Given a large swath Americans have been dubbed “Generation Rent” due to the dwindling chances they’ll ever own a home, the recent economic turmoil—with interest rates, inflation, and rents soaring—is only adding further insult to an already grave injury. More people are being forced to get creative to secure housing.…
Source: LifeHacker – How to Stay Safe When Renting a Room From a Stranger
Ahead of O3DCON kicking off tomorrow in Austin, Texas as a developer event around the Open 3D Engine game engine backed by the Linux Foundation and numerous organizations, O3DE 22.10 has been released…
Source: Phoronix – Open 3D Engine 22.10 Released With Better Multiplayer Support, Usability Improvements
Netflix is making it easier to boot moochers out of your account while still letting them hang onto their viewing preferences. So, when you get fed up of an ex continuing to use your account, you can send them on their way with their recommendations, viewing history, saved titles in My List, game saves, subtitle appearance and other settings intact when they start their own account. That’s assuming you ended things on good terms, anyway — you might still want to kick them out without warning.
The feature is rolling out to all users starting Monday after Netflix initially tested it in Chile, Costa Rica and Peru. Profile transfers will be enabled automatically in all countries except South Korea and the US. You’ll need to activate it from your settings in those two nations.
You’ll get an email when the profile transfer tool is available on your account. After that, you’ll be able to access the Transfer Profile option from the drop-down menu that appears when you hover over your profile icon on the homepage. From there, it’s a case of following the directions to set up a new account. It’s not clear whether you’ll be able to transfer your profile to an existing account. Engadget has asked Netflix for clarification.
Netflix says this is a long-awaited feature and the company is framing it as a helpful option for those going through some changes in their life, such as a relationship ending or someone moving away from their parents’ account to start a new one with profiles for all their own family members. However, Netflix is also looking to crack down on password sharing.
In August, it started charging users in five Latin American countries more if they share their accounts on an ongoing basis with people who live outside of the primary residence. That came after a trial run in Chile, Costa Rica and Peru, which suggests that account sharing fees may be coming to more territories after the broader rollout of profile transfers. We may soon start hearing about people getting kicked out of Netflix accounts because their friends or parents don’t want to pay extra.
Netflix is taking account sharing more seriously, particularly in light of the fact that its total number of subscribers dropped for the first time this year. It lost around 1.2 million in the first six months of 2022.
If you do suddenly find yourself having to pay for your own Netflix account, though, you’ll soon have the option to transfer your profile to a cheaper, ad-supported plan. That tier will be available starting on November 3rd. It costs $7 per month, but it won’t include access to the full Netflix library or offline viewing.
Source: Engadget – Netflix moochers can finally transfer their profile to a new account
Version
5.5 of the Tor-centered Tails distribution is out. The biggest change
appears to be a significant update to the Thunderbird email client.
Thunderbird 102 is a major update with many changes to the
navigation, folder icons, and address book.
Thunderbird 102 also includes important usability improvements to
the OpenPGP feature. When composing an email, you can now see
whether it will be encrypted or not. If encryption is impossible, a
key assistant helps you solve key issues.
Source: LWN.net – Tails 5.5 released
We recently reported that AMD’s upcoming RDNA 3-based Radeon RX 7000-series GPUs (not to be confused with their older, GCN-based Radeon HD 7000-series GPUs) will support DisplayPort 2.1. That was curious, because at the time of writing, there was no DisplayPort 2.1. Well, now there is, and lo and behold, it’s actually not surprising that they
Source: Hot Hardware – VESA DisplayPort 2.1 Specification Released With Better USB-C And USB4 Integration
The apocalyptic dread of Y2K, captured by the last era of camcorder users, looms large in V/H/S/99, the fifth in the V/H/S found-footage horror anthology series. Unlike last year’s V/H/S/94, this installment gathers five unconnected stories, mashed together by an unseen editor who has a good instinct for saving the…
Source: Gizmodo – V/H/S/99 Is Uneven, But the Horrifying Highs Are So Worth It
Astronomers think the gamma-ray burst GRB 221009A represents the birth of a new black hole formed within the heart of a collapsing star. Credit: NASA/Swift/Cruz deWilde
On the morning of October 9, multiple space-based detectors picked up a powerful gamma-ray burst (GRB) passing through our solar system, sending astronomers around the world scrambling to train their telescopes on that part of the sky to collect vital data on the event and its afterglow. Dubbed GRB 221009A, astronomers say the gamma-ray burst is the most powerful yet recorded and likely could be the “birth cry” of a new black hole. The event was promptly published in the Astronomer’s Telegram, and observations are still ongoing.
“In our research group, we’ve been referring to this burst as the ‘BOAT,’ or Brightest Of All Time, because when you look at the thousands of bursts gamma-ray telescopes have been detecting since the 1990s, this one stands apart,” said Jillian Rastinejad, a graduate student at Northwestern University. Rastinejad led one of two independent teams using the Gemini South telescope in Chile to study the event’s afterglow.
“This burst is much closer than typical GRBs, which is exciting because it allows us to detect many details that otherwise would be too faint to see,” said Roberta Pillera, a graduate student at the Polytechnic University of Bari, Italy, and member of the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) Collaboration. “But it’s also among the most energetic and luminous bursts ever seen regardless of distance, making it doubly exciting.”
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Source: Ars Technica – It’s the BOAT: Astronomers observe “brightest of all time” gamma-ray burst
SparkyLinux has released three updated ISO images, 2022.10, of its GameOver, Multimedia, and Rescue semi-rolling editions.
The post Three New SparkyLinux 2022.10 Semi-Rolling Special Editions Released appeared first on Linux Today.
Source: Linux Today – Three New SparkyLinux 2022.10 Semi-Rolling Special Editions Released
The Federal Trade Commission is investigating whether Visa and Mastercard’s security tokens restrict debit-card routing competition on online payments, WSJ reported Monday, citing people familiar with the matter. From the report: The FTC for the past few years has already been probing whether Visa and Mastercard block merchants from routing payments over other debit-card networks. The networks acknowledged an FTC probe in regulatory filings in recent years. In recent months, the FTC expanded its focus to routing challenges that stem from the networks’ security tokens, the people familiar with the matter said. It isn’t clear if the investigation is a new probe or part of the previous one.
Visa and Mastercard are by far the two biggest card networks in the U.S., building and maintaining the plumbing that allows Americans to use credit and debit cards at stores and online. Their lion’s share of that market has drawn increasing scrutiny from regulators and fueled tension with merchants, which pay fees set by the networks when a customer pays via card. A Justice Department investigation on whether Visa has unlawfully maintained a dominant market share in debit cards is ongoing, according to people familiar with the matter. Federal law requires that merchants have the ability to choose from at least two unaffiliated debit-card networks to route transactions. That is supposed to give merchants the option to send debit-card payments over the network that sets lower fees. In most cases, when a person stores a card in a digital wallet such as Apple Pay, the 16-digit card number gets replaced by a “security token” — essentially a line of random numbers. The token is typically provided by the network listed on the card — often Visa or Mastercard.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – Visa, Mastercard Draw New Government Scrutiny Over Debit-Card Routing
When you’re lifting weights, you usually want to do a set of the exercise, rest a minute or two, and then do another. While you can gauge this by feel (just go when you feel ready), a timer can be helpful. It turns out the Apple Watch’s Segments feature can do this with a simple double-tap.
Source: LifeHacker – You Can Track Your Rest Times With Apple Watch Segments
Mojang live streamed its annual Minecraft Live update event on October 15. With it came a bevy of details for what the sandbox game’s developers have so far only identified as the 1.20 update.
Source: Kotaku – Minecraft Just Dropped Big News—Here’s Everything You Should Know
After trying for years with gaming phones, the next big product category hardware manufacturers are trying to make happen is apparently “Android gaming tablets.” You basically throw a Nintendo Switch into a photocopier, load Android on it, and hope users will be content picking through Android games and the growing (shrinking?) collection of cloud gaming services out there. Logitech kicked things off with the G Cloud Gaming Handheld last month, and now Razer is throwing its hat into the ring with a new Razer Edge handheld. This was teased last month and got a full unveiling over the weekend, and there are actually some interesting specs to go over.
First off, a major differentiator for Razer over the Logitech handheld is that the Razer has active cooling. Razer neglected to show any internal pictures, but the 10-mm-thick body and six vents on the back make it look like there’s some decent heat dissipation going on. Even if Razer slapped a normal phone chip inside, a fan would probably make it outperform any phone, thanks to not having to instantly throttle. Razer and Qualcomm say this is the first device with a “Snapdragon G3x Gen 1 Gaming Platform” SoC, but that seems to just be marketing fluff rather than any new technical development.
The back, featuring a lot of cooling vents and shoulder buttons. (credit: Razer)
Qualcomm’s page on the new G3x Gen 1 doesn’t provide any technical details, a major red flag that suggests there’s nothing here worth bragging about. Razer only says the chip runs at 3 GHz. Unofficially, we can pick through the Geekbench listings for some details. The chip codename “Lahaina” means this should be a rebranded Snapdragon 888 SoC, Qualcomm’s flagship smartphone SoC from 2020. That would make it a 5 nm chip with one 3 GHz Cortex X1 core, three 2.42 GHz Cortex A78 cores, and four 1.8 GHz Cortex A55 cores. Those frequencies are all reported from Geekbench, and they’re all normal compared to the phone version, meaning this chip didn’t even get a frequency bump. Again, though, the phone chips throttle extremely quickly, so the fan should give this product decent sustained gaming performance not found on a phone. It seems like Qualcomm just didn’t want to admit it’s shipping a 2-year-old chip in this device.
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Source: Ars Technica – 9 Razer Edge tries to make Android gaming tablets happen
Adults in the US with mild-to-moderate hearing loss can now buy hearing aids online or from a store without a prescription, medical exam or audiologist fitting. The Food and Drug Administration issued a final rule in August that allows stores and online retailers to sell over-the-counter (OTC) devices starting today.
The move could save consumers thousands of dollars on a pair of hearing aids, according to the White House. Walmart is now selling them through its website, Sam’s Club, more than 1,000 in-store Vision Centers and 474 Sam’s Club Hearing Aid Center locations. Walmart’s options cost between $199 and $999 per pair. The company claimed comparable prescription hearing aids cost between $4,400 and $5,500.
Walgreens and CVS are also now selling OTC hearing aids. Best Buy and Hy-Vee will begin selling them online this week and in stores a little later.
Last week, Sony announced two hearing aid models that it created with WS Audiology. The CRE-C10 has a battery life of up to 70 hours on a single charge, according to Sony. That model will be available sometime this month. The CRE-E10, meanwhile, will cost $1,300. Sony claims it has a battery life of 26 hours, though you’ll be able to recharge it wirelessly. The CRE-E10 can also connect to an iPhone for audio playback.
Jabra revealed a set of hearing enhancement earbuds in August 2021. While they were initially available from hearing care clinics, but Jabra says they’re now on sale as OTC hearing aids. Early last year, Bose announced what it claimed were the first FDA-cleared hearing aids that don’t need a prescription or visit to a doctor.
Nearly 30 million Americans are believed to have some degree of hearing loss, including 10 million folks under the age of 60. Over-the-counter hearing aids could drastically improve many people’s quality of life, especially since the devices should be far less expensive. However, those who have severe hearing loss or anyone aged under 18 will still need a prescription for hearing aids, the FDA ruled.
Source: Engadget – Over-the-counter hearing aids go on sale in the US
Have you ever had the niggling feeling that Yakuza: Like a Dragon felt an awful lot like an anime, with its mixture of palpable melodramatic drama and the cognitive dissonance of its wildly entertaining “filler” side-quests? Your feelings are now validated, because the game’s head writer says he was “massively…
Source: Kotaku – Yakuza Producer Admits One Piece Was A ‘Massive Influence’ On Like A Dragon
Enlarge / Linux 6.0, implemented in a Fienix distribution on dedicated Amiga user xeno74’s desktop. (credit: xeno74 / Hyperion Entertainment)
The last commercial Amiga computer available for sale was the AmigaOne X5000, a PowerPC-based revival machine released in 2017. The Amiga platform itself is 37 years old, but you’d better believe Amiga fans have the latest Linux kernel, 6.0, up and running on newer Amiga machines. The first true PC for creatives has a dedicated posse.
On the forums of Amiga OS developer Hyperion Entertainment, user Christian, aka xeno74, announced the availability of a final kernel 6.0 for AmigaOne X5000 and X1000 machines. The announcement featured the requisite images of 3D games like Cro-Mag Rally and Otto Mattic, along with system profile images to verify the up-to-date kernel. Work has already started on alpha builds of the 6.1 kernel further in the thread.
By itself, “Linux is available on quirky hardware” might not be that surprising, but there are other encouraging developments in the Amiga realms worth noting.
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Source: Ars Technica – 37-year-old Amiga platform gets updates to Linux kernel, AmigaOS SDK
The Owl House, considered by io9’s Justin Carter to be an incredible piece of animated media, has just embarked on its third—and final—season, and now fans without Disney+ subscriptions can watch the premiere, “Thanks to Them,” on YouTube.
Source: Gizmodo – The Owl House’s Season 3 Premiere Is Streaming Free on YouTube
The San Diego Water Authority wants to keep the lights on, even when the Sun goes down. It plans to use San Vicente Reservoir to store solar power energy in so-called water batteries to maximize the city’s renewable energy potential, NPR reports.
Source: Gizmodo – ‘Water Batteries’ Could Power 135,000 Homes in San Diego
TikTok is once again updating its livestreaming features, and this time the biggest improvements affect the people who can’t watch. For starters, the upgrade now lets TikTok Live users host adult-only broadcasts. If a stream is likely to include lots of colorful language or tackle traumatic subjects, you can make sure the audience is mature enough to handle it. The option will be available in the “coming weeks.” And no, it’s not an officially sanctioned alternative to OnlyFans — TikTok’s policies still forbid sexually explicit content.
The social video service is also raising the minimum age for hosts from 16 to 18 starting November 23rd. TikTok pitches this as a logical extension of its restrictions on teen content, but it also comes after incidents of abuse. Older viewers have sexually exploited teen hosts, for example, while teens have made threats against schools. In theory, the higher minimum age will reduce the number of school-age kids using Live to get into the kinds of trouble that wouldn’t be possible using pre-recorded clips. Accordingly, a feature arriving in the weeks ahead will remind creators to block keywords they’ve filtered out in the past.
There is one upgrade that brings more people into the fold. A recently expanded Multi-Guest feature now lets a host invite up to five other participants using either a grid or panel layout. This can be helpful for pro creators who want to air full-fledged shows, of course, but it could also be helpful for any streamer who wants to bring more friends into a conversation.
TikTok is facing government pressure to implement audience controls like this. American and British officials are worried the social network might harm children, whether through promoting unhealthy behavior or jeopardizing privacy. Age restrictions won’t necessarily prevent abuses of live broadcasts, but they could indicate that TikTok is addressing key concerns.
Source: Engadget – TikTok’s livestreaming updates include adult-only broadcasts
Google Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro – Starting At $599 And $899, Respectively The latest Pixels are the best phones Google has ever made, thanks in large part to a killer camera experience. Improved premium build quality and design The best smartphone camera experience available Sleek, smart Android 13 OS with long…
Source: Hot Hardware – Google Pixel 7 And Pixel 7 Pro Review: Refined In Every Way
