The Pandemic Means Fewer Presents For Many Families. Here’s What To Tell Your Kid.

Enlarge / This gear is from the upcoming "Polar Patriots" Premium Warbond in Helldivers 2. It's an upcoming change the developer and publisher likely wish was getting more attention of late. (credit: Sony Interactive Entertainment) There's a lot of stories about the modern PC gaming industry balled up inside one recent "update" to Helldivers 2. Sony Interactive Entertainment announced Thursday night that current players of the runaway hit co-op shooter will have to connect their Steam accounts to a PlayStation Network (PSN) account starting on May 30, with a hard deadline of June 4.

Enlarge / Cisco Systems headquarters in San Jose, California. (credit: Getty) A Florida resident was sentenced to 78 months for running a counterfeit scam that generated $100 million in revenue from fake networking gear and put the US military's security at risk, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Thursday. Onur Aksoy, aka Ron Aksoy and Dave Durden, pleaded guilty on June 5, 2023, to two counts of an indictment charging him with conspiring with others to traffic in counterfeit goods, to commit mail fraud, and to commit wire fraud.

Enlarge / Holstein dairy cows in a freestall barn. (credit: Getty | ) The US Department of Agriculture this week posted an unpublished version of its genetic analysis into the spillover and spread of bird flu into US dairy cattle, offering the most complete look yet at the data state and federal investigators have amassed in the unexpected and worrisome outbreak—and what it might mean. The preprint analysis provides several significant insights into the outbreak—from when it may have actually started, just how much transmission we're missing, stunning unknowns about the only human infection linked to the outbreak, and how much the virus continues to evolve in cows.

Enlarge / The promotional image for Apple's May 7 event. (credit: Apple) On May 7, Apple will host a product announcement event at 9 am ET. Labeled "Let loose," we expect it will focus on new iPads and iPad accessories. We won't be liveblogging the stream, but you can expect some news coverage as it happens.

Enlarge / A PC running Windows 11. (credit: Microsoft) It's been a bad couple of years for Microsoft's security and privacy efforts. Misconfigured endpoints, rogue security certificates, and weak passwords have all caused or risked the exposure of sensitive data, and Microsoft has been criticized by security researchers, US lawmakers, and regulatory agencies for how it has responded to and disclosed these threats. The most high-profile of these breaches involved a China-based hacking group named Storm-0558, which breached Microsoft's Azure service and collected data for over a month in mid-2023 before being discovered and driven out.

Enlarge / A Long March 5 rocket carrying the Chang'e-6 lunar probe blasts off from the Wenchang Space Launch Center on May 3, 2024 in Wenchang, China. (credit: Li Zhenzhou/VCG via Getty Images) China is going back to the Moon for more samples. On Friday the country launched its largest rocket, the Long March 5, carrying an orbiter, lander, ascent vehicle, and a return spacecraft.