At the box office, the King of Atlantis is ruling the waves. Well, DC’s King of Atlantis is, specifically. Beneath the tides of Hollywood and back in the realm of comic books, however—and at DC’s rival Marvel—another King of Atlantis is undergoing a similar ascendance. Namor’s back, and he’s more intriguing than ever.
Source: io9 – Marvel Is Setting Up a Timely, Fascinating Resurgence for Namor the Sub-Mariner
Facebook isn’t the only tech giant to offer a data-vacuuming app that sidesteps Apple’s App Store. Since 2012, Google has allowed people to earn gift cards by offering up their data through its Screenwise project. On iOS and Android, the company gain…
Source: Engadget – Google also has a data-vacuuming iOS app that bypasses the App Store (Update)
Asetek has introduced one of the industry’s first closed-loop liquid cooling solutions specifically designed for Intel’s 28-core Xeon W-3175X processor for extreme workstations. The 690LX-PN cooler can dissipate up to 500 W of heat and therefore enables owners to overclock the CPU beyond its stock frequency.
Source: AnandTech – Asetek Launches 690LX-PN Cooler for Xeon W-3175X: Up to 500 W
As you’ve probably heard by now, Facebook—in its infinite wisdom—has been running a program that pays your kid (aged 13 to 35) a whopping $20 worth of gift cards each month in exchange for near-unlimited access to the data on their Apple or Android devices. By installing a custom root certificate, Facebook can see…
Source: LifeHacker – How to Check If Your Kid Is Using Facebook’s ‘Banned’ Research App
If you are having trouble getting your Xbox One online, you are not alone. Xbox One consoles around the world have stopped working. From a report: Xbox One owners are reporting major problems with their consoles online with displays being stuck on black screens at startup, games not loading, and errors when trying to login to Xbox Live. Microsoft is aware of the situation and has promised to give more information when they have it. Within a couple of hours, the official Xbox Support Twitter account updated everyone, saying that they have identified the problem and are working on fixing it. There is no estimate on how long it will take to fix. Bad week for Microsoft services continues. Update: The issue with Xbox Live appears to have been resolved.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – Xbox One Consoles Are Down
Enlarge (credit: Aurich / Getty)
LAS VEGAS—Like it or not, CES has now become a car show, for the same reason we cover the automotive world now at Ars Technica. Simply put, the tech sector has taken a look at the automobile, and it sees dollar signs. Whether or not this vast annual trade show is the right way to kick off a new year (spoiler—it’s not), attending CES does have some value in trend-spotting. And this year, the main trend appeared to be “the same product you saw last year, but with AI”: AI-enabled TVs, AI-enabled induction cooktops, and yes, AI in cars.
Truth be told, the idea of an in-car AI personal assistant has been around for a while now. I got my first glimpse of this brave new world in 2016 when Audi showed me its concept called PIA (for Personal Intelligent Assistant). Since then, I’ve heard talk of such AI helpers from more and more car makers, and the technology is getting closer to production.
Take BMW—in a couple of months, in some markets, you’ll be able to buy a 3 Series (or 8 Series, or X5, or Z4) that includes the company’s new Intelligent Personal Assistant as a feature of the new seventh-generation infotainment system. Leveraging some rather good voice recognition (take a bow, Nuance), you can give the car instructions like, “Hey BMW, I’m cold,” at which point it will increase the cabin temperature for you. “We expect much higher engagement with voice interaction,” said Dieter May, BMW’s SVP for digital products and services.
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Source: Ars Technica – In-car AI assistants are coming whether you like it or not
G.Skill announced new hexa-channel DDR4 memory kits that will fall into its Trident Z Royal product line. These new memory kits are geared towards Intel’s new high-end Xeon W-3175X processor — which we reviewed here — and support high memory capacities and fast data transfer speeds.
G.Skill first launched its Trident Z Royal memory kits
Source: Hot Hardware – G.SKill’s Trident Z Royal RAM Kits Deliver 192GB Of DDR4-4000 Punch For Xeon W-3175X
This was truly a five alarm Co-Op, with dozens of recommendations, hundreds of stars, and nearly a dozen standout hot sauces to choose from. Check out what our readers had to say about the finalists below, then be sure to cool off before you submit your vote.
Source: Gizmodo – The 11 Best Hot Sauces, According To Our Readers
Following news yesterday that Facebook paid teens in order to monitor their phones via an unsettling “research” app, Apple has pulled Facebook’s Enterprise Certificate. As a result, Facebook can no longer access its internal iOS apps, such as pre-release versions of Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger, “as well as the…
Source: Gizmodo – Facebook Broke Apple’s Rules and Now Its Employee-Only iOS Apps Are Busted
Huawei began building its own phone-testing system, xDeviceRobot, in early 2012. The Chinese company hoped to improve the quality of its mobile hardware, which tended to fail far more often than competitors’ devices in third-party trials. In May 2012…
Source: Engadget – How Huawei planned international robot espionage via email
Grand Theft Auto Online’s newest game mode isn’t about powerful supercars or big armored tanks. Instead, this new mode focuses on something tiny and fast: remote controlled cars. The RC Bandito is a small RC car that first appeared last month in the Arena War update, which added a whole new deadly game show to GTA…
Source: Kotaku – GTA Online Adds RC Cars In Latest Update
Just a few days ago marked the systemd 241 release candidate while today Lennart Poettering opted for a second release candidate…
Source: Phoronix – Systemd 241 RC2 Released With Its Beefed Up Security
We’ve got a fast factory overclocked MSI GeForce RTX 2060 GAMING Z video card to review today. We’ll take it through its paces in many games, and find out how it performs, including overclocking performance with the competition. Does the RTX 2060 deliver better performance at a lower price compared to the last generation?
Source: [H]ardOCP – MSI GeForce RTX 2060 GAMING Z Video Card Review
Chicken, tuna, and egg salad sandwiches can inspire two wildly different sets of emotions. They’re either deliciously restorative and nostalgic, or sad, boring, and reminiscent of bleak desk lunches (similar to fluorescent lighting). The key components never change—it’s the details that make these sandwiches great.
Source: LifeHacker – How to Upgrade Your Salad Sandwich
Enlarge (credit: Thomas Hawk)
If a new proposed municipal ordinance passes in the coming months, San Francisco could become the first city in America to outright ban the use of facial recognition technology by its police department or any other city agency.
According to a new bill unveiled Tuesday and first reported by the San Francisco Examiner and The Verge, the city would also impose a new pre-emptive “Surveillance Technology Policy” for city agencies that want to acquire any new gear that could impact privacy. Such a requirement would put San Francisco in line with its neighboring cities of Oakland and Berkeley.
“Our intent is to catch people’s attention and have a broader conversation as to where the moral precipice is for technology, after which you’ve gone too far,” said Lee Hepner, a legislative aide to Supervisor Aaron Peskin, who proposed the bill. “This is a harm to our way of life, a harm to our democracy, and a harm to marginalized communities. There is a salient interest in facial recognition, too: it creeps people out.”
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Source: Ars Technica – San Francisco lawmaker: Our cops should be banned from using facial recognition
Facebook is not the only one abusing Apple’s system for distributing employee-only apps to sidestep the App Store and collect extensive data on users. Google has been running an app called Screenwise Meter, which bears a strong resemblance to the app distributed by Facebook Research that has now been barred by Apple, TechCrunch reported Wednesday. From the report: In its app, Google invites users aged 18 and up (or 13 if part of a family group) to download the app by way of a special code and registration process using an Enterprise Certificate. That’s the same type of policy violation that led Apple to shut down Facebook’s similar Research VPN iOS app, which had the knock-on effect of also disabling usage of Facebook’s legitimate employee-only apps — which run on the same Facebook Enterprise Certificate — and making Facebook look very iffy in the process. It needs to be pointed out that Google’s app is relatively transparent about what it does and who runs it.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – Google’s Also Peddling a Data Collector Through Apple’s Back Door
If you tried to turn on your Xbox One today only to be greeted with a borked boot up sequence and a series of black screens, you’re not the only one. Apparently, there’s an issue with Xbox Live that’s stopping some consoles from being able to start up normally.
Source: Gizmodo – Xbox One Borked Until Further Notice Due to Issues With Xbox Live [Update: It’s Fixed]
We’re learning more about how AT&T’s WarnerMedia streaming service will pan out as it inches closer to launch. The platform — which will play host to Warner Bros. TV shows and movies along with licensed content from others — will use a “two-sid…
Source: Engadget – AT&T’s forthcoming streaming service so far sounds a lot like Hulu
These clever, all-natural wraps cut down on plastic use and make food last longer, too.
Source: TreeHugger – The humble beeswax wrap is a zero waste superstar
This modern prefab from Italy is conceived with energy efficiency and ease of assembly in mind.
Source: TreeHugger – Minimalist Monocabin is a modular 291 sq. ft. prefab
