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Archives for February 2026

Richard Lawler
Richard Lawler
Overwatch Rush is a top-down spinoff made for iOS and Android.

Blizzard apparently isn’t busy enough with Overwatch, announcing a mobile version of the game that “will begin select region testing soon.” Unlike mobile versions of games like Call of Duty, PUBG, or Fortnite, it’s not an attempt at an FPS and is being made by a separate team.

A gameplay preview trailer shows a similar feeling but slower-paced game capable of running on devices like an iPhone XS or Pixel 4a.

Stevie Bonifield
Stevie Bonifield
Google is ‘deeply sorry’ for push notification that included a racial slur.

The notification was related to an incident at the BAFTAs on Sunday, as Variety reports. “We’ve removed the offensive notification,” Google spokesperson Brianna Duff said in a statement to The Verge, adding that the error didn’t involve AI, but rather that push notification systems intended to “accurately characterize” content from the web “accidentally” included the slur.

Stevie Bonifield
Stevie Bonifield
Instagram is coming to Google TV.

After launching on Amazon Fire TV in December, Instagram for TV is expanding to Google TV devices in the US starting Tuesday, as Instagram head Adam Mosseri announced in a post on Threads. The feature lets users view reels on their TV, arranged into “channels” for different topics and themes.

Dominic Preston
Dominic Preston
30 organizations call for an end to Android developer registration.

The likes of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Open Rights Group signed an open letter from the Keep Android Open project in opposition to developer registration, which opens next month and will be mandatory from September. The group’s Marc Prud’hommeaux explains why:

“We’ve been reaching out to Google for months to implore them to reverse course on this lockdown. The implications of their threatened action for competition and digital sovereignty are dire.”

Jay Peters
Jay Peters
Ball x Pit x Mobile.

The very good Ball x Pit is coming to iOS and Android on March 12th.

Stevie Bonifield
Stevie Bonifield
Two former Google employees have been indicted for stealing Tensor chip secrets.

The ex-employees, along with one of their husbands, were arrested on Thursday after allegedly stealing trade secrets related to the Tensor chips in Google’s Pixel phones and sending them to Iran.

They’re now facing 14 felony counts of conspiracy, theft of trade secrets, and destruction of evidence, Bloomberg reports.

Andrew Liszewski
Andrew Liszewski
Two more retro Sega mobile games could be delisted soon.

Sonic The Hedgehog Classic and Sonic The Hedgehog 2 Classic are the latest games from Sega’s Forever program that could soon disappear from the Google Play and Apple app stores. Both games now display a pop-up message warning that “support for this game will be discontinued, but you can continue playing offline!”

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An end of service screenshot from Sonic The Hedgehog Classic on iOS.
There’s no timeline for when the two Sonic games may be delisted from digital storefronts.
Screenshot: Sonic The Hedgehog Classic
Jay Peters
Jay Peters
Chrome is officially getting split view.

With split view, you’ll be able to put two Chrome tabs right next to each other in one window. It’s already been available for some, but now it’s rolling out for everyone. Seems handy.

A screenshot of Google Chrome’s split view.
Image: Google
Jay Peters
Jay Peters
The new Gemini 3.1 Pro AI model “represents a step forward in core reasoning.”

Gemini 3.1 Pro is rolling out starting today in the Gemini app and NotebookLM. According to Google:

3.1 Pro is designed for tasks where a simple answer isn’t enough, taking advanced reasoning and making it useful for your hardest challenges. This improved intelligence can help in practical applications — whether you’re looking for a clear, visual explanation of a complex topic, a way to synthesize data into a single view, or bringing a creative project to life.