“Solving” gaming addiction sounds as easy as easy as “solving” alcoholism, but China’s state-affiliated body overseeing video games seems about ready to call recent efforts at curbing gaming use among children a “success.”
Source: Gizmodo – China ‘Resolves’ Gaming Addiction So It May No Longer Need Pesky Industry Regulations
The Federal Communications Commission didn’t take long to start isolating voice providers that don’t do enough to block robocalls. The regulator has cut off provider Global UC from other networks after allegedly failed to meet requirements for protecting against scam robocalls. Now that the company is no longer in the Robocall Mitigation Database, other carriers (including intermediaries) will have to stop accepting its traffic.
The FCC said in October that it planned to cut off Global UC and six other firms that didn’t share their anti-robocall strategies despite warnings. The Commission required that all US-based carriers with IP-based networks use STIR/SHAKEN anti-spoofing measures by the end of June 2021, and told providers to start blocking companies outside of the Robocall Mitigation Database after September 28th of that year.
It’s not certain when other offenders might face punishment. However, the FCC said it was still reviewing responses from firms that had been asked to show their strategies for limiting robocalls. Those that can provide concrete plans should avoid cutoffs.
The crackdown isn’t guaranteed to reduce the volume of robocalls, particularly those originating outside the US. Even so, the FCC clearly hopes Global UC’s fate will send a message to American companies hoping to skirt the rules. If they don’t take action, they risk losing business as customers are forced to head elsewhere.
Source: Engadget – FCC cuts off a voice provider for failing to protect against robocalls
Here to add another layer of dread ahead of the upcoming tax season, The Markup reported that some of the biggest online e-filing services—unbeknownst to millions of users—have been sharing sensitive user financial information with Meta. Some services linked user names and email addresses with detailed information like income, refund amounts, filing status, and even the amount of dependents’ college scholarships.
These services include H&R Block, TaxAct, and TaxSlayer, which transmit data via a tool that Meta provides for businesses called the Meta Pixel. The Markup published the data sent to Meta by these companies, which it confirmed was sometimes generated and shared “regardless of whether the person using the tax filing service has an account on Facebook” or other Meta service.
Meta provides the Meta Pixel as a code that businesses can customize and embed on their websites to gather information to help businesses improve targeted marketing campaigns on Meta platforms. In return for this service, Meta gets to use the shared data to drive its own algorithms in its mission to know just about everything that can be known about its own users.
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Source: Ars Technica – Major tax-filing websites secretly share income data with Meta
I’m not trying to bullshit you. If you have a Samsung Galaxy—virtually any one of them—then you have a hidden chihuahua on your phone. You would never stumble upon it, which is why you’ve likely never seen nor known about it, but it’s there, lurking, ready to greet you at a moment’s notice.
Source: LifeHacker – Every Samsung Phone Has a Hidden Chihuahua for Some Reason
Apple VoiceOver is a screen-reader that tells you exactly what’s happening on your device. VoiceOver is proprietary software and not available for Linux. We recommend the best free and open source alternatives.
Source: LXer – Best Free and Open Source Alternatives to Apple VoiceOver
Valve’s massive autumn Steam sale is officially underway and includes steep discounts on some of the best and biggest PC games, from atmospheric adventure In Other Waters to action Souls-like Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. Now’s the time to fill in any major holes in your gaming library and expand your ever-growing…
Source: Kotaku – Go Into Hibernation With Steam’s Giant Autumn Sale
Gaming accessory maker Hyperkin is creating a licensed replica of the Xbox 360’s iconic gamepad (via The Verge). Named “Xenon” – a reference to the console’s prerelease codename and IBM-made PowerPC processor – the controller brings back the nearly two-decade-old design while adding a few modern features, including a detachable USB-C cable and headphone jack. It also comes with Menu, View and Share buttons, making the controller fully compatible with the Xbox Series X/S. The new gamepad will also work with Windows 10 and 11 PCs, though it won’t include wireless support.
Today, 17 years ago, the #Xbox360 launched to much acclaim. Now announcing the Xenon, a replica of the official #Xbox 360 Controller – licensed with Designed for Xbox – for Xbox Series X|S/Xbox One/Windows 10|11 PCs.
Full circle. Back in control.
Details to come!#Keep05Alivepic.twitter.com/3ElNhLNdrN
— Hyperkin (@Hyperkin) November 22, 2022
Hyperkin will offer the Xenon controller in white, black, pink and red colorways. No word on pricing or availability yet. This isn’t Hyperkin’s first foray into nostalgia bait. The company previously worked with original Xbox designer Seamus Blackley to create a new version of Microsoft’s “Duke” controller. Judging from the renders Hyperkin shared, the controller may hew too closely to its original counterpart. For all its strengths, the Xbox 360 gamepad had a notoriously bad d-pad that was known for being mushy. Here’s hoping Hyperkin takes some creative license.
Source: Engadget – Hyperkin is reviving the Xbox 360’s iconic controller for Xbox Series X/S and PC
Let’s say you’re making a big movie and you want to make sure it’s supported by merchandise. Who ya gonna call? Well, for Ghostbusters, one option is Jamie Stevens. An executive vice president at Sony Pictures Entertainment, Stevens oversees worldwide consumer products for Sony Pictures film and television, as well as…
Source: Gizmodo – How Does Ghostbusters Merchandise Get Made?
Alpine Linux as the distro that is focused on being lightweight, simple, and secure with its use of OpenRC, BusyBox, musl libc, and other components is out with a big update…
Source: Phoronix – Alpine Linux 3.17 Released With OpenSSL 3.0, Better Rust Support
The Android App Bundle logo. [credit:
Google
]
Android TV is going to be less storage-greedy in the future. Google announced that Android’s space-saving app file format, Android App Bundles (AABs), will finally be the standard on Android TV. By May 2023—that’s in six months—Google will require all Android TV apps to switch to the new file format, which can cut down on app storage requirements by 20 percent.
Storage for Android TV is always tough because hardware manufacturers want to make smart TV and set-top-box hardware as cheaply as possible, and that often means shipping with a minimal amount of storage. Google says that “in 2022, smartphones often have a minimum storage size of 64GB, but smart TVs have an average of just 8GB.” Google itself is actually a big offender here, with the Google Chromecast with Google TV shipping with only 8GB of storage. That’s nowhere near enough, and many people run out of storage on the new Chromecast with only the bare minimum of content apps installed. There are 10,000 Android TV apps out there, with some of the biggest reaching 10GB+, but most Android TV users can’t install them.
Android App Bundles won’t be a magic bullet for poorly designed devices with insufficient storage, but every little bit will help. Android App Bundles were announced with Android 9 in 2018 as a way to save device storage by breaking an app up into modules, rather than one big monolithic APK (the old Android app format) with every possible piece of data. Android apps support a ton of different languages, display resolutions, and CPU architectures, but each individual device only needs to cherry-pick a few of those options to work. Android App Bundles integrate with the Play Store to create a dynamic delivery system for each module. Your phone communicates which modules it needs to the Play Store, and Google’s servers bundled up an appropriate package and sent it to your device. It’s even possible for developers to move some lesser-used app functionality into a bundle that can be downloaded on the fly if a user needs it.
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Source: Ars Technica – Android TV will require App Bundles in 2023, should reduce app size by 20%
Octavia Butler, the venerable science fiction writer and futurist, died unexpectedly in 2006. That spared her from witnessing just how terrifyingly prescient was her 1993 post-apocalyptic novel The Parable of the Sower. But it also robbed her of seeing her work, once relegated to the fringes of genre fiction, embraced…
Source: LifeHacker – What’s New on Hulu in December 2022
A password manager is one of the few essential apps everyone should have installed on their devices. Not only will one make your life easier by taking the work out of remembering countless different passwords, but it can also help to shield you from the worst effects of a data breach. That’s because every password manager will push you to avoid using the same password for different websites.
There are many options out there, but if you’re already a LastPass user, the platform’s Premium subscription is currently discounted until November 29th. After a 25 percent price cut, the personal plan is $3.19 per month, while the monthly price for the family plan is $4.13. The latter supports up to six users, so even if you share it with just one other person in your household, you’re saving a fair amount.
While it’s possible to use LastPass without a Premium subscription, you won’t be able to use your account on multiple devices. That’s a feature you need to get the most out of a password manager. The paid tier also comes with access to features like dark web monitoring, 1GB of file storage and emergency access.
Get the latest Black Friday and Cyber Monday offers by following @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribing to the Engadget Deals newsletter.
Source: Engadget – LastPass discounts its Premium plans by 25 percent for Black Friday
Enlarge / Dr. Anthony Fauci, White House chief medical adviser, speaks alongside COVID-19 Response Coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha during a briefing on COVID-19 at the White House on November 22, 2022, in Washington, DC. Fauci spoke on the updated COVID-19 booster shots and encouraged individuals to get their vaccines. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images) (credit: Getty | Win McNamee)
The updated bivalent COVID-19 booster vaccine increased protection against symptomatic disease compared with the original monovalent vaccine given as recently as two months ago.
That’s the takeaway from a study released Tuesday morning from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which offered the first clinical efficacy data for the bivalent shot since its national rollout in September.
In adults, the relative effectiveness of the bivalent vaccine’s protection against symptomatic infection ranged from about 30 percent to up to 56 percent compared with that of the monovalent vaccine, with the relative efficacy estimated to be larger the more time had passed since a person’s last monovalent shot.
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Source: Ars Technica – First efficacy data on bivalent boosters shows they work against infection
The shell company struggling to take Donald Trump’s Trump Media and Technology Group public just bought itself some desperately needed time. Thanks to a new shareholder vote, Digital World Acquisition Corp (DWAC) will now have until September 8, 2023 to complete its merger with the Truth Social parent company
Source: Gizmodo – Trump’s Truth Social Gifted Nearly One More Year to Finalize Shady SPAC Merger After Shareholder Vote
Enlarge / LG’s UltraGear 27GR95QE-B OLED monitor. (credit: LG)
LG continues to show a commitment to diversifying OLED monitor options. And that’s particularly exciting when it comes to users seeking smaller sizes and lower prices. The company recently listed a 26.5-inch OLED monitor for $1,000 that offers more speed than most people need but adds variety to today’s scant selection of desktop-size OLED monitors.
As spotted by a few sites, including Wccftech on Sunday, LG has listed the 26.5-inch UltraGear 27GR95QE-B; however, it doesn’t seem available to purchase online in the US yet. We reached out to LG about US availability and will update this article if the company responds.
The monitor prioritizes pushing frames over pixel count, sporting a 2560×1400 resolution and a 240 Hz refresh rate. LG’s gaming monitor also has an aggressively fast 0.03 ms gray-to-gray response time, plus Nvidia G-Sync Compatibility and AMD FreeSync Premium for fighting screen tears. This is a screen built for gamers who would rather have fast-paced action that looks super-smooth than the sharpest display. And if you’re not convinced of this screen’s gamer heritage, just check out the hexagonal RGB lighting area on the monitor’s backside:
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Source: Ars Technica – LG continues diversifying OLED monitor options; lists 27-incher for ,000
The governor of Tokyo has urged people to wear a turtleneck this winter to stay warm and reduce energy consumption. Yuriko Koike said wearing turtleneck jumpers could help reduce energy bills. From a report: “Warming the neck has a thermal effect. I’m wearing a turtleneck myself and wearing a scarf also keeps you warm. This will save electricity,” Yuriko Koike told reporters on Friday. “This is one of the tools to get through the harsh winter energy climate together.” She said the French president, Emmanuel Macron, was “taking a lead in wearing turtlenecks.”
Japan has long conducted an annual “cool biz” campaign, in which a casual dress code is encouraged in offices to save energy during the country’s sweltering summers. The winter version is labelled, appropriately enough, “warm biz.” Japan — which is aiming to become carbon neutral by 2050 — has faced a squeeze on its energy supply like many countries since Russia’s February invasion of Ukraine.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – Tokyo Residents Urged To Wear Turtlenecks To Save on Energy Bills
We’re not even a month shy of Bayonetta 3’s release and Hideki Kamiya, the creator and supervisor of the series, has already confirmed that Bayonetta 4 is in development and that it will address the game’s contentious ending in “unexpected” ways.
Source: Kotaku – Bayonetta Creator Shares His Two Cents On Fan Outrage Over Bayonetta 3’s Ending
If you were online, and specifically on Tumblr, over the weekend of November 18-20, you’ve definitely heard of Goncharov (1973). Widely considered one of Martin Scorsese’s lost masterpieces of Mafia cinema, it was released in 1973 but suppressed in the states for various reasons. Alternatively, it was never released.…
Source: Gizmodo – Martin Scorsese’s Goncharov (1973) Is the Greatest Mafia Movie Never Made
Tesla, SpaceX, and Twitter CEO Elon Musk saw his wealth plummet by $100 billion dollars this year, bringing his net worth to somewhere between $170 billion and $182 billion, according to estimates from Bloomberg and Forbes. That’s down from an estimated $340 billion in November 2021. The drop comes as Tesla shares…
Source: Gizmodo – Elon Musk’s Wealth Drops by .6 Billion in One Day
The holiday season is ripe with nostalgia, so it’s not totally surprising that you might receive a text from a curious ex during this time. An innocent text is one thing but if an ex comes strolling back into your life, wanting to rekindle things as soon as the nights get a little colder, you might be on the receiving…
Source: LifeHacker – How to Tell If an Ex Is ‘Winter Coating’ You This Holiday Season
