Category Archives: Technology

What the Golf just got a free Among Us-inspired update on Steam

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What the Golf just got a free update inspired by the beloved multiplayer whodunnit Among Us. The update features 35 new levels that may or may not be chock full with saboteurs and imposters. It’s available today on PC via Steam and was already available on Nintendo Switch and Apple Arcade.

What the Golf regularly offers free updates like this, with some Thanksgiving-themed levels dropping next week. Most devs would go for a Halloween-themed update, but Triband chose Thanksgiving, which is indicative of the kind of chaos that populates the game itself.

We’ve long sung the praises of this game, as it offers a fresh take on golf that, well, isn’t really golf at all. Many of the levels offer completely different rules to keep you on your toes and, often, you aren’t even hitting a ball toward a hole. Instead, the game has you trying to hit a big house or even a horse. Other levels have you playing soccer or battling enemy combatants. In short, you never know what the game is going to throw at you next, including cute little multicolored imposters.

The Among Us-flavored update is available now, but it doesn’t seem to be hitting PS4 or PS5 just yet, which is a bummer. Developer Triband recently released a baseball-themed spinoff, of a sort, for VR called What the Bat.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/what-the-golf-just-got-a-free-among-us-inspired-update-on-steam-163029801.html?src=rss

Source: Engadget – What the Golf just got a free Among Us-inspired update on Steam

A Blink Outdoor 4 bundle is 61 percent off for Amazon Prime members in an early Black Friday deal

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Black Friday is just a couple of weeks away, but you don’t need to bide your time to check out some significant discounts on an array of devices. If you’re an Amazon Prime member, you can snag a bundle of Blink cameras for $140, which is 61 percent off the regular price of $360. It includes two Outdoor 4 cameras, one Wired Floodlight Camera, one Mini Pan-Tilt Camera and one Sync Module 2.

It’s a deal worth considering if you’re looking to set up a home security system without breaking the bank. The discount is available for three days.

The bundle will effectively give you a full indoor and outdoor camera system. You’ll also get three mounting kits, four AA batteries, two USB cables and two power adapters. You could always add more Blink devices to your set up if you feel the need to. It’s worth bearing in mind that Blink devices only work with Alexa, so they may not be suitable if you’re, for instance, already heavily invested in Google’s smart home ecosystem.

In our guide to the best smart home devices, we highlighted the new Blink Outdoor 4 as our favorite wireless security camera. It can be placed indoors and it’ll run for up to two years before you need to replace the AA batteries. The Blink Outdoor 4 has support for night vision, motion detection and two-way audio (via the Blink app and devices like Echo Show). It’s weather resistant too.

The bundle comes with a 30-day trial of the Blink Subscription Plan, which you’ll need if you prefer to store clips in the cloud. Alternatively, you can save clips locally on the included Blink Sync Module 2 or a USB flash drive (which you’ll need to buy separately).

You’ll receive an alert when the cameras detect movement. If you have the Blink Subscription Plan, you’ll also be alerted when the Outdoor 4 and Wired Floodlight Camera detect a person using their computer vision features.

Meanwhile, the Outdoor 4 and Wired Floodlight Camera both support customizable privacy zones. This feature enables you to select areas that the cameras don’t record at all. You might want to use this to avoid viewing your neighbor’s door or yard. Alternatively, if you use the Outdoor 4 indoors, you may wish to block out the area between your bathroom and bedroom for post-shower privacy.

Your Black Friday Shopping Guide: See all of Yahoo’s Black Friday coverage, here. Follow Engadget for Black Friday tech deals. Learn about Black Friday trends on In The Know. Hear from Autoblog’s experts on the best Black Friday deals for your car, garage, and home, and find Black Friday sales to shop on AOL, handpicked just for you.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/a-blink-outdoor-4-bundle-is-61-percent-off-for-amazon-prime-members-in-an-early-black-friday-deal-161520398.html?src=rss

Source: Engadget – A Blink Outdoor 4 bundle is 61 percent off for Amazon Prime members in an early Black Friday deal

Las Vegas Sphere Reports $98.4 Million Loss; CFO Quits

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The Sphere in Las Vegas reported an operating loss of $98.4 million for the fiscal quarter ending Sept. 30, Sphere Entertainment Co. said this morning on an earnings call. From a report: Additionally, the company lost its chief financial officer, as Gautam Ranji has resigned, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. Ranji’s exit was “not a result of any disagreement with the company’s independent auditors or any member of management on any matter of accounting principles or practices, financial statement disclosure or internal controls,” the company said in the filing.

The New York Post reported Tuesday that Ranji suddenly quit after a bout of yelling and screaming from CEO James Dolan. Ranji, who had been on the job for 11 months, will be replaced on an interim basis by Greg Brunner, the company’s senior vice president, according to the filing.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.



Source: Slashdot – Las Vegas Sphere Reports .4 Million Loss; CFO Quits

Microsoft Can't Stop Being Annoying About OneDrive

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Microsoft being annoying about ads, forced surveys, or pushy polls is nothing new. You might remember when they started rolling out ads in the Windows 11 Start menu. These appeared in the guise of ‘notifications’ repeatedly convincing users to start using Microsoft’s services such as OneDrive. They also tried sticking…

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Source: Gizmodo – Microsoft Can’t Stop Being Annoying About OneDrive

EU regulator says Apple should be on hook for €14.3 billion tax bill

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Source: Ars Technica – EU regulator says Apple should be on hook for €14.3 billion tax bill

The 2024 Nissan Z Nismo is sharper and quicker, but it comes at a cost

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A red Nissan Z Nismo parked by some foliage

Enlarge / The Nismo version of the Nissan Z has a raft of mechanical changes, but the first thing you notice is a less-objectionable front fascia. (credit: Bradley Iger)

In the world of high-performance Nissan cars, the Nismo badge carries weight. Like BMW M and Toyota’s Gazoo Racing arm, it oversees Nissan’s motorsports efforts and serves as its in-house tuning department for the automaker’s most performance-focused road car offerings. Founded in 1984, the skunkworks division has a reputation for building formidable track weapons like the GT-R Nismo, which set a lap record for volume production road cars at the famed Nürburgring back in 2013.

While the department has been relatively quiet lately (likely due to the limited number of enthusiast models that have graced Nissan’s line-up in recent years), we knew it was only a matter of time before we’d see its handiwork applied to the new Z.

As we noted in our first drive of the standard Z last year, the seventh-generation machine ushered in a much-needed overhaul of Nissan’s rear-drive sports car that addressed many of its predecessor’s shortcomings, but a few laps of Las Vegas Motor Speedway’s road course revealed that there was still room for improvement in terms of outright performance prowess.

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Source: Ars Technica – The 2024 Nissan Z Nismo is sharper and quicker, but it comes at a cost

Microsoft Won't Let You Close OneDrive on Windows Until You Explain Yourself

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Microsoft now wants you to explain exactly why you’re attempting to close its OneDrive for Windows app before it allows you to do so. From a report: Neowin has spotted that the latest update to OneDrive now includes an annoying dialog box that asks you to select the reason why you’re closing the app every single time you attempt to close OneDrive from the taskbar. Closing OneDrive is already buried away and not a simple task, with Microsoft hiding it under a “pause syncing” option when you right-click on OneDrive in the taskbar. But now, the quit option is grayed out until you select a reason for quitting OneDrive from a drop-down box. Here are the options:

1. I don’t want OneDrive running all the time
2. I don’t know what OneDrive is
3. I don’t use OneDrive
4. I’m trying to fix a problem with OneDrive
5. I’m trying to speed up my computer
6. I get too many notifications
7. Other

Read more of this story at Slashdot.



Source: Slashdot – Microsoft Won’t Let You Close OneDrive on Windows Until You Explain Yourself

Omegle Kills Off Anonymized Video Chat After Years of Abuse

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Anonymous video chat app Omegle, known for pairing strangers and weirdos together in a kind of raw, extended social experiment, finally threw in the towel after years of abuse. The site was forced to shut down due to a settlement from a recent lawsuit alleging the site gave free rein to sexual predators.

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Source: Gizmodo – Omegle Kills Off Anonymized Video Chat After Years of Abuse

Marvel's Kevin Feige Teases When to Expect the X-Men In the MCU

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The Boys sets the stage for its 2024. Netflix teases the arrival of its live-action Avatar: The Last Airbender series. Eddie Murphy gets on the bad side of an elf in his new Christmas movie for Amazon. Plus, Iron Maiden’s Bruce Dickinson will headline an apocalyptic music movie. To me, my spoilers!

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Source: Gizmodo – Marvel’s Kevin Feige Teases When to Expect the X-Men In the MCU

ChatGPT Blames Outages on DDoS Hackers, GPT Rollout Stalled

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OpenAI’s global outages for ChatGPT and its API yesterday were due to a Distributed Denial of Service (DD0S) attack, according to a post on the company’s outage page Wednesday evening. CEO Sam Altman said the company was planning to go live with GPTs, its new customizable chatbots, for all subscribers on Monday in a tw…

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Source: Gizmodo – ChatGPT Blames Outages on DDoS Hackers, GPT Rollout Stalled

Big Tech Wants AI Regulation. The Rest of Silicon Valley is Skeptical.

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After months of high-level meetings and discussions, government officials and Big Tech leaders have agreed on one thing about artificial intelligence: The potentially world-changing technology needs some ground rules. But many in Silicon Valley are skeptical. WashingtonPost: A growing group of tech heavyweights — including influential venture capitalists, the CEOs of midsize software companies and proponents of open-source technology — are pushing back, claiming that laws for AI could snuff out competition in a vital new field. To these dissenters, the willingness of the biggest players in AI, such as Google, Microsoft and ChatGPT maker OpenAI to embrace regulation is simply a cynical ploy by those firms to lock in their advantages as the current leaders, essentially pulling up the ladder behind them. These tech leaders’ concerns ballooned last week, when President Biden signed an executive order laying out a plan to have the government develop testing and approval guidelines for AI models — the underlying algorithms that drive “generative” AI tools such as chatbots and image-makers.

“We are still in the very early days of generative AI, and it’s imperative that governments don’t preemptively anoint winners and shut down competition through the adoption of onerous regulations only the largest firms can satisfy,” said Garry Tan, the head of Y Combinator, a San Francisco-based start-up incubator that helped nurture companies including Airbnb and DoorDash when they were just starting. The current discussion hasn’t incorporated the voices of smaller companies enough, Tan said, which he believes is key to fostering competition and engineering the safest ways to harness AI. Companies like influential AI start-up Anthropic and OpenAI are closely tied to Big Tech, having taken huge amounts of investment from them.

“They do not speak for the vast majority of people who have contributed to this industry,” said Martin Casado, a general partner at venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, which made early investments in Facebook, Slack and Lyft. Most AI engineers and entrepreneurs have been watching the regulatory discussions from afar, focusing on their companies instead of trying to lobby politicians, he said. “Many people want to build, they’re innovators, they’re the silent majority,” Casado said. The executive order showed those people that regulation could come sooner than expected, he said. Casado’s venture capital firm sent a letter to Biden laying out its concerns. It was signed by prominent AI start-up leaders including Replit CEO Amjad Masad and Mistral’s Arthur Mensch, as well as more established tech leaders such as e-commerce company Shopify’s CEO Tobi Lutke, who had tweeted “AI regulation is a terrible idea” after the executive order was announced.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.



Source: Slashdot – Big Tech Wants AI Regulation. The Rest of Silicon Valley is Skeptical.

Testing Apple’s M3 Pro: More efficient, but performance is a step sideways

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Source: Ars Technica – Testing Apple’s M3 Pro: More efficient, but performance is a step sideways

The best cooking gifts for 2023

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The holidays are a time to gather, drink and share your favorite dishes. And for the people who are doing the cooking, there’s no better way to show your appreciation (besides offering them a helping hand) than by giving them something to make the process faster, simpler, or just more fun. So regardless of whether they prefer baking, cooking savory dishes or making healthy juices, we’ve got a huge range of tried and tested gear that will make great gifts for foodies.

KitchenAid Cordless Variable Speed Hand Blender

Made-in Half Sheet Pan

Silpat Baking Sheet

Breville Juice Fountain

Kan Kitchen Chef Knife

Kyocera Ceramic Chef Knife

Misen Non-stick pans

Instant Vortex Plus air fryer

Anova Precision Cooker 3.0

Microplane Classic Grater

ThermoWorks ThermoPop 2

John Boos cutting board

The Good Shears by Material

Zojirushi Neuro Fuzzy rice cooker

Vitamix Explorian blender

OXO Good Grips Precision scale

SodaStream Terra

ButcherBox Favorites

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/best-cooking-gifts-140038552.html?src=rss

Source: Engadget – The best cooking gifts for 2023

Amazon makes Fresh grocery deliveries and pickups available to everyone

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Amazon is expanding its grocery services to the masses — well, at least to everyone who has an account with them. Now, non-Prime Members can also get Amazon Fresh groceries delivered or utilize free pickup at all locations. 

This expanded access will soon include Amazon-owned Whole Foods Market, with every customer able to choose two-hour delivery from either retailer. The online retailer is also making a play to compete with food delivery on the likes of Uber Eats or GrubHub as Amazon will also now drop off groceries from local shops, even pet food stores. 

Of course, Prime Members will still get additional benefits, including free shipping on Amazon Fresh orders over $100. Amazon raised the free delivery threshold to $150 earlier in the year before dropping it to $100 in October. Prime Members also get discounts on items at Amazon Fresh and Whole Foods Market. 

Amazon’s grocery service has struggled between an unclear strategy and poor sales. Time will tell if expanding its delivery availability will be of any help. The retailer also announced that it has revamped three Los Angeles-based stores to include new products and — the American Dream — a Krispy Kreme donut shop. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/amazon-makes-fresh-grocery-deliveries-and-pickups-available-to-everyone-132018745.html?src=rss

Source: Engadget – Amazon makes Fresh grocery deliveries and pickups available to everyone

Amazon Expands Healthcare Push With One Medical Benefits For Prime Members

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An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Financial Times: Amazon Prime members will be able to access US healthcare provider One Medical’s suite of benefits, for a fee, as the ecommerce company looks to expand its presence in the $4 trillion American healthcare industry. Prime members in the US who opt in will have access to unlimited, on-demand virtual healthcare via One Medical, the subscription-based group that Amazon acquired last year for $3.9 billion. They will also be able to schedule in-person appointments that they will either pay for themselves or that will be covered by insurance.

The addition to Amazon’s flagship Prime membership program comes as the company looks to “stack” healthcare services together and broaden its reach in the sector, which would be “big for us if we do a good job,” said Neil Lindsay, senior vice-president of Amazon Health. The subscription will cost Amazon Prime members $9 per month or $99 per year, compared with the standard One Medical subscription fee of $199 per year. That will come on top of the $139 per year, or $14.99 a month, price for a Prime subscription.

The move is Amazon’s latest effort to leverage its loyal base of Prime members and become a big player in the healthcare industry. In January, following its 2018 acquisition of mail-order pharmacy PillPack for about $1 billion, Amazon launched RxPass, which allows Prime members to order an unlimited amount of some unbranded prescription medications for $5 a month. It has also rolled out a “Clinic” telehealth service that connects patients with clinicians and a broader mail-order pharmacy service.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.



Source: Slashdot – Amazon Expands Healthcare Push With One Medical Benefits For Prime Members

Micron Introduces 128 GB DDR5-8000 RDIMMs with Monolithic 32 Gb Dice

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The path to high-capacity RDIMMs for servers has primarily been through 3D stacking (3DS) of DRAM dice using Through-Silicon Vias (TSVs). However, this has presented significant challenges in packaging (driving up the cost), and has also not been efficient in terms of energy consumption. The demand for large memory capacity RDIMMs is being primarily driven by the sudden emergence of large-language models (LLMs) for generative AI and increasing CPU core counts. Both of these require significant amount of DRAM to keep pace with performance requirements. Keeping these in mind, Micron is introducing 128 GB DDR5 RDIMMs capable of operating at up to 8000 MT/s today, with mass-production slated for 2024.


Micron has recently started fabricating 32 Gb monolithic DDR5 dice using its proven and mature 1β technology. The new dice have a 45%+ increase in bit density, and are capable of reaching up to 8000 MT/s while also operating with much more aggressive timing latencies compared to the standard JEDEC specs. The company is claiming that it improves energy efficiency by as much as 24% compared to the competition’s 3DS TSV offerings, and the faster operation can also help in faster AI training times. Avoiding 3DS TSV allows Micron to optimize the data input buffers and critical I/O circuits better, while also reducing the pin capacitance on the data lines. These contribute to the reduced power and improved speeds.



Micron has been doubling its monolithic die density every 3 years or so, thanks to advancements in CMOS process as well as improvements in array efficiency. The company sees a clear path to 48 Gb and 64 Gb monolithic dice in the future with continued technological progress. Micron is also claiming that its 1β node has reached mass production ahead of the competition, and that it has had the fastest yield maturity in the company’s history. Dual-die packages and tall form-factor (TFF) modules using 1β DRAM are expected to enable 1TB modules in the near future.



Along with the announcement of the 128 GB RDIMMs using 1β technology, the company also laid out its roadmap for upcoming products. HDM and GDDR7 are expected to dominate bandwidth-hungry applications, while RDIMMs, MCRDIMMs, and CXL solutions are in the pipeline for systems requiring massive capacity. LPDDR5X, and LPCAMM2 solutions going up to 192 GB are expected to make an appearance in power-sensitive systems as early as 2026.




Source: AnandTech – Micron Introduces 128 GB DDR5-8000 RDIMMs with Monolithic 32 Gb Dice

Omegle shuts down after 14 years of random chats

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Omegle, a chat service that pairs users with a random person so they can talk via text or video, is shutting down. Leif K-Brooks, who launched the service when he was 18 years old, announced its closure and talked about its humble beginnings, as well as how it grew organically because “meeting new people [is] a basic human need.” While he didn’t delve into the specific reasons for Omegle’s shutdown, he admitted that “some people misused [the service], including to commit unspeakably heinous crimes.”

Critics have raised concerns about the website’s safety over the past years, with some even calling it a “magnet for pedophiles.” In 2021, an American woman sued the website for pairing her with a person who coerced her into sending explicit images for three years, starting when she was just 11 years old. Her legal team said that the way the platform works allows it to become a “hunting ground for predators.” Last year, two men in the US were sentenced to federal prison for exploiting children they met on apps, including Omegle, forcing them to perform sexual acts and to send them explicit photos and videos. A BBC investigation also revealed a rise in cases of users exposing themselves on Omegle chat. These users included minors, because while the website is technically meant for use by people 18 and older, it has no age verification in place. 

In his farewell note, K-Brooks said he worked with law enforcement agencies, as well as “the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, to help put evildoers in prison where they belong.” His website, he said proactively collected evidence against these people and tipped authorities to put them in jail. However, he said the fight against crime is “a never-ending battle” and that the “world has become more ornery” in recent years. He also said that there’s been “a constant barrage of attacks on communication services… based on the behavior of a malicious subset of users.”

In the end, he found the “existing stress and expense of operating Omegle, and fighting its misuse” to no longer be sustainable, both financially and psychologically. “Frankly, I don’t want to have a heart attack in my 30s,” he added. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/omegle-shuts-down-after-14-years-of-random-chats-125007355.html?src=rss

Source: Engadget – Omegle shuts down after 14 years of random chats

Daily Telescope: Zooming in on one of the most iconic night sky sights

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Messier 45 as seen from Texas.

Enlarge / Messier 45 as seen from Texas. (credit: Jeff Cohen)

Welcome to the Daily Telescope. There is a little too much darkness in this world and not enough light; a little too much pseudoscience and not enough science. We’ll let other publications offer you a daily horoscope. At Ars Technica, we’re going to take a different route, finding inspiration from very real images of a universe that is filled with stars and wonder.

Good morning. It is November 9, and today’s photograph brings the Pleiades into focus.

This bright, open cluster of stars is known by several names. Sometimes it is the Seven Sisters, sometimes Pleiades, and in Japan it is known as the Subaru cluster—the automaker actually took its name from the astronomical object, reflecting the joining of five companies. The company’s logo mimics the star cluster.

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Source: Ars Technica – Daily Telescope: Zooming in on one of the most iconic night sky sights