Category: 4. Technology

“Get to the rocket. Pack your boat. Pack your weird guns.”

There’s a joyful overabundance of insanity present in this energetic live-action trailer for the upcoming “Borderlands 4” video game and we love every second of its unfiltered, unhinged madness. It’s a clever marketing tool that perfectly exemplifies and captures the zany ’90s-style tone of the sci-fi shooter looter franchise that only seems to be growing in the wake of the 2024 Hollywood film.

Directed by Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead, the filmmaking team from Marvel’s “Loki” and “Daredevil: Born Again,” it depicts a stampede of anxious travelers streaking towards a retro-styled rocket, pets pulling toys, a golden mime, psycho masks, a crazed Claptrap, a rabbit riding a robo-dog triggering a wicked gun, and even a rampaging elephant with a VW Microbus strapped onto its back.

Per the official synopsis from Gearbox Software, “Borderlands 4” unleashes players to discover and explore a perilous hidden planet called Kairos as one of four bold Vault Hunters, Harlowe, Rafa, Amon and Vex, who are all just trying to make a dishonest living in the galaxy…

“Break free from the oppressive Timekeeper, a ruthless dictator who dominates the masses from on high. Now, a world-altering catastrophe threatens his perfect Order, unleashing mayhem across the planet. Ignite a resistance and blast your way through mechanical monstrosities, bloodthirsty bandits, and vicious beasts, with new traversal mechanics like: double jumping, gliding, dodging, fixed-point grappling, and more.”

After more than a decade without any Bond games, Sony and IO Interactive unveiled the next 007 chapter, First Light, with a trailer at PlayStation’s State of Play in June 2025. Despite the hype, though, the news surrounding the game has been fairly scarce until recently.

On September 1, the official PlayStation X account announced a 30-minute deep dive for 007: First Light at their next State of Play on September 3. According to the PlayStation blog, we’ll see the first mission play out at the showcase, featuring several in-game elements “from high-speed car chases to on-foot stealth sequences and shootouts.”

State of Play presents a 007 First Light deep dive on September 3

Get ready for over 30 minutes of new gameplay. Full details: https://t.co/vcWphVZqkk pic.twitter.com/WoXmQNYAo6

— PlayStation (@PlayStation) September 1, 2025

Once the playthrough concludes, the developers will have a chance to discuss the design philosophy and gameplay choices behind the project.

You can tune into PlayStation’s State of Play for 007: First Light’s deep dive on September 3, 2025. For the global audience, these are the times you can expect the broadcast to start:

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Given IO Interactive’s history with the Hitman series and what we saw in the announcement trailer, 007: First Light looks to follow the stealth-action level-based sandbox design — a formula rarely seen in prior James Bond games.

The setting feels eerily close to Hitman, with a distinct environment and a large crowd you have to navigate through to confront the target. The narrative itself is a spin on Bond’s origin story, where we play him as a small-time agent until he receives his “00” status, making it even more obvious how the game bounces around Agent 47’s mysterious theme. 

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As for the release date, we may hear an official schedule at the State of Play, though nothing’s confirmed as of yet. All we know so far is that it’s planned for 2026 and comes out on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC via Steam and Epic Games Store.

The Hitman series has had an extremely active speedrunning scene across all its games, with more recent records for some Hitman: World of Assassination missions being set even today. Assuming 007: First Light follows the same pattern, we can expect veteran Hitman and 007 to jump into the game competitively.

IO Interactive has had a history of adding easter eggs and shortcuts to their levels, so it’d be interesting to see the community uncover these secrets with 007’s release.

⚠️ An APK teardown helps predict features that may arrive on a service in the future based on work-in-progress code. However, it is possible that such predicted features may not make it to a public release.

You’ve just installed Linux, and everything looks shiny and new. The desktop is clean, the system is running, and you’re ready to dive in. But before you start using it day to day, there are a few simple steps you can take that can make the experience nearly perfect. Linux distributions like Ubuntu, Fedora, or Debian come ready to use right after installation, but with a little fine-tuning, you can take things from good to great.

Update and enable repositories

Start from the start

First, make sure your fresh install is fully updated. This brings in any bug fixes and performance improvements. For example, on Ubuntu, you would run sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade. This ensures you aren’t running into issues already solved upstream.

While you’re at it, double-check that you have access to all standard repositories. Ubuntu’s installer usually enables universe and multiverse (for more software and codecs), but if not, enable them via Software & Updates (GUI) or by editing /etc/apt/sources.list.

Tweak the user interface

Make your Linux desktop more comfortable and personal

A few visual tweaks can make your Linux desktop more comfortable and personal. If you’re on GNOME, try installing something like GNOME Tweaks. These tools unlock settings that aren’t available in the default menu, such as changing themes, fonts, and the placement of title-bar buttons.

Fonts also make a big difference in how your desktop feels. While Linux defaults are decent, you can install fonts like Roboto or Noto Sans for the interface, and Fira Code or Cascadia Code for coding. Themes and icons are another quick way to refresh the desktop. I personally like the Papirus icon theme, which has a modern look and is available in the repos for Ubuntu, Fedora, and Arch. You can also try GTK themes like Adwaita-dark, Yaru, Arc, or Nordic.

On Ubuntu’s dock, you might want apps to minimize when you click their icons, similar to Windows or macOS. By default, this isn’t enabled, but you can turn it on with:

gsettings set org.gnome.shell.extensions.dash-to-dock click-action 'minimize'

Get better default apps

Don’t settle for boring apps

Default applications on many Linux distributions are chosen for broad compatibility, but you can often get a better experience by switching to alternatives that suit your workflow.

Start by upgrading your terminal emulator. The terminal is your best friend on Linux, and a more feature-rich terminal emulator than the stock one will only make things better for you. For example, Guake provides a drop-down terminal that you can toggle with a key, which makes it very handy for quick command usage.

File managers are another area where alternatives shine. GNOME’s default, Nautilus, has become more minimal over the years. I prefer Yazi, which is a terminal-based file manager written in Rust. It’s keyboard-driven, incredibly fast, and packed with features. The interface runs in the terminal with visuals similar to ncurses, and it stays responsive even in very large directories.

Most distributions ship with a minimal set of applications, so it’s worth installing essentials early on. Common additions include LibreOffice for documents, VLC for media, and GIMP or Krita for image editing. Browsers are another area worth attention. Ubuntu now ships Firefox as a Snap package, which can feel sluggish. You can replace it with a Flatpak version, Mozilla’s own .deb, or switch to one of these alternatives.

Take a look at the battery and power settings

Optimize for battery consumption

For laptop users, a few quick changes can improve both battery life and heat management. A good first step is installing TLP, a power management utility that automatically adjusts CPU scaling, disk I/O, USB autosuspend, Wi-Fi power, and more.

The default configuration works well for most users, and on ThinkPads it also supports battery charge thresholds, letting you cap charging at, say, 80% to extend long-term battery health. If your distro already uses power-profiles-daemon, you may want to disable it to avoid conflicts.

Adjusting display and graphics settings can also save power. Lowering screen brightness is the simplest and often most effective step. If your system has hybrid graphics, switch to the integrated GPU when on battery. On Ubuntu, you can use NVIDIA Prime or the “Power Mode” option in settings. Fedora KDE offers a similar Prime applet.

Most modern desktops also support power profiles. In GNOME, KDE, and other environments, you’ll usually find Power Saver, Balanced, and Performance modes. Switch to Power Saver on battery to reduce CPU boost and brightness, then use Balanced or Performance on AC. Both Ubuntu and Fedora include powerprofiles-daemon to handle this automatically.

Ditch the usual options

The command line is where Linux really shines, and a few small upgrades can make it far more enjoyable and productive.

Start with the shell itself. Most distros use Bash by default, which is powerful but basic in its interactivity. Zsh is a popular alternative, especially when paired with frameworks like Oh My Zsh, which add auto-suggestions, syntax highlighting, and themes. Fish is another great option that works well out of the box with smart defaults and built-in suggestions, without heavy configuration.

Beyond the shell, replacing some classic tools with modern alternatives can make the terminal feel faster and friendlier. bat is a drop-in replacement for cat that adds syntax highlighting and line numbers, perfect for reading code or configs. ripgrep (rg) is a faster, smarter grep that searches recursively by default and skips irrelevant directories like .git. fd is a simpler replacement for find with colored output and Git-aware defaults.

For monitoring, htop is a huge upgrade over top, offering an interactive, colored process view where you can sort, scroll, and kill processes easily. btop takes it further with a graphical interface full of gauges and charts.

Linux is better than you think

Linux comes with endless possibilities. If you are starting off, you might want to check out these alternatives to default Linux tools. You might also want to explore distros that are good for beginners.

Samsung’s affordable A series phone, the Galaxy A17 5G, is now available for purchase in additional European countries. The handset first made its appearance online in early August and subsequently went on sale in the UK. It was also launched in India late last month.

The Galaxy A17 5G is now available in Germany, the Netherlands, and several other EU countries. In Germany, the handset is priced at €229 ($270) for the 128 GB variant. The 256 GB storage option will cost you €309 (​​$360).

Customers planning to buy the Galaxy A17 before September 18 via the Samsung online store in Germany or the Samsung shop app will be eligible to receive a free SmartTag 2. Notably, signing up for the Samsung Members loyalty program will give users a 10 percent discount on the handset.

Galaxy A17 sports a 6.7-inch Super AMOLED display with Full HD+ resolution and a refresh rate of 90Hz. At the front, the phone has a 13 MP camera for selfies.

The handset is equipped with the Exynos 1330 SoC and packs a 5,000 mAh battery with 25W fast charging support. The Galaxy A17 5G gets a triple rear camera setup that consists of a 50 MP main camera, a 5 MP ultrawide unit, and a 2 MP macro lens.

Samsung Galaxy A17 5G

Other features of the Samsung Galaxy A17 5G include a side-mounted fingerprint sensor, IP54 rating, Android 15-based One UI 7, and a microSD card slot for storage expansion.

Source

Marvel Rivals, NetEase’s free-to-play hero shooter, has managed to amass a wide player base of over 40 million players worldwide, just under a year after its launch. The title was launched on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC, where players celebrated the cross-platform and no role lock functionality while playing as their favorite heroes.

To date, Rivals has introduced 7 major content updates, each bringing a new hero and game mode to keep the game fresh and filled with Marvel magic. Despite this, the Steam player count continues to fall as the past 24-hour peak in August 2025 reached 86,000, whereas its all-time high was achieved 8 months ago in January at over 600,000 concurrent players.

Now, NetEase is choosing to open the title to a few more platforms, with the most requested one being PS4, and it seems that they will finally get to play this next-gen title on their previous-gen consoles soon enough.

When is Marvel Rivals coming to PlayStation 4?

According to a post on the data mining account PlayStation Game Size, a file titled “Marvel Rivals version 01.01” was uploaded to Sony’s servers, implying a possible PS4 transfer as early as Season 4, which is due around September 12, 2025. This comes in days after the K’un L’un map and lore was leaked, which will also see two masked heroes, Daredevil and Deadpool, making their way to the roster.

Since the game’s release in December 2024, NetEase Games has focused on current-generation platforms such as the PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. With over 117 million PS4 users, a transfer might drastically enhance the game’s decreasing player count on Steam, which has fallen 86% since its peak.

However, questions remain regarding the PS4’s ability to handle Marvel Rivals, which is built on Unreal Engine 5, due to potential performance difficulties such as overheating or stuttering, as observed in previous demanding titles.

Are you excited about Marvel Rivals coming to PS4 and do you think it would run as well as other platforms? Let us know in the comments below!

Rishabh Sabarwal

Rishabh Sabarwal is a Senior Gaming Writer at Beebom and an experienced video game journalist with over 7 years of experience covering everything from hit AAA titles to the ever-evolving world of live service games. He’s interviewed industry heavyweights, written for global publications, and now leads Fortnite and Marvel Rivals coverage at Beebom. When he’s not chasing patch notes or breaking news, you’ll find him deep in single-player adventures, building LEGO masterpieces, or hanging out with his dogs.

No, your eyes are not deceiving you. For a limited time, Amazon has the iPhone 16 Pro, unlocked and all, listing at a $255 discount. That brings the flagship iPhone down to around $745, from its retail price of $1,000.

Is there a catch? When you’re buying outside of the Apple store, there almost always is. Fortunately, this one’s a little easier to shoulder: the discounted model is in “renewed” condition, a refurbish standard placed by Amazon that indicates that while the phone isn’t new and sealed, it has been “professionally inspected, tested, and cleaned by qualified suppliers.”

According to Amazon’s listing page, renewed phones have no visible cosmetic imperfections when held at arm’s length, meaning you likely won’t be able to tell if the device is new or refurbished. Renewed phones are also tested to have at least 80% battery capacity, though most of the devices I’ve tried and used typically hover between 95 to 100%.

Also: The best Labor Day deals live now

This offer, in particular, is for the base model of the iPhone 16 Pro. You’re getting 128GB of internal storage, an unlocked carrier state, meaning the device will work with most, if not all, US carriers like T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon, and either Desert Titanium or Black Titanium. (Other colors are available at a discount, but for a lesser amount.)

Now you may be asking: Why should I buy the iPhone 16 Pro when Apple is preparing to launch the iPhone 17 series in a week’s time? I generally advise consumers to wait it out, if they can. Unless you desperately need a new phone right now, it’s always better to see what Apple is offering with its latest devices and how much the older models will be discounted by then.

Also: Buy the iPhone 16 or wait for iPhone 17? Here’s how I help friends and family decide

However, if your current phone is damaged, cracked, or unable to function properly at the moment, this is one of the better deals on one of the best iPhones right now, and you can purchase it knowing that it’s backed by Amazon’s 90-day return or replacement policy.

How I rated this deal 

The iPhone 16 Pro typically sells for $1,000, making this $255 discount a worthwhile deal for ZDNET readers. There are no carrier loopholes and private agreements that need to be made here; it’s an unlocked device that has a generous return window in case you’re not satisfied with the product. That all nets this a 3/5 rating, by ZDNET’s deal score standards.

When will this deal expire?

Deals are subject to sell out or expire anytime, though ZDNET remains committed to finding, sharing, and updating the best product deals for you to score the best savings. Our team of experts regularly checks in on the deals we share to ensure they are still live and obtainable. We’re sorry if you’ve missed out on this deal, but don’t fret — we’re constantly finding new chances to save and sharing them with you at ZDNET.com. 

How do we rate deals at ZDNET?

We aim to deliver the most accurate advice to help you shop smarter. ZDNET offers 33 years of experience, 30 hands-on product reviewers, and 10,000 square feet of lab space to ensure we bring you the best of tech. 

In 2025, we refined our approach to deals, developing a measurable system for sharing savings with readers like you. Our editor’s deal rating badges are affixed to most of our deal content, making it easy to interpret our expertise to help you make the best purchase decision.

At the core of this approach is a percentage-off-based system to classify savings offered on top-tech products, combined with a sliding-scale system based on our team members’ expertise and several factors like frequency, brand or product recognition, and more. The result? Hand-crafted deals chosen specifically for ZDNET readers like you, fully backed by our experts. 

Also: How we rate deals at ZDNET in 2025

The end of any sports season is usually the most exciting part, and MLS fans can watch the climax of the 2025 campaign for a discount. As it has done each year around this time since it to the top North American soccer league, Apple is offering the MLS Season Pass at a discount for the remainder of the season. Apple TV+ subscribers can get access for $25, while everyone else can snag the season pass for $29.

This is just the latest MLS Season Pass price cut of 2025, as . However, it’s not quite as great a deal as latecomers got on the pass last year. Apple’s end-of-season discount for 2024 saw the season pass in early September.

We’re now well over halfway through the 2025 season. Teams have between five and nine games of the regular season left to play. Inter Miami have the most games remaining due to the team’s participation in the Club World Cup, so Lionel Messi fans might get to see quite a bit more of him — especially if his squad makes the MLS Cup playoffs. You’ll also have the chance to check out a few new high-profile imports to MLS, including Son Heung-min at Los Angeles FC and Thomas Müller at Vancouver Whitecaps. The season will end with the MLS Cup final, which will take place on December 6.