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On Tuesday, June 17, 2025, Iran authorities call on all citizens to remove WhatsApp from their devices On Wednesday, NetBlocks reported a near-total internet blackout across the countryAuthorities restored access to WhatsApp in December 2024 after over 2 years of banIran has called for its citizens to delete WhatsApp from their smartphones with fears that the messaging service has become a source of strategic information for its opponent in its current conflict.As reported by the Associated Press, the Iranian state television shared the warning on Tuesday, June 17, "alleging without specific evidence that the messaging app gathered user information to send to Israel".Meta, the company behind WhatsApp, has strongly rejected these allegations and said it's "concerned these false reports will be an excuse for our services to be blocked at a time when people need them the most," AP reported.Iran only recently restored access to WhatsApp, in December 2024, after a two-year ban that followed the country's mass protests over the death of Mahsa Jhina Amini at the hands of Iran's morality police.Now, internet restrictions have once again intensified across the country since Friday, following the first Israeli airstrikes, with many citizens resorting to the VPN apps to stay connected.On Wednesday, June 18, internet watchdog NetBlocks recorded "a near-total internet blackout" across the entire country.Iran's shrinking internet spaceAs the conflict deepens, people in Iran have found themselves increasingly cut off from the global internet.Government-imposed restrictions began last Friday (June 13), following threats of legal actions from Iran's Prosecutor General against media and social media users for content that "disrupts society's psychological security," IranWire reported.This has fuelled a surge of VPN demand across Iran that reached peaks of an over 700% increase on Sunday.There have also been reports of VPN throttling with users finding that their VPN apps have only been operating sporadically. Talking to TechRadar, Proton VPN confirmed the usage spike alongside a significant VPN crackdown in the region.⚠️ Confirmed: Live network data show #Iran is now in the midst of a near-total national internet blackout; the incident follows a series of earlier partial disruptions and comes amid escalating military tensions with Israel after days of back-and-forth missile strikes 📉 pic.twitter.com/Iu598aIMRJJune 18, 2025The incidents come after a series of partial disruptions which NetBlocks has been recording since Friday.Major DNS provider CloudFlare also confirmed the outages, reporting a 90% drop in connectivity starting from 4 pm local time on Wednesday. These incidents do not appear to be due to infrastructure damage.On Monday, a government spokesperson, Fatemeh Mohajerani, reportedly explained internet restrictions as "temporary, targeted, and controlled, to ward off cyberattacks" but it also prevents citizens from communicating and accessing information at the most critical of times.Commenting on this, Proton VPN's General Manager, David Peterson, said: "In Iran, internet blackouts, as well as VPN and social media blocks have become normalized and are now another tool that the regime can turn to."While censorship-resistant VPNs like Proton VPN can work to bypass targeted online disruptions, they cannot help during times of total internet blackout.You might also likeAI to power China’s policing future – and VPN and Telegram users are at riskVietnam blocks access to Telegram – here's all you need to know119 countries saw VPN usage soar in 2024 during times of political crisis

It's the end of the line for Beat Saber on PS VR and PS VR2. While you'll still be able to buy and play the base game on both platforms, as well as any songs and music packs that were released before today (June 18), Beat Games is winding down support for those versions. They won't get any new songs or music packs. As such, the final song that became available for Beat Saber on PS VR and PS VR2 was Lady Gaga's "Abracadabra."

Moreover, the PlayStation versions of Beat Saber will lose their multiplayer features on January 21 next year. Beat Games says that it will still provide customer support to players on those platforms.

"As we look to the future and plan the next big leap for Beat Saber, we have made the decision to no longer release updates for PS4 and PS5 starting in June 2025," Beat Games wrote in a statement on X and its website. "Our passion for VR remains unwavering. We are excited about the possibilities that lie ahead and what we can bring to Beat Saber fans who have been on this journey with us over the past seven years."

Beat Games announcement about PS4/PS5 support.For more details, please visit our website: https://t.co/Vq4zGwcJGK pic.twitter.com/nCWxj2DndY— Beat Saber (@BeatSaber) June 18, 2025

This change doesn't impact the Steam VR version of Beat Saber. New songs, music packs and features are still coming to Beat Saber on Steam and Meta Quest platforms.

Meta bought Beat Games back in 2019. In effect, the company is ceasing Beat Saber development on platforms that do not support its own headsets

It's most likely that Meta and Beat Games are ending their efforts on PlayStation versions of Beat Saber because they're no longer seeing enough of a return on investment (though ending multiplayer support is an odd move). By all accounts, Meta Quest headsets have far outsold PS VR2 units.

It could be argued that Sony hasn't fully gotten behind its own platform. By my count, there are fewer than two dozen PS VR2-exclusive games. The most recent State of Play stream featured only one (non-exclusive) game for the platform, Thief VR: Legacy of Shadow. So, it's maybe not surprising that Meta is pulling the plug on Beat Saber on PlayStation's VR headsets.

It's still a shame though, as Beat Saber arguably remains one of the best VR games around, and maybe even the killer VR app. At this point, it might be best for PS VR2 owners who have a capable-enough PC and want more Beat Saber songs to pick up the PC adaptor and play the game on that platform. After all, Beat Saber is modable on PC (and Meta Quest), and there are thousands of custom song maps available.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/playstation/beat-saber-support-is-ending-on-ps-vr-and-ps-vr2-164136655.html?src=rss

Nintendo just dropped a ton of details about the next major Switch 2 first-party game. Donkey Kong Bananza was the star of a Nintendo Direct livestream this morning and it was filled to the brim with nifty tidbits to get fans excited about the 3D platformer.

The biggest news is the addition of Pauline as DK's sidekick. She goes all the way back to the original Donkey Kong arcade game. Nintendo really pulled a fast one here, as the first trailer showed the sidekick as an anthropomorphic rock of some kind. This would be in line with Mario's various partners in his 3D platformers, as he's teamed up with hats, stars and other inanimate objects.

However, it was all a ruse. Pauline is the sidekick, as she was trapped inside of that rock. Nintendo really went all in with this prank. Even the original box art showed the little rock character, which has now been replaced by Pauline. There's even a two-player co-op mode in which one person controls Pauline. This will work on GameShare, so it only requires one copy of the game.

WHILE IT HASN'T BEEN UPDATED ON SOME RETAIL SITES, NINTENDO HAS UPDATED THE BOX ART FOR DONKEY KONG BANANZA TO FEATURE THE REVEAL OF PAULINE INSTEAD OF THE ODD ROCK #SWITCH2 pic.twitter.com/nqKziSrPEO— FAKE (@FakePearBear) June 18, 2025

There are some major lore implications here. Donkey Kong Bananza features Pauline as a kid and the Donkey Kong arcade cabinet starred her as an adult. This throws everything we know about the arcade game into question. Was Donkey Kong just protecting his surrogate daughter from the evil mustached plumber? Remember, Donkey Kong Jr. featured Mario as the antagonist.

It's also worth noting that Pauline last appeared in Super Mario Odyssey, as the mayor of New Donk City. Did she create the city to honor her childhood hero? I have so many questions.

Pauline wasn't the only cool thing that Nintendo revealed today. Donkey Kong Bananza has some light RPG mechanics, in the form of a skill tree. There are outfits to purchase for both DK and Pauline, which is always fun. DK can also turn into other creatures, offering the ape new abilities. Transforming into an ostrich inexplicably grants flight and turning into a zebra lets players run on water.

The trailer also placed a heavy emphasis on the destructive nature of the gameplay. We already knew that DK could destroy just about anything, leading to novel exploration methods, but that looks to be an even bigger part of the game than we thought. Remember how much climbing up anything changed the Zelda formula with Breath of the Wild? This is Donkey Kong's take on that.

I love that amiibo aren’t dead yet ❤️Donkey Kong Bananza amiibo ft. DK and Pauline pic.twitter.com/iOJreOWIbf— amiibo Alerts (@amiiboAlerts) June 18, 2025

Finally, the game will make use of the Joy-Con's mouse functionality. There's a bonus mode where players can sculpt rocks via mouse controls. Donkey Kong Bananza is a Switch 2 exclusive that will be available on July 17. Nintendo is also prepping an Amiibo figure that stars both Donkey Kong and Pauline. This grants a new outfit for Pauline. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/nintendo/nintendo-just-revealed-pauline-as-a-surprise-character-in-donkey-kong-bananza-165132377.html?src=rss

A threat actor is offering two Cock.li databases for sale on the dark webEmail hosting provider confirms authenticity of the database on saleUsers are urged to change their passwordsA well-known email hosting provider, allegedly popular among hackers and cybercriminals, has been hacked, with sensitive information on more than a million users ending up for sale on the dark web.The administration team for Cock.li confirmed someone had exploited a vulnerability in its now-retired Roundcube webmail platform - and that everyone who has logged in to its systems since 2016 is at risk.“The hacker reports they took the “users” and “contacts” tables,” the announcement reads. “We were immediately able to confirm the validity of the leak based on the column count and samples provided.”Save up to 52% off Lifelock Identity Theft Protection!Your personal info is in endless places. And any one of them could accidentally expose you to identity theft. That's why LifeLock monitors hundreds of millions of data points a second for identity theft. LifeLock. For the threats you can't control.Preferred partner (What does this mean?)View DealWebmail users affectedCock.li is a German free email hosting provider, focusing on privacy and advertising itself as an alternative to mainstream solutions - meaning it has apparently been used by people who don’t trust mainstream companies, as well as cybercriminals.Recently, it decided to abandon Roundcube completely, after discovering a remote code execution (RCE) flaw being actively exploited in the wild."Cock.li will no longer be offering Roundcube webmail," the admins said at the time. "Regardless of whether our version was vulnerable to this, we've learned enough about Roundcube to pull it from the service for good."Soon after that happened, the service was disrupted, and then a threat actor started selling two databases allegedly grabbed from Cock.li, for one bitcoin, claiming the databases contained sensitive user information.The email hosting provider then confirmed the claims, and urged users to update their passwords.The tables contained email addresses, first webmail login timestamp, last webmail login timestamp, failed login timestamp and counter, language, and a serialized representation of user preferences, which includes anything they saved into roundcube itself (different settings or signatures), for approximately 1,023,800 users.The attackers also scooped up approximately 93,000 contact entries from roughly 10,400 users, including their name, email, vcards, and comments. Passwords, emails, IP addresses, and the data of anyone who never used webmail, was not compromised, the admins confirmed.Via BleepingComputerYou might also likePublic database exposed 184 million credentials including Microsoft, Facebook, Snapchat, and government account loginsTake a look at our guide to the best authenticator appWe've rounded up the best password managers

It’s only mid-June, and I'm fortunate enough to have already tested three new flagship mini-LED TVs for 2025. The bottom line is that these new TVs are seriously bright – brighter, even, than last year’s crop, and all three look primed to take their place among our list of the best TVs.The three models I’ve tested are the Hisense U8QG, Samsung QN90F, and TCL QM8K, each with a 65-inch screen size. The Hisense and Samsung TVs have been fully reviewed, while my TCL review is currently in process.Release pricing for the 65-inch model of these TVs is as follows:Hisense U8QG: $2,199 / £2,199 / AU$2,999Samsung QN90F: $2,499 / £2,499 / AU$3,499TCL QM8K (US-only model): $2,499Even though it’s still relatively early in the year, US prices have already dropped for some of these TVs, with the 65-inch Hisense U8QG now selling for around $1,499, and the TCL QM8K for $2,199. The Samsung QN90F hasn't yet seen a price drop, but we expect it, along with other TVs, to get a substantial discount during the upcoming Amazon Prime Day sales event on July 8 through July 11.If you’re in the market for one of the best mini-LED TVs, you may be wondering which of these three TVs is the best fit for you. To help guide your shopping journey, I’ll take you through the plus and minus points of each, starting with some revealing graphs of their measured performance.Hisense U8QG(Image credit: Future)As you can see from the above chart, the Hisense U8QG has the highest peak and fullscreen brightness of these three TVs. The U8QG’s picture is seriously bright! It also has the highest HDR color gamut coverage, with 97.8% for UHDA-P3 and 82.8% for BT.2020 – both fantastic results for a mini-LED TV.In my U8QG review, I praised it for its refined local dimming, which yielded pictures with powerful contrast and detailed shadows. Colors also looked rich, though the TV benefited from some pro-level adjustment to its default Filmmaker Mode for best results.The U8QG’s high brightness makes it a great TV for watching sports, and helpfully my time reviewing coincided with the NBA playoffs here in the US. For daytime sports viewing, this is helped along by an anti-reflective screen, which does an effective job of limiting screen glare from windows, lamps, and overhead lighting.One area where the U8QG’s picture came up short in my testing was off-axis uniformity – when viewed from a far off-center seat, contrast and color saturation both took a hit. The TV’s otherwise impressive 4.1.2-channel built-in speaker system was also prone to subwoofer rattling on movies with heavy bass, and I had frustrations with its Google TV smart TV platform when attempting to browse broadcast TV channels pulled in by its ATSC 3.0 tuner (a US-only problem).Gamers will find plenty to love about the U8QG, which features three HDMI 2.1 ports with 4K 165Hz, FreeSync Premium Pro, Dolby Vision, and HDR10+ gaming support (though it would be better if the U8QG had four HDMI ports). Overall, the Hisense U8QG is a great TV, and also a great value at its current price.Samsung QN90F(Image credit: Future)As you’ll see in the chart above, the Samsung QN90F isn’t the same brightness beast as the Hisense and TCL TVs, but its picture is still plenty bright enough to stand out for daytime viewing, and its Wide Viewing Angle feature and superior motion handling make it a perfect TV for sports.Another QN90F feature that makes it perfect for sports, and also for watching movies in bright room lighting conditions, is its Glare-Free screen, a tech found in other flagship Samsung TVs, such as the Samsung QN990F 8K mini-LED and Samsung S95F OLED, that effectively eliminates mirror-like screen reflections from all light sources, lamps included. The one caveat here is that in such conditions, you’ll need to forgo Filmmaker Mode and instead use the TV’s Movie mode, which was the one we used for our QN90F measurements and evaluation.Aside from having a near-flawless picture, the QN90F has clear, powerful sound from its 4.2.2-channel built-in speaker array, and an almost impossibly svelte, stylish design for a mini-LED TV.Samsung’s Tizen Smart TV platform has seen numerous improvements over the years, and the latest version incorporates the Samsung Art Store, a subscription service that lets you “stream” artworks from museums around the world to display on the TV’s matte screen.Gaming is a QN90F strength, and it leapfrogs over the competition with four HDMI 2.1 ports with 4K 165Hz, FreeSync Premium Pro, and HDR10+ gaming support, along with Samsung’s Gaming Hub for cloud-based gaming. We measured input lag in Game mode at a mere 9.5ms – about as low as it gets on TVs.TCL QM8K(Image credit: Future)Although I haven’t yet published my TCL QM8K review, I have already spent enough time evaluating this TV to get a sense of its overall performance, and the news here is very good. As you can see in the chart above, peak and fullscreen brightness are about on par with the Hisense U8QG, and so is its HDR color gamut coverage.(An equivalent model to the QM8K in the UK and Europe is the TCL C8K.)Colors look rich, yet accurate on the QM8K, and its powerfully bright image and anti-reflective screen make it a great option for daytime sports viewing. Its picture looks uniform over a wider viewing angle than the Hisense U8QG, almost matching the Samsung QN90F in that regard.The movies that I’ve watched on the QM8K so far have also looked great, with the new model equalling the local dimming prowess of its TCL QM851G predecessor. Motion handling is average, which is the same result we saw with the QM851G.The QM8K has a powerful built-in Dolby Atmos/DTS:X speaker system with both side- and up-firing drivers that’s tuned by Bang & Olufsen. It also supports Dolby Atmos Flexconnect, which lets the TV transmit sound directly to wireless speakers instead of connecting a soundbar.The QM8K also has solid gaming features, with 4K 144Hz (and 1080p at 288Hz) and FreeSync Premium Pro support. But with only two HDMI 2.1 ports, the specs for TCL’s TV lag behind its competition, and at 13.6ms, its measured input lag is also higher.Which one to buy?These are all very strong TVs when it comes to both performance and features. Given the current pricing, I’d be inclined to pick the Samsung QN90F, which combines excellent all-around performance with a stunning design, great sound and smart TV features, and superior gaming features and performance.Not that I wouldn’t be happy with any of these TVs, but the Samsung offers a bit more, even if it may ultimately cost more.You might also like...Samsung's next-gen RGB TV tech is starting productionThe 5 new Apple TV 4K features coming in tvOS 26 you need to know about3 new 4K Blu-rays to add to your collection from May 2025