Are you enjoying that new Deck smell a little too much? Valve’s support staff are now telling users that they shouldn’t be huffing the exhaust from the Steam Deck’s grills for their health and safety, though there’s no recorded issue with folks taking a hit off their electronics’ cooling vents.
Source: Gizmodo – Please Don’t Huff Fumes From Your Steam Deck
Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | NurPhoto )
Netflix, the streaming service that has been long criticized for a lack of transparency about how shows and films perform on its platform, will begin publishing a “comprehensive deep dive” into what its subscribers are watching twice a year.
Its first report, released on Tuesday, provided viewer data on more than 18,000 titles, representing a total of nearly 100 billion hours viewed, Netflix said. The Night Agent, a political thriller, was the most watched show on Netflix globally in the first half of 2023, with 812 million hours.
Ted Sarandos, Netflix co-chief executive, acknowledged on Tuesday that the company’s “lack of data and lack of transparency” had created an “environment of mistrust” in Hollywood.
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Source: Ars Technica – Netflix finally reveals viewing data across its entire catalog
By the end of this year, Netflix will have already released 86 games, and it has no plans to slow down its gaming ambitions anytime soon. The streaming company already has an initial lineup of titles to add to its library in 2024, including Game Dev Tycoon. In the oddly engaging indie business simulator, you can build your own gaming company and create your own video games. You can even research new technologies in your field and invent your own game types like a real developer.
Sonic Mania Plus, which was originally released for consoles and for PC through Steam, will also debut on mobile through Netflix. The enhanced version of Sonic Mania adds Sonic’s friends, Mighty the Armadillo and Ray the Flying Squirrel, as well as a new mode to the game. Spry Fox is releasing the sequel to its life sim Cozy Grove, as well. Cozy Grove: Camp Spirit introduces new activities, including one wherein you can powerwash a ghost with a blowfish and new furry companions with abilities of their own. And if you’re a fan of Barbie, fashion and dress-up games, there’s Fashionverse, where you can style models and even create outfits for them. Netflix says it’s an AI-enhanced title that puts 3D models against photorealistic backgrounds.
In addition to announcing some of the games it’s rolling out next year, Netflix Games has also taken a look back at its updates and releases for 2023. It launched 40 games this year, which already include the definitive edition of the Grand Theft Auto Trilogy that will be available starting tomorrow. The streaming company’s gaming arm also debuted two internally developed titles: Night School’s Oxenfree II: Lost Signals and Boss Fight Entertainment’s interactive game, Netflix Stories: Love is Blind. Finally, the company started testing the ability to play its games on smart TVs and browsers in select regions with the intention of eventually making its titles playable on any device.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/netflixs-2024-game-lineup-includes-game-dev-tycoon-sonic-mania-and-a-cozy-grove-sequel-160014745.html?src=rss
Source: Engadget – Netflix’s 2024 game lineup includes Game Dev Tycoon, Sonic Mania and a Cozy Grove sequel
Google’s making the second generation of Imagen, its AI model that can create and edit images given a text prompt, more widely available — at least to Google Cloud customers using Vertex AI who’ve been approved for access. From a report: But the company isn’t disclosing which data it used to train the new model — nor introducing a way for creators who might’ve inadvertently contributed to the data set to opt out or apply for compensation.
Called Imagen 2, Google’s enhanced model — which was quietly launched in preview at the tech giant’s I/O conference in May — was developed using technology from Google DeepMind, Google’s flagship AI lab. Compared to the first-gen Imagen, it’s “significantly” improved in terms of image quality, Google claims (the company bizarrely refused to share image samples prior to this morning), and introduces new capabilities including the ability to render text and logos. “If you want to create images with a text overlay — for example, advertising — you can do that,” Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian said during a press briefing on Tuesday.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – Google Debuts Imagen 2 With Text and Logo Generation
Tesla has offered a look at the latest version of its Optimus robot. In a new video, the second-gen humanoid machine appears to have greater dexterity than its predecessor, though you’ll likely have to wait quite a while longer before you can pick up one of these to help around the house. Milan Kovac, who works on the Optimus project, noted on X that the footage is in real-time and that there was no CGI involved.
While the previous version of Optimus struggled to walk during a live demo, the latest model is able to move with more grace, perhaps thanks to its Tesla-designed actuators and sensors. The machine has an actuated neck with two degrees of freedom and it’s said to be 30 percent faster at walking while mimicking the geometry of human feet.
There’s a new bot in town 🤖
Check this out (until the very end)!https://t.co/duFdhwNe3K pic.twitter.com/8pbhwW0WNc
— Tesla Optimus (@Tesla_Optimus) December 13, 2023
The second-gen Optimus has a sleeker design and Tesla says it has been able to reduce the weight of the robot by 10 kilograms without sacrificing any functionality. The company claims this model has improved balance and full-body control — it’s shown squatting and getting back up in the video.
Among the biggest upgrades are to the hands. Tesla says these now have 11 degrees of freedom and they can move more quickly. Optimus is able to handle objects more delicately, as shown by a demo of it picking up and gently placing down an egg. These all seem like marked improvements over the last iteration of Optimus, which we first saw in September last year.
While the robot looks mechanically more impressive than its predecessor, that’s only one piece of the puzzle, as Electrek points out. If the robot is to be used in the real world as a “general purpose, bi-pedal, humanoid robot capable of performing tasks that are unsafe, repetitive or boring” (as Tesla is aiming for), it will need to have a robust artificial intelligence that allows it to operate safely and independently.
That’s likely many years away from becoming a reality, particularly when Tesla has had problems with the AI features of its cars. In fact, the company just recalled nearly every car it has shipped in the US to fix issues with the Autopilot system.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/teslas-latest-optimus-robot-can-handle-an-egg-without-breaking-it-154610781.html?src=rss
Source: Engadget – Tesla’s latest Optimus robot can handle an egg without breaking it
Enlarge / Tesla says that Autopilot users should always keep both hands on the steering wheel. (credit: CBS)
More than 2 million Tesla electric vehicles are subject to a new safety recall today. At issue is the much-criticized Autopilot driver-assistance feature, more specifically the Autosteer component.
At one time, Tesla claimed that Autosteer cut crashes by 40 percent—a statistic that turned out to be completely false once a third party analyzed the data. Now, following an ongoing engineering analysis by the National Highway Safety Administration Office of Defects Investigation that found Tesla has inadequate driver monitoring and that the system could lead to “foreseeable misuse,” the automaker has finally reacted.
Autopilot is Tesla’s name for a suite of advanced driver assistance systems, but the two principal components are “traffic-aware cruise control” and Autosteer. The former maintains the car’s speed relative to a vehicle in front, and the latter reads lane markers on the road and keeps the car between them. The system was originally based on one supplied by Mobileye, although that relationship broke down, and Tesla was dropped as a customer by Mobileye due to Mobileye’s concern that Tesla was “pushing the envelope in terms of safety.”
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Source: Ars Technica – Tesla recalls every car with Autopilot as feds say it’s too easily misused
Apple says it now requires a judge’s consent before it will hand over your push notification data to law enforcement or government officials, according to an update of Apple’s Legal Process Guidelines on Tuesday. Senator Ron Wyden wrote a letter to the Department of Justice last week accusing foreign governments of…
Source: Gizmodo – Apple Makes It Harder for Police to Access Your Push Notifications
Kung Fu Panda expands its cast for its fourth movie. Terrifier 3 locks in a major return. Plus, another new look at Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. Spoilers, away!
Source: Gizmodo – Barry Keoghan Teases His Future With The Batman
Enlarge / Close up of hand holding smartphone and screen applications with unlocking mobile phones. Concept of technological safety. (credit: Getty Images)
By now, you’ve probably heard about a vulnerability named AutoSpill, which can leak credentials from any of the seven leading password managers for Android. The threat it poses is real, but it’s also more limited and easier to contain than much of the coverage to date has recognized.
This FAQ dives into the many nuances that make AutoSpill hard for most people (yours truly included) to understand. This post wouldn’t have been possible without invaluable assistance from Alesandro Ortiz, a researcher who discovered a similar vulnerability in Chrome in 2020.
Q: What is AutoSpill?
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Source: Ars Technica – How worried should we be about the “AutoSpill” credential leak in Android password managers?
Meta’s long-promised AI-enabled vision features for the company’s Ray-Ban Smart Glasses are finally incoming, allowing the onboard AI to see, hear, and interpret its environment through the glasses’ 12 MP camera and microphone. The company proclaimed late Tuesday that these new AI-vision features are now available in…
Source: Gizmodo – Meta’s Ray-Ban Glasses Now Have Thoughts About Your Pants
When the USB4 specification emerged several years ago, it was quickly positioned as a less expensive alternative to the Thunderbolt 3 technology which ruled the market of high-performance direct-attached storage (DAS) devices and docking stations. Since then, we’ve seen multiple USB4 docks hit the market, but USB4 DASes and SSDs are still rare. Thankfully, the situation began to change in the recent weeks, as multiple vendors have finally begun releasing their own USB4 SSDs and external drive enclosures.
Adata announced its first SE920 External USB4 SSD back in August 2021, but it only started shipping these drives in October. Adata’s SE920 External SSDs offer capacities of 1 TB or 2 TB, along with a sequential read speed rating of up to 3.8 GB/s as well as a sequential write speed of up to 3.7 MB/s when working with a USB4 host. Otherwise, the drive is rated for 3.20 GB/s on Thunderbolt hosts, due to the greater overhead of the Thunderbolt protocol.
One interesting feature of the Adata SE920 External USB4 SSD is that it comes with a ‘telescoping’ case that allows to activate its internal fan for better heat dissipation. Such design allows to better ensure consistent performance under high loads, which is set to be particularly useful when transferring large volumes of data. Meanwhile, like other modern SSDs, the SE920 uses pseudo-SLC caching, which means that it demonstrates its maximum performance only while there is spare SLC-cache.
Adata’s drive looks like a very decent product overall, and it’s priced very competitively with other high-performance drives on the market, with Adata charging around $150 for the 1 TB version and $200 for the 2 TB version.
Meanwhile, for the DIY crowd that wants to build their own USB4 SSDs, standalone USB4 enclosures are finally available as well. OWC’s Express 1M2 enclosure is based on the ASMedia ASM2464PD USB4/Thunderbolt to NVMe bridge, and is compatible with virtually any NVMe M.2-2280 SSD.
The enclosure supports sequential read/write speeds of up to 3,151 MB/s, as well as capacities up to 8 TB (the largest M.2 2280 drive capacity currently available). Mindful of how warm modern, high-end SSDs can get, the enclosure’s case acts like a huge heat sink, helping to keep those increasingly toasty SSDs cool.
On paper, OWC’s Express 1M2 DIY enclosure does not reach speeds quite as high as Adata’s SE920 SSD, so the extra capacity and ability to throw in any M.2 SSD you have lying around are the main selling points of the device. Pricing, on the other hand is a higher hurdle; OWC is charging $119.99 for the Express 1M2 enclosure on its own, and $219.99 for the enclosure with pre-installed 1 TB SSD.
Although OWC’s DIY USB4 SSD enclosure seems a bit overpriced, good news is that the company is not alone selling such devices. Stardom also has its UBOX-B4BP USB4 SSD enclosure that has the same feature set (e.g., compatibility with almost any M.2-2280 SSD and latest PCs), but it is slightly larger and its rated performance figures are up to 2,920 MB/s for writes and up to 3,214 MB/s for reads.
The enclosure allows building external USB4 storage solutions of up to 8 TB (and larger when such drives become available) that can work with both new and old PCs. Interestingly, Stardom has included a second USB-C connector on the enclosure solely for power purposes, allowing it to be used with an external power adapter if a host can’t provide enough bus power on its own.
Stardom yet has to start selling its its UBOX-B4BP USB4 SSD enclosure in the U.S. and Europe, but in Taiwan the product costs NT$3,990 ($120 without VAT), which is not exactly cheap.
Source: AnandTech – Adata, OWC, and Stardom Roll Out USB4 SSDs and Enclosures for Faster External Storage
Many dream of hitting it big on the internet, but few actualize it.
Source: Gizmodo – The Digital Creator Starter Pack: The Investments Critical to Instagram Entrepreneurship
The Game Awards are done and the video game marketing machine is winding down for the year, but this industry never fully stops. This week, we’re taking a look at what The Game Awards could have done better (a few things, it turns out) and breaking down some of the biggest announcements from last week’s show.
We’re gonna talk about The Game Awards a lot this week, but one of the biggest announcements from last Thursday’s show was the existence of Light No Fire, a new title from No Man’s Sky studio Hello Games. It’s a planet-sized, multiplayer game about exploration and community-building, and it uses procedural generation to fill every valley and mountaintop with life. At least, that’s the promise. There’s no release date for Light No Fire just yet, but Hello Games has been working on it for five years.
Also at The Game Awards, we saw the reveal of a Blade game from Arkane Lyon, OD from Kojima Productions, Windblown from Dead Cells studio Motion Twin, and Exodus from Archetype Entertainment, a studio composed of BioWare, 343 and Naughty Dog veterans.
As for the awards, best narrative went to Alan Wake 2, best debut indie game went to Cocoon, and esports coach of the year went to Potter. Indie game Baldur’s Gate 3 won game of the year, while Sea of Stars won best independent game over Dave the Diver, a title that was never indie to begin with. Got it? Good. Moving on.
UK studio Free Radical Design, which was working on the TimeSplitters revival, laid off more than 80 people and shut its doors on Monday. It marks another round of layoffs under Embracer this year — the holding company announced in June that a $2 billion funding deal fell through, and it’s spent the last few months closing studios and firing staff at places including Saints Row developer Volition and Chorus maker Fishlabs.
The Game Awards last week ran for three hours, hosted by organizer Geoff Keighley. It was fancy and packed with movie stars — which, honestly, is pretty weird for a show that’s supposed to be about video games. Between abundant ad breaks, rushed speeches for winning developers, and ample stage time for celebrities, this year’s Game Awards didn’t feel like a celebration of the industry.
I’m not the only one who noticed the imbalance. After The Game Awards, plenty of developers, players and critics expressed displeasure with its pacing and priorities. Of the show’s 180 minutes, speeches from award winners took up just 10 minutes, and developers were prompted to ‘please wrap it up’ after just 30 seconds.
Meanwhile, Jordan Peele and Hideo Kojima were given nearly 7 minutes to talk about their upcoming project that looks like it’s more movie than game. There were appearances by Simu Liu, Matthew McConaughey and actors from TV shows based on video games. The Game of the Year award was presented by Timothee Chalamet, for some reason. Gonzo the Muppet even got 2 minutes.
Keighley rushed through most awards by reading the categories and winners directly into the camera back to back to back. Announcement trailers were indistinguishable from ad breaks, and there was no time spared for the industry’s most relevant issues, like the upheaval of mass layoffs, the fight to establish unions, and the medium’s relationship with conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza.
These topics would feel drastically out of place at The Game Awards, and that alone is an indictment of the show. If there’s no room to discuss, celebrate and condemn these topics at the industry’s most public-facing event, what are we even doing here?
The Game Awards organizers have done a great job replacing the embarrassment that was Spike’s VGX with a show that looks more like The Oscars — but the video game industry is not Hollywood. Where are our luminaries? What are our issues? How are we innovating? Making video games more like movies is not the goal — unless you’re Kojima, I guess.
There are a bunch of other events that give time to video game creators and broader conversations, such as the Game Developers Choice Awards and its Independent Game Festival competition, The Spawnies from Spawn on Me, Gamedev.world from Rami Ismail, and Day of the Devs. And there are always the showcases from indie publishers like Annapurna Interactive, Devolver Digital and Panic throughout the year. But with E3 officially dead, Keighley’s two big shows — Summer Game Fest and The Game Awards — are now the premier industry events on the gaming calendar. There’s a responsibility that comes with that position, and his organization clearly needs to strike a better balance.
It’s been a strangely stressful time, so I’ve been relaxing with couch co-op in Halo: The Master Chief Collection. It’s familiar and comfortable, and the toggle between old and new graphics is still an absolute delight. I’d love to discover some new couch co-op games, so let me know in the comments if you have any favorites.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-game-awards-missteps-and-light-no-fire–this-weeks-gaming-news-144549193.html?src=rss
Source: Engadget – The Game Awards’ missteps and Light No Fire | This week’s gaming news
More than 190 governments at the United Nations climate conference approved an agreement Wednesday calling for the world to transition away from fossil fuels, an accord that bridged differences between big energy-producing nations and countries that want to completely phase out coal, oil and natural gas. From a report: The deal, the result of all-night talks, calls for “transitioning away from fossil fuels in energy systems, in a just, orderly and equitable manner.” It says the shift to clean energy for the global economy should accelerate this decade with the aim of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
Scientists say that is crucial to fulfilling the Paris accord, the landmark climate agreement that calls for governments to attempt to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial temperatures. The deal marks the first time a U.N. climate agreement has called for governments to cut back on all fossil fuels.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – COP28 Nations Agree for First Time To Transition Away From Fossil Fuels
Alex Garland has written or directed several excellent, terrifying, disturbing films. Films like 28 Days Later, Sunshine, Ex Machina and Annihilation. Films that show familiar worlds in unfamiliar, and often times unfathomable, circumstances. His new film seems as if it’s going to do that too, but it’s somehow much…
Source: Gizmodo – Alex Garland’s Next Movie Looks Scarier Than Any of His Sci-Fi Films
Enlarge / The new Chevrolet Blazer EV is the latest electric vehicle to use General Motors’ Ultium battery platform. (credit: Jonathan Gitlin)
DEL MAR, Calif.—Americans love midsize SUVs—American automotive product planners, at any rate. These SUVs have supplanted sedans and station wagons as the family-mobile of choice, offering all the advantages of a hatchback with a lofty driving position. Now there’s a new one in town, an all-electric version of the Chevrolet Blazer. It’s not an EV conversion of the existing Blazer but a new model built on the same dedicated platform as the Cadillac Lyriq. After a few hours driving the new Blazer EV around the outskirts of San Diego, here’s what we’ve learned.
In time, the Blazer EV will be available in three trims (LT, RS, and SS) and in front-, rear-, and all-wheel drive configurations. But for now, Chevy is starting with the Blazer EV RS, available with either a single motor driving the rear wheels and a larger-capacity battery or an all-wheel drive variant with a smaller-capacity battery pack.
Chevy arranged for us to drive the $57,200 Blazer EV RS RWD first, so let’s start there. It uses a 102 kWh battery pack to achieve an EPA range of 324 miles (521 km), sending that energy to a 340 hp (254 kW), 325 lb-ft (440 Nm) permanent magnet electric motor.
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Source: Ars Technica – The 2024 Chevrolet Blazer first drive: GM’s EV platform goes mainstream
The holidays are right around the corner and you might be a little more behind on your shopping than you’d like to admit. We don’t blame you — between family gatherings and the final work rush before PTO kicks in, it’s hard to find the time to go to a store to pick out presents. And once you get there, you could find half-empty shelves and very few choices. But that’s why we have the internet: you still have time to buy holiday gifts online.
USPS, UPS and FedEx have laid out their holiday shipping deadlines for 2023: Ship your items via USPS by December 16 to have them safely arrive before Christmas, while FedEx and UPS have deadlines of December 15 and December 18, respectively, for standard shipping. At this stage in the game, we recommend picking up small, affordable gifts that will ship quickly so you have plenty of time to wrap them up nicely and make it look like you had everything well-planned from the start. Here are the best last-minute Christmas gifts you can get right now and still have in time before the holidays.
Regulators in the UK are weighing a cap on some of the fees that Visa and Mastercard charge local merchants for each card transaction, seeking to rein in charges that have risen fivefold since Brexit. From a report: After a monthslong review, the UK’s Payment Systems Regulator said it’s concerned that the payment giants have no effective competition, especially when it comes to the interchange fees they charge UK merchants when a consumer carrying a card issued by a bank in the European Economic Area makes an online purchase.
For now, the PSR is proposing to restore those fees to the pre-Brexit levels of 0.3% of a purchase price for credit cards and 0.2% for debit cards. For credit cards, those fees have risen in recent years to as high as 1.5% and the PSR estimated that the increases cost UK businesses as much as $250 million last year. The two companies have been under fire from a bevy of regulators and lawmakers around the world for the fees they charge. While it usually amounts to just pennies per purchase, the fees do add up: US merchants spent a record $160.7 billion on swipe fees last year, up 16.7% from 2021, according to the Nilson Report, an industry publication.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – UK Proposes Capping Some Visa, Mastercard Fees
Tesla is under fire by California’s Department of Motor Vehicles over the company’s ads claiming its cars are completely self-driving, which they’re not. Elon Musk’s electric car company argues that its claims of being self-driving are protected under free speech, according to court documents made public by The…
Source: Gizmodo – Tesla Says It’s Not Fraud, It’s Free Speech
With AMD’s recent launch of their Zen 4 architecture-based Threadripper 7000 series CPUs, the company and its OEM partners have unleashed a new wave of high-end PCs and workstations based on the considerable-core-count processors. Though not a massive market in and of itself, the workstation market is by most respects the pinnacle of the PC market, with systems employing the biggest and fastest hardware available, and often a whole lot of it. As a result, the workstation market is still a very important one to PC OEMs and chip vendors who are looking to move big silicon for big prices – but it’s also a fun one for consumers to watch, if only for a glimpse of what all of this PC hardware is capable of in its most powerful configurations.
As Threadripper Pro 7000 workstations are now shipping, we’re finally getting our first look at AMD’s premiere workstation silicon. Unlike AMD’s vanilla Threadripper 7000 processors, which we reviewed last month, for their top-end Pro silicon AMD is letting their OEM partners take the lead in showcasing their latest wares. With virtually all workstation-grade CPUs sold to OEMs, self-built workstations aren’t really a thing. At the same time, good workstation hardware it in a class of its own, not just with chips but with regards to the entire package – and all of which AMD’s OEM partners are eager to show off. Which for today’s review, means we get to do something we don’t get to do very often at AnandTech, and take a look at a proper, high-end workstation.
For our first look at the Threadripper Pro 7000 series hardware, today we are taking a look at a fully-fledged workstation from HP’s Z6 range, the HP Z6 G5 A. The HP Z6 G5 A system we have in for review today includes the Ryzen Threadripper Pro 7995WX with 96C/192T, with 128 GB of DDR5-5200 RDIMM (8 x 32 GB), as well as NVIDIA’s RTX A4000 single-slot graphics card designed for AI-accelerated compute and high-performance real-time ray tracing. With such a high-end specification, we’re putting the HP Z6 G5 A up against Intel’s flagship Xeon W9-3495X (56C/112T) workstation processor and AMD’s non-Pro Ryzen Threadripper 7000 series processors.
Source: AnandTech – HP Z6 G5 A Workstation Review: 96-Core AMD Ryzen Threadripper Pro 7995WX Impresses
