Temperatures are currently cooling down across the U.S., but much of the country is in for a warmer, wetter winter than usual, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said in this year’s winter outlook.
Source: Gizmodo – The U.S. Is in for a Warm, Wet Winter With El Niño
Enlarge / Gillian Anderson’s likeness has been promoting Star Citizen since 2015. (credit: Cloud Imperium Games)
Eleven years ago, Wing Commander designer Chris Roberts announced Star Citizen, an online multiplayer game that he said would “change the way people perceive games for the PC.” Roberts told Ars’ Kyle Orland soon after that he didn’t enjoy the four-year development of another hit, Freelancer, because “spending that many years disconnected from your audience, sort of working off by yourself, wasn’t creatively fun for me.” With Star Citizen, Roberts said he could keep development from dragging on by engaging fans and using a pre-built engine, as opposed to what Roberts said would be “two years” building his own.
Roberts has definitely engaged his audience in Star Citizen, to the tune of $616 million raised from more than 4.8 million “Star Citizens.” It has just taken a bit longer than two years to give them a true release.
Roughly 11 years after Star Citizen‘s initial announcement that included it, then nine years after its first potential release date, Squadron 42, the single-player campaign, is now “feature complete” and has “entered its polish phase.” Roberts announced this in a video released Sunday as part of an annual CitizenCon for backers, along with footage from the game and details on its development.
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Source: Ars Technica – Star Citizen’s Squadron 42 campaign is “feature complete” after 11 years
The Venn diagram of HomePod owners and YouTube Music subscribers probably doesn’t have a lot of overlap. However, those who use both Apple’s speakers and Google’s music streaming service may be pleased to learn that the two now play more nicely together. YouTube Music is now available natively on HomePod, meaning that you can ask Siri to play tracks from the service even if your iPhone, iPad or Apple Watch aren’t close by.
It’s now possible to set YouTube Music as the default music service on HomePod. That means you won’t have to add “on YouTube Music” when you bark a command at Siri. If you configure your HomePod in that way, you can still play music from another supported service by saying its name when you make your Siri request (for example “Siri, play Bad Bunny on Deezer” or “Siri, play Taylor Swift on Apple Music”).
To change the default music service on HomePod, open the Home app on your iPhone or iPad. Tap the More button (the one with the three dots) and then Home Settings. Go to your user profile under People, then select a default service in the Media section.
Having native YouTube Music support is a welcome update. HomePods don’t support too many services natively beyond the likes of Apple Music, Deezer, Pandora, TuneIn Radio and iHeartRadio. It’s possible to stream audio to a HomePod from an iPhone, iPad or Mac as well.
With iOS 17, you can ask your HomePod to play music from Spotify and it will do so as long as your iPhone is nearby. Siri needs to route the request through your mobile device via AirPlay. While there’s no native Spotify support on HomePod as yet, that change should certainly make things a little easier for some folks.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apple-homepods-now-have-native-youtube-music-support-180428371.html?src=rss
Source: Engadget – Apple HomePods now have native YouTube Music support
The White House on Monday announced it is designating 31 technology hubs in an effort to improve American competitiveness in the technology sector. The hubs will be able to compete for $40 million to $75 million each in grants, the White House said. From a report: A tech hub designation is “a strong endorsement of a region’s plan to supercharge a critical technology ecosystem and become a global leader over the next decade,” the U.S. Economic Development Administration said on its website. The move was authorized under the CHIPS and Science Act, the White House said, which President Joe Biden frequently touts as a highlight of his economic agenda. The act, which the president signed in August 2022, aimed to improve semiconductor manufacturing and supply chains in the U.S. It also authorized $10 billion to invest in technology hubs nationwide, according to the administration.
“These Tech Hubs will catalyze investment in technologies critical to economic growth, national security, and job creation, and will help communities across the country become centers of innovation critical to American competitiveness,” the White House said in a news release. The hubs focus on a wide range of technological areas, including quantum computing, artificial intelligence, clean energy, medicine and biotechnology. The location of the hubs spans 32 states and Puerto Rico and include areas with a tribal government, coal communities and states with smaller populations, according to the U.S. Economic Development Administration.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – White House Announces 31 Tech Hubs To Improve American Competitiveness
NASA’s Voyager team has rolled out important measures in an attempt to further prolong the interstellar journey of the two Voyager spacecraft, which have been transmitting data from deep space since 1977.
Source: Gizmodo – Interstellar Tune-Up: NASA’s Voyager Spacecraft Get Crucial Updates
Matthew Vaughn, the director of X-Men: First Class (2011), the Kingsman franchise, and the upcoming Argylle, shared a few opinions on superhero films at New York Comic Con last week. “I genuinely don’t know what’s happening with the superhero in the sense that, I do think, maybe we all need a little bit of time off…
Source: Gizmodo – Matthew Vaughn Says Superhero Films Should Be Better
If you’re on the internet browsing with the recently redesigned Google Chrome, you’re probably not the most privacy-minded person out there. Still, the world’s most popular browser is gearing up to allow users to hide their IP address from websites, even without a VPN.
Source: Gizmodo – Google’s Chrome Browser Could Soon Help You Hide Your IP Address
Between October 27 and 29, home theater sets from Sonos will be 20 percent off. The Ray + Sub Mini, which is regularly priced at $708, will be available for $565.99. The rare deal on the subwoofer and soundbar bundle, which works great for listening to music or getting a more immersive movie-watching experience, could make a great holiday gift for someone living in an apartment or smaller space.
The Ray soundbar, which secured a spot on Engadget’s list of best soundbars, is compact but equipped with four class-D digital amplifiers. The device has a “solid stereo presence” for its size, and can pair with other Sonos speakers to improve bass performance. We gave it a score of 82 in our review thanks to its solid sound quality for both music and TV audio and easy setup process. As mentioned above, it’s arguably best for those living in smaller spaces; anyone with a big living room will want to step things up to a larger soundbar.
The Sub Mini, which pairs with the Ray, connects to Wi-Fi with any 5GHz broadcast-capable router and can reach down to 25Hz. The device received praise in our review for its “excellent bass” considering its size and for how easily it can connect with Sonos’ wired speakers. This deal might be one worth checking if you’re on the hunt for a practical sub and soundbar, but the Ray + Sub Mini is just one of many entertainment sets on sale right now. The most expensive topline set, the Ultimate Immersive Set with Arc, which normally is listed for $2,596 is available for $2,211.
Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/sonos-home-theater-sets-are-up-to-20-percent-off-this-weekend-174800255.html?src=rss
Source: Engadget – Sonos home theater sets are up to 20 percent off this weekend
Enlarge / Is this “evocative” header image stretching the limits of good taste? (credit: Aurich Lawson | Getty Images)
Here at Ars, we’ve seen time and again how simple web and/or mobile games can be cloned or outright stolen by unscrupulous developers aiming to cash in on someone else’s game concept. But developer Josh Simmons was in a unique position to inflict a particularly rude punishment on websites that were directly stealing and monetizing his web game Sqword without permission.
Since its launch last year, Simmons says he has attracted a “steady group of daily active users” for Sqword, which involves placing letters sequentially in a 5×5 grid to make as many valid words as possible. But as noted on Simmons’ blog (and noticed by 404 Media), searching for Sqword also brings up several “game aggregator” sites that simply embed the game content from Sqword.com in an iFrame window, only now surrounded by annoying banner ads.
“This made me angrier than it should have—not because Sqword is a cash cow—we don’t run ads on the site and don’t make money from it, it’s just for fun—but because it was a passion project with friends, something pure and intentionally free to play WITHOUT ads,” Simmons writes. “It’s against my ethos as a developer, there are banners and popups everywhere. If I build an app, I believe it should either be free or it should be upfront about what the subscription or purchase price is (and then not upsell you). I couldn’t abide seeing my code monetized in this way.”
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Source: Ars Technica – Dev sets up “goatse” trap for sites that steal his free web game
You can now use passkeys to sign into your Amazon account, the company announced on Monday. Amazon is following suit from other big tech players who are moving away from passwords and towards biometrics, such as your fingerprint or face, as well as pins to secure your digital identity.
Source: Gizmodo – Amazon Rolls Out Passkeys as Big Tech Bids Farewell to Passwords
Ursula Vernon, aka T. Kingfisher, won the 2023 Hugo for best novel and found inspiration for her acceptance speech in a 2020 study about a species of water beetle that survives being swallowed alive by a frog by escaping through the frog’s butt. Credit: Shinji Sugiura, 2020.
Inspiration can come from the most unlikely places, as fantasy author Ursula Vernon, aka T. Kingfisher, clearly knows. Vernon won the 2023 Hugo Award for Best Novel this past weekend for her dark fairy tale, Nettle and Bone, and while she was unable to travel to Chengdu Worldcon in China for the event, she posted the text of her acceptance speech (read at the ceremony by a friend) on her Patreon. After the usual preliminary remarks and thanks, Vernon opted to forego “serious and heavy” commentary for the following revelation:
There is a species of water beetle that regularly gets swallowed whole by frogs. And while there’s a lot of things you can do to keep from being eaten, once you’re inside a frog, your options are severely limited. Generally you get digested. But this particular species of beetle said “You know, I bet there’s another way.” And it started walking. In fact, it walked through the frog’s digestive tract and out the back end.
This is 100 percent true, you can look it up.
Naturally, we did look it up and honestly can’t believe we missed covering this fascinating study in 2020. (At least we didn’t miss the 2022 study on how certain species of beetle have evolved unusual “back pockets” to safely house symbiotic bacteria during metamorphosis, shuffling the populations out of those pockets via friction to the genital area as they emerge from their pupae.)
Shinji Sugiura of Kobe University in Japan discovered the unusual survival strategy of the aquatic beetle Regimbartia attenuata while looking into how predation pressures can lead to the evolution of innovative escape behavior in prey animals. He fed a bunch of the beetles to a pond frog (Pelophylax nigromaculatus) under laboratory conditions, expecting the frog to spit the beetle out. That’s what happened with Sugiura’s prior experiments on bombardier beetles (Pheropsophus jessoensis), which spray toxic chemicals (described as an audible “chemical explosion”) when they find themselves inside a toad’s gut, inducing the toad to invert its own stomach and vomit them back out.
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Source: Ars Technica – Yes, this beetle runs out of a frog’s anus to survive being swallowed alive
Xbox is presenting a showcase on Wednesday to highlight the various third-party titles coming to Microsoft’s gaming consoles, Windows computers and Game Pass. The festivities kick off on Wednesday, October 25 at 1PM EST. You can watch via the official YouTube channel or on Twitch.
The stream promises a “fresh mix of indie games and familiar favorites” from third-party companies like Remedy, Studio Wildcard, Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio and more, with 20 minutes of trailers and gameplay footage on the docket. Consider this Xbox’s version of those Nintendo Indie World showcase events.
So what should you expect during the stream? Microsoft hasn’t released a list of games that’ll take center stage, but did drop some teases. The company says it’ll reveal the “latest information” about Yakuza-adjacent RPG Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth and Dungeons of Hinterberg. It also promised a launch trailer for the long-awaited Alan Wake II, which releases at the end of this week, and the first gameplay footage of Ark: Survival Ascended. There should also be some surprises, so can we have a little Hollow Knight: Silksong trailer… as a treat?
The stream will be available in 30 languages, including American Sign Language (ASL) and British Sign Language (BSL.) Additionally, Xbox says that YouTube streams will be in 4K at 60fps, which should be a good way to suss out real-world graphical performance.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/how-to-watch-xboxs-third-party-games-showcase-172052353.html?src=rss
Source: Engadget – How to watch Xbox’s third-party games showcase
Google is getting ready to test a new “IP Protection” feature for the Chrome browser that enhances users’ privacy by masking their IP addresses using proxy servers. From a report: Recognizing the potential misuse of IP addresses for covert tracking, Google seeks to strike a balance between ensuring users’ privacy and the essential functionalities of the web. IP addresses allow websites and online services to track activities across websites, thereby facilitating the creation of persistent user profiles. This poses significant privacy concerns as, unlike third-party cookies, users currently lack a direct way to evade such covert tracking.
While IP addresses are potential vectors for tracking, they are also indispensable for critical web functionalities like routing traffic, fraud prevention, and other vital network tasks. The “IP Protection” solution addresses this dual role by routing third-party traffic from specific domains through proxies, making users’ IP addresses invisible to those domains. As the ecosystem evolves, so will IP Protection, adapting to continue safeguarding users from cross-site tracking and adding additional domains to the proxied traffic. “Chrome is reintroducing a proposal to protect users against cross-site tracking via IP addresses. This proposal is a privacy proxy that anonymizes IP addresses for qualifying traffic as described above,” reads a description of the IP Protection feature. Initially, IP Protection will be an opt-in feature, ensuring users have control over their privacy and letting Google monitor behavior trends.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – Google Chrome’s New ‘IP Protection’ Will Hide Users’ IP Addresses
The social experiments seen in Netflix’s Squid Game dystopian future series have become real in our dystopian present: the trailer for the reality game show inspired by the hit series gathers 456 real contestants to put their skills to the test for that grand, glass-pig-encased prize of $4.56 million.
Source: Gizmodo – Squid Game: The Challenge Goes Full Meta With Reality Show
Michigan State University has suspended an employee it said was responsible for allowing a quiz question about Hitler and an image of the dictator to be broadcast on the video screen before the school’s football game against Michigan on Saturday. The School’s Associate Athletic Director, Matt Larson issued an apology…
Source: Gizmodo – Michigan State University Employee Suspended After Hitler Image Loomed Over Football Stadium
Enlarge (credit: Aurich Lawson)
Bribery. Embezzlement. Terrorism.
What if an AI chatbot accused you of doing something terrible? When bots make mistakes, the false claims can ruin lives, and the legal questions around these issues remain murky.
That’s according to several people suing the biggest AI companies. But chatbot makers hope to avoid liability, and a string of legal threats has revealed how easy it might be for companies to wriggle out of responsibility for allegedly defamatory chatbot responses.
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Source: Ars Technica – Will ChatGPT’s hallucinations be allowed to ruin your life?
Matter — the IOT connectivity standard with ambitions to fix the smart home and make all of our gadgets talk to each other — has hit version 1.2, adding support for nine new types of connected devices. From a report: Robot vacuums, refrigerators, washing machines, and dishwashers are coming to Matter, as are smoke and CO alarms, air quality sensors, air purifiers, room air conditioners, and fans. It’s a crucial moment for the success of the industry-backed coalition that counts 675 companies among its members. This is where it moves from the relatively small categories of door locks and light bulbs to the real moneymakers: large appliances.
The Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA), the organization behind Matter, released the Matter 1.2 specification this week, a year after launching Matter 1.0, following through on its promise to release two updates a year. Now, appliance manufacturers can add support for Matter to their devices, and ecosystems such as Apple Home, Amazon Alexa, Google Home, and Samsung SmartThings can start supporting the new device types. Yes, this means you should finally be able to control a robot vacuum in the Apple Home app — not to mention your wine fridge, dishwasher, and washing machine.
The initial feature set for the new device types includes basic function controls (start / stop, change mode) and notifications — such as the temperature of your fridge, the status of your laundry, or whether smoke is detected. Robot vacuum support is robust — remote start and progress notifications, cleaning modes (dry vacuum, wet mopping), and alerts for brush status, error reporting, and charging status. But there’s no mapping, so you’ll still need to use your vacuum app if you want to tell the robot where to go.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – Matter 1.2 is a Big Move For the Smart Home Standard
Shudder’s VP of programming, Sam Zimmerman, is billed as the streamer’s “in-house horror curator,” which not only means he has one of the coolest jobs around, it also means he’s uniquely suited to recommend what to watch. This Friday, October 27, you can ask him yourself thanks to the Shudder Halloween Hotline.
Source: Gizmodo – Call Shudder’s ‘Halloween Hotline’ to Narrow Down Your Streaming Screams
Amazon Prime Video announced Monday that the Fallout television series will premiere on April 12, 2024. The news came from a short teaser video the streaming service posted on its social channels, including Instagram, styled like a Pip-Boy interface. The series, initially announced in 2020, will adopt a “serious and harsh” tone while adding “ironic humor” and “B-movie nuclear fantasies.”
The live-action series, from Westworld creators Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, will have an original (canonical) story set in the Fallout gaming universe. It will take place in 2077, beginning in Vault 33 in Los Angeles. As fans of the game know, it’s set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland following the events of “The Great War” on October 23, 2077. That date has become known as “Fallout Day” among the game’s fans — an ideal day for Amazon to reveal the series’ premiere date.
04.12.24. #Falloutpic.twitter.com/3Go3llsjtD
— Prime Video (@PrimeVideo) October 23, 2023
Fallout will star Ella Purnell (Yellowjackets), Walton Goggins (Justified), Aaron Moten (Emancipation), Xelia Mendes-Jones (The Wheel of Time), Moisés Arias (The King of Staten Island) and Kyle MacLachlan (Twin Peaks). Geneva Robertson-Dworet and Graham Wagner are the series’ executive producers, writers and showrunners. Additional executive producers include Athena Wickham of Kilter Films, along with Bethesda’s Todd Howard and James Altman.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/amazons-fallout-series-finally-has-a-release-date-163430938.html?src=rss
Source: Engadget – Amazon’s Fallout series finally has a release date
Nothing against 2007 horror anthology Trick ‘r Treat—we all love a spooky kid with a pumpkin head. But its popularity has come to overshadow Trick or Treat, the 1986 tale of a cursed heavy metal record that features some rock-royalty cameos. Horns up: it’s been elusive online for some time, but Trick or Treat’s return…
Source: Gizmodo – Rockin’ Cult Classic Trick or Treat Is Coming to Streaming for Halloween
