Fans of Final Fantasy XIV are soon going to have a new enemy to take on later this month, straight from the iconic world of Final Fantasy VII: the dreaded Ruby Weapon. Square Enix just announced a new patch for their hit MMORPG earlier today, which promises to bring in a whole new array of content and updates to the ever-evolving online experience, including a fight with the colossal superboss ahead of the Final Fantasy VII upcoming remake in April....

The fact of the matter is that anime has a special charm of its own that’s quite hard to beat. From hilarious love stories to incredible action set-pieces, anime has all this and then some. No matter where your interests may lie, it’s very much possible that your area will be covered with a slew of anime series that are all great in their own right. One such vertical that anime has grabbed by the horns is action, developing its own genre in the process — shonen....

The US Federal Trade Commission is opening an investigation looking into whether Facebook misused the personal data of its users. Bloomberg reports this morning via an anonymous source that the FTC will be probing Facebook and its involvement with Cambridge Analytica. The investigation will seek to find out if the social service broke a consent decree with how it used personal data. The Verge has a detailed timeline of what’s been happening with this development after The New York Times and The Guardian reported that Cambridge Analytica “misused user data from as many as 50 million Facebook users....

QR or ‘Quick Response’ codes have been connecting scanners to real-world objects since the 1990s, but got widely adopted during the pandemic as businesses moved to contactless communication and payments via QR codes on restaurant menus, parking meters and other public spaces. But scammers are now targeting the QR code’s increased familiarity by tampering with the pixelated barcodes and redirecting victims to sites that steal logins and financial information, according to an FBI alert....

Over the years Apple has made steady improvements to how our devices sync content. On the whole, it’s becoming more seamless to keep photos, videos and other content synced and organized across multiple iOS devices and Macs with software like iCloud Photo Library and iCloud Music Library. However, one area I believe Apple could really improve the user experience is with photo and video management for multiple users. While iCloud Photo Sharing is a nice social way to share and organize photos with others, it’s not a great option to mange your photo and video collection....

Apple has released a major update to its video editing software for professionals with Final Cut Pro X version 10.4.4. The latest version includes support for third-party workflow extensions for the first time with support from Frame.io, Shutterstock and CatDV at launch. Final Cut Pro X also adds batch sharing, noise reduction, and comparison viewer features in the latest update. Motion 5.4.2 and Compressor 4.4.2 are also available as new versions today....

Travel booking website Expedia has revamped its iPad application with a new, tablet-optimized look and improved search. Expedia says that its app is faster at helping you book travel than apps from the competition because of its combined search feature. You just enter your destination and the app will provide results for both hotels and flights in one panel. The app has a handful of other helpful features, according to Expedia:...

The fallout from the Facebook privacy controversy continues. After it was revealed that a firm of political consultants carried out a data-harvesting exercise disguised as a personality quiz, the latest developments include a lawsuit and a Mozilla-led petition for privacy changes to the app … From what we know so far, it is data-mining political consultancy Cambridge Analytica which was responsible for the misuse of data, and Facebook inadvertently permitted it rather than being actively involved....

While we don’t expect to hear the enthusiastic call of Tattoo as a plane soars overhead in the new Blumhouse production of Fantasy Island, we’re still excited about the darker, edgier take on the ABC series starring Ricardo Montalban that originally ran from 1978 to 1984. Privileged guests are taken to a remote island in the Pacific Ocean to live out their greatest fantasies, courtesy of a mysterious proprietor, and learn that it’s sometimes dangerous to get exactly what you wish for....

An image posted on a Chinese forum, claimed to have been taken inside of Apple’s new Paradise Walk store, indicates that Apple could be preparing to release an updated line of Retina MacBook Pros in the near-future. The image appears to be from one of Apple’s iPad Smart Signs within the store, and the sign advertises 15-inch MacBook Pros with technical specifications and features not found in the current lineup....

The Fear the Walking Dead season 5 finale has put Morgan (Lennie James) in dire straits, but it would be a mistake for the AMC series to kill off the character. Morgan, who has greatly outlived his comic book counterpart, may be about to meet an untimely end. In the final episode of Fear the Walking Dead season 5, Morgan and the others came to realize that they had no choice but to give in to the demands of Virginia (Colby Minifie) and the Pioneers, who wanted to split up Morgan’s group and bring them back to their headquarters....

Back when Android manufacturers were adding wireless charging to their phones and Apple wasn’t, one popular theory was that the iPhone maker was skipping contact-based chargers and holding out for long-distance ones. In the end, of course, Apple finally opted for the same contact-based Qi chargers as everyone else. But resonance chargers – which require the device to be placed extremely close to the charging coils – offer limited benefit. Sure, it’s convenient to be able to just put your iPhone X down on a wireless charging dock and pick it up again later without having to fiddle with the Lightning cable, but you still have just as many cables as ever – they are now simply attached to docks....

TechCrunch received numerous screenshots and documents outlining a brand new iPhone app from Facebook focused solely on photo sharing. The program is allegedly code-named either “Hovertown” or “WithPeople” and could be released either as a standalone download for iOS devices or integrated into Facebook’s existing iPhone app. Author MG Siegler says the screenshots look “amazing”, adding: With an astounding six billion photo uploads each month and a total of staggering hundred billion photos (or about 150 photos per user on average), a photo sharing app from Facebook would easily become a smash hit....

Facebook privacy concerns continue as it’s revealed today that the social network has been using a team of contract workers to label status updates and photos with keywords, to help train AI systems to do the same thing. As many as 260 external staff in India have been carrying out the work on content posted since 2014 … Reuters reports that it learned of the project through ‘multiple employees,’ and Facebook has confirmed most of what it learned....

Coming to Facebook is a new change in privacy management that removes the ability to hide your profile from searches based on your email or phone number. This change also seems to be removing the option to de-index your profile from Google and other search engines. Facebook announced in a press release that this change will affect all users currently on the service and will be rolled out in “the coming weeks....

Blumhouse’s Fantasy Island, an upcoming horror reinvention of the classic TV series, is rated PG-13, and that’s likely to undercut its quality. Over the past decade, Blumhouse has become one of the go-to producers of theatrical horror films, with way more hits on their resume than misses. The company has gifted fans with the Paranormal Activity, Insidious, Sinister, The Purge, and Happy Death Day franchises, as well as standalone success stories like Jordan Peele’s directorial debut Get Out....

Fear the Walking Dead somehow managed to turn its villains, the Pioneers, into the good guys in its latest episode, thereby proving that season 5 hasn’t actually had any villains at all. Throughout Fear the Walking Dead season 5, the core group now led by Morgan has faced and overcome a number of obstacles, including fighting irradiated zombies and flying a once-crashed plane over a mountain range. But perhaps their biggest barrier has been trying to win a PR campaign....

FF8 Remastered is still one of the best Final Fantasy games ever made. Time may be cruel, but it apparently has a soft spot for Squall. Anyone looking for a good JRPG experience - classic or modern - will find something to love in FF8 Remastered. Final Fantasy 8 Remastered has been long overdue for some modern polish, existing between two games in FF7 and FF9 that have received the same treatment many different times over the years on several different platforms....

With the European Parliament having passed some extremely tough privacy legislation, and many members being well-versed in the issues as they relate to tech companies, there were high hopes for yesterday’s grilling of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Tough and pertinent questions were indeed asked, far more so than in Congress – but Zuckerberg failed to answer more than 40 of them … There were three problems with yesterday’s hearing: The session was too short The format was nonsensical A number of questioners were too interested in the sound of their own voice The format, apparently requested by Facebook, was that everyone asked their questions first, with Zuckerberg taking notes so that he could – in theory – answer them all afterwards....

The cast of The Falcon and The Winter Soldier is growing, with Emily VanCamp reprising her role as Sharon Carter and Wyatt Russell cast as John Walker, otherwise known as US Agent. After a decade of dominating the big screen, Marvel Studios is expanding its reach to the small screen. The record-setting studio is producing several original series for Disney’s streaming service, Disney+, that will take place in the Marvel Cinematic Universe....