Monthly Archives: January 2022

TikTok joins Instagram in testing creator subscriptions

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Soon after Instagram started rolling out paid subscriptions for creators, TikTok says it may be following suit. The service is exploring a feature that would allow influencers to paywall at least some of the content they share on the app, as The Information first reported.

TikTok’s subscriptions are being tested on a limited basis, so you may not see your favorite creators using them anytime soon. The platform didn’t provide more details about how the feature works. “We’re always thinking about new ways to bring value to our community and enrich the TikTok experience,” a TikTok spokesperson told Engadget.

As with the likes of Twitch, Twitter and YouTube, TikTok allows viewers to send tips to influencers who are enrolled in the Creator Next program. Users can also buy and send virtual gifts to creators.

Given its other monetization options and that rival platforms have embraced subscriptions, it’s hardly a surprise that TikTok is following that path too. In 2020, TikTok announced a $200 million fund to support creators.

Meta is also spending heavily on influencers. The company said last year it would invest $1 billion in creators across the likes of Facebook and Instagram by the end of 2022, in the hope of keeping them away from competitors. CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the company won’t take a cut of their earnings until at least 2023. Instagram subscriptions are only available to a very small number of creators for now, but there are plans to open up access to others in the coming months.



Source: Engadget – TikTok joins Instagram in testing creator subscriptions

Google Pay resets strategy again with new leader, might get into crypto

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The Google Play logo is flushed down a toilet alongside many dollar bills.

Enlarge / Google Pay continues to circle the drain. (credit: Aurich Lawson / Ars Technica)

Google Pay is bringing on a new executive who it hopes will turn the beleaguered division around. Bloomberg reports that Arnold Goldberg, PayPal’s chief product architect, will now run Google Pay after the former payments chief, Caesar Sengupta, left in April.

Of the Google services that survived 2021, Google Pay had one of the most brutal years of any product. In March, Google Pay rolled out a completely new app in the US, replacing the old Google Pay app that had existed for years.

This new app was originally developed for India and is dramatically different from the old Google Pay app used in the US. For starters, the new app switched to using a phone number for your identity instead of a Google account, which meant that a ton of features US users were accustomed to were no longer supported. Indian consumers are used to phone number identity thanks to apps like WhatsApp, and the limitations are not a big deal for them thanks to smartphones being many consumers’ only device.

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Source: Ars Technica – Google Pay resets strategy again with new leader, might get into crypto

NBA games in 4K are coming to YouTube TV

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The view from your couch will look a little more like sitting courtside in the days to come, as Streamable reports on Thursday that YouTube TV will begin offering select NBA matchups in 4K. 

The only, ahem, hoop viewers will need to get through in order to watch is having a YouTube TV subscription with the 4K Plus add-on. YTTV on its own is $65 a month, the 4K add-on will set you back an additional $12/mo for the first year before nearly doubling, up to $20/month thereafter. Not every game will be made available in the high definition format though Saturday’s game between the Cavs and Thunder will.



Source: Engadget – NBA games in 4K are coming to YouTube TV

Halo Infinite’s New Mode Is So Good It Should Be Permanent

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Step aside, Slayer. There’s a new deathmatch in Halo Infinitown: Attrition, a team-based mode wherein teammates share a limited pool of lives. It’s a total blast, an easy way to spice up Halo sessions, and a terrific addition to the first-person shooter’s arguably sparse range of playable gametypes. Too bad it’s going…

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Source: Kotaku – Halo Infinite’s New Mode Is So Good It Should Be Permanent

How AI Conquered Poker

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Good poker players have always known that they need to maintain a balance between bluffing and playing it straight. Now they can do so perfectly. From a report: One of the earliest and most devoted adopters of what has come to be known as “game theory optimal” poker is Seth Davies’s friend and poker mentor, Jason Koon. On the second day of the three-day Super High Roller tournament, I visited Koon at his multimillion-dollar house, located in a gated community inside a larger gated community next to a Jack Nicklaus-designed golf course. On Day 1, Koon paid $250,000 to play the Super High Roller, then a second $250,000 after he was knocked out four hours in, but again he lost all his chips. “Welcome to the world of nosebleed tourneys,” he texted me afterward. “Just have to play your best — it evens out.” For Koon, evening out has taken the form of more than $30 million in in-person tournament winnings (and, he says, at least as much from high-stakes cash games in Las Vegas and Macau, the Asian gambling mecca). Koon began playing poker seriously in 2006 while rehabbing an injury at West Virginia Wesleyan College, where he was a sprinter on the track team.

He made a good living from cards, but he struggled to win consistently in the highest-stakes games. “I was a pretty mediocre player pre-solver,” he says, “but the second solvers came out, I just buried myself in this thing, and I started to improve like rapidly, rapidly, rapidly, rapidly.” In a home office decorated mostly with trophies from poker tournaments he has won, Koon turned to his computer and pulled up a hand on PioSOLVER. After specifying the size of the players’ chip stacks and the range of hands they would play from their particular seats at the table, he entered a random three-card flop that both players would see. A 13-by-13 grid illustrated all the possible hands one of the players could hold. Koon hovered his mouse over the square for an ace and queen of different suits.

The solver indicated that Koon should check 39 percent of the time; make a bet equivalent to 30 percent the size of the pot 51 percent of the time; and bet 70 percent of the pot the rest of the time. This von Neumann-esque mixed strategy would simultaneously maximize his profit and disguise the strength of his hand. Thanks to tools like PioSOLVER, Koon has remade his approach to the game, learning what size bets work best in different situations. Sometimes tiny ones, one-fifth or even one-tenth the size of the pot, are ideal; other times, giant bets two or three times the size of the pot are correct. And, while good poker players have always known that they need to maintain a balance between bluffing and playing it straight, solvers define the precise frequency with which Koon should employ one tactic or the other and identify the (sometimes surprising) best and worst hands to bluff with, depending on the cards in play.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.



Source: Slashdot – How AI Conquered Poker

How to Install Redmine Project Management Software on Rocky Linux 8

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Redmine is a free and open-source project management software and issue tracking tool. Learn how to install Redmine project management software on Rocky Linux 8 here.

The post How to Install Redmine Project Management Software on Rocky Linux 8 appeared first on Linux Today.



Source: Linux Today – How to Install Redmine Project Management Software on Rocky Linux 8

D&D's Lead Rules Designer on How the Game Keeps Evolving Player Races

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A few years ago, Dungeons & Dragons’ creators promised change was coming to the way the game’s massively popular fifth edition approached race. Years on, there has been iteration—but as the latest sourcebook looks to the game’s future, there’s still plenty of changes to be made.

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Source: Gizmodo – D&D’s Lead Rules Designer on How the Game Keeps Evolving Player Races

What to Know About Facebook’s New ‘Privacy Center’

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Facebook has introduced a new Privacy Center that gives users more control over how the platform collects and uses their data. Meta’s former namesake has long been the subject of complaints and concerns about its privacy and data policies. Now, users have a little more say over what data Facebook has access to.

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Source: LifeHacker – What to Know About Facebook’s New ‘Privacy Center’

IIHS will rate driver assists like Autopilot and Super Cruise for safety

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GM's Super Cruise system is tightly geofenced to divided-lane highways and only operates if the system can determine that the human in the driver's seat is paying attention to the road ahead, ready to respond if there's a problem.

Enlarge / GM’s Super Cruise system is tightly geofenced to divided-lane highways and only operates if the system can determine that the human in the driver’s seat is paying attention to the road ahead, ready to respond if there’s a problem. (credit: General Motors)

On Thursday, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety announced that it is creating a rating system for hands-free advanced driver-assistance systems like Tesla’s Autopilot and General Motors’ Super Cruise. Later this year IIHS will issue its first set of ratings, with grading levels of good, acceptable, marginal, or poor. Having a good driver-monitoring system will be vital to getting a good grade.

And the institute is not alone. Also on Thursday, Consumer Reports revealed that it, too, will consider the safety of such tech features, adding points if there’s a good driver-monitoring system. CR says that so far, only Super Cruise and Ford’s BlueCruise systems are safe enough to get those extra points. Meanwhile, from model year 2024, CR will start subtracting points for cars that offer partial automation without proper driver monitoring.

“Partial automation systems may make long drives seem like less of a burden, but there is no evidence that they make driving safer,” says IIHS President David Harkey. “In fact, the opposite may be the case if systems lack adequate safeguards.”

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Source: Ars Technica – IIHS will rate driver assists like Autopilot and Super Cruise for safety

Hackers Just Stole Location Data on Half a Million ‘Vulnerable’ People From Red Cross

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A band of cybercriminals recently hacked the Red Cross—one of the world’s most well-known charities—in an effort to steal sensitive location and contact information on approximately half a million “highly vulnerable” people.

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Source: Gizmodo – Hackers Just Stole Location Data on Half a Million ‘Vulnerable’ People From Red Cross

Razer’s Fiercely Pink Hello Kitty Streaming Gear Will Make Your Twitch Viewers Rawr

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Razer’s Fiercely Pink Hello Kitty Streaming Gear Will Make Your Twitch Viewers Rawr
You may not realize it—especially if you’re an American, and younger than about 25—but Hello Kitty is a cultural force to be reckoned with. The image of the feline toddler has appeared on virtually every kind of product to date, including wallpaper, jewelry, firearms, computer parts, automobiles, adult novelties, and in at least one case,

Source: Hot Hardware – Razer’s Fiercely Pink Hello Kitty Streaming Gear Will Make Your Twitch Viewers Rawr

Twitter brings NFTs to profile photos, but only for Twitter Blue subscribers

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Twitter is giving NFT enthusiasts a new reason to pay for a Twitter Blue subscription. The company is testing a new feature that allows NFT owners to authenticate NFTs displayed in their profile photos.

The feature, which is being offered as an early stage “Labs” feature for Twitter Blue subscribers, allows NFT owners to connect their crypto wallet to their Twitter account and display an NFT as their profile photo. While many NFT owners already use the art in their profile photos, the Twitter Blue feature will also add an icon indicating that the NFT has been authenticated and that person behind the account is the official owner of the piece.

Though only Twitter Blue subscribers can access the feature, the authentication symbol will be visible to everyone on Twitter. And other users will be able to tap on the hexagon symbol in order to learn more about the NFT in the image.

Twitter will verify NFTs in profile photos for Twitter Blue subscribers.
Twitter

While Twitter has previously indicated that it was working on an NFT authentication service, it’s notable that it would choose to offer the feature to Twitter Blue subscribers first, The company debuted the $3/month subscription service in November, in a bid to appeal to power users who might pay for specialized features. The NFT feature is “still under active development,” according to the company, and it’s not clear if it plans to launch it more widely. Twitter has previously said that early-stage “labs” features are experiments that could become available outside of Twitter Blue, kept around for subscribers, or killed off entirely.



Source: Engadget – Twitter brings NFTs to profile photos, but only for Twitter Blue subscribers

2.5 Geeks: Exploring PCIe 5 SSDs And Next-Gen Storage With Phison

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2.5 Geeks: Exploring PCIe 5 SSDs And Next-Gen Storage With Phison
PCI Express 5 is expected to usher in new found levels of solid state (SSD) storage performance for next-generation computing platforms, and Phison is at the forefront of the SSD controller technology that will enable it. Watch our live discussion with Phison’s own Chris Ramseyer for a deeper dive on all of the revelations the company made

Source: Hot Hardware – 2.5 Geeks: Exploring PCIe 5 SSDs And Next-Gen Storage With Phison

Biden revives climate portion of failed Build Back Better bill

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Source: Ars Technica – Biden revives climate portion of failed Build Back Better bill

Amazon Heads To the Mall With Prototype Clothing Store

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First, Amazon competed with malls. Now, it’s moving inside one. From a report: The online retailing giant said Thursday that it plans to open a clothing store in a Southern California mall later this year. It’s the latest foray into brick-and-mortar for Amazon, which already sells more than 10% of all clothes in the U.S. The store, which will sell women’s and men’s clothing as well as shoes and other accessories, will open at Americana at Brand, a mall in Glendale, California. The entry into malls could become another threat to traditional clothing sellers because of the data and shopper insights Amazon may gain, experts say.

Amazon says its algorithms will spit out real-time recommendations as shoppers keep scanning items that they see. Shoppers can also fill out an online survey of their preferences for style and fit. The store will be about 30,000 square feet, similar in size to a Kohl’s, but about one-third the size of other department stores like Macy’s. However, it will offer more than double the number of styles as traditional stores do because only one of each piece of clothing will be on display, with the rest in the back room. Items are chosen by Amazon curators who also use feedback provided by millions of customers shopping on Amazon.com.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.



Source: Slashdot – Amazon Heads To the Mall With Prototype Clothing Store

Airbnb will offer travel insurance this spring

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Airbnb knows you might be reluctant to book a stay while the COVID-19 pandemic makes trips risky, so it’s planning to offer some protection of its own. The rental service has revealed it will introduce custom travel insurance for guests sometime this spring. While the terms aren’t available, Airbnb will team with a “reputable” insurer to offer coverage.

The company has also launched a Guest COVID Support Program that partly compensates travellers if border closures, quarantine periods or other government policies make existing reservations impractical. If a host won’t provide a full refund, Airbnb will offer a travel coupon worth 50 percent of whatever hasn’t been refunded so far. The program applies to all stays with a check-in date of December 1st, 2021 or later, so you might want to talk to Airbnb if your holiday plans fell apart.

There’s no mystery behind the strategy. Airbnb’s business has been hit hard by the pandemic as a whole, and COVID-19’s Omicron variant is only increasing the worry for hosts and guests who were hoping the worst was behind them. First-party insurance and coupons might persuade some would-be adventurers to book stays when they would have otherwise stayed home.



Source: Engadget – Airbnb will offer travel insurance this spring

The New Scream Has a Hidden, Heartwarming Tribute to Wes Craven

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The latest Scream film, which is currently in theaters, is the first in the series not directed by horror legend Wes Craven, who passed away in 2015. It was a burden the new film’s directors, Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, had on their minds throughout the entire production.

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Source: Gizmodo – The New Scream Has a Hidden, Heartwarming Tribute to Wes Craven