You may have noticed a new pumpkin spice syrup recipe making the rounds on TikTok. In this video, posted by @thethriftwitch, she stirs together 2 cups of brown sugar, 1 ½ cups of water, 1 tablespoon of pumpkin pie spice, along with ½ cup of pumpkin puree, slowing simmering everything to make a thick, syrupy mixture.
Source: LifeHacker – This TikTok Pumpkin Spice Syrup Is Hellaciously Good
Razer is looking to lower the barrier to entry for live streaming with a budget webcam and capture card. Streaming newbies can add a video feed of themselves to their broadcast with the Kiyo X USB webcam.
As with a lot of current games, you can choose between optimizing your webcam feed for fidelity or framerate with 1080p 30 fps and 720p 60 fps options. The auto focus feature should keep the image sharp and you can adjust settings on the fly. With the Razer Virtual Ring Light app, you’ll be able to use the glare from your monitor as a lighting source.
Also new is the Ripsaw X capture card. It can capture footage at up to 30 frames per second in 4K. Razer says the device delivers “near-zero latency” through its HDMI 2.0 and USB 3.0 connectivity. You can hook it up to a camera with HDMI output to use it as a high-end webcam, or capture gameplay from a console.
These are more budget-friendly versions of other Razer devices, such as the Kiyo webcam, which has a built-in light ring, and the 60 fps-capable Ripsaw HD capture card. Kiyo X costs $80, while Ripsaw X will run you $140. Both are available now from Razer’s website and they’ll ship on the next business day.
Source: Engadget – Razer’s new entry-level gear was made for streaming newbies
Late Wednesday night, Facebook quietly pubbed two slide decks detailing its internal research on Instagram’s effects on its teen user’s mental health. The two decks (which you can see for yourself here and here) formed the backbone of a recent investigation by The Wall Street Journal that detailed some of the…
Source: Gizmodo – Instagram Just Published Some of Its Internal Teen Research for All to See
With the proliferation of artificial intelligence in recent years, the term “neuromorphic” is being used much more often in the tech sector. If you’re a native English speaker, you can probably surmise that neuromorphic means something along the lines of “brain-like.” Indeed, the buzzword of the day is “neuromorphic processing,” and it refers
Source: Hot Hardware – Intel’s Loihi 2 Processor Gets Even Faster At Computing AI Workloads Like A Human Brain
Earlier this week, we first received word that Best Buy was gearing up for another big NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30 Series restock. The @GPURestock Twitter account was tipped off to Best Buy’s event and, through a series of tweets, gave gamers hope that they might finally be able to get their hands on a GeForce RTX 3070 Ti or even possibly a GeForce
Source: Hot Hardware – Best Buy Confirms Epic In-Store NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30 Restock Event For October 1st
Enlarge / Tech workers show support for Maren Costa (left) and Emily Cunningham (right) on Sept 16, 2021. (credit: Amazon Employees for Climate Justice)
Amazon has agreed to a settlement with two employees who alleged that they were illegally fired for speaking out about warehouse working conditions during the pandemic.
“Amazon will be required to pay us our lost wages and post a notice to all of its tech and warehouse workers nationwide that Amazon can’t fire workers for organizing and exercising their rights,” the fired workers, Maren Costa and Emily Cunningham, said in a statement yesterday. “It’s also not lost on us that we are two women who were targeted for firing. Inequality, racism, and sexism are at the heart of both the climate crisis and the pandemic.”
Costa and Cunningham were tech workers at Amazon’s Seattle headquarters and were fired in April 2020. “Both were active in an internal employee group advocating for climate issues and had circulated a petition inside the company calling on Amazon to expand benefits and pay for employees in warehouses,” we noted in an article at the time.
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Source: Ars Technica – Settlement forces Amazon to tell workers they can’t be fired for organizing
The Federal Aviation Administration is satisfied with the corrective actions taken by Virgin Galactic following an incident on July 11 in which the company’s spaceplane flew outside of mandated airspace.
Source: Gizmodo – Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo Flights Allowed to Resume After FAA Probe
When we last saw Netflix’s “Mexican Lord of the Rings,” the titular Maya (voiced by Zoe Saldana) was trying to transcend her patriarchal culture to become a warrior, only to discover her life has been claimed by the God of War, Lord Mictlan (Alfred Molina). But if she’s going to escape her fate, as well as fight what…
Source: Gizmodo – The New Maya and the Three Trailer Introduces a Few Magical Helpers
Bungie CEO Pete Parsons announced yesterday that the studio behind genre-defining franchises like Halo and Destiny would be getting rid of mandatory arbitration clauses in its developer contracts moving forward. The news comes as the anti-worker policies face renewed criticism across the games industry in light of a…
Source: Kotaku – Destiny 2 Maker Ditches Corporate Anti-Worker Policy
Google called on European Union judges to cut or cancel a “staggering” 4.3 billion euro ($5 billion) antitrust fine because the search giant never intended to harm rivals. From a report: The company “could not have known its conduct was an abuse” when it struck contracts with Android mobile phone makers that required them to take its search and web-browser apps, Google lawyer Genevra Forwood told the EU’s General Court in Luxembourg. The search-giant’s power over mobile phones is the focus of a week-long court hearing. Google’s lawyers are arguing that the European Commission blundered by demanding changes to allegedly anti-competitive contracts with suppliers of phones running its Android operating system — the engine room for the vast majority of mobile devices in the region. At the very least the court should “dial down” the fine, an EU record, because it was wrongly based on advertising revenue from Google’s home page that isn’t directly linked to Android phones at the heart of the EU’s decision, Forwood said. The European Commission’s lawyer, Anthony Dawes, scoffed at Google’s plea, saying the fine was a mere 4.5% of the company’s revenue in 2017, well below a 10% cap.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – Google Urges EU Judges To Cut or Cancel a ‘Staggering’ Billion Fine
Enlarge / Let’s see, you landed on my “Google Ads” space, and with three houses, that will be $1,400. (credit: Ron Amadeo / Hasbro)
Google is in the middle of one of its many battles with EU antitrust regulators—this time it’s hoping to overturn the record $5 billion fine the European Commission levied against it in 2018. The fine was for unfairly pushing Google search on phones running Android software, and Google’s appeal argument is that search bundling isn’t the reason it is dominating the search market—Google Search is just so darn good.
Bloomberg reports on Google’s latest line of arguments, with Alphabet lawyer Alfonso Lamadrid telling the court, “People use Google because they choose to, not because they are forced to. Google’s market share in general search is consistent with consumer surveys showing that 95% of users prefer Google to rival search engines.”
Lamadrid then went on to drop an incredible burn on the #2 search engine, Microsoft’s Bing: “We have submitted evidence showing that the most common search query on Bing is, by far, ‘Google.'”
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Source: Ars Technica – Google tells EU court it’s the #1 search query on Bing
Nreal plans to release its specs in the US. [credit:
Nreal ]
Ever wish you could watch YouTube videos through your sunglasses? That’s pretty much what augmented reality (AR) glasses company Nreal is going for with the Nreal Air announced today. With a light, 2.72 ounce (77 g) weight and micro-OLED display, the Nreal Air is just what you need to finally watch Parks and Recreation in an actual park.
Since Nreal released the Nreal Light in 2019, AR tech has evolved so hardware offerings can be smaller. The Nreal Air is 27 percent lighter than the Nreal Light (3.74 ounces/106 g), although it also comes with less functionality. There’s no handtracking or spatial awareness, so you can’t interact with what you see. Instead, you’ll have to rely on an app on your smartphone, which must be tethered to the Nreal Air for it to work (as is the case with the Nreal Light).
This is because the Nreal Air isn’t about dragging and dropping furniture around your virtual home or trying on outfits via a virtual avatar before buying, or other, more interactive AR applications. Instead, Nreal is targeting the Nreal Air primarily at watching videos on YouTube and other streaming apps.
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Source: Ars Technica – Nreal Air sunglasses let you watch TV in AR
This year’s edition of The Game Awards will take place on December 9th. As always, you’ll be able to stream it live in up to 4K on dozens of platforms. After last year’s online-only event, Geoff Keighley’s show will once again have an in-person audience. The ceremony is returning to its old haunt of the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles.
As always, The Game Awards will feature world premieres and new title announcements, as well as some musical performances. In addition to looking toward the future, the ceremony will reward the talent behind the best games of 2021 with awards across a bunch of categories. The Game Awards will also offer fans free playable game content and a way to interact with the show on some streaming services.
“We are very excited to return to the Microsoft Theater for a special night to celebrate the past, present and future of video games,” said Keighley, who is creator, host and executive producer of The Game Awards. “Our goal is to bring the entire community together to celebrate the most powerful form of entertainment in the world, and recognize emerging voices that represent the future of the medium.”
Source: Engadget – The 2021 Game Awards ceremony takes place on December 9th
Avid Game Pass users know that new titles come and go on a weekly basis. We took the undertaking upon ourselves to play every new title on Game Pass this month, and three games really stood out from the rest. Check out the video above to see our picks for the best ways to make the most of your monthly subscription.
Source: Kotaku – The Best New Games to Hit Xbox Game Pass in September 2021
The world’s top human rights legal body just offered a crucial show of support for Steven Donziger, the attorney who won a landmark multibillion-dollar case against an oil giant over pollution in the Ecuadorian Amazon rainforest. The ruling came on the eve of his sentencing in a criminal trial.
Source: Gizmodo – UN Finds Steven Donziger’s House Arrest Violates International Law, Says It’s ‘Appalled’
AirTags might not be ideal for tracking your kids, but they’ll likely help you fish your keys out of their latest hiding spot. But while they might help keep your things safe from being lost, but are they safe? Are Apple’s trackers one bad hack away from stealing your personal information?
Source: LifeHacker – Can AirTags Be Hacked?
Sony has acquired Bluepoint Games, the Austin-based studio best known for remaking Demon’s Souls and Shadow of the Colossus. Financial terms of the deal haven’t been disclosed. Rumors that Sony was buying Bluepoint started to spread online right around the time the company acquired Returnal developer Housemarque in late June. Sony didn’t say whether Bluepoint will continue to focus its efforts on remastering past titles or if it will work on an entirely new IP now that it’s part of the PlayStation Studios family.
Introducing the next member of the PlayStation Studios family… pic.twitter.com/mRDLD5KwDM
— PlayStation (@PlayStation) September 30, 2021
“PlayStation has such an iconic gaming catalog and for us there’s been nothing better than to bring some of gaming’s masterpieces to new players,” said Marco Thrush, the president of Bluepoint Games. “Becoming a part of PlayStation Studios empowers our team to raise the quality-bar even further and create even more impactful experiences for the PlayStation community.”
With the announcement of today’s deal, Sony has acquired three studios in the past year. That number increases to four over more than two years if you include its 2019 purchase of Spider-Man developer Insomniac Games. That’s a significant change of pace for a company that was previously much slower to buy up external developers to bolster its first-party lineup. But then a lot has changed in just the last year. Microsoft’s recent $7.5 billion deal to buy Bethesda parent company ZeniMax Media means many highly anticipated games like Starfield aren’t coming to PlayStation anymore. Sony needs the kind of talent that’s at Bluepoint to keep pace.
Source: Engadget – Sony buys remake and remaster studio Bluepoint Games
Exim is one of the most used email server software, developed at the University of Cambridge. The latest version of this popular mail transfer agent, Exim 4.95, ships with TLS resumption support included in default builds.
Source: LXer – Exim 4.95 MTA Comes with a Bunch of Improvements
Version 14 of the PostgreSQL relational database manager is out.
PostgreSQL 14 brings a variety of features that help developers and
administrators deploy their data-backed applications. PostgreSQL continues to
add innovations on complex data types, including more convenient access for
JSON and support for noncontiguous ranges of data. This latest release adds
to PostgreSQL’s trend on improving high performance and distributed
data workloads, with advances in connection concurrency, high-write
workloads, query parallelism and logical replication.
More information can be found in the release
notes.
Source: LWN.net – PostgreSQL 14 released
Enlarge / Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes. (credit: Getty | CNBC)
A scientist who worked at a Theranos partner said that her company did not “comprehensively validate” the diagnostic startup’s proprietary devices, undermining a claim that founder Elizabeth Holmes allegedly made to investors.
Victoria Sung had been tasked with evaluating Theranos’ Edison device for her employer, Celgene, which had a small contract with the startup. What she saw suggested that the device was not ready for use with patients.
Initially, Celgene and another pharmaceutical company, GlaxoSmithKline, were intrigued by the promise of Theranos’ devices. QPS, the gold-standard of diagnostic testing, needs 2 ml of blood. But Theranos promised to do it with 0.25 ml, and the company claimed it was able to get good results with whole blood, which Sung described as “very nice.” The problem was, just over 14 percent of Theranos samples failed to produce usable results compared with less than 2 percent for QPS. Was that good or bad, the prosecution asked her? “Bad,” Sung replied.
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Source: Ars Technica – Theranos device failed pharma evaluation, while lab director cleared it for seven tests
