Singapore’s dining scene. While Singaporeans still love their local fare, an increasing number are showing support for foreign F&B brands.

This shift is evident in the wave of international F&B chains expanding and growing their presence here.

Over the past few years, Singapore has seen a significant influx of international food and beverage operators. As of 2025, around 85 Chinese F&B brands alone were operating roughly 405 outlets in Singapore, a sharp increase from just 32 brands running 184 outlets in 2024.

Western brands are also entering the market, with names like Chick-fil-A and Yochi among those seeking to capture local diners.

Many of these international F&B brands cite Singapore’s strategic location, strong infrastructure, and vibrant business environment as ideal for testing and localising products for Asian markets, as well as coordinating regional operations and supply chains.

But potential alone isn’t enough—demand ultimately determines success. In Singapore, these brands have not only managed to establish a foothold but have also seen enough consumer support to thrive in a competitive market.

So why are Singaporeans turning towards these brands?

Over the last decade, consumer preferences have reshaped Singapore’s culinary landscape.

Today’s diners are increasingly health-conscious, environmentally aware, and eager to explore global flavours, often influenced by overseas travel. This openness has created opportunities for international brands offering novel concepts, regional specialities, and fusion menus.

But for some consumers, the shift isn’t about novelty. It’s about value.

In online discussions about the growing presence of foreign F&B chains in Singapore, one comment summed up a recurring sentiment:

“Some of these foreign F&B provide better value, like free napkins, free-flow rice and water. Most local establishments charge for these, and they add up.”

It sounds trivial until you realise how price-sensitive Singapore’s mass dining market actually is. In a high-cost city, diners are acutely aware of incremental add-ons, like:

• S$0.30–S$0.50 for takeaway containers
• S$0.50 for water
• Extra charges for rice top-ups
• Service charge and GST

Individually, they seem negligible.

Collectively, a casual meal that costs S$10 could easily edge closer to S$15 after factoring in these add-ons—S$0.50 for water, another S$0.50 for a takeaway container, extra rice portions, plus service charge and GST.

For frequent diners, these incremental costs quickly add up, making international chains that offer bundled extras feel significantly more attractive, even if the base price is similar.

The ability of international chains to offer these perks ultimately comes down to scale and resources.

Many are backed by established parent companies, venture funding, or large franchise groups. That backing provides access to capital during early expansion, standardised operations, and lower costs through bulk purchasing and centralised procurement across multiple markets.

A single-outlet local eatery sourcing from domestic distributors, on the other hand, does not enjoy the same leverage. It would likely pay market rates for ingredients and double-digit monthly rents, hence, absorbing the cost and providing free-flow rice or drinks is far more challenging.

Beyond cost advantages, many international F&B brands have leveraged their resources to streamline operations from the outset, creating a customer experience that feels efficient, fuss-free, and reliable.

Take Luckin Coffee, for example: from the moment it launched in Singapore, the brand used app-based ordering, cashless payments, and standardised store layouts to minimise wait times and optimise service flow. For busy urban diners, this translates into convenience as much as value.

Other brands have focused on consistency across outlets, a factor that independent operators often struggle to match. Portion sizes, ingredient quality, and menu offerings are carefully standardised, meaning diners know exactly what to expect regardless of location.

CHAGEE is a case in point: a tea from its Plaza Singapura outlet tastes the same as one from Pagoda Street, thanks to strict SOPs, centralised ingredient sourcing, and staff training.

In contrast, local eateries may vary slightly between outlets, or even from day to day, depending on ingredient availability and staffing.

Why this matters

All of this is to say that it appears Singaporean diners are increasingly gravitating towards brands that can consistently deliver value, convenience, and quality—traits that larger, well-resourced F&B chains are often better equipped to provide.

For the industry, this intensifies competition. F&B operators in Singapore already operate on thin profit margins of 5–7%, leaving little room for error.

The first 10 months of 2025 alone saw 2,431 food business closures, underscoring the sector’s volatility. Alarmingly, over 60% of these businesses shuttered within five years of opening, and 82% were unprofitable, highlighting how difficult it is to survive in the current climate.

In this environment, businesses that can maintain operational efficiency, predictable quality, and value for money have a structural advantage in meeting these evolving expectations.

International F&B brands have a clear advantage: they can leverage scale, operational systems, and financial backing to meet evolving tastes and lifestyles, and capture Singaporean diners’ loyalty.

• Read other articles we’ve written on Singaporean businesses here.

Featured Image Credit: @the_xw via Instagram/ SDQ International Productions

Samsung’s latest Galaxy smartphones—the Galaxy S26 series—are all about optimization and AI. Announced at its Galaxy Unpacked event in San Francisco, the phones are not hugely different from last year’s Galaxy S25 models, but the company is hyping up performance optimizations that purportedly boost AI processing. Naturally, there are a bunch of new AI features baked into the phones too.

The headline hardware change is reserved for the top-tier Galaxy S26 Ultra: the Privacy Display. It prevents stray eyes from peeping over your shoulder at sensitive information on your screen—no need to apply a third-party privacy screen protector. The Ultra otherwise doesn’t look as visually distinct next to the Galaxy S26+ and Galaxy S26; unlike the previous flagships, they now all share the same look.

Samsung Galaxy S26 Series

Photograph: Julian Chokkattu

The Galaxy S26 series is available for preorder now, with official sales kicking off on March 11. The Galaxy S26 and S26+ are getting a $100 price increase—likely due to a RAM bump, as RAM is expensive these days. They start at $900 and $1,100, respectively. The Galaxy S26 Ultra remains at the same price as its predecessor: $1,300. Samsung also unveiled a new pair of wireless earbuds, the Galaxy Buds4 ($179) and Buds4 Pro ($249), also arriving March 11. Here’s everything you need to know.

The Privacy Display

The Galaxy S26 Ultra has something you’ve never seen on a smartphone: a built-in privacy screen. This is a hardware-driven feature; there are two types of pixels on the OLED panel, one that shoots light directly to your eyes, and another next to it that is wider, allowing the light to reach the sides. That allows you to view the screen from all angles. When the Privacy Display is enabled, the latter pixels are turned off, severely limiting what people around you can see. It’s not just blocking the left and right sides of the smartphone like most two-way privacy screen protectors, but also the top and bottom.

What makes it more powerful than your usual privacy screen protector is that the Privacy Display can be customized via the software. You can toggle it on for the entire screen with a simple tap on the Quick Settings tile, or you can enable it for all incoming notifications, on a per-app basis, or for any app that requires a pin or passcode, like banking apps. Samsung says it’ll even work with its Routines, so you can automatically turn it on via geolocation, like when you leave the office.

Photograph: Julian Chokkattu