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Archives for October 2026

Terrence O'Brien
Terrence O'Brien
Two old-school Japanese mobile games are shutting down over the PHP exploit.

World Quest and Save My Demonic World have run for over a decade, but they’re built on older tech that the developers say can’t be updated to patch the apocalyptic PHP exploit disclosed this week. Because the vulnerability affects almost 20 years of PHP, big chunks of internet history are in danger of being lost. Per Kotaku:

Many old websites and services that are no longer being actively updated (or may simply be too old to receive the update, as was the case for these two games) are now at risk of permanently going offline. Such an event would lock swathes of the old internet from public view, including bits that were already beginning to break down and become inaccessible.

Jennifer Pattison Tuohy
Jennifer Pattison Tuohy
Meet Mori.

Launching today, this companion robot-slash-lamp resembles a mushroom, with a glowing head and eyes that emerge from the base. It’s designed to proactively help you relax and connect with nature.

It’s cute, stylish even. But I’m deeply skeptical about a robot connecting me with nature, and even more so of one whose company, OKA, claims is alive. Mori is available to order now for $649, in four colors.

Updated Oct. 22: OKA sent a replacement video because the original had unlicensed music.

Andrew Liszewski
Andrew Liszewski
Wyze’s new smart bulb security camera can track and follow subjects.

The original $49.98 Wyze Bulb Cam that launched last year had an adjustable camera, but the new $99.98 Wyze Bulb Cam Pan Color doubles the price and introduces a motorized mount so its 2.5K camera can rotate 360 degrees and tilt 180 degrees to keep moving subjects in frame. Installation is as easy as screwing it into a standard E26 socket, and its 1,100-lumen bulb can be set to one of 16 million different colors.

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<em>The camera screws into a standard E26 bulb socket, so it doesn’t require a wall mount to be installed, power cables to be run, or a battery to be charged.</em>
<em>An included switch cover prevents someone from turning off a light switch and cutting power to the camera accidentally.</em>
<em>Cloud storage is an option with a paid subscription, but the camera can also record 24/7 locally to a microSD card up to 512GB in size.</em>
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The camera screws into a standard E26 bulb socket, so it doesn’t require a wall mount to be installed, power cables to be run, or a battery to be charged.
Image: Wyze
Jess Weatherbed
Jess Weatherbed
Capcom data breach leaks over 11 million email addresses.

The breach was discovered on October 19th. That’s a lot of exposed Capcom ID email addresses, but thankfully the hackers didn’t leak much else: 196 passwords were changed (but no existing passwords were leaked), and 43 cases involved date of birth, gender, country, and nicknames being revealed.

Jess Weatherbed
Jess Weatherbed
The next iPhone Duo could have Face ID.

That’s according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, who said Apple is working on next-gen Duo protoypes that have the Face ID sensor located beneath the display on the outer screen. Being demoted to Touch ID has been a step back for the iPhone Duo, but in our review we said it’s “mostly painless” once you get used to it.

Dominic Preston
Dominic Preston
It’s a good time to sell gray paint.

The New York Times reports that data centers are “painting gray concrete and gray steel with more gray,” leading to an unexpected boom for paint manufacturers. Gravel producers and wiring companies are also enjoying an uptick, “creating a long tail of unlikely winners.”

Jess Weatherbed
Jess Weatherbed
The PHP2Shell exploit hit Cloudflare hard.

CEO Matthew Prince says the company saw thousands of attempts to exploit the PHP vulnerability across the Cloudflare network in the 10 hours before the issue was publicly announced. That jumped to “hundreds of thousands” of attacks in the 2 hours after the disclosure, and “millions” by last night. Yikes.

Dominic Preston
Dominic Preston
Australia orders Apple to open the iPhone to third-party app stores.

The court-ordered change takes effect from March 1st 2027, following similar rulings in the EU, Japan, and Brazil. Apple will have to let Fortnite back in the App Store too — one of the last holdouts after a global return — and allow developers to offer alternative payment methods. Apple told Reuters it plans to appeal.

Dominic Preston
Dominic Preston
Now that’s what I call futureproofing.

Some Android users are reporting receiving a Google Play system update dated “1 January 2027,” which really seems to be getting ahead of itself. Sadly, all my Android phones are still stuck on September 2026, which now feels entirely old fashioned.