Technologies

Sony Is Ending Its PlayStation Stars Program: Here’s What to Do With Your Rewards

Players have until July to earn rewards and until November 2026 to redeem them.

Sony is putting its PlayStation Stars rewards program on permanent hiatus. The program, which launched in summer 2022 and arrived in the US later that autumn, offered gamers a chance to earn points, collectibles and games by completing in-game activities similar to Discord’s Quests.

«Since launching the program, we’ve learned a lot from evaluating thetypes of activities our players respond best to, and as a company, weare always evolving with player and industry trends,» Sony said in a blog post. «Through this evaluation, we have decided to refocus our efforts and willbe winding down the current version of PlayStation Stars. We willcontinue to evaluate our key findings from this program, and are lookinginto ways to build upon these learnings.»

Got Stars? These are the dates to know

Sign-ups for Stars have been halted starting Wednesday. Existing members have until July 23 at 7:59 a.m. PT to earn points. After that, players have until November 2026 to redeem any remaining points on their account. Current PlayStation Stars members can continue to redeem Points as long as their Points don’t expire before then, but those who cancel their membership will lose all earned points.

Stars members can still access their Digital Collectibles, even after the program ends.

A representative for Sony did not immediately respond to a request for further comment.

While PlayStation Stars is being shut down, it doesn’t seem to be the end of Sony’s loyalty program efforts. The official website mentions that «the current version of PlayStation Stars is ending,» and the blog post says that new members won’t be able to sign up for «this version» of the program. However, if Sony has a replacement program in the works, there are no details about what it might be or how it’ll work. This is in contrast to Nintendo’s Gold Points program, which was shut down entirely in March with no talk of a replacement.

The latest in a rough year for Sony

Fans of the popular console haven’t gotten the best news in 2025. According to Bloomberg, Sony canceled two unnamed live service games from Bend and Bluepoint in January, and several tour dates for the company’s PlayStation The Concert world tour have been moved or canceled.

PlayStation fans have also dealt with a PlayStation Network outage, rising console costs due to tariffs and the delay of Grand Theft Auto 6 until 2026.

Pair that with rising game costs, and it’s no surprise that fans have been unhappy with PlayStation Stars shutting down.

«Well, this sucks,» said a commenter going by NEOMERCER on the blog post. «I liked PlayStation Stars honestly. It did always kind of feel like it was lacking something though. Likethat extra value. Hopefully they can bring that in the future.»

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Friday, Jan. 23

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for Jan. 23.

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

Need some help with today’s Mini Crossword? Hope you’re familiar with a certain blond actor (8-Across)! Read on for all the answers. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.

Mini across clues and answers

1A clue: Attach, as one plant to another
Answer: GRAFT

6A clue: Email button with a backward-facing arrow
Answer: REPLY

7A clue: Make very excited
Answer: AMPUP

8A clue: Two-time Best Actor nominee Nick
Answer: NOLTE

9A clue: Total dork
Answer: DWEEB

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: Word that can precede piano, total or staircase
Answer: GRAND

2D clue: Cut again, as a lawn
Answer: REMOW

3D clue: Company whose logo has a bite taken out of it
Answer: APPLE

4D clue: Champagne glass
Answer: FLUTE

5D clue: Laid-back kind of personality
Answer: TYPEB

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Technologies

‘Is Microsoft Down?’ Outlook and Teams Go Dark in Widespread Outage

It’s not just you: Numerous Microsoft services weren’t working most of Thursday, and the outage is continuing.

Thursday has been a tough work day for many — or maybe, a great one, depending on how eager you are to access work-related programs. Microsoft services, including Outlook, Teams and Microsoft 365 are experiencing a significant outage that’s still going on as of early evening, Pacific time. Microsoft hasn’t announced an expected time when everything will be back up and running.

You can follow the official Microsoft 365 Status account on the social-media platform X, which has been regularly posting updates about the outage.

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The first post there, from 11:37 a.m. PT, said that the company was «investigating a potential issue impacting multiple Microsoft 365 services, including Outlook, Microsoft Defender and Microsoft Purview. Further information can be found in the admin center under MO1221364.»

The admin center is the dashboard for IT admins managing Microsoft 365 services.

You can also monitor Microsoft’s Service Health Status page. That page is noting that «users may be seeing degraded service functionality or be unable to access multiple Microsoft 365 services.»

A representative for Microsoft didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Technologies

Ring’s Latest Feature Lets You Verify Shared Security Videos

With so many fake videos out there, the home-security company is adding a level of protection.

Popular home security brand Ring announced that videos shared from its devices can now be verified, so customers know they’re watching an authentic, unaltered video. Ring says the new verification process is similar to a security seal on a package or medicine bottle, indicating that no one has tampered with it.

The new feature is available starting Thursday, and it doesn’t matter which Ring device recorded the video. All videos downloaded directly from the Ring app are automatically verified and include a security seal for authenticity.

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When someone sends you a Ring video, you can now visit Ring’s verification page, paste the video link, and determine immediately whether the video is verified. The website doesn’t send your video anywhere. It stays locally on your device, and all verification checks happen within your browser. The verification website only accepts MP4 files, the format Ring videos are saved.

Videos downloaded before December 2025 or edited videos cannot be verified. Ring says that even minor adjustments, such as shaving a couple of seconds off the beginning or end of a video, or even adjusting brightness levels, will render it unverifiable.