Technologies

Red Dead Redemption 2’s Strange Tales of the West Update Brings Cryptids to Multiplayer

Bandits aren’t the only things you have to worry about in the weird west. Red Dead Online players will now have to contend with swamp things, automatons and zombies.

Pack your silver bullets and keep your head on a swivel. There’s a bad moon rising over the wild west in Red Dead Online, as four new cryptid-themed missions just released in the game.

You’ll have to take on these quests on behalf of author Theodore Levin, who is investigating outlandish claims from around the country. Strange cases of fearsome monsters, cults and viral outbreaks are exactly the type of pulpy content that could inspire a good story.

The first new telegram mission, Strange Tales of Modern Science, sees players contending with killer robots. But these aren’t exactly Terminators. You’ll be fighting off a tiny tinman army as it stalks the grounds of the Braithwaite Manor.

Another mission, Strange Tales of the Bayou, will have you contending with both human and non-human threats as you wade through Lagras. The Swamp Folk like to ambush hunters who enter their territory — but it’s up to you to bring back the creature from the deep so that Levin can see it for himself.

The Strange Tales of the Wilderness mission is the closest thing to a standard bounty hunt included in the new update. You’ll need to hunt down a gang of murdering bandits in Tall Trees, but rumor has it that a missing scientist might just be experimenting on your foes. Brave the wilderness to take on an evolving manmade threat and bring the gang to justice.

The final mission in the latest batch of content, Strange Tales of the Plague, is an ode to fan-favorite spinoff Red Dead Redemption Undead Nightmare. A mysterious infection is spreading through Armadillo, and the dead are rising yet again. It’s up to you and your friends to put down the shambling horde and bring back their bodies for scientific examination.

If you want to take on these new missions, you’ll need to pick up a letter Levin left for you at the nearest in-game post office or your camp’s mailbox. Afterwards, these cryptid challenges will become repeatable telegram missions.

To celebrate the launch of the Strange Tales of the West update, all telegram missions (including the new batch of pulp fiction content) will have their rewards boosted until Aug. 4. You’ll be able to earn three times as much gold, Red Dead dollars and experience points during this time.

Red Dead Online’s Strange Tales of the West update is available for free now on PlayStation, Xbox and PC. Get ready to lock and load to take down the new telegram missions next time you log in.

This update is a rare treat for Red Dead Redemption 2 fans, as the game’s online mode has been largely neglected in recent years. The previous patch from March 2024 squashed some bugs — and the last update that added any amount of playable content came out in September 2022.

The content drought was so extreme that it spawned a movement with the stated goal of saving Red Dead Online. The change.org petition currently has more than 10,000 signatures.

The Strange Tales of the West update is being marketed as volume one of a broader update, which implies that even more pulp fiction content could be coming down the pipeline for the Red Dead Redemption 2 multiplayer mode sometime soon. The wild west is about to get a whole lot weirder.

Technologies

Google Discover Gains Follow Button and Expands Content Sources

Google’s personalized news feed will feature a wider variety of content in the coming weeks.

Google Discover, Google’s personalized news feed, has largely remained the same since its introduction in 2018, but it’s now receiving some new and helpful features.

On Wednesday, Google announced that Discover will soon expand the type of content found within the feed and allow you to follow publications and creators. You can find Google Discover in the Google app, and it will be built into the home screens of some Android phones.

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Instead of just seeing a list of web pages to visit on your feed, you’ll soon see a mix of web articles, YouTube videos and social media posts from X and Instagram, effectively widening the net of content shown in Discover.

Along with expanding content from more sources, Google Discover is allowing users to follow specific publishers and content creators using a «follow» button at the top right of each content card.

Google says that tapping the publication’s or creator’s name will open a new page previewing the content that’s typically shared before you choose to follow the outlet. From our testing across multiple phones so far, it appears the feature is still rolling out.

Your Google Discover feed should now allow you to follow content creators. A more diversified mix of content will roll out over the coming weeks.

Technologies

New Bill Aims to Block Both Online Adult Content and VPNs: How Your VPN Could Be Affected

A proposed bill in Michigan has a broad reach that covers everything from adult AI content to manga and even depictions of transgender people. It includes a VPN ban to avoid workarounds.

If you live in Michigan, you might not be able to legally use a VPN soon if a new bill is passed into law. On Sept. 11, Michigan Republican representatives proposed far-reaching legislation banning adult internet content.

The bill, called the Anticorruption of Public Morals Act and advanced by six Republican representatives, would ban a wide variety of adult content online, ranging from ASMR and adult manga to AI content and any depiction of transgender people. It also seeks to ban all use of VPNs, foreign or US-produced.

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VPNs, or virtual private networks, are software suites often used as workarounds to avoid similar content bans that have passed in states like Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and the UK. VPNs can be purchased with subscriptions or downloaded and are also built into some browsers and Wi-Fi routers.

But Michigan’s bill would charge internet service providers with detecting and blocking VPN use, as well as banning the sale of VPNs in the state. Associated fines would be up to $500,000.

What the ban could mean for VPNs

Unlike some laws banning access to adult content, this Michigan bill is comprehensive. It applies to all residents of Michigan, adults or children, targets an extensive range of content and includes language that could ban not only VPNs but any method of bypassing internet filters or restrictions.

That could spell trouble for VPN owners and other internet users who leverage these tools to improve their privacy, protect their identities online, prevent ISPs from gathering data about them or increase their device safety when browsing on public Wi-Fi.

Read more: CNET Survey: 47% of Americans Use VPNs for Privacy. That Number Could Rise. Here’s Why

Bills like these could have unintended side effects. John Perrino, Senior Policy and Advocacy Expert for the nonprofit Internet Society, mentioned to CNET that adult content laws like this could interfere with what kind of music people can stream, the sexual health forums and articles they can access and even important news involving sexual topics that they may want to read.

«Additionally, state age verification laws are difficult for smaller services to comply with, hurting competition and an open internet,» Perrino said.

The Anticorruption of Public Morals Act has not passed the Michigan House of Representatives committee or been voted on by the Michigan Senate, and it’s not clear how much support the bill has beyond the six Republican representatives who have proposed it. As we’ve seen with state legislation in the past, sometimes bills like these can serve as templates for other representatives who may want to propose similar laws in their own states.

Could VPNs still get around bans like these?

Could VPNs still get around this type of ban? That’s a complex question that this bill doesn’t really address.

«From a technical standpoint, ISPs can attempt to distinguish VPN traffic using deep packet inspection, or they can block known VPN IP addresses,» said NordVPN privacy advocate Laura Tyrylyte. «However, deploying them effectively requires big investments and ongoing maintenance, making large-scale VPN blocking both costly and complex.»

Also, VPNs have ways around deep packet inspection and other methods.

«Some VPNs offer obfuscation — which tries to disguise VPN traffic as standard web traffic — using dedicated servers or custom VPN protocols, like NordVPN’s NordWhisper or Proton VPN’s Stealth,» said CNET senior editor Moe Long. «But note that obfuscation isn’t foolproof.»

There are also no-log features offered by many VPNs to guarantee they don’t keep a record of your activity, and no-log audits from third parties like Deloitte that — well, try to guarantee the guarantee. VPNs can even use server tricks, such as RAM-only servers that automatically reboot to erase data after every browsing session.

If you’re seriously concerned about your data privacy, you can look for features like these in a VPN and see if they are right for you. Changes like these, even on the state level, are one reason we pay close attention to how specific VPNs work during our testing, and recommend the right VPNs for the job, from speedy browsing to privacy while traveling.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Strands Hints, Answers and Help for Sept. 19 #565

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle for Sept. 19, No. 565.

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

Do you drink your coffee black? If so, today’s NYT Strands puzzle might be a puzzler. If you need hints and answers, read on.

I go into depth about the rules for Strands in this story.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections and Mini Crossword answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: NYT Connections Turns 1: These Are the 5 Toughest Puzzles So Far

Hint for today’s Strands puzzle

Today’s Strands theme is: Pour it on.

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: Wow, no cow.

Clue words to unlock in-game hints

Your goal is to find hidden words that fit the puzzle’s theme. If you’re stuck, find any words you can. Every time you find three words of four letters or more, Strands will reveal one of the theme words. These are the words I used to get those hints but any words of four or more letters that you find will work:

NONE, CONE, RICER, SHEW, FAIR, FAIRY, DRAY, YARD, MILK, CASH, DONE, DRAM, MADAM

Answers for today’s Strands puzzle

These are the answers that tie into the theme. The goal of the puzzle is to find them all, including the spangram, a theme word that reaches from one side of the puzzle to the other. When you have all of them (I originally thought there were always eight but learned that the number can vary), every letter on the board will be used. Here are the nonspangram answers: