Last week, we asked you for your best advice to get someone else’s kids to like you instantly, and you provided us with some keen insight into winning them over. Sure, several people graciously pointed out the fact that kids are super into bribery. But when the snacks run out—heaven forbid—many of you had some helpful…
Source: LifeHacker – How to Get Any Kid to Like You, According to Lifehacker Readers
Batgirl adds a few more mysteries to its cast. The Marvels might have found its composer. Plus, James Wan adds yet another project to his producer schedule, and a look at what’s coming on Peacemaker. Spoilers go!
Source: Gizmodo – HBO’s Last of Us Show Might Have Cast Another Important Character From the Games
Linus Torvalds released Linux Kernel 5.16 as the first stable Kernel release of the year 2022, improving storage, processor, ports and all modules. We wrap up the release in this post with download and installation guidelines.
The post Linux Kernel 5.16 Released. This is What’s New appeared first on Linux Today.
Source: Linux Today – Linux Kernel 5.16 Released. This is What’s New
I review a lot of true wireless earbuds, so I’m always curious what the next trends will be when companies offer their annual refresh for new products. Over the last few years, smaller sizes, better battery life and hands-free features have become the norm, but there’s only so much you can do on such a tiny device.
In 2021, Jabra set the new standard for affordable wireless earbuds with the Elite 3. At $80, it covers most of the basics quite well.Now the company is improving its mid-range option with the Elite 4 Active. It’s a more workout-focused model, complete with active noise cancellation (ANC) and enough moisture protection for the sweatiest of sessions. Like it did last year, Jabra is seeking to not only make its true wireless lineup compelling in terms of features and performance, but to also make the price more competitive. This $120 model delivers a lot of options that we typically see on earbuds that go for $150-$180.
The Elite 4 Active carries Jabra’s new design that debuted on the Elite 3, Elite 7 Active and Elite 7 Pro last year. Instead of a mostly circular earbud with an elbow that holds the microphones, the company switched to a rounded triangle shape that offers a cleaner look. Most importantly, all of Jabra’s latest earbuds are significantly smaller than their predecessors and the Elite 4 Active continues that trend. The smaller size not only means these buds don’t stick out from your ears as much, but they’re also lighter and more comfy.
I wouldn’t blame you for mistaking the Elite 4 Active for the Elite 3. Aesthetically, the main difference is the outer panel on the 3 is one big button, while that area on the 4 Active is seamless. The button is there, but it’s sealed off. Jabra increased the water resistance to IP57 for this model, and the onboard controls are one area where it had to increase protection. Of course, Jabra has always designed its earbuds with the Active label for workouts. Better sweat protection is usually part of that formula.
The lack of a defined panel or button proved to be an issue for me when accessing the controls. I had to train myself to remember to press in the middle of the earbud as getting too far to the top or bottom wouldn’t register my actions. The outer surface of the Elite 4 Active is completely smooth, without so much as a raised dot to indicate you’re in the right place. Over time I might get used to this, but after a couple weeks of testing, I’m still not nailing it consistently.
Like every other Jabra model, you can tailor the Elite 4 Active to your needs via the company’s Sound+ app. Since this set is Jabra’s mid-range option, you get more features than the entry-level Elite 3, but not quite as much as the Elite 7 Pro or Elite 7 Active. First, there’s ANC and it’s customizable. Notice I didn’t say adjustable. Specifically, the app lets you set a level of noise cancellation during initial setup. You can also tweak the balance if you need more on one side than the other. Jabra will allow you to repeat this process if you need to, but there’s no easily accessible slider like the Elite 7 models.
The company’s transparency mode, HearThrough, can be controlled in the app via a slider. In fact, you can even set what the on-board control for sound mode does (single press on the left side). You can have it cycle through HearThrough and ANC, HearThrough and off or HearThrough, ANC and off. The app also allows you to turn on and off Sidetone, which lets you hear your voice when you’re on a call. Unlike some Jabra models, it isn’t adjustable – just all or nothing. Still, being able to hear yourself so you’re a bit less shouty over Zoom is better for everyone. The company’s own Find My feature returns as well, helping you locate a misplaced earbud if you’re willing to give it the proper permissions. And on Android, you can opt for one-touch access to Spotify if that’s your preferred streaming service.
For a $120 set of earbuds, I wouldn’t blame you for not expecting too much in the sound department. However, Jabra has a track record of solid audio across its true wireless lineup. With the Elite 4 Active, the company maintains its reputation for buds that sound good, but not great. There’s decent clarity and nice detail, but they lack the wider soundstage and depth pricier models from the likes of Sony and Sennheiser offer.
The Elite 4 Active has pretty good sonic range, but big bombastic tracks like Run The Jewels “Mean Demeanor” and Gojira’s “Another World” sound overly compressed. The bass is solid and not muddy, so keeping the energy up during workouts with hip hop, EDM, or isn’t a problem. It’s just that on the whole, songs lack the dimensional punch you can find with a bigger investment. For $120 though, the Elite 4 Active gets the job done in most cases.
If you find yourself yearning to tweak the EQ, you can do that in the Sound+ app via a set of sliders. If one-tap audio changes are more your style, Jabra also offers a collection of presets for quick customization. It’s not the most robust set of options for dialing in the sound, but it’s more than you get on the ultra affordable Elite 3.
One advantage the Elite 4 Active has over the Elite 3 is active noise cancellation. As I mentioned, you can customize the feature to a degree, but it’s not as powerful as what’s on Jabra’s pricer earbuds. Still, the ANC here will help block out some distractions, just don’t expect it to do a lot of heavy lifting.
The Elite 4 Active has four microphones for calls. Jabra says they’re covered with a “special mesh” to reduce wind noise when you’re outdoors. Typically, mileage varies greatly on call quality with true wireless earbuds. Most of the time you just end up sounding like you’re on speakerphone. With the Elite 4 Active, the call quality is slightly better, but still not as good as if you had a microphone closer to your mouth – or even pointed more towards your face. Background noise is reduced when you’re talking, but any environmental roar is distracting when you’re not.
Jabra says you can expect up to seven hours of battery life on the Elite 4 Active, with three additional charges in the case for a total of 28 hours. The company doesn’t specify whether or not that’s with ANC on, but in my tests I managed seven and a half hours with noise canceling active. It’s by no means the best battery life you’ll find in true wireless earbuds, but it’s certainly enough to get you through a workday if you take a break or two. If you run out of juice before you head out the door, a quick charge feature gives you an hour of use in 10 minutes.
At $120, Jabra is offering solid mid-range specs at the same price as some companies’ budget models. What’s more, most of those don’t offer ANC, let alone a transparency mode or customizable sound. Samsung put noise canceling inside of its cheapest true wireless model with the Galaxy Buds 2. These earbuds are tiny and comfy and wireless charging is included, but the ANC performance is just okay. Plus, the Galaxy Buds 2 are only IPX2 rated, so you’ll want to be careful about how wet you get them. Full price they’re $150, but we’ve seen them as low as $100.
If you’re looking to maximize your dollars, I’d suggest looking into Anker’s Soundcore line. You can find a lot of value, and features, for well under $100 there. Plus, the company’s top-of-the-line flagship ANC model, the Liberty 3 Pro, is only $170. And if you’re good with passive noise isolation, Jabra’s own Elite 3 can get the job done for $60.
If Jabra’s new mission is to deliver the same overall quality as its previous earbuds at more affordable prices, I’m here for it. With the Elite 4 Active, as it did with the Elite 3, the company has managed to offer a compelling set of features at a great price. It hasn’t cut corners to do so, improving details like design and fit while maintaining its standard for sound quality. There are some omissions, but all the basics are covered and for the most part done well. Once again, we have more evidence that you don’t need to spend over $150 in order to get a set of good true wireless earbuds.
Source: Engadget – Jabra Elite 4 Active review: Checking a lot boxes for 0
For this first look, I want to focus on three important apps, namely the Nautilus (Files) file manager, GNOME Text Editor (a.k.a. the Gedit replacement), and the GNOME Software graphical package manager.
Nautilus 42, which is probably the most important app in the GNOME desktop environment, is shaping up to be one of the best file managers on the Linux desktop. The GTK4 look and feel is very modern, and, if you’re coming from GTK3, you’ll immediately notice the differences.
The post First Look at Some of the GTK4 Apps in GNOME 42 appeared first on Linux Today.
Source: Linux Today – First Look at Some of the GTK4 Apps in GNOME 42
While not the absolute first company in the market to talk about putting different types of silicon inside the same package, AMD’s launch of Ryzen 3000 back in July 2019 was a first in bringing high performance x86 computing through the medium of chiplets. The chiplet paradigm has worked out very well for the company, having high performance cores on optimized TSMC 7nm silicon, while farming the more analog operations to cheaper GlobalFoundries 14nm silicon, and building a high speed interconnect between them. Compared to a monolithic design, AMD ends up using the better process for each feature, smaller chips that afford better yields and binning, and the major cost adder becomes the packaging. But how low cost can these chiplet designs go? I put this question to AMD’s CEO Dr. Lisa Su.
In AMD’s consumer-focused product stack, the only products it ships with chiplets are the high-performance Ryzen 3000 and Ryzen 5000 series processors. These range in price from $199 for the six-core Ryzen 5 3600, up to $799 for the 16-core Ryzen 9 5950X.
Everything else consumer focused is a single piece of silicon, not chiplets. Everything in AMD’s mobile portfolio relies on single pieces of silicon, and they are also migrated into desktop form factors in AMD’s desktop APU strategy. We’re seeing a clear delineation between where chiplets make financial sense, and where they do not. From AMD’s latest generation of processors, the Ryzen 5 5600X is still a $299 cost at retailers.
One of the issues here is that a chiplet design requires additional packaging steps. The silicon from which these processors are made have to sit in a PCB or substrate, and depending on what you want to do with the substrate can influence its cost. Chiplet designs require high speed connections between chiplets, as well as power and communications to the rest of the system. The act of putting the chiplets on a singular substrate also has an effective cost, requiring accuracy – even if 99% accurate placement per chiplet on a substrate means a 3 chiplet product as a 3% yield loss from packaging, raising costs. Beyond this, AMD has to ship its 14nm dies for its products from New York to Asia first, to package them with the TSMC compute dies, before shipping the final product around the world. That might be reduced in future, as AMD is set to make its next-generation chiplet designs all within Asia.
Ultimately there has to be a tipping point where simply building a monolithic silicon product becomes better for total cost than trying to ship chiplets around and spend lots of money on new packaging techniques. I asked the question to Dr. Lisa Su, acknowledging that AMD doesn’t sell its latest generation below $300, as to whether $300 is the realistic tipping point from the chiplet to the non-chiplet market.
Dr. Su explained how in their product design stages, AMD’s architects look at every possible way of putting chips together. She explained that this means monolithic, chiplet, packaging, process technologies, as the number of potential variables in all of this have direct knock-on effects for supply chain and cost and availability, as well as the end performance of the product. Dr. Su stated quote succinctly that AMD looks for what is best for performance, power, cost – and what you say on the tipping point may be true. That being said, Dr. Su was keen not to directly say this is the norm, detailing that she would expect in the future that the dynamic might change as silicon costs rise, as this changes that optimization point. But it was clear in our discussions that AMD is always looking at the variables, with Dr. Su ending on a happy note that at the right time, you’ll see chiplets at the lower end of the market.
Personally, I think it’s quite telling that the market is very malleable to chiplets right now in the $300+ ecosystem. TSMC D0 yields of N7 (and N5) are reportedly some of the industry best, which means that AMD’s mobile processors in the ~200 sq mm range can roll off the production line and cater for everything up to that $300 value (and perhaps some beyond). Going bigger brings in die size yield constraints, where chiplets make sense. We’re now in at a stage where if Moore’s Law continues, how much compute can we fit in that 200 sq mm sized silicon, and which markets can benefit from it – or are we going to get to a point where so many more features are added that silicon sizes would increase, necessarily pushing everything down the chiplet route. As part of the discussion, Dr. Su mentioned economies of scale when it comes to packaging, so it will be interesting to see how this dynamic shakes out. But for now it seems, AMD’s way to address the sub-$300 market is going to be with either last generation hardware, or monolithic silicon.
Source: AnandTech – How Low Cost Can Chiplets Go? Depends on the Optimization, says AMD’s CEO Dr. Lisa Su
There’s a good chance that if you follow the news at all in the coming year, you’re going to hear the word “subpoena” pretty often. It also seems likely that we’re going to hear a lot about people ignoring subpoenas and refusing to comply with them, which leads to an obvious question: Can you get away with that?
Source: LifeHacker – Can You Just Ignore a Subpoena? (And What Happens If You Do?)
In conjunction with a White House meeting on Thursday at which technology companies discussed the security of open source software, Google proposed three initiatives to strengthen national cybersecurity.
Source: LXer – Google says open source software should be more secure
To me, autonomous driving is a no-brainer. Once in place, it would save hundreds of thousands of lives per year by eliminating the vast majority of deadly vehicle accidents and it would also eliminate many of the logistics problems associated with moving materials long distances over land. But I also believe in mask mandates, vaccine mandates, seat belts, helmets for motorcycle riding and snow skiing, and other safety efforts that have had, when announced, significant push back from users.
The way autonomous driving is being presented is as a technology that will take away your “privilege” of driving yourself by turning that privilege over to a computer. As a society we don’t really trust computers and for good reason. Large companies like Facebook have clearly misused the technology to do harm, reinforcing this distrust of technology. People, in general, don’t like to lose privileges and tend to fight efforts to dictate their behaviors, even when they’re demonstrably for their own good. It often seems like large portions of our population live by the concept that no one can make them do things that are for their and their fellow citizens’ benefit if it results in some reduction of perceived freedoms.
There are two ways to fix this, and they aren’t mutually exclusive. One is to more aggressively point out the financial, health, and life expectancy benefits of autonomous driving technology, and the other is to lead with the other option for autonomous driving called “Guardian Angel”.
Let’s take each in turn.
The financial, liability, health, convenience, and life expectancy benefits of autonomous cars
Currently, it is estimated that much of our investment in automobiles is wasted. We pay tens of thousands of dollars for our cars, but unless we are doing delivery or ride-sharing, those cars spend most of their time underutilized just sitting in garages and parking spaces. The average cost of a car as of January 2021 is $41K for a new car and $22K for a used one. That makes the monthly payment around $451 and insurance averages $124 a month for a total of nearly $600 a month or around $7K a year. That’s a lot of money tied up in an asset you only rarely use. This cost can change a lot depending on where you live. But self-driving cars will be offered as a service where the costs can be spread across several users, they’ll require less expensive insurance, and most should be electric, reducing gas charges significantly. Even if you own and use the car exclusively costs are expected to drop up to 50% year over year. With shared use, that savings would be significantly greater, and you could turn your garage or carport into living space.
When you drive and own a car, the liability for any accident lies with you. With a fully autonomous car service, the liability resides with the service. Since they are far less likely to be in an accident in the first place, you are far less likely to be killed or injured. Particularly when we talk about kids or those driving under the influence, this could be the difference between a long, happy life and a far shorter one. Because we likely did the same, we know kids often take unreasonable risks with cars. Even if they are responsible young people, they could still be a passenger or hit by a car driven by someone behaving irresponsibly. Autonomous vehicles would reduce that frightening probability significantly.
Finally, autonomous vehicles drop you off and pick you up where you are. You shouldn’t have to find parking, find yourself in a dicey area looking for your car, worry about your car being broken into or stolen (if you are using a service, that’s the service’s problem, and if you own the car, it should be able to protect itself and aggressively alert if someone is trying to break into it; these are connected vehicles after all, and they should be able to call for help).
At an NVIDIA event years ago, Toyota spoke to two types of autonomous car technology, and they aren’t mutually exclusive. The most common we talk about is Chauffer where the car drives and you are a passenger. This is also the mode most people who don’t like the concept object to. But the other type is called “Guardian Angel”. Toyota argued, and I agree, that this is the more attractive of the two formats. This is where the car can drive autonomously but can allow the driver to have some control over the vehicle and it simply acts to protect the driver aggressively. If the driver is under the influence, distracted, doing something unsafe, or in distress, the system can near-instantly take over the driving responsibilities to avoid an accident.
This could even work on track days where the car could learn the track and then calculate the ideal speed and apex to optimize the speed of the vehicle for the track design and surface conditions. The driver could then provide a directional GPS-like guide on their heads-up display showing the ideal line and ideal speed which they can follow, like using an onboard coach.
This is closer to having an always-ready co-pilot that is totally focused on keeping you, your spouse, your loved ones, and your kids safe while being transported and assuring the kinds of accidents that take our loved ones from us every year become a thing of the past.
Guardian Angel allows us to retain some control over the car but still gain the safety, reduced stress, and some of the cost benefits of an autonomous vehicle without a steering wheel. It is close to having your cake and eating it too.
Autonomous cars are likely going to have similar sales issues to other safety technologies that seem to reduce freedoms. Drivers fought mandatory seat belts, mandatory helmets, and other mandated practices designed to reduce the medical costs to the state and protect lives and livelihoods. But if people realize that these technologies can bring them longer happier lives, can keep their loved ones far safer, and can be deployed so their driving privileges aren’t revoked, I think the technology will be far more successful sooner and that, statistically, we’ll have longer, happier lives.
Source: TG Daily – Why Autonomous Driving Efforts May Fail And How They Could Instead Succeed
New players will be able to purchase digital copies of Final Fantasy XIV again starting on January 25th, the game’s director and producer Naoki Yoshida has announced in a lengthy post. Square Enix suspended the game’s physical and digital sales in mid-December last year, because it was doing too well for what the company could handle at the time. People have had to wait hours to get in when they try to play at peak times, because the “dense concentration of play hours… far exceed [the game’s] server capacity.” Unfortunately, the developer wasn’t able to add more servers before the Endwalker expansion was released due to the global semiconductor shortage.
In his post, Yoshida explained the steps the company is taking to address the game’s high levels of congestion. To start with, Square Enix is bringing its Oceanian Data Center online also on January 25th and opening five new Worlds from the start so that everyone in Oceania can transfer over for a better experience. The world transfer service is currently suspended, but it will resume on January 26th — further, those transferring to the new Oceanian Worlds will be able to do so for free.
Yoshida has also revealed that Square Enix has been working on expanding its Japanese, European and North American data centers. The company explained that due to the global semiconductor shortage, it took some time to procure the needed components to be able to bring them online. In fact, it has to establish the new data centers in phases, because it’s still having a tough time securing the necessary server equipment.
For North America, the first phase of the expansion will happen sometime in August 2022, and it will see four new Worlds go online. The second phase will be implemented in the summer of 2023 and will open four more Worlds. For Japan, the developer plans to add one more logical data center to the current three in order to lower the number of Worlds for each of them. The European expansion will also happen in two phases, the first of which is scheduled for July 2022 and will bring four new Worlds online. In the summer of 2023, Square Enix will establish one new logical data center with eight new Worlds in Europe.
“Once again, I wish to apologize for the delays to server expansion caused by the global semiconductor shortage,” Yoshida wrote. He also asked for players’ understanding in resuming sales of the game, even though some may consider the decision to be premature. Square Enix will monitor server stability following the resumption of sales and could restart free trials if everything goes well. However, in case servers “continue to experience extreme levels of congestion” despite all the steps it’s taking, the developer may consider suspending digital sales once again.
Source: Engadget – ‘Final Fantasy XIV’ will go back on sale on January 25th
Maintaining a balanced exercise routine without getting burnt out on your workouts can be tricky. Making progress requires challenging your body, but that can lead to overtraining if you aren’t careful. Having a predictable workout routine can help maintain consistency, but can also result in boredom and lack of…
Source: LifeHacker – How to Avoid Exercise Burnout
Microsoft has hired a third -party law firm to review its policies on sexual harassment and gender discrimination policies, The Verge has reported. As part of that, the final report will summarize the results of sexual harassment investigations against the company’s senior leadership and board of directors, including former CEO Bill Gates.
The report will “lead to the public release of a transparency report assessing the effectiveness of the company’s workplace sexual harassment and gender discrimination policies, training, and related policies,” Microsoft said in a press release. It will also “assess the steps that have been taken to hold employees, including executives, accountable for sexual harassment or gender discrimination,” and include the number of sexual harassment cases investigated and their resolution.
[The report] will lead to the public release of a transparency report assessing the effectiveness of the company’s workplace sexual harassment and gender discrimination policies, training, and related policies. This will include a review of concerns raised by employees in 2019 in the “In Need of Assistance” email thread, steps the company has taken to respond to these concerns, and additional steps that could further strengthen these safeguards. The review will also include an analysis of policies, practices, and commitments to create a safe, inclusive work environment.
Microsoft had been planning to disclose how it implements sexual harassment and gender discrimination policies, with a key request being the disclosure of executive-level investigations. However, late last year, Microsoft shareholders forced the company to write up an annual report detailing how it handles sexual harassment cases within the company.
The review will be conducted by the law firm Arent Fox and will look at allegations of discrimination and harassment arising from an internal Microsoft email chain back in 2019. In over 90 pages of emails, female employees alleged that they were harassed and denied promotions and pay raises, among other issues. They further complained that managers and the company’s HR department took no action in many cases. Microsoft was also accused of 238 cases of gender discrimination or sexual harassment in 2018.
While the board will assess the previous investigation against Gates, it won’t reinvestigate the affair that happened in 2000. Gates resigned from Microsoft’s board in early March of 2020, reportedly before the investigation was complete.
“We’re committed not just to reviewing the report but learning from the assessment so we can continue to improve the experiences of our employees,” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said in a statement. “I embrace this comprehensive review as an opportunity to continue to get better.”
Source: Engadget – Microsoft opens a third-party review into its harassment and discrimination policies
In this article, we explain what KDE Connect is, its main features, basic usage guide, and the installation steps.
The post What is KDE Connect? How Do You Use It? [Beginner’s Guide] appeared first on Linux Today.
Source: Linux Today – What is KDE Connect? How Do You Use It? [Beginner’s Guide]
JoeyRox shares a report from CNBC: Federal investigators claimed to access encrypted Signal messages used to help charge the leader of the Oath Keepers, an extremist far-right militia group, and other defendants in a seditious plot on Jan. 6, 2021. It’s not clear how investigators gained access to the messages. One possibility is that another recipient with access to the messages handed them over to investigators. The complaint references group messages run on the app, so it’s possible another participant in those chats cooperated.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – Federal Investigators Say They Used Encrypted Signal Messages To Charge Far-Right Militia Group Leader
You probably use your web browser of choice for a variety of tasks: using the internet, obviously, but also watching videos, collaborating in docs, building spreadsheets, and more. That means your browser can very quickly start taking up a significant amount of your system’s resources, especially if your open tabs…
Source: Gizmodo – How to Keep Your Browser From Sucking Up All Your RAM
Welcome to our Master Class on banana consumption, where we will discuss the right way to peel a banana. If you’re thinking, “There is no right way to peel a banana!” you may not be ready to hear that according to none other than Chiquita herself, there is a “proper” way—and it’s probably not how you’ve been doing it…
Source: LifeHacker – Have You Been Eating Bananas Wrong This Whole Time?
If you’re seriously sticking to your New Year’s resolution this time around to live a healthier lifestyle and want a digital scale to monitor the changes to your body, Withings has one on sale. The Withings Body+ smart scale is currently available for $58.50 on Amazon. That’s not quite its all-time low for the device, but it is 41 percent off its retail price of $100.
Buy Withings Body+ Digital Wi-Fi Smart Scale at Amazon – $58.50
The Withings Body+ connects to the internet via WiFi and automatically syncs your information with the Health Mate app. While it can’t measure your heart rate like the the brand’s latest scale can, the Body+ is capable of almost all the things you’d expect from a smart scale. It can monitor your weight in pounds, kilograms or stones, measure your body fat and water percentage and determine your muscle and bone mass. Withings says its weight measurements are accurate to within 100 grams.
You can also share the scale with your whole household, and maybe even some houseguests, since it monitor data for up to eight people. The scale can apparently identify each user, and each one can access their personal histories. And yes, the scale can track healthy weight gain for pregnant individuals, has a baby mode for the youngest members of the family and an Athlete mode, presumably for those extra serious about achieving their goals. Finally, the Health Mate app can also help you manage your daily calories and let you access your data using voice control through Alexa.
You can only get the Body+ scale at a discount within the day, and there’s less than 20 hours left for the deal as of this writing.
Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.
All products recommended by Engadget are selected by our editorial team, independent of our parent company. Some of our stories include affiliate links. If you buy something through one of these links, we may earn an affiliate commission.
Source: Engadget – Withings’ Body+ smart scale is 41 percent off for today only
For users and especially developers wanting to try out Python’s latest release, you will know how to install Python 3.11 in the following tutorial on Fedora 35.
Source: LXer – How to Install Python 3.11 on Fedora 35
Experience shows that you can never be too paranoid about system backups. When it comes to protecting and preserving precious data, it is best to go the extra mile and make sure you can depend on your backups if the need arises.
The post Duplicity – Create Encrypted Incremental Backups in Linux appeared first on Linux Today.
Source: Linux Today – Duplicity – Create Encrypted Incremental Backups in Linux
I’m not sure what’s in Sony’s playbook when it comes to selling its phones in the US. Take the Xperia 5 III. After launching in other regions last year, the phone is only now available stateside for $1,000. This is its middle-ish high-end phone, with the flagship Xperia 1 series of smartphones (seen above) both bigger and pricier.
For that price, this Xperia does have things to offer. The autofocus tricks, courtesy of Sony’s camera arm, are often impressive. The Xperia 5 III can also record 4K video at up to 120 fps; it’s a camera-first smartphone designed for folks who are really into photography or video. But, well, that’s true of all of Sony’s recent phones. And if you’re dying for truly cutting-edge smartphone photography, perhaps the Xperia Pro-I, with a 1-inch camera sensor, would fulfill the brief more clearly. It’s… only $800 more — further evidence of Sony’s smartphone prices feeling entirely separate from its competitors.
— Mat Smith
Sony’s A7 IV is a successful followup to its popular mainstream A7 III. Resolution is up considerably to 33 megapixels, and image quality is much improved overall. Video is now on par with rivals with 4K at up to 60p with 10 bit 4:2:2 quality. Autofocus is incredible for both video and stills, and the in-body stabilization does a good job. The biggest drawbacks are the relatively high price and the rolling shutter that limits use of the electronic shutter. Steve Dent puts the newest, best Sony camera to the test. (And I guest star as a voice-over talent.)
Comcast has successfully tested the first 10G modem capable of multigigabit speeds. The Broadcom-built prototype can provide download and upload bandwidth topping 4Gbps. At those speeds, downloading all 61 gigs of Call of Duty: Vanguard for PC would take just over two minutes.
Doop doop doop doop doop doop. Times 10 billion.
We learned in July 2020 that Microsoft had discontinued the Xbox One X and Xbox One S Digital Edition. Now, it has emerged the company also quietly stopped making the Xbox One S by the end of that year, “to focus on the production of Xbox Series X/S,” according to Xbox’s senior director of console product marketing.
Kristy Stock was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison for her role in a scheme to steal and resell more than 3,000 iPods intended for Native American students. The charges against Stock included both tax fraud and transportation of stolen goods. Stock was supposed to use federal grant money to buy iPods to distribute to students. However, thanks to help from other conspirators James Bender and Saurabh Chawla, the group ended up shipping the stolen iPods to Maryland where they were listed on eBay before being sold at a “substantial” markup.
Facebook owner Meta, Google, Twitter and Reddit have been subpoenaed by the Congressional select committee investigating the January 6th insurrection at the US Capitol. Two key questions for the select committee are how the spread of misinformation and violent extremism contributed to the violent attack on our democracy, and what steps — if any — social media companies took to prevent their platforms from being breeding grounds for radicalizing people to violence,” committee chair Bennie Thompson (D-MS) said.
Samsung’s Galaxy Buds 2 are back on sale for $100
Apple’s updated iCloud Private Relay notice clarifies why it might not work for some users
Leica’s M11 rangefinder camera features a 60-megapixel, full-frame sensor
Ubisoft’s ‘The Settlers’ reboot finally arrives March 17th
Pioneer DJ debuts DDJ-REV series of battle-style controllers
