If you’ve used WhatsApp or Telegram, you know just how huge stickers are. Sure, emojis are fun, but they can’t compete with how unique and expressive stickers can be. While you can buy plenty of sticker packs for iMessage, it was never simple to create your own. With iOS 17, however, Apple has made it a two-tap…
Source: LifeHacker – Make Any Photo a Sticker With This iOS 17 Feature
Enlarge / A World of Warcraft illustration from the Zleague.gg article on “Glorbo.” (credit: Zleague.gg)
On Thursday, a Reddit user named kaefer_kriegerin posted a fake announcement on the World of Warcraft subreddit about the introduction of “Glorbo” to the game. Glorbo isn’t real, but the post successfully exposed a website that scrapes Reddit for news in an automated fashion with little human oversight.
Not long after the trick post appeared, an article about Glorbo surfaced on “The Portal,” a gaming news content mill run by Z League, a company that offers cash prizes for playing in gaming tournaments. The Z League article mindlessly regurgitates the Reddit post and adds nonsensical details. Its author, “Lucy Reed” (likely a fictitious name for a bot), authored over 80 articles that same day.
A screenshot of the bot-written article about “Glorbo” that appeared on Z League’s website before being taken down. (credit: Ars Technica)
Members of the World of Warcraft subreddit recently noticed that this kind of automated content scraping of Reddit has been taking place, prompting several of them to try to game the bots and get their posts featured on sites like The Portal.
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Source: Ars Technica – Redditors prank AI-powered news mill with “Glorbo” in World of Warcraft
Apple is threatening to pull the ability to use iMessage and FaceTime from users in the UK over proposed new requirements on telecommunications operators. The new proposal is not a new law, but rather an update to the existing Investigatory Powers Act (IPA) 2016.
When it comes to allowing law enforcement and government entities access to
Source: Hot Hardware – Apple Threatens To Pull iMessage And FaceTime From UK If This Anti-Privacy Bill Passes
Today, the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) is releasing the standard for Messaging Layer Security (MLS) protocol, a novel standard of communication protocol for group messaging. Why so many acronyms? Don’t speak in acronyms? We got you! So, the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) is a body of volunteers that develops open standards and protocols […]
Source: LXer – Messaging Layer Security is now an internet standard
Enlarge (credit: Aurich Lawson / Getty Images)
Russian gamers were not introduced to piracy by the backlash to their country’s invasion of Ukraine—far from it. But piracy is ramping up, and it likely won’t back down any time soon.
That’s the takeaway from a survey by Russian game development training platform School XYZ, covering the whole country and all game formats. Sixty-nine percent of gamers surveyed said they’d played at least one pirated game copy in 2022, while 51 percent said they’re pirating more games now than they did in 2021.
Piracy as a whole may be up, but enthusiasm and motivations differ somewhat. Roughly 20 percent of those surveyed said they had pirated more than 10 games, and 27 percent had grabbed at least three in 2022. But 31 percent said they had pirated nothing, and nearly the same responded that they were opposed to piracy. And only 7 percent said they had not purchased anything through official channels, suggesting that 93 percent of surveyed Russian gamers, even admitted pirates, had bought at least something last year.
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Source: Ars Technica – 69% of Russian gamers are pirating after Ukraine invasion pushback
Solar Opposites already got its stickiest business out of the way last month, announcing Dan Stevens would be voicing Korvo—taking over after Hulu cut ties with Justin Roiland—and releasing a clip that offered a sci-fi reason why the character suddenly sounded so different. Now, we’ve got a full trailer for the show’s…
Source: Gizmodo – Solar Opposites Season 4 Looks Like Its Wackiest Yet
The more frequently you clean, the nicer your home will look on a more regular basis. Everyone knows that, sure, but actually making the time to clean every day is much easier said than done. You need a strategy that will enable you to clean while you go about your life. To do that successfully, try keeping some …
Source: LifeHacker – Stay Motivated to Clean by Keeping Supplies in Every Room
Enlarge (credit: Aurich Lawson | Mazda)
The fifth-generation Mazda MX-5 Miata may well be a battery-electric vehicle. Motortrend reports that the Japanese automaker, builder of one of the Internet’s most beloved vehicles, has decided the next version will be electrified, although it’s still deciding to what extent. Mazda is on the way to electrifying its entire product range by 2030, but the next MX-5 is due sooner than that and should be in showrooms in 2025.
Since 1989, the MX-5 has reminded drivers worldwide that you don’t need masses of power and torque to enjoy driving. Across four generations of cars, the recipe has remained constant: two seats, with an engine in the front driving the wheels at the back—preferably via a manual gearbox. Low mass has always been a Miata virtue, endowing the car with not just precise handling but also an abstemious appetite for tires and fuel.
As the former owner of a first-gen (aka NA) Miata, I am always amazed upon driving a new one (currently the ND or fourth-gen) to find that Mazda’s engineers have kept the ride and handling so similar. Wheels and brakes have gotten larger, and the gearbox has added an extra forward ratio, but the only unfamiliar bit to someone from 20 or 30 years ago would be the infotainment screen, which now brings the welcome addition of CarPlay.
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Source: Ars Technica – The next Mazda MX-5 Miata might be an electric vehicle
Last month was the planet’s warmest June since global temperature record-keeping began in 1850, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said in its monthly climate update on Thursday. From a report: The agency also predicts unusually hot temperatures will occur in most of the United States, almost everywhere except the northern Great Plains, during August. The first two weeks of July were also likely the Earth’s warmest on human record, for any time of year, according to the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service.
Many daily temperature records were set in June across the Southern United States, particularly in Texas and Louisiana. Temperatures in Laredo, Texas, reached 100 degrees on more than 20 days in June. Austin, El Paso and San Antonio reached triple digits on more than 10 days each. The heat index, which also accounts for humidity, was well past 100 much of the time in all of these cities. Extreme heat can be dangerous for anyone’s body, but older people and outdoor workers are at particular risk. Summer heat waves in Europe last year may have killed 61,000 people across the continent, according to a recent study. This year’s heat and humidity have been devastating in northern Mexico, where more than 100 people have died of heat-related causes, according to reports from the federal health ministry.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – NOAA Confirms June Was Earth’s Hottest on Record
Break room coffee is disgusting and the java from the shop down the street is expensive. What’s a coffee snob to do? Maintain your snobbery from the comfort of your desk, that’s what. With the following tools, you can brew and enjoy the good stuff from the comfort of your cubicle—and your boss will thank you for the…
Source: LifeHacker – Everything You Need to Be a Proper Coffee Snob at the Office
Enlarge / (From L) Plaintiffs Damla Karsan, Austin Dennard, Samantha Casiano, Taylor Edwards, Center for Reproductive Rights attorney Molly Duane and Amanda Zurawski attend a press conference outside the Travis County Courthouse in Austin, Texas, on July 20, 2023. (credit: Getty | SUZANNE CORDEIRO)
Deaths of babies born in Texas increased 11.5 percent in 2022, the year after the state banned abortion after six weeks, a period before most women know they are pregnant.
In 2022, some 2,200 infants died, according to data obtained by CNN through a public information request. That is 227 more deaths than the state saw in the previous year, before the restrictive law went into effect.
Infant deaths due to severe genetic and birth defects rose 21.6 percent.
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Source: Ars Technica – Infant deaths surge in Texas after abortion ban
The majority of the American public seems largely concerned with the threat of incoming asteroids, believing that NASA should prioritize the monitoring of rocky objects that could hit Earth over going to the Moon or Mars, according to a new survey.
Source: Gizmodo – Most Americans Would Rather NASA Focus on Deflecting Asteroids Than Going to the Moon
The most common request from my recent ROG Ally benchmarking with the Ryzen Z1 SoC and also the Ryzen 7 7840U laptop SoC testing has been wanting to know how these Zen 4 mobile processors compete with Apple’s M2 on Linux. Well, for those curious, here are some initial performance figures of the Apple M2 in a MacBook Air running Asahi Linux up against the AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme and Ryzen 7 7840U SoCs on Linux.
Source: Phoronix – Apple M2 On Linux Performance Against AMD Zen 4 Mobile SoCs
TSMC won’t be making chips in Arizona on schedule. The Taiwan firm has delayed the start of 4-nanometer chip production at its first Phoenix, Arizona factory from 2024 to 2025. There aren’t enough skilled workers available to complete construction on time, according to Chairman Mark Liu. The company is considering loaning technicians from its home country to help complete the project.
The Arizona facility is a highlight of the CHIPS and Science Act President Biden signed into law last year. The measure is meant to boost domestic semiconductor manufacturing, and includes $52.7 billion in funding and tax credits for companies building factories stateside. TSMC seeks $15 billion in tax credits for its two Arizona plants, although it anticipates investing a total $40 billion in the state.
The federal government isn’t immediately concerned about the worker shortfall. In a statement, White House representative Olivia Dalton says provisions in the CHIPS and Science Act will get the “workforce we need.”
The delay still poses problems for tech companies dependent on TSMC’s manufacturing, most notably Apple. Future iPhones and Macs will use 4nm and 3nm chips made at the Phoenix plants. If the delay holds, Apple may have to either stall product launches or lean on alternative manufacturers. Intel is pouring $20 billion into two Arizona facilities due to start chip production in 2024, but those won’t necessarily be available for Apple’s needs.
The delay illustrates one of the key challenges of bringing more tech manufacturing to the US. While there’s no shortage of money or desire, fewer workers are trained for the jobs as there are in Taiwan and other major production hubs. Apple contractor Foxconn may have an easy time finding factory workers in China, for example but they’re not nearly as common in the US. Plants like the Mac Pro factory in Austin tend to focus on niche products that don’t require large numbers of employees.
There’s nonetheless pressure to get the TSMC factories up and running. Moves like this are not only expected to boost the US economy, but to diversify manufacturing away from China. The effort could address issues with labor conditions and limit problems if US-China relations deteriorate. They won’t solve every issue (many components and raw materials also come from China), but they may reduce the fallout from political drama.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apple-supplier-tsmc-delays-arizona-chip-production-to-2025-153028238.html?src=rss
Source: Engadget – Apple supplier TSMC delays Arizona chip production to 2025
Thanks to io9, you can keep up with the news and reveals from San Diego Comic-Con online—but some parts of the fan event are best witnessed in person. “Welcome to the Ito-verse: The Junji Ito Experience” is one such example, but we captured a few images to help recreate seeing it up close.
Source: Gizmodo – San Diego Comic-Con’s Junji Ito Exhibit Is an Eerie Must-See
Living together while separated or divorced is not usually what anyone would choose for themselves, but for some it’s necessary. According to Kelsey Queen, managing attorney at family law practice Sodoma Law, some couples lack the financial means to cover the cost of two households; others aim to limit the disruption…
Source: LifeHacker – The Legal and Financial Consequences of Living With Your Ex
Google is reportedly working on a ‘helpmate’ for journalists that some believe is more of a replacement. The new AI technology was recently demonstrated to executives at The New York Times, The Washington Post, and News Corp, who own The Wall Street Journal.
Since ChatGPT hit the scene and set the world on fire with its advanced AI ability,
Source: Hot Hardware – Forget Spellcheck, Google Is Building A Genesis AI Tool That Can Write Whole News Articles
The hack of Microsoft’s cloud that resulted in the compromise of government emails was an example of a traditional espionage threat, a senior National Security Agency official said. From a report: Speaking at the Aspen Security Forum, Rob Joyce, the director of cybersecurity at the N.S.A., said the United States needed to protect its networks from such espionage, but that adversaries would continue to try to secretly extract information from each other. “It is China doing espionage,” Mr. Joyce said. “It is what nation-states do. We have to defend against it, we need to push back against it. But that is something that happens.”
The hackers took emails from senior State Department officials including Nicholas Burns, the U.S. ambassador to China. The theft of Mr. Burns’s emails was earlier reported by The Wall Street Journal and confirmed by a person familiar with the matter. Daniel J. Kritenbrink, the assistant secretary of state for East Asia, also had his email hacked, a U.S. official said. The emails of Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo were also obtained in the hack, which was discovered in June by State Department cybersecurity experts scouring user logs for unusual activity. Microsoft later determined that Chinese hackers had obtained access to email accounts a month earlier.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – Hacking of Government Email Was Traditional Espionage, NSA Official Says
Enlarge (credit: fatido | iStock Unreleased)
Yesterday, the US Federal Reserve officially launched FedNow, a new system rolled out to 35 early-adopting banks and credit unions for processing instant payments between financial institutions. The Fed’s goal is to eventually connect more than 9,000 banks and credit unions nationwide, tossing out the old payments system and supporting faster payment processing between all US institutions.
If FedNow becomes popular enough, it could one day make trouble for apps like PayPal and Venmo, which serve as intermediaries to make fast payments between banks. Cash apps could eventually seem so slow or unnecessary that they become obsolete. For now, peer-to-peer payments apps seem safe, though, as analysts told NBC News that FedNow is “likely to benefit consumers and small businesses the most.”
“The Federal Reserve built the FedNow Service to help make everyday payments over the coming years faster and more convenient,” Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell said in a press release. “Over time, as more banks choose to use this new tool, the benefits to individuals and businesses will include enabling a person to immediately receive a paycheck or a company to instantly access funds when an invoice is paid.”
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Source: Ars Technica – Banks serving as guinea pigs for Federal Reserve’s instant payments system
This week’s best tech deals include a couple of all-time lows on older but still worthwhile Apple gadgets, with the 9th-gen iPad on sale for $250 and the M1-powered MacBook Air available for $750. The Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Max is a solid value for those in need of a cheap media streamer at $30, while the Fitbit Inspire 3, our favorite budget fitness tracker, is back down to $80. We’re also seeing a bunch of video game deals, as Xbox, PlayStation and the Epic Games Store have all kicked off their respective summer sales. Here are the best tech deals from this week that you can still get today.
The 10.2-inch Apple iPad is back down to $250 at Amazon, matching the all-time low we last saw during Prime Day. You should see the full discount at checkout. Normally, Apple sells this 9th-gen iPad for $329, though we’ve seen it retail closer to $275 on Amazon in recent months.
The 9th-gen iPad is the budget pick in our iPad buying guide and earned a review score of 86 when it arrived in 2021. It’s showing its age these days, as it still has a Lightning port, Home button, non-laminated display and thicker bezels than Apple’s newer tablets. It doesn’t work with Apple’s latest Pencil stylus or iPad keyboards, either. That said, its aluminum frame doesn’t feel cheap, it still gets a solid 10 or so hours of battery life, and its A13 Bionic chip remains fast enough for the essentials. Most importantly, it gives access to iPadOS at a much lower price than the 10th-gen iPad or iPad Air. The biggest issue is that it only comes with 64GB of storage; if you need more, the 256GB model is available for $390.
The Fitbit Inspire 3 is available for $80 at several retailers, which is $10 more than the best deal we’ve tracked but still $20 below Fitbit’s list price. The Inspire 3 is our favorite fitness tracker for $100 or less thanks to its light and water-resistant design, color touchscreen, accurate health monitoring and up to 10 days of battery life. It lacks the integrated GPS of our top pick, the Fitbit Charge 5, but it still delivers essential features like automatic workout detection, smartphone alerts, heart rate monitoring, sleep tracking and blood oxygen monitoring.
Amazon’s Fire TV Stick 4K Max is down to $30, which is $5 more than its Prime Day price but $5 less than its typical sale price outside of events like that. This is the fastest streaming stick in the Fire TV lineup and the only one to support WiFi 6. It works with just about all of the major streaming apps and HDR standards, and its remote comes with Alexa baked in.
Like all Fire TV Sticks, you’ll get the most out of it if you regularly use Amazon services like Alexa or Prime Video, as Fire OS tends to prioritize the company’s own apps and content. It also peppers the UI with ads. We recommend alternatives like the Roku Streaming Stick 4K and Google Chromecast in our guide to the best streaming sticks, but this is still a good value for those who just want a speedy 4K streamer on the cheap.
The second-gen Apple Pencil is on sale for $89. We’ve seen this deal for much of the last few months, and it’s $4 higher than the device’s all-time low, but it’s $40 cheaper than buying from Apple directly. Unsurprisingly, we consider the Pencil the best iPad stylus for digital artists and heavy note-takers, as it offers pressure sensitivity across iPadOS, consistently accurate tracking and easy magnetic charging. If you want to take the plunge, just make sure your iPad is compatible before you buy.
The 65-inch Hisense U8H is available for $799, which is a new low and about $100 off the TV’s typical street price over the last few months. While we don’t review TVs at Engadget, otherreviewerswe trust have praised the U8H as a strong mid-range option, as its Mini LED backlight, quantum dots and full-array local dimming help it deliver impressive contrast and brightness for the money. It runs on the same Google TV platform as a Chromecast, and it has two HDMI 2.1 ports that can play 4K content at 120Hz, so it should work well with a PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X.
It’s still a step down from top-tier OLED TVs, to be clear, and its viewing angles are said to be on the narrower side. Hisense has also replaced this 2022 model with the newer U8K, which promises more local dimming zones and a faster 144Hz refresh rate. The 65-inch version of that TV costs $300 more, however, and reviews are relatively scarce as of this writing.
We’re firmly in the middle of summer, and that means it’s once again time for a bunch of video game sales. The Steam Summer Sale has already come and gone, but this week Xbox, PlayStation and the Epic Games Store each kicked off their latest storewide promotions. Many of the discounts aren’t quite all-time lows, and several third-party games are available for the same price across each storefront, but the selections include a number of decent offers on games we like.
Starting with Xbox’s Ultimate Game Sale, the notables include Halo: The Master Chief Collection, a recommendation from our guide to the best couch co-op games, back at an all-time low of $10. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, one of the bigger releases of 2023, and Elden Ring, the consensus game of the year from 2022, are both $18 off at $52 and $42, respectively. Most of the Yakuza series is available for $6 a pop, the superb narrative RPG Pentiment is down to $13, while other recommended exclusives such as Gears 5, Ori and the Will of the Wisps and Rare Replay are each available for less than $10. Just note that many games in this sale are also available with an Xbox Game Pass subscription.
The PlayStation Summer Sale, meanwhile, includes exclusives like Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart and Horizon Forbidden West for $30 each (the latter applies to the PS4 copy but provides a free upgrade to the PS5 version). The PS5 remake of the original The Last of Us is on sale for $50, while the well-reviewed puzzler Humanity is available for $24.
On the third-party side, the time-bending FPS Deathloop is down to $15, the sci-fi RPG Cyberpunk 2077 is available for $25 and the co-op platformer It Takes Two is down to $16. For some deeper cuts, Titanfall 2‘s wild campaign is well worth a look for $5, while fans of 2D platformers could do much worse than the surprisingly poignant Iconoclasts at $7.
If you play on PC, several deals from those Xbox and PlayStation sales are also available in Epic’s Summer Sale. Red Dead Redemption 2 is down to $20, for one, while the remasters Mass Effect Legendary Edition and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2 are available for $15 and $16, respectively. Elsewhere, the action-game-meets-delivery-sim Death Stranding: Director’s Cut is on sale for $20, and Dead Island 2, the zombie action-RPG that was released in April, is available for $45. Epic is also giving away the base version of the popular MMO The Elder Scrolls Online for free through July 27.
Moving over to retro games, the Sega Genesis Mini 2 is down to $72 with a $22.30 discount visible at checkout. That’s $28 off the mini console‘s MSRP, but it essentially amounts to a free shipping discount, as the device is only sold in the US through Amazon Japan and usually adds that same $22.30 in shipping fees. In total, expect to pay about $94 before taxes.
Either way, the Genesis Mini 2 includes an impressive selection of 60 Genesis and Sega CD games, from Sonic CD and Streets of Rage 3 to Herzog Zwei and Phantasy Star II. The emulation from retrospecialists M2 is generally well-done, and the device uses a replica of the old six-button Genesis controller, not the more limiting three-button pad that came with the original Genesis Mini. (It only includes one controller in the box, however.) There’s certainly no shortage of ways to play older games these days, but if you have a soft spot for the 16-bit era and want a more authentic way of reliving Sega’s heyday, this adds up to the lowest price we’ve seen for the diminutive console.
The entry-level configuration of Apple’s M1 MacBook Air is back on sale for $750, which matches its all-time low. For reference, Apple sells this model for $999, though it’s gone for $800 for most of the last few months. This is another Apple device that’s getting a bit long in the tooth, as it’s saddled with a middling 720p webcam and a more dated design than newer MacBooks. Still, the M1 chip is powerful enough for most common tasks, and the notebook’s comfortable keyboard, crisp display and excellent battery life keep it a strong value when it’s discounted to this extent.
This config only includes 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, though, so you won’t want to push it too hard. It’s also worth mentioning that, according to a recent Bloomberg report, Apple may launch a refreshed MacBook Air as soon as this October. If you don’t need a new laptop right away, it might be worth waiting. But if you’re looking to get a competent MacBook for as little as possible, there’s still plenty to like here. We gave the M1 MacBook Air a review score of 94 in 2020.
The newer, M2-based MacBook Air is also on sale, with the base 13-inch model available for $999 at B&H and Best Buy. A configuration with 16GB of RAM is down to $1,200 as well. We’ve seen these configs go for $50 less, but both deals represent a $100 drop from their respective list prices.
We gave the M2 MacBook Air a review score of 96 last year, and it’s now the top pick in our guide to the best laptops. It remains a comprehensive upgrade over the older M1 model, with a thinner chassis, sharper 1080p webcam, MagSafe charging port, slightly larger and brighter display, more powerful speakers and that beefier M2 chip. Again, a new MacBook Air could arrive by the end of the year, and the base config with 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD isn’t especially well-suited to heavy work. Nevertheless, this is an excellent notebook for most day-to-day uses.
If you need a more powerful MacBook for serious media editing, we’ll also note that a version of the 16.2-inch MacBook Pro with an M2 Pro chip is down to $2,249. That’s certainly not cheap, but it matches the all-time low for that config and comes in $250 below Apple’s MSRP.
Amazon Prime members who are new to Audible Premium Plus can get three months of the audiobook service for free. Normally, a membership costs $14.95 a month after a 30-day free trial. This offer has been available since before Prime Day, but Amazon says it’ll end on July 31, so consider this a PSA. Premium Plus is Audible’s highest tier: On top of making a selection of audiobooks, podcasts and other audio content accessible on-demand, it includes a monthly credit that lets you buy any book in the Audible store permanently. Many people will be fine with the cheaper Audible Plus plan, but Premium Plus could be worthwhile if you tend to chew through audiobooks quickly.
The Bose QuietComfort Earbuds II are back down to $249. While that’s $20 more than the absolute lowest price we’ve seen, it’s a $50 drop from the pair’s usual going rate. We gave the QuietComfort Earbuds II a review score of 87 last year, and it’s currently the top noise-cancelling pick in our guide to the best wireless earbuds. As that distinction would suggest, its active noise cancellation is among the strongest and most comprehensive we’ve tested on any headphone, let alone a true wireless pair. Its bass-forward sound should please hip-hop and EDM fans, too, and while the earpieces are on the bulky side, they’re generally more comfortable in the ear than their size would suggest. There’s no multipoint connectivity or wireless charging support, however, which is disappointing for the price.
Right now, if you grab a $100 Apple gift card at Best Buy, you’ll get a $10 Best Buy gift card thrown in for no extra cost. The offer also includes a few extended trials to Apple Music, Apple TV+ and Apple News+ for new and returning subscribers. We see this promotion pop up every few months, but if you plan to shop at Best Buy and make any sort of Apple-related purchase in the near future, it’s effectively a bit of free money. Note that the deal applies to both digital and physical gift cards.
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This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apples-102-inch-ipad-drops-back-to-250-plus-the-rest-of-the-weeks-best-tech-deals-151552038.html?src=rss
Source: Engadget – Apple’s 10.2-inch iPad drops back to 0, plus the rest of the week’s best tech deals
