Tech

The European Union reveals details of its tech sovereignty package – Engadget

The European Commission has announced a new European Technological Sovereignty Package, designed to further reduce its reliance on foreign tech. The EU wants to focus on building out Europe’s cacity in areas such as semiconductors, AI, cloud computing and open-source projects.

The package consists of two legislative proposals. The first is the Chips Act 2.0, a refresh of legislation introduced in 2023 that at the time was a response to what the Commission called “critical vulnerabilities in the global semiconductor supply chain.”

With the AI boom driving growth in the market, the Chips Act 2.0 will introduce a new excellence label for Europe’s semiconductor regions, adopting an ecosystem proach for both AI-related and mainstream chips. The EU wants to bring chip manufacturers closer to their customers so they can citalize on growth sectors such as data centres and cloud providers.

Also part of the proposals is the Cloud and AI Development Act, which reinforces Europe’s plan to triple data centre cacity on the continent within the next five to seven years. The legislation is another arm of the EU’s ply AI Strategy, which encourages AI adoption and innovation across its member states.

The Commission says the Act will “support research and innovation in cutting-edge and sustainable technologies, while balancing AI ambitions with climate commitments.” The conditions for deploying data centres across the EU will be streamlined, while a new EU-wide framework built around cloud and AI sovereignty will, it says, protect sensitive data while supporting the rollout of advanced AI and cloud tech.

The new proposals also put a big onus on open-source projects in growth sectors like AI and cybersecurity. The EU says it will support open-source startups and invest in skills, while amplifying initiatives like the Open Internet Stack.

The final component of the package is the Strategic Roadm for Digitalisation and AI in the Energy Sector, which outlines the Commission’s commitment to nurturing cooperation between the energy and digital sectors, and ensuring that any new data centres being added to the grid are done so sustainably and transparently. AI models “trained on European data and developed by European companies” will be key to improving Europe’s electricity infrastructure, and the Commission will encourage a faster rollout of smart meters.

“We cannot afford to depend on others for the technologies that keep our hospitals running, our energy grids stable and our services secure,” said Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. “This is about protecting our citizens, defending our interests and making our own choices. Europe has the talent, the research excellence, the industrial base and the Single Market. Together, we must turn these strengths into technological sovereignty.”

The suite of new proposals will now be discussed by the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union. The Commission also intends to consult with member states, the European Investment Bank Group and other stakeholders on how its tech sovereignty package will be financed.

Throughout 2026 we’ve seen a number of EU member states, particularly France, begin to shift away from an overreliance on countries like the US and China for its technology needs. Back in January, the French government announced that it was ditching Zoom and Microsoft teams in favor of a home-grown solution that will be in place across all of its civil service departments by next year. A few months later, the country also outlined plans to switch Windows to the open-source Linux on its workstations.

Earlier this week, it was reported that the European Parliament is also taking steps towards shunning Google on its in-house computers. According to Politico, searches made via the address bar on Firefox and Edge will soon be hosted by French alternative Quant. Workers can still opt to use another search engine’s website or change the default systems on their computer if they prefer.

Tech

Today's NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for June 4, #619

Looking for the most recentregular Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle and Strands puzzles.

Today’sConnections: Sports Editionis a toughie. The purple category is a real challenge. If you’re struggling with the puzzle but still want to solve it, read on for hints and the answers.

Connections: Sports Edition is published by The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by The Times. It doesn’t pear in the NYT Games p, but it does in The Athletic’s own p. Or you can play it for free online.

Hints for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Going to the game.

Green group hint: Game often played on the beach.

Blue group hint: It’s coming home!

Purple group hint: Dunk that ball.

Answers for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Yellow group: Seen at a stadium entrance.

Green group: Volleyball stats.

Blue group: Members of England’s World Cup squad.

Purple group: Starts with part of a basketball hoop.

What are today’s Connections: Sports Edition answers?

The completed NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for June 4, 2026.

NYT/Screenshot by CNET

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is seen at a stadium entrance. The four answers are metal detector, ticket scanner, turnstile and will call.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is volleyball stats. The four answers are block, dig, kill and service ace.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is members of England’s World Cup squad. The four answers are (Dan) Burn, (Harry) Kane, (Kobbie) Mainoo and (John) Stones.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is starts with part of a basketball hoop. The four answers are base runner, glass houses, netminder and Rimington.

Tech

VR exercise platform Supernatural is getting a second chance as an independent company – Engadget

A new p arrives this fall months before Meta planned to shut it down.

Meta recently made major cuts across its entire VR and metaverse division, laying off hundreds and shuttering three studios. The company also announced that the popular exercise p Supernatural would no longer be updated with fresh content. This was a bummer for fans, but there’s good news on the horizon. Supernatural is coming backas a new and independently-owned p.

A new company called Supernatural Health is readying the p for launch this fall on the Meta Quest platform. The best part? The coaches are all back. The worst part? Subscription prices are going up, to $180 a year from $100 a year. The monthly subscription is also increasing from $10 to $20.

The pre-existing Supernatural p still exists for now, but it’s not getting any new workouts or songs. It’ll be completely sunsetted on December 3. At that point, users will have to migrate to the new p.

This is great news for VR fitness enthusiasts, as we called the p “surprisingly effective.” We don’t know what kind of schedule the company will release new songs and workouts, but one hopes the price increase translates to more content. We also don’t know if the company will be able to port the p to other platforms.

Despite taking a blowtorch to its VR division, Meta still insists another standalone headset is in active development. A company memo suggests the Quest 4 will be a “large upgrade” over Quest 3, but could be much more expensive.

Tech

Is a Flat-Top Grill Worth It? A Grilling Expert Tells All

What constitutes a grill? Most of us think of a grill as an outdoor cooking pliance with grates, such that grill marks are achievable, whether it’s powered by wood pellets, charcoal or gas. Different regions put different spins on the word, however. “Grill” in the UK, for example, refers to the top-down broiler function in an oven. (Consider Burger King’s “flame broiled” terminology, which also confuses matters.) The very existence of a “flat-top grill,” furthermore, would seem to negate the grates theory as well, since the defining characteristic of a flat top is the very absence of grates.

In truth, “grill” most broadly means the direct plication of high heat, in which case all the above methods ply. If you’ve ever struggled with the feeling that you’re supposed to have a grill for outdoor seasonal cooking (the grated kind) but find yourself looking for excuses not to use it — because it’s too hard to clean or because you can’t seem to master it — it’s possible that maybe what you actually need is a flat-top grill.

But is a flat-top grill worth it? I consulted an expert, Erica Blaire, the Food Network’s BBQ Brawl champion, acclaimed pitmaster, and ambassador for Beef. It’s What’s for Dinner. Blaire offered insight into the nuances of flat-top cooking and whether it might be right for you.

What is a flat-top grill and how does it work?

Flat-top grills have become popular. There’s less daily cleaning but slightly more ongoing maintenance to consider.

Weber

While the term may be obvious to some, many people associate flat tops with indoor cooking, such as on a griddle. “A flat-top grill is basically a griddle,” says Blaire. “You’re going to be searing. You’re not smoking, and you’re not grilling in the traditional sense,” she said. With a flat-top grill, “you are searing on a uniformly hot surface with no airflow underneath it.”

Flat-top grills feature a flat, solid metal cooking surface with zones powered by individual burners, depending on the model’s size. While many small griddles are available for indoor use, some of which can sit directly on your kitchen range for heat, outdoor flat-top grills are typically electric or gas-powered.

What can you use a flat-top grill for?

Smashburgers, pancakes, and home fries are just a few flat-top grill foods you can make with ease.

Weber

Consider your typical grill fare or outdoor cooking needs, then ask yourself whether a griddle or flat top might be a better fit than a traditional grill.

“For a flat top, you’re thinking burgers — especially smashburgers — you’re thinking fajitas,” Blaire said, as well as other batch preparations that are entirely out of the grill’s league, like fried rice, eggs and anything that you’re worried would too easily slip through the grates or that which otherwise regularly misbehaves on a traditional grill. (Looking at you, salmon.)

“Because you’re getting such high temperatures and such uniformity on a flat-top surface, the sky’s the limit on what you can do,” she said, which of course also includes the ultimate grill expression: steaks.

Many chefs say cast iron the absolute best way to cook certain types of steaks, even during grilling season; an outdoor flat-top grill offers the same functionality, letting you really crank the heat without smoking up your whole kitchen.

“If you’re doing super thin cuts like a flank steak or a skirt steak, on a griddle, you’re able to get the outside perfectly seared but keep the inside super moist and have lots of flavor without worrying about drying it out,” Blaire said.

You wouldn’t want to try pancakes on a grated grill.

Blackstone

What’s more, “with a traditional grill, you’re fighting against the open spaces,” said Blaire, “so all the sauces, those butters, and your herbs or other aromatics may end up in the void. With a griddle, you can put everything on there, and it’s going to stay.”

Maintaining and cleaning a flat top grill

Flat-top grills need seasoning much like a cast-iron skillet.

Chris Wedel/CNET

The particular challenge with a flat-top grill isn’t so much cleaning it, which can be extremely easy, especially if you’ve seasoned it; the challenge is timing the cleaning of it. “A lot of times after you use a flat top, you might just go eat, and think you’ll get to it later,” said Blaire, “but now you’ve ruined your life because it doesn’t have the holes and the void spaces in it, like a grill does.”

If you’re not ready to go full force, you can buy a griddle attachment for your grated grill.

David Watsky/CNET

A flat top really needs to be cleaned right away, or at least while it’s still warm, so you’ve got a moment to start enjoying the fruits of your flat top labor, but in the pause you risk forgetting about it until after it has cooled. “When a flat top dries and cools, everything is stuck on there,” Blaire says. “So you’re going to be having to take a screr and use a lot of arm power, but if you clean your griddle as soon as you’re finished cooking, and while it’s still warm, you wipe it down and it’s done.” Most flat tops designed for outdoor cooking also have a small well or catcher for the bits and scrs that collect during the wiping-down process.

The cleaning factor is an important consideration for an outdoor cooking host, especially if you have a personality type that makes your life difficult every time you use the flat top. Basically, a flat-top grill can be much easier to clean than a grates grill, but it can also be much harder.

How much does a flat-top grill cost?

Blackstone’s flat-top grills start at around $300.

Much like charcoal or gas grills, there’s a real range to what you can spend, depending on your size needs and budget. “It really depends on what you’re trying to get, because now every brand is making options in affordable tiers for all levels,” said Blaire.

A quick look at Amazon shows that many standing flat-top grills range in price from about $250 to $700, depending on what accessories you might want included, such as prep shelves and utensil hooks, with a little savings if you’re looking for a tabletop camping model.

Premium models, including complete outdoor flat-top cooking islands, can go from $700 and well beyond. The good news, according to Blaire, is that nearly any flat-top model will get the job done. “As long as all the burners work and the surface level gets hot, you’re good to go,” she said, whereas grated grills that include lids and multiple cooking levels have a lot more factors to consider in terms of value versus functionality.

So you know, for less than $100, you can even get a flat top surface to sit on top of your grated grill — in case you’re reading this and bemoaning the fact that you already own the wrong type for you.

Tech

Meta will reportedly let employees take 30-minute breaks from its tracking program – Engadget

Workers can pause the all-seeing eye when they need to “check something personal.”

Chesnot/

Meta is making some minor concessions in its extremely dystopian plan to track employees’ mouse clicks and keystrokes in the name of AI training. The company has reportedly made some changes to the controversial project known internally as the Model Cability Initiative (MCI), according to a report in The Information.

Meta now plans to allow employees to “pause” the for up to 30 minutes in the event they need to “check something personal,” the company told workers in a memo. A subset of employees will also be able to request to opt out of the program altogether, though this will be limited to remote workers with bandwidth concerns, people who deal with “sensitive” material and those who often work in spaces where they can’t easily keep ltops connected to a power source.

In other words, it sounds like the vast majority of Meta employees will still be required to allow their (nearly) every move to be tracked and recorded in the name of improving Meta’s AI models. However, the company did say that it had improved the software’s battery usage to address some employee complaints, reports.The company has faced protests from employees over MCI, which was announced last month just before the company laid off 8,000 workers and reshuffled thousands of others into AI-focused roles.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently defended the program to employees, telling them that “watching really smart people do things” is the best way for AI models to improve quickly. “The average intelligence of the people who are at this company is significantly higher than the average set of people that you can get to do tasks,” he said in leaked audio from a company-wide meeting last month.

“None of the data is being used for, like, looking at what people are doing, or surveillance, or performance track[ing], or anything like that. It’s purely just, like, we are using this to feed a very large amount of content into the AI model, so that way it can learn how smart people use computers to accomplish tasks. I think that this is going to be a very big advantage if we can do it.” He also added that if it works, “we’ll probably do more things like it” in the future.

Tech

Until Dawn 2 looks like Cabin in the Woods, but in a jungle – Engadget

A sequel to Until Dawn is in development at Liverpool studio Firesprite, and it’s heading to PlayStation 5 in 2027. Until Dawn 2 pears to have all the trpings of the original choose-your-own adventure serial killer survival sim, but this time instead of being set on a snowy mountain, everything’s going down on a tropical island.

Until Dawn 2stars a cast of young-adult ghost hunters, all friends except for the random buff guy that no one seems to know. They operate a fledgling paranormal investigation channel and have just signed a deal with a TV network, so they’re sent to a remote island to collect (or create) footage. There’s your general gallivanting andcavorting amidst the waterfalls and greenery, and then suddenly a masked murderer with a machete slices open someone’s torso. The sequel features the series’ trademark quick-time events, complete with lethal consequences and plenty of gore, should you choose poorly.

Here’s how Firesprite describes its proach to the sequel’s mechanics:

“Will you risk injury to save a cute baby boar from a gnarly bear tr? Keep a scandalous affair going, even if it could blow up the group? Push someone to their breaking point, all for the sake of content that your intimidating boss says you need to get? This time, how you manage relationships within the crew matters more than ever, with some branches based on where things stand between characters. It’s not just the huge moments, even small character moments can set off a Butterfly Effect, sending your story spinning off towards unforeseen consequences.”

Until Dawn 2 is a standalone storyand it seems to have a laser focus on the teenage slasher aesthetic, which is certainly a welcome angle of attack. In the trailer, the scene with the couple being interrupted mid-kiss in the forest could’ve been pulled directly out of Cabin in the Woods, a classic of the genre. Until Dawn came out in 2015 with a similar b-horror vibe, so these are all fine signs.

Until Dawn was a product of Supermassive Games and published by Sony, and it was a cult hit that spawned a few spinoffs, including the VR games Rush of Blood and The Inpatient. Supermassive’s spiritual successor to Until Dawn, The Quarry, was published by 2K in 2022, and while it had fun moments, it lagged behind its progenitor in terms of overall flow and tension. The studio also released The Dark Pictures Anthology between 2019 and 2022. In early 2024, Supermassive’s co-founders left the studio and a majority of its employees were laid off.

Firesprite, the team in charge of Until Dawn 2, was built by the former members of Wipeout house Studio Liverpool and fully purchased by Sony in 2021. Sony has owned the Until Dawn license from the beginning, hence the “spiritual successor” title on Supermassive’s follow-ups, and it produced a 2025 film and remake based on the original game.

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The European Union reveals details of its tech sovereignty package – Engadget

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The European Union reveals details of its tech sovereignty package – Engadget

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Today's NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for June 4, #619

Hints for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Answers for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups